The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2016/2017

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
surrealix
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby surrealix » Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:00 pm

rdearman wrote:Hey! Welcome back. I'm sure we could arrange to host the bot here that wouldn't be a problem and if you're willing to opensource your code we have some other challanges that might want a cool rocking bot like yours.


Thanks! Hosting the bot here sounds like a great solution, and I'm certainly happy to open source the code.

I'll start sorting things out and upload the source somewhere - probably GitHub unless you have another preference. If you shoot me an e-mail or a DM we can continue the conversation to get the ball rolling.

:D
Last edited by surrealix on Fri Dec 11, 2015 12:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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emk
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby emk » Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:11 pm

surrealix wrote:I'll start sorting things out and upload the source somewhere - probably GitHub unless you have another preference.

We have an official GitHub organization for this forum, and we'd be delighted to create a repository for you if you wish, and give you full privs. To do this, we would need to know (1) your GitHub username, and (2) the name you want to use for the bot repo. I'll PM you with my personal information.

Thank you for building and running the bot for so long, and for finding it a new home for the next challenge!
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Serpent
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Serpent » Tue Dec 15, 2015 11:50 am

The site is down? :roll: :| :(
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LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Tue Dec 15, 2015 9:09 pm

Serpent wrote:The site is down? :roll: :| :(


Which site? I'm logged in right now to both https://twitter.com/langchallenge and http://www.languagechallenge.surrealix.com/
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Serpent
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Serpent » Tue Dec 15, 2015 9:24 pm

Yep it's back :)
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LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
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Solfrid Cristin
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Solfrid Cristin » Fri Dec 18, 2015 8:48 am

Hi everyone,

The 2016-17 Super Challenge will indeed start on May 2016. In the mean time: Make the most of your time by participating in other challenges.

Particularly those who are not too strong in their languages can benefit from spending the next 4 months on grammar and vocabulary, to have a more solid foundation for the next challenge.

I know I most certainly will do that :-)
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Serpent
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Serpent » Fri Dec 18, 2015 10:45 am

How is everyone doing?

Early in the month I thought of giving up on the Belarusian challenge, but then I realized I could complete it with 1 movie per day and some time to spare. Now I'm a bit behind again though (15 movies left), but starting from next week there's very little football on, for obvious reasons.

It also looks like Finnish and Ukrainian might be the only languages in which I don't earn a star :D

Yesterday I finished reading what was probably my best book of the year, The Old Man and the Sea.
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LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
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rdearman
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby rdearman » Sat Dec 19, 2015 11:46 am

Solfrid Cristin wrote:Hi everyone,

The 2016-17 Super Challenge will indeed start on May 2016. In the mean time: Make the most of your time by participating in other challenges.

Particularly those who are not too strong in their languages can benefit from spending the next 4 months on grammar and vocabulary, to have a more solid foundation for the next challenge.

I know I most certainly will do that :-)


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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Woodsei » Thu Dec 24, 2015 4:21 am

Solfrid Cristin wrote:Hi everyone,

The 2016-17 Super Challenge will indeed start on May 2016. In the mean time: Make the most of your time by participating in other challenges.

Particularly those who are not too strong in their languages can benefit from spending the next 4 months on grammar and vocabulary, to have a more solid foundation for the next challenge.

I know I most certainly will do that :-)



Thank you, Christina! So glad to hear from you again, and to know that the Super Challenge is alive and well and did not go the way of the TAC. Looking forward to 2016 with everyone here on this superb forum :D
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Stelle
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Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread

Postby Stelle » Thu Dec 24, 2015 9:49 pm

(Copied and pasted from my log)

I MADE IT!

I have officially completed the Super Challenge in Spanish! *cue wild applause*

The results:

READING

Reading has gotten really pleasant and easy for me.

When I first started the Super Challenge, I was able to read and enjoy novels. However, I couldn't read right before bed, since I had a hard time focusing when I was tired, and I often used a 20-minute timer so that I didn't put the book down after 10 or 15 minutes.

I can simply read for pleasure now, without having to put a timer on. I don't have the same stamina in Spanish that I have in English, but I can get lost in a book for 30 or 45 minutes before looking up to see how much time has passed. I can read Spanish novels in bed or in a hot bath, both of which would have put me to sleep at the beginning of the challenge. That's a huge win in my book! (See what I did there?)

I feel that my vocabulary has improved through extensive reading, as has my instinct for grammar and sentence structure.

LISTENING

Listening has gotten *much* easier for me. I can follow most of what I hear, assuming that it's Castilian Spanish. Sometimes I get a bit lost during arguments or when everyone's speaking at the same time, but I'm usually able to pick up the thread again without much trouble. I can generally understand Latin American Spanish very well, but it takes me a bit longer to get into the groove.

My husband watched two full series with me (3 seasons each of Isabel and Gran Hotel), so I had access to subtitles far too often. While I tried to ignore the subtitles, I can be quite compulsive about reading every word (even if I'm watching closed-captioning in English), so it was hard not to look at them. I do think that my listening comprehension would have shown even more dramatic growth were it not for the subtitles. But then my husband wouldn't have added “no lo sé” to his daily vocabulary, and that would be a sad thing indeed.

OVERALL EFFECT ON MY SPANISH

As I've already mentioned, I feel that the Super Challenge has led to dramatic improvements in my receptive abilities. It's had less of an effect on my productive language.

Over the past year and a half, I've put a much higher emphasis on input than on output. I probably spent about 3 hours per month speaking Spanish, and a tiny fraction of that writing. As a result, I don't feel that my speaking or writing have improved. If anything, they may have gotten worse.

But I do feel that I have a very strong Spanish foundation now and that I'm at the perfect place to start improving my output – all thanks to extensive reading and listening.

Want to read a few loooong posts reviewing the books that I read and the TV shows that I watched? Here you go:

Spanish SC books and films

Thanks to Solfrid Cristina for organizing and motivating us! Thanks also to all SC-ers for the support and inspiration! See you in 2016!
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