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Re: 6WC 6 Week Challenge- Nov 2019

Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2019 11:33 pm
by Arizakai
Arizakai wrote:I have registered with Swedish. Good luck with the challenge to all of you. 8-)

I have changed my TL to Japanese. I need to work on it more than on Swedish.

Re: 6WC 6 Week Challenge- Nov 2019

Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2019 1:25 am
by LunaMoonsilver
I’ve registered with French because I’m trying to get my hours up before my FLC deadline mid-December :) also doing NaNoWriMo this month and working a lot, so it’s gonna be a fun one!

Re: 6WC 6 Week Challenge- Nov 2019

Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2019 10:03 am
by Mista
I'm doing Sami. My Sami studies are a bit up and down, to some degree, I think, because there is no addictive resource like Duolingo to keep me going. 6WC has made it easier before, and I hope it will do so again.

Re: 6WC 6 Week Challenge- Nov 2019

Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2019 10:33 am
by Brun Ugle
I finally decided. I’m doing Kurdish (Kurmanji) this time around. I’m hoping to be able to achieve basic small talk level by the end. That means I’m going to have to start talking a lot earlier than I am usually comfortable with.

Re: 6WC 6 Week Challenge- Nov 2019

Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2019 2:17 pm
by smallwhite
I have signed up with the Chinese dialect Hokkien 福建話, using the #Chinese tag. I’m a complete beginner except I can count to 10, can say “I 我“, and can sing along the very popular Hokkien song 愛拼才會贏 like everyone my generation can at the karaoke after enough beer.

I have wanted to learn Hokkien since forever. I’m now living temporarily in the most Hokkien part of Hong Kong and hear it every day, so. I’m not super motivated, though. I’ll likely be spending most of my time revising my old languages, especially Turkish.

Good luck, everyone!

Re: 6WC 6 Week Challenge- Nov 2019

Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2019 10:55 pm
by Cèid Donn
Good luck, everyone! :)

Re: 6WC 6 Week Challenge- Nov 2019

Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2019 9:03 pm
by Elsa Maria
I am not sure how to quantify time spent in a casual immersion If this does not seem fair to you, please suggest an alternative.

During any given hour, I might be reading signs, ordering coffee, or listening to train announcements. I was thinking of using a formula of 5 to 10 minutes per hour. I was out-and-about in the Netherlands today for 12 straight hours, and I sure do feel like I got at least one solid hour of Dutch done today. Much more than an hour, really, but I just want to somehow capture some of the time.

I will be in an immersion environment for the next three weeks. Some days will have intense immersion, which actually seems easier to quantify than casual immersion.

Three weeks is half the challenge, so it greatly impacts my score for total time spent. It will not impact my TL score of Portuguese, as I am not traveling there. I have thus far found a whopping four
minutes for Portuguese.


edited to add info, clarify
edited again to change “5 minutes” to “5 to 10 minutes.” Based on Day 2 here and more confidence!

Re: 6WC 6 Week Challenge- Nov 2019

Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 12:05 pm
by Cèid Donn
I have no desire to try to police other people's 6WCs but if there's a question about what to count, I think going back to the purpose of the challenge may serve as a reasonable guideline: the challenge was intended to encourage people to improve their skills in a language where they are at a low level to something more "useful."

Outside of your declared 6WC language, with which I think we should probably focus on more intensive activities to stay in the spirit of the challenge, I think there's a wide berth. I get a fair amount of casual immersion with Spanish where I live, but I won't be counting short interactions with the grocery store clerk or the Taco Cabana cashier as part of my overall study time because while it's good practice, it's just not enough in my opinion for my level of Spanish to improve my skills to something more useful, especially if it's a situation where I'm just using basic phrases and am not really required to think in Spanish or learn anything from that experience. But that's not to say all casual immersion isn't useful. I suspect if I went to Mexico and had to spend the whole day doing these short interactions with different people, it'd be a lot more work. That would be more like drilling, wouldn't it? So maybe then I might say, "I had 12 interactions with different people today, probably averaging 1-3 minutes each, so roughly 25 minutes of practice with speakers." But I'm just trying to see myself in your shoes. I don't think there's a hard, fast line here beyond using your best judgement as to what's really contributing to your progress in that TL.

Re: 6WC 6 Week Challenge- Nov 2019

Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 1:22 pm
by Brun Ugle
I think if you are a beginner, even casual interactions like asking directions or prices can count. Just give it your best estimate and when in doubt, round down a little. Personally, I don’t usually count things of very short duration, especially short conversations where it was over before I even thought to check the time, but if it’s happening regularly throughout the day, I can see wanting to try to count it. Like Cèid Donn, I don’t count easy things that don’t feel like they’ll boost my level or that I’m learning anything. So, for me, it depends on my level. Peppa Pig in Turkish definitely counts, but if I were for some reason to watch it in Spanish accidentally, I wouldn’t count it. So consider your level and what you’re getting out of it and estimate the time as well as you can.

Re: 6WC 6 Week Challenge- Nov 2019

Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2019 3:13 pm
by Elsa Maria
Thank you for the input.

I am, without a doubt, a beginner in Dutch. Somewhere in the A levels. I have to practice simple sentences before daring to say them, and there is a very good chance that I will not understand the reply. My brain hurts. A lot.

It will be different in Denmark, and I will be mindful of that. I will only count brain-stretching Danish.

Again, thanks.