Super Challenge 2016-17 DISCUSSION THREAD

[Radioclare]

Re Esperanto videos on Youtube, you just have to be careful because sometimes the level of the language isn't very high. It's mainly because there are some beginners out there whose level of enthusiasm isn't always matched by their grammatical accuracy

In the 'Kuru' film that you linked to, for example, there are definitely some mistakes. Obviously with someone like Lapenna or anything that has come from an official Esperanto association/congress you ought to be fine, but random stuff put up by individuals can be a bit hit-and-miss.

The Universal Language isn't a bad documentary, although I think you probably have to buy the DVD.

I made a few suggestions to help with Esperanto SCs in rdearman's log a while ago. 'Gerda Malaperis' is what I recommend most for those just starting out - there's a book and a film, both available for free online - and it deliberately starts simply and gets more complex as you go on.

[IronMike]

Re Esperanto videos on Youtube, you just have to be careful because sometimes the level of the language isn't very high. It's mainly because there are some beginners out there whose level of enthusiasm isn't always matched by their grammatical accuracy

In the 'Kuru' film that you linked to, for example, there are definitely some mistakes. Obviously with someone like Lapenna or anything that has come from an official Esperanto association/congress you ought to be fine, but random stuff put up by individuals can be a bit hit-and-miss.

The Universal Language isn't a bad documentary, although I think you probably have to buy the DVD.

I made a few suggestions to help with Esperanto SCs in rdearman's log a while ago. 'Gerda Malaperis' is what I recommend most for those just starting out - there's a book and a film, both available for free online - and it deliberately starts simply and gets more complex as you go on.

Oh yeah, the Kuru I haven't watched yet, so thanks for the warning. The Gerda Malaperas video isn't bad, although the accent is...well...trying.

The Universal Language one you can download for 5 bucks I think (I bought it a year or so ago). It's really good...well done.

There's also the channel of Evildea, and his videos are good.

All of the above is so much better than Incubus.

[Aozora]

Is anybody else having good effects from the challenge yet?

I'm doing the challenge with Japanese. After 10 films worth of listening, I feel... slightly more tuned in maybe? I am hearing words I've never heard or noticed before (words I learned or studied within the last 6 months).

With my reading (250 short pages), it's hard to tell. It feels easy to read, but that might be because the book I'm reading was written for 6th graders--maybe it would have felt easy a month or two ago as well. That's not to say that there aren't new words or phrases/collocations in this book.

[rdearman]

Yes, but I meant actual 90 minute long fictional films. Although one has William Shatner in.

[Serpent]

I'm getting this weird thing where when I tweet my book pages, the bot just tells me I'm not registered for Tibetan :/ I can't find anything wrong with the tweets ("I read 25 pages of "miyama" #book" and "read 25 pages #book") but only barebones tweets like "#read 25 pages" work. Is there something about the hashtag #book?

The tag #bo is for Tibetan so the bot is confused is this still happening?

[rdearman]

I'm getting this weird thing where when I tweet my book pages, the bot just tells me I'm not registered for Tibetan :/ I can't find anything wrong with the tweets ("I read 25 pages of "miyama" #book" and "read 25 pages #book") but only barebones tweets like "#read 25 pages" work. Is there something about the hashtag #book?

The tag #bo is for Tibetan so the bot is confused is this still happening?

Don't hashtag the word #book, hashtag the word #read

[Aozora]

I'm getting this weird thing where when I tweet my book pages, the bot just tells me I'm not registered for Tibetan :/ I can't find anything wrong with the tweets ("I read 25 pages of "miyama" #book" and "read 25 pages #book") but only barebones tweets like "#read 25 pages" work. Is there something about the hashtag #book?

The tag #bo is for Tibetan so the bot is confused is this still happening?

Yeah, I noticed the #bo tag... I've only been using the tag #read since then. I wonder why it confuses #bo and #book.


edit: @rdrearman Maybe the SC instructions should have the #book tag removed so people don't use it. For someone who doesn't use twitter (me) it can be confusing enough figuring out how to compose one's submissions...

[Serpent]

the question is whether we keep the #bo and#mo (movie/Moldovan) tags while nobody needs them we can certainly add Tibetan back if someone asks for it, but I highly doubt there's even enough SC material. And Moldovan is no longer considered a separate language even in Moldova.

[Aozora]

Could a different tag be used for Tibetan that doesn't overlap with anything else?

[zhuzilu]

I am planning to do something similar with Portuguese, for example.

I will probably run through the Michel Thomas Portuguese course, flip through a grammar book, and then do a lot of listening-reading with Harry Potter. I already know the story, and I understand Spanish with no problem, so it will be an experiment of sorts (for me) to see what I can get from massive input. It has to be comprehensible input, though. If it's not, your time is really better spent on other materials.

With a language more distant from (my native English), I wouldn't attempt that kind of approach, though.

Kerrie, you completely read my mind's future plans!! I already signed up for 3 challenges (1 full, 2 half), but I was planning around January 2017 (if my challenges were going well) of doing a Portuguese Super Challenge. I'm a native speaker of Spanish+Galician, so I can understand most of what it's said in Portuguese, although I have never studied it (I have done Duolingo for a week, but nothing serious). And I also wanted to try the Super Challenge as an experiment! Looking forward to see your progress