The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2016/2017

[Brun Ugle]

We're allowed to do this in any language we want, right? Even ones we're good at? I need to read more in my strong languages too, and I never seem to get around to it because I'm always studying my weaker languages. So I would like to motivate myself to read classics and "good" literature in English and Norwegian, if that's allowed. It would be nice to track all my reading in one place.

[rdearman]

We're allowed to do this in any language we want, right? Even ones we're good at? I need to read more in my strong languages too, and I never seem to get around to it because I'm always studying my weaker languages. So I would like to motivate myself to read classics and "good" literature in English and Norwegian, if that's allowed. It would be nice to track all my reading in one place.

I think the original super challenge was limited to languages A2 or better, but as far as I'm aware that has been relaxed and you can do any language at any level. I do know Cristina has cautioned people about doing to many languages, and she prefers you only do one, but it is a preference rather than a rule. I know Serpent signed up for just about every language supported by the UTF-8 character set.

[rdearman]

I posted a notice on the HTLAL website about the SC, but if anyone wants to post the link on Reddit or other sites where there are people who participate, but don't necessarily read this forum I would appreciate it. Please warn them about it being registration only until the 1st of May!

[rdearman]

So seems good for books and reading, but what about films? How could I track progress in listening comprehension? Any suggestions? Anyone else obsessed with charts and tracking? What are your plans?

That's a little tricky, but my thoughts would be if you found a good series with more than one season available and watch season 1 first in the entire SC, perhaps you allow yourself to get warmed up a little (say watch a few or a handful of episodes, perhaps half of season 1) then do a count of unknown words starting with the next newest espisodes (not ones you've already seen) remaining in the season. How many words over a certain time frame, or over one full episode or over 5-15min from three random episodes which you have not viewed later in the season do you not know. Return to the series at/near the end of the SC (or maybe halfway as well) and watch some episodes from the next season doing the same process for counting unknown words.

Whether or not you would do the original 'warm up' suggested by watching half of season 1 is optional I guess, but I think it would allow the comparison to be fair since that by the end of the SC you would have watched a LOT and become used to the TL in that environment (TV). You could skip that warm up if you already watch a lot in your TL anyway. By doing the 2nd run at the end of the SC (and one in the middle perhaps) hopefully you have left enough gap to not have a bit of a bias in terms of comprehension level because you're already familiar with the series and the types of words/dialogues used etc. Hopefully by giving a BIG break between the tests you would eliminate some of that, but at least watching half of season 1 in the original test you would also have that same advantage to a certain degree.

I think it would be better to do random 10 minute snippets over a few episodes for example as opposed to one full episode (or even half of one) as the context and content may be wildly different and judging from a sample of only one episode compared to one episode isn't going to be very accurate.

Good idea. I do have a couple of series which have multiple seasons. So I'm thinking if I did a sample as you suggest with the first episode of each season, then I could track it well. If I did this consistently with every series and every season I watch, then I could get a good sample size. Because of the sheer amount of stuff I have to watch in the SC however, I'd probably have to move on to a second series, then come back to the first series to get a sample with a long break in between. Great suggestion.

[Brun Ugle]

We're allowed to do this in any language we want, right? Even ones we're good at? I need to read more in my strong languages too, and I never seem to get around to it because I'm always studying my weaker languages. So I would like to motivate myself to read classics and "good" literature in English and Norwegian, if that's allowed. It would be nice to track all my reading in one place.

I think the original super challenge was limited to languages A2 or better, but as far as I'm aware that has been relaxed and you can do any language at any level. I do know Cristina has cautioned people about doing to many languages, and she prefers you only do one, but it is a preference rather than a rule. I know Serpent signed up for just about every language supported by the UTF-8 character set.

I might just try that myself. I have about eight languages I want to do. I know I can't complete as many challenges as I want to sign up for, but I'm more interested in it as a tracking tool than in trying to win. I find it motivating to tweet what I've done and see my progress on the chart with everyone else's.

[Serpent]

To be fair, this was after I narrowed it down to like 7 languages in the first challenge, but ended up neglecting Finnish and Spanish.
I'm yet to discuss this with Cristina but I hope we can come up with a solution, like tracking an entire family, or allowing a #misc language (like Multilingual in the 6WC), or whatever... I might even be ready not to count most of the football I watch

[geoffw]

I do know Cristina has cautioned people about doing to many languages, and she prefers you only do one, but it is a preference rather than a rule. I know Serpent signed up for just about every language supported by the UTF-8 character set.

Cross-posting from HTLAL, since I just commented on this very issue myself:

*******
Solfrid Cristin wrote:

There is still 5 weeks left, so I hope all those interested have started gathering
materials

I'm on it! Trying to finish my first Swedish book before May 1 as a warm up.

As inspection of the old scores shows, I abandoned my previous SC (even though I kept reading
voraciously). I fell victim to the trap of spreading myself too thin, signing up for too many projects. It soon
became clear that I couldn't, and didn't even want to actually pursue them all. I was also a bit burned out
on recording pages and hours, even after 5 months respite. I plan to be more careful this time around, and
I'm itching to have some real pages goals again! I learned both Dutch and French as a result of the first SC
(both of which I still use today), and I hope to replicate that level of success this year.

BTW, Cristina, I'm currently enjoying my first Norwegian TV series! "Occupied" is now available to us in the
US. My wife even likes it, too! And they even speak a little Swedish occasionally (and Russian, of course),
although at this point I can't even tell it apart from Norwegian most of the time.

[sfuqua]

Are there any changes in the rules for this super challenge?
I'm daydreaming about doing a challenge in Tagalog also, but I'm worried about the reading part of Tagalog...
I am going to be in the Philippines this summer, and I could get something there. I would hate to be left reading the bible over and over again.

[Serpent]

You can count any reading, like newspapers, internet, poetry. If you'd like to request any specific change to the rules, Cristina has to approve it. Feel free to discuss your ideas here first.

[rdearman]

You can count any reading, like newspapers, internet, poetry. If you'd like to request any specific change to the rules, Cristina has to approve it. Feel free to discuss your ideas here first.

Although if you're counting reading something which isn't naturally in pages then you'll have to do the calculation yourself ~300 = 1 page.