Super Challenge registration thread (18/19)

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
User avatar
zKing
Orange Belt
Posts: 142
Joined: Mon May 15, 2017 11:59 pm
Location: Seattle Area
Languages: English(N), Learning: Cantonese, Italian
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7973
x 729

Re: Super Challenge registration thread

Postby zKing » Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:43 am

Serpent wrote:
zKing wrote:As stated in the rules these are really ~22/44 mins without commercials
Was this mentioned explicitly anywhere?
I honestly think if the commercials are in your target language (at least subtitles) and you actually watch them, there's no need to subtract them. Sure, watching random commercials on youtube doesn't really seem to fit the spirit of the challenge (not sure about a 10-minute compilation of commercials), but if you watched TV for 1 hour it doesn't matter how much of this time was occupied by commercials if you did watch them.


Sorry, I wrote this in a confusing way. The DVDs I've ripped my shows from don't have commercials, so they are already either ~22 minutes or ~44 minutes.

But I have another question, why do shorter YouTube videos not count? The vlog channels I tend to watch are usually solid talking and better bang-for-the-buck in spoken language per minute of run time than most TV shows. They are no different than podcasts, really. I mean 90 minutes of talk is 90 minutes of talk, no?

In that sense, I may just measure this as a 9000 minute goal on my side.
0 x

User avatar
rdearman
Site Admin
Posts: 7223
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 4:18 pm
Location: United Kingdom
Languages: English (N)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1836
x 23093
Contact:

Re: Super Challenge registration thread

Postby rdearman » Sat Dec 29, 2018 12:28 pm

zKing wrote:
Serpent wrote:
zKing wrote:As stated in the rules these are really ~22/44 mins without commercials
Was this mentioned explicitly anywhere?
I honestly think if the commercials are in your target language (at least subtitles) and you actually watch them, there's no need to subtract them. Sure, watching random commercials on youtube doesn't really seem to fit the spirit of the challenge (not sure about a 10-minute compilation of commercials), but if you watched TV for 1 hour it doesn't matter how much of this time was occupied by commercials if you did watch them.


Sorry, I wrote this in a confusing way. The DVDs I've ripped my shows from don't have commercials, so they are already either ~22 minutes or ~44 minutes.

But I have another question, why do shorter YouTube videos not count? The vlog channels I tend to watch are usually solid talking and better bang-for-the-buck in spoken language per minute of run time than most TV shows. They are no different than podcasts, really. I mean 90 minutes of talk is 90 minutes of talk, no?

In that sense, I may just measure this as a 9000 minute goal on my side.

I'm being lazy and don't want to look up the rule, but I thought it was only a 10 minute minimum? I dimly remember a change which lowered the amount of time?
1 x
: 0 / 150 Read 150 books in 2024

My YouTube Channel
The Autodidactic Podcast
My Author's Newsletter

I post on this forum with mobile devices, so excuse short msgs and typos.

User avatar
zKing
Orange Belt
Posts: 142
Joined: Mon May 15, 2017 11:59 pm
Location: Seattle Area
Languages: English(N), Learning: Cantonese, Italian
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7973
x 729

Re: Super Challenge registration thread

Postby zKing » Sun Dec 30, 2018 11:23 pm

rdearman wrote:I'm being lazy and don't want to look up the rule, but I thought it was only a 10 minute minimum? I dimly remember a change which lowered the amount of time?


Yep, that's what it says. I'm really asking... What is the intent of that limitation? The vlogs I watch are anywhere from about 3-15 mins long. And if I watched 30 of the 3 minute ones back to back, I would get far more language input than almost any 90 minute movie. I'm just curious if there is a didactic reason for this limit; I'm not asking to change the rule.

For me personally, I'm already not following the rules by not doing the reading, and I don't plan on using the bot... So it's more of an unofficial challenge for me anyhow. I'm just going to measure 150 hours / 9000 minutes and kind of do my own thing. I'm just curious if there's a logic behind the shorter content exclusion that I'm missing. I do understand that some short YouTube videos could be quite lacking in sustained speech, but I would not watch things that aren't useful for learning like that... And i think there are plenty of movies and TV shows that might have similar issues.
0 x

User avatar
Serpent
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3657
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:54 am
Location: Moskova
Languages: heritage
Russian (native); Belarusian, Polish

fluent or close: Finnish (certified C1), English; Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian
learning: Croatian+, Ukrainian; Romanian, Galician; Danish, Swedish; Estonian
exploring: Latin, Karelian, Catalan, Dutch, Czech, Latvian
x 5178
Contact:

Re: Super Challenge registration thread

Postby Serpent » Mon Dec 31, 2018 1:49 am

rdearman wrote:I'm being lazy and don't want to look up the rule, but I thought it was only a 10 minute minimum? I dimly remember a change which lowered the amount of time?
Yeah, originally the limit was 15 minutes. It applies to all audio/video content. Although common sense :?should definitely be used, so if someone makes a long recording/video and posts it as small chunks for whatever reason, you can count it as a 10-minute item (or longer).
Also, I do feel it's fair to be lenient about it if you're already discounting for silence/music/lack of focus. Ie if the recording was 10+ min but you can honestly count only 8-9 min of content, just count them.
The challenge wasn't started by me btw. As you should know by now it was originally about books and movies, but it was cautiously expanded to include some other types of content. The spirit of the challenge isn't to watch 3000 x 3-minute videos, it's to watch/listen to 100 x 90 minutes or 200-300 shorter items. A single 8-minute long item is not a problem, the problem is when all your items are like that.

And we do have many other challenges where every minute counts :D
0 x
LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
Corrections welcome

User avatar
zKing
Orange Belt
Posts: 142
Joined: Mon May 15, 2017 11:59 pm
Location: Seattle Area
Languages: English(N), Learning: Cantonese, Italian
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7973
x 729

Re: Super Challenge registration thread

Postby zKing » Mon Dec 31, 2018 8:11 pm

Serpent wrote:As you should know by now it was originally about books and movies, but it was cautiously expanded to include some other types of content. The spirit of the challenge isn't to watch 3000 x 3-minute videos, it's to watch/listen to 100 x 90 minutes or 200-300 shorter items. A single 8-minute long item is not a problem, the problem is when all your items are like that.

And we do have many other challenges where every minute counts :D

Yep, I think I'm just going to change my target to 150 hours (9000 minutes), which is what I'm really after, and not refer to it as a Super Challenge. I'm really coloring outside the lines of this Challenge, so I won't continue to attempt to hammer my square peg into this round hole. :)

I'd guess this challenge was originally intended to encourage those high beginner/low intermediates who had just finished a lot of text book material, yet feared jumping into native content. The easiest and most direct recommendation: go read a LOT of books and watch a LOT of movies. Simple, easy to understand, relatively easy to implement in most languages and a mostly enjoyable path to get a **** ton of comprehensible input and get someone very comfortable with using native materials (after the initial hours which feel like a trial by fire).
All good stuff.

Like I said, the formal version of the SC doesn't quite match my needs, but I will be doing an informal one "in spirit" with my 150 hours target.

Thanks for the interesting discussion!
3 x

User avatar
javier_getafe
Orange Belt
Posts: 142
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:28 am
Location: Spain
Languages: Spanish (N), English (B2). In the way to get C1 certificate this year 2022. Wish me luck ;)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=10163
x 123

Re: Super Challenge registration thread

Postby javier_getafe » Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:17 pm

Language: English
Challenge: full
Current level: B2
Comments:
I'm afraid books won't be a problem. I have been reading english, and only english, books for the last 5 years at least. But I'm going to need an extra effort to watch so amount of the films. However, come on!!
0 x

User avatar
Serpent
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3657
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:54 am
Location: Moskova
Languages: heritage
Russian (native); Belarusian, Polish

fluent or close: Finnish (certified C1), English; Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian
learning: Croatian+, Ukrainian; Romanian, Galician; Danish, Swedish; Estonian
exploring: Latin, Karelian, Catalan, Dutch, Czech, Latvian
x 5178
Contact:

Re: Super Challenge registration thread

Postby Serpent » Sat Jan 19, 2019 8:31 pm

My badges look nice right now :)
Those on the left are for watching 2 "films" and reading 2 books in the last 2 weeks, the ones on the right are for a 10-week streak and the bronze one for a 5-week streak. (I'm pretty close to 20 and 10 weeks respectively)
sc stats badges.png
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
5 x
LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
Corrections welcome

User avatar
javier_getafe
Orange Belt
Posts: 142
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2019 7:28 am
Location: Spain
Languages: Spanish (N), English (B2). In the way to get C1 certificate this year 2022. Wish me luck ;)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=10163
x 123

Re: Super Challenge registration thread

Postby javier_getafe » Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:09 pm

Congratulation!
The badges look fantastic!!
1 x

User avatar
Serpent
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3657
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:54 am
Location: Moskova
Languages: heritage
Russian (native); Belarusian, Polish

fluent or close: Finnish (certified C1), English; Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian
learning: Croatian+, Ukrainian; Romanian, Galician; Danish, Swedish; Estonian
exploring: Latin, Karelian, Catalan, Dutch, Czech, Latvian
x 5178
Contact:

Re: Super Challenge registration thread

Postby Serpent » Sun Jan 20, 2019 1:15 am

Thank you/Gracias :D
1 x
LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
Corrections welcome

User avatar
Brun Ugle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2273
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:48 pm
Location: Steinkjer, Norway
Languages: English (N), Norwegian (~C1/C2), Spanish (B1/B2), German (A2/B1?), Japanese (very rusty)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11484
x 5821
Contact:

Re: Super Challenge registration thread

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Jan 20, 2019 8:57 am

Serpent wrote:My badges look nice right now :)
Those on the left are for watching 2 "films" and reading 2 books in the last 2 weeks, the ones on the right are for a 10-week streak and the bronze one for a 5-week streak. (I'm pretty close to 20 and 10 weeks respectively)
sc stats badges.png

I don’t understand how the badges work. I know they are for streaks, but what do the different colors and shapes mean? And why to some people have two badges on some languages? Is there one set for movies and one for books?
0 x


Return to “Language Challenges”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests