Super Challenge French/ Starting Russian again

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James.A.
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Re: Super Challenge French/ Starting Russian again

Postby James.A. » Thu Nov 01, 2018 9:08 pm

Hello people!

Today was a busy day for me. I had I lot of work, so I didn't read of watch anything. My few free hours went to my NaNo novel. It was difficult and the result isn't so good, but it's my first try, so I'm satisfied. At the last moment I decided that the novel that I had plotted the other day was too good to waste, so I write without a plot. Be very afraid! I decided to post my work in the multilingual room, so you are welcome to critic it. Here is the thread: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =18&t=9358

Later today I will do my Assimil lesson too. The night is still young! As for the super challenge, I guess it have to wait till tomorrow.

See you!
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Super Challenge: Spanish
9000 minutes (films/audiobooks) : 9000 / 9000 (100/100)
5000 pages (books) : 5000 / 5000 (100/100)

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James.A.
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Re: Super Challenge French/ Starting Russian again

Postby James.A. » Sun Nov 04, 2018 5:33 am

Hello everyone!

So, I don't have time to write a lot of things, almost all my free time goes to my NaNoWriMo novel. I think it actually goes well. I'm ahead of my goal, I found a plot, I think I'm becoming faster and (maybe?) better. Just finished my 3rd day's work and I'm at about 2500 words. It's good I think.

I put my super challenge at semi-pause for the month of November because of NaNo. I have watched just a French film the other day with my girlfriend. We watched it with English subtitles, but I tried not to look at them. So I'm going to count it. The film was Le dîner des cons. It was very funny! I liked it a lot.

In Assimil Russian I am at lesson 19. It goes well I think. Still to run into something that I don't remember.

THat's it! Have a nice day!
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5000 pages (books) : 5000 / 5000 (100/100)

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Re: Super Challenge French/ Starting Russian again

Postby Skynet » Sun Nov 04, 2018 2:37 pm

James, thanks for your incredibly detailed response! I look forward to seeing you progress in your French and Russian. God speed!
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James.A.
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Re: Super Challenge French/ Starting Russian again

Postby James.A. » Thu Nov 15, 2018 5:09 pm

Hello!

Back again, after about 10 days. I had A LOT of work, I could barely find time to sleep. Anyway, It has ended. Now we are back on track!

First of all, I stopped everything except Russian. I am now on lesson 30, so that's ok. I haven't read of watch anything in French, but that's ok too. I think I have time enough for this challenge. My biggest problem is NaNoWriMo. I haven't written a single word these day, so now,in order to reach my goal I have to write 1200 words a day. I think I'll try it and we'll see what it happen. I reach my goal for today with no problems, so it's doable. I decided to continue posting my days work here: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=9358 so feel free to judge me! :oops:

So, glad to be back! See you!
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Super Challenge: Spanish
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5000 pages (books) : 5000 / 5000 (100/100)

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James.A.
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Re: Super Challenge French/ Starting Russian again

Postby James.A. » Sun Nov 18, 2018 7:24 pm

Hello everybody!

Today I realised I can't continue with NaNoWrimo. I'm too pressed from work. I think I will continue my story, but not under pressure. I feel sad, but I can't do it. Maybe next year. :cry: So it's time to start with the Super challenge again. I think I will watch a film tomorrow night and today I will try to listen to at least 30 minutes of Harry Potter audiobooks before bed.

Russian goes perfect. I'm at lesson 34, everything is going according to plan. The words and the grammar are coming back just fine, everything is ok, I haven't run into anything too difficult.

And now, I have to announce an experiment. My best friend and me decided to start German together. He really have to learn some German for his job and he wants someone to held him accountable. So, tomorrow I will start with him the 2001 English edition of Assimil German with ease. And what is the experiment, you ask? Well, I will study for only 30 minutes a day and I will use only Assimil and nothing else. Most of us, compliment Assimil with something else, like Anki cards or another method or something like that, but I will only use Assimil and I will follow the instructions to the letter. And I will study for only 30 minutes. After that I will take a test to evaluate my progress. (Does anyone have to suggest any good online tests for German?) That way we are going to finally answer the third biggest question of mankind: "Does Assimil really take you to B2?" (Well, the answer is no, of course, but who knows?) The problem is that I don't really like the way the German language sounds, so I don't know how motivated I will be. I only do it for my best friend. ON the other hand, the fact that I don't really care for the German language could actually be an advantage for our experiment. At least I know that I won't study for more that 30 minutes nor I will be carried away to watch something in German or to try to speak with anyone. I hope my opinion for the language will get better when I finish the course, I really don't want to wast half an hour a day just to drop it afterwards. We'll see...
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Super Challenge: Spanish
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James.A.
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Re: Super Challenge French/ Starting Russian again

Postby James.A. » Wed Nov 21, 2018 9:37 pm

Hello!

With my NaNo failure behind me, I finally continue with my super challenge. I read a lot these days, I'm half way through "Entretien avec un vampire", in the part where they get to Paris. I actually like it very much. There is a lot of power in the narration, I actually think of continuing with the second book of the series at some point. At first I didn't like it particularly, but now I love it. After that I'll read Le Maître et Marguerite by Bulgakov. I read it in epub form with my iphone and the problem is that the pages numbering isn't realistic. I found the paperback on amazon and it has about 450 pages, so I'll just add 9 books to my count when I finish it. I started listening to the Lord of the rings audiobook. It is very good,I love it. I heard about 3 hours. The whole book is 20 hours,so I'll add that later too.

I started with German. It is nice, I'm at lesson 3. No problems so far, Assimil always start easy. The same with Russian. I'm now at lesson 37 and I haven't noticed anything I didn't remember. SO far so good.

Oh, listen to that AMAZING song!



Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true... :(

Take care!
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Super Challenge: Spanish
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5000 pages (books) : 5000 / 5000 (100/100)

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James.A.
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Re: Super Challenge French/ Starting Russian again

Postby James.A. » Fri Feb 22, 2019 3:22 pm

Hello people!

I haven’t posted for a long time but that doesn’t mean I stopped studying! I read a lot these two months. I read the unbearable lightness of being, daphne du maurier’s first novel called the loving spirit (la chaînes d’amour in french) and the master and margarita, which I loved. At the moment I’m rereading les misérables, which I love very much.

My Russian studies are going well too. I’m currently at lesson 65 of the assimil method. I started a bilingual book too with some Russian short stories by famous Russian authors.

That’s all for the moment!
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Super Challenge: Spanish
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5000 pages (books) : 5000 / 5000 (100/100)

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Re: Super Challenge French/ Starting Russian again

Postby James.A. » Sun May 12, 2019 6:52 pm

Hello, everybody!

I know I don't post very often, but I'm really busy and I prefer to study instead of posting in my limited free time. These months I have concentrated in the Super Challenge and in particular to listening. So, these two months I have listened to Misery by Stephen King (in French of course) and I watched a lot of films too. I really feel that my listening comprehension has improved a lot in these last months. I can follow almost everything without any problem. So, everything is fine. The films that I have watched are all the Harry Potter films, the two first films of the Narnia series, The Conjuring and Winchester (all in VF without subtitles). I have watched Les Choristes (which was a wonderful film), La Cage aux Folles, Jeux d'enfants (one of my favourite films ever!), Un plan parfait (Which was more or less a nice romantic comedy), and Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob. I noticed that I like Louis de Funès. I have never really liked him before I learnt French. He was just too bizarre for me. Now I understand why everyone thinks he is so funny. That was interesting.

In books, I started Les Miserables for the second time. I have read 740 of the 910 pages of the first volume, but I haven't included them in the Challenge yet. I want to include the books only after I have completed them.

Unfortunately I have lost touch with Russian yet again. It is sad, but I have a lot of work at that period and I prefer to concentrate on the Super Challenge.

I am building upon my German slowly but surely. Who knows, maybe German will be my next Supper Challenge! It's a much more beautiful language than I have expected. Not French-beautiful or Russian-beautiful, but beautiful for sure. That is admirable considering that I hated it passionately before.

That's all for now! Take care my friends!
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Super Challenge: Spanish
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5000 pages (books) : 5000 / 5000 (100/100)

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Re: Super Challenge French/ Starting Russian again

Postby James.A. » Tue May 21, 2019 8:12 pm

Hello!

So, everything is going fine with the challenge. I'm just 100 pages from completing the first volume of Les Miserables (for the second time). I will count it in my stats when I will finish it. It's about 950 pages, so it counts for 19 book that I'm very eager to add to my challenge. I'm a little bit bored with the book, too. The story is good, but now that I know it, there is no suspense, so the large chunks where Hugo just proves how well he can use the French language and how much he knows about various culturally important stuff of the 19th century are just boring. Just make your point, all right!

Anyway, for now I have just the fourth book of Harry Potter in audiobook format. It's 21 hours (and 12 minutes, but let's not count that :lol: ) So it is equivalent to 14 films. I also watched an old comedy called La Grosse Caisse. It was funny, I liked it. So, 15 ''films'' for now.

I didn't make any progress with German and Russian that week. I'm too stressed with the super challenge for now, so I consecrate my limited free time to that. I think I can manage it after all! :D
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James.A.
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Re: Super Challenge French/ Starting Russian again

Postby James.A. » Tue Oct 15, 2019 3:39 pm

Hello everybody!

I've completed the Super Challenge!!!!

It's been a while since I last wrote an update, but my life is not very stable these days. I had a horrible spring and a much worst summer with personal and professional losses that resulted in a large period of depression. It's nearly over now, but it was difficult. Anyway, my personal problems aside, I'm very very proud to have completed the French Super challenge! It was a part of my life all this time and I feel a little bit peculiar that I don't have to read French books anymore. For the first time since April I'm reading a novel in English and I don't know how I feel about it... I think I enjoyed it much more reading in French. Even though I had some words that I didn't really understand, I feel that it was much more elegant than English. I always enjoyed reading in English, so I think that I will get used to it again sooner or later. This challenge was my companion all these difficult months and now I feel a little bit like I've lost a friend or something, but I'm grateful that I did it and I completed it. It helped me a lot getting up on the mornings.

So, I will tell you what I read and listened since last time.

Listening (films):

1.The fifth book of Harry potter: 31 hours
I started listening the series when my understanding of spoken french was abysmal. Seriously, when I was listening to the first book nearly two years ago I didn't really understand much more than words like bonjour and s'il vous plaît and the names (some times not even these). At that point I could read comfortably almost anything, but my listening skills was not exactly on par. The difference is enormous. That was practically last audiobook that I needed for the challenge, but I decided to listen to just one more.

2. La fille du train (The girl on the train): 12 hours
I always wanted to read it. i listened to it even though I have completed that part of the challenge just to make sure that I could follow a complicated narration that I knew nothing about, completely in french. All the other books That I listened was books I had read in English or at least I knew the plot. That book was the first that was completely new to me. I always told to me "Congradulations! YOu can understand it but it's really not that important. You know the plot anyway." That book gave me the realization that my newfound listening skills was not an illusion. And it was a really marvellous book too! 5 stars on goodreads. (by the way my goodreads account is https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/91069414-paschalis If you want you can add me!) (I'm not sure I can post a link to my goodreads account, if it is forbidden, pm me and I will delete it.)

So, 43 hours in total, which means 28 "films". I had 80 "films", so 108 "films". COMPLETED!!!


Reading (books):

1.Entretien avec un vampire (interview with a vampire): 320 pages
It was not horrible but I was terribly tired of it. I am reading it since December or something. Gave it up some weeks ago. I managed to read 320 pages of it, so I'll count it even though I haven't completed it.

2.Anges et Démons (Angels and demons): 600 pages
Well, I didn't exactly like it, but I have to admit it was a page turner. It was remarkable how out of touch with reality it was. The language was very easy though. I think it was the first book that I didn't really have any unknown words. And it was fun! So, 3 stars.

3.Les Misérables tome 1: 900 pages
It was the second time that I read it and I have to admit that now that I knew what was going to happen, the parts where Hugo just stopped telling the story and started writing essays on various completely unrelated themes (like the battle of waterloo, 150 pages on my edition) was excruciatingly difficult to read. The first time around my OCD dictated that I have to read these parts in order to pass to the really juicy parts but now it was just unrelated. These parts were interesting, of course, but I didn't want to read an assay, I wanted to read the story. And the story was AMAZING! What a prose he could write. Marvellous! 4 stars!

4.Le club des incorrigibles optimistes: 730 pages.
That book was really famous when it was published in Greece (where I live). Everyone was reading it. In France (and I guess in the English speaking world too) nobody knows it exists. It was ok, I guess. I think that it was young adult, but it was good. It used a lot of langue familial, which was nice since you don't find that kind of words very often in literature. I learnt a lot of new words in that book, so I liked it. 4 stars.

5.Le Horla: 270 pages.
It was actually an anthology of short story by Guy de Maupassant. It was the first time I read anything by him and it was wonderful. Some stories was better that others, of course, but all of them had something nice that I have never thought of. My edition had a lot of comments that taught me a lot for that period of French history. I will read more by him for sure. 5 stars.

6.Zadig: 170 pages
First time I read Voltaire. Marvellous. The language was very simple (I didn't expect that). It was just a glorified fairy-tale after all. The introduction of the book was very informing. I liked it a lot and I will read Candide too one of these days. 5 stars.

7.Seul dans berlin (everyone dies alone): 560
This books was actually my favourite of all the books I read in French. It was a translation from German and it took place in the nazi era. I am very interested in that period of history, so I enjoyed it a lot. I finished it in just a week. The theme was a bit dark (particularly the last 200 pages or so) and I was not sure it was wise to read it at such a difficult period of my life, but I was wrong. It made me think of how blessed I was that I didn't have to live through these kind of circumstances. The resolution left me with a wonderful bitter-sweet emotion that was really liberating for me. A must read. 5 stars, of course.

So, to sum up, 3550 pages which makes 71 "books". I had 33 "books", so 104 books in total.
COMPLETED!!!

It was a wonderful experience and it pushed my French understanding to a level that I didn't think possible in such a short period of time. I'm looking forward to do it in Spanish too next year!

I hope I will be writing much more often from now on.

See you!
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Super Challenge: Spanish
9000 minutes (films/audiobooks) : 9000 / 9000 (100/100)
5000 pages (books) : 5000 / 5000 (100/100)


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