Super Challenge registration thread 2020

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
german2k01
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Re: Super Challenge registration thread 2020

Postby german2k01 » Mon Dec 27, 2021 9:14 am

In my case, though, reasonable mini-goal should be something like 30 min of reading per day, or 15-20 pages which roughly translates into 2 average books per month. Everyone is different, of course, but in the long run modest goals win, while ambitious goals fail.


With this low intensity, I feel like you forget a lot about the meaning of new words that you encounter during reading a book. Let's say, if you look up the meaning of a new word on page 10, however, the word was repeated again on page 40. If you kept reading for a long while, you would reinforce its meaning in a different context. With your approach, you already shut the book by reaching page 20. The next day you already forget the meaning of the word, the probability of it is highly likely. Therefore, you would look the word up again as it is important for deciphering the meaning. You start the whole process again. Time-consuming. It would also disturb the flow of your reading.
But as you said, everyone is different so there is nothing written on stone. Anyone can slow down or pick up their pace based on their choice.
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einzelne
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Re: Super Challenge registration thread 2020

Postby einzelne » Mon Dec 27, 2021 1:33 pm

german2k01 wrote:With this low intensity, I feel like you forget a lot about the meaning of new words that you encounter during reading a book. Let's say, if you look up the meaning of a new word on page 10, however, the word was repeated again on page 40.


As I said, read some studies on the statistical distribution of words in texts. My passive vocabulary in French is already quite good, so usually I meet mainly hapaxes in fiction texts. If a word occurs only once (or a couple of times) per book it really doesn't matter whether you read 30 min per day or 3 hours. The only thing that significantly helps with vocabulary growth is regular review of new words (which I do time and then).

Also, 30 minutes of reading doesn't mean that I automatically stop reading after that. It's a minimum amount of time I tried to read every day. Again, since it's 30 min only, it's doesn't look too daunting. If you miss a day or two, you can easy catch it up over the weekend. And 30 min over the year, that translate into 150 hours per year or something like 20-25 books per year. I need French only to read specific books for my research, so French fiction is a pure hobby for me. I'd been trying to read more fiction in French but it's only when I implemented such "low intensity" goals when I started to read it regularly.
Last edited by einzelne on Mon Dec 27, 2021 4:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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german2k01
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Re: Super Challenge registration thread 2020

Postby german2k01 » Mon Dec 27, 2021 3:32 pm

If someone is aiming for reading 100 books a year that speed is slow. Yeah, individual goals differ from person to person. If a goal looks too lofty that does not mean it is not attainable. I have come across people online who have read 100-120 books a year.

Anyways, reading 109 pages will not turn out to be as exhausting as listening to a novel for 15 hours a day and doing it for the straight 5 days. (as the original L-R system advocates for).

Your point is taken. Easy goals are attainable and easy to stick to. But how will you assess the language progress of two different learners?

Learner A follows your advice and sticks to 30 minutes a day and finally ends up reading 20-25 books a year in total. In contrast, Learner B ends up reading 80-100 books a year.

Do you think he will give up altogether? :D
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Re: Super Challenge registration thread 2020

Postby Le Baron » Mon Dec 27, 2021 3:56 pm

german2k01 wrote:Your point is taken. Easy goals are attainable and easy to stick to. But how will you assess the language progress of two different learners?

I would say: by results.

german2k01 wrote:Learner A follows your advice and sticks to 30 minutes a day and finally ends up reading 20-25 books a year in total. In contrast, Learner B ends up reading 80-100 books a year.

Which is why taking into consideration the two learners above the necessity would be not to stick to a prescription like scripture, but for a particular learner to consider whether what they are doing is delivering results after a reasonable amount of time. Also taking into account that ideal scenarios don't exist and the whole thing involves a lot of trial and error (and unavoidable pitfalls and some wastage).

To think that 100 books a year is roughly 8 books a month or 2 books a week, it's worth considering the veracity of the claims. I don't even read that many books a year in my native language. If someone is in the middle of a learning curve and somehow manages to polish off 2 books a week in their target language (and considering the strange penchant for tackling 400-500 page books), I'd be wondering if these people ever slept or did anything else at all. I don't think the number of real-life Super heroes is particularly high.
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Re: Super Challenge registration thread 2020

Postby einzelne » Mon Dec 27, 2021 4:46 pm

german2k01 wrote:Learner A follows your advice and sticks to 30 minutes a day and finally ends up reading 20-25 books a year in total. In contrast, Learner B ends up reading 80-100 books a year.


You assume (falsely) that I only read fiction books in French this year but, apart from French, I also read in 3 other languages. But even in that case I don't track books I read. I read because I'm genially interested in exploring some problem, not because I need to hit a certain number of pages per day.

"Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
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german2k01
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Re: Super Challenge registration thread 2020

Postby german2k01 » Mon Dec 27, 2021 4:46 pm

To think that 100 books a year is roughly 8 books a month or 2 books a week, it's worth considering the veracity of the claims. I don't even read that many books a year in my native language. If someone is in the middle of a learning curve and somehow manages to polish off 2 books a week in their target language (and considering the strange penchant for tackling 400-500 page books), I'd be wondering if these people ever slept or did anything else at all. I don't think the number of real-life Super heroes is particularly high.




Bill Gates reads 50 books a year and he is busy like hell.

Before coming to Germany I actually read "100 Nonfiction books" in English and took me 11 months in total. Definitely, it was doable. :lol:

Maybe they consider every new book as their new friend so they never feel to be friends with so-called real friends.

Yeah, if we have real-life heroes like Donald Trump to show for then I think the number should stay low :lol:

Just joking around. Life exists outside your house and I think you need to embrace it. Your point is well taken.
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Re: Super Challenge registration thread 2020

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Mon Dec 27, 2021 5:06 pm

german2k01 wrote:Learner A follows your advice and sticks to 30 minutes a day and finally ends up reading 20-25 books a year in total. In contrast, Learner B ends up reading 80-100 books a year.


I read 193 books last year, in just a little more than 30 minutes per day.
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Re: Super Challenge registration thread 2020

Postby Le Baron » Mon Dec 27, 2021 5:19 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:I read 193 books last year, in just a little more than 30 minutes per day.

Crikey! You make me feel lazy. How many pages per book?
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Re: Super Challenge registration thread 2020

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Mon Dec 27, 2021 9:42 pm

Le Baron wrote:Crikey! You make me feel lazy. How many pages per book?


I don't know. I'm not obsessed with counting pages. Let us assume that at least 150 of the titles were of the item type that the most adamant super challenge participants would call a book. (Excluding easy readers in German, children's books in Portuguese, hardcover comic book albums in Swedish, and who knows what else.)
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Re: Super Challenge registration thread 2020

Postby einzelne » Mon Dec 27, 2021 10:25 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:Let us assume that at least 150 of the titles were of the item type that the most adamant super challenge participants would call a book.


Makes total sense to me. In the last 10 days I read 20 "books" in French and 2 in English.
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