The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2018/2019

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
User avatar
picklelanguage
Yellow Belt
Posts: 59
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2016 8:31 pm
Languages: English (N), Spanish(B1-B2), German and French (I suck)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7984
x 110

Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2018/2019

Postby picklelanguage » Tue Oct 23, 2018 3:49 am

This is a bit of aimless reflection, but something that I've liked about doing this challenge (and sticking with it this time), is that it really helps get yourself into the mindset of long term consistency instead of short term intensity. This is coming as somebody who has had a strong interested in languages for 8-9 years now, but never learned anything to a high level, instead just picked up random languages here and there and then burnt myself out within weeks, a month if I was lucky. The only reason I even got to an intermediate level in Spanish is I took it in high school and during college so I was "forced" to focus on the long term.

The length of the challenge almost surprises me, and is in a convoluted way, a point of inspiration. We are only in the 6th month of a 20 month challenge! We haven't even finished our first 3rd. Sometimes I feel horribly behind (and I technically am in some elements, but my current focus is Spanish listening), but then I realize how much longer we have to go. Seeing how much progress I've made in these 6th months is really nice, and I'm excited to see where I'm at when the challenge is finished.

I've almost found a newfound respect for the process. Even though I'm very satisfied with the progress I've made, it still feels like I've only set a few bricks in a large brick house. You don't really get that when you go at burnout paces learning a language at an A1 level. You get an undeniable thrill that you get by the extremely fast-paced progress from learning A1 material, but you never get to feel the fulfillment of making genuine progress in the language. I don't know. Perhaps I'm moralizing too much over my generally good feeling when practicing lately. But I just wanted to share what has been going through my mind lately about the challenge.
18 x
Spanish - Half Challenge
: 0 / 50 Books 0/50
: 0 / 50 Films 0/50
German - Half Challenge
: 0 / 50 Books 0.0/50
: 0 / 50 Films 0.2/50

User avatar
MamaPata
Brown Belt
Posts: 1019
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2016 9:25 am
Location: London
Languages: English (N), French (C1*), Russian (B1), Spanish (B1).

Long lost: Arabic and Latin.
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3004
x 1807

Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2018/2019

Postby MamaPata » Wed Oct 24, 2018 6:35 am

That was definitely what I needed to hear just about now! I was beginning to get a bit twitchy about my lack of progress (especially when it feels like French is all I do lately!), so it's good to be reminded of the bigger picture from time to time!
4 x
Corrections appreciated.

Monox D. I-Fly
Blue Belt
Posts: 640
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 5:22 pm
x 307

Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2018/2019

Postby Monox D. I-Fly » Mon Nov 26, 2018 2:37 pm

picklelanguage wrote:This is a bit of aimless reflection, but something that I've liked about doing this challenge (and sticking with it this time), is that it really helps get yourself into the mindset of long term consistency instead of short term intensity. This is coming as somebody who has had a strong interested in languages for 8-9 years now, but never learned anything to a high level, instead just picked up random languages here and there and then burnt myself out within weeks, a month if I was lucky. The only reason I even got to an intermediate level in Spanish is I took it in high school and during college so I was "forced" to focus on the long term.

Me, too. I have never been consistent in learning my target languages before doing the Super Challenge. You can see the difference in my log.
1 x
Read 5,000 pages of Arabic books: 5 / 5000
Watch 9,000 minutes of Arabic videos: 19 / 9000

Read 5,000 pages of Japanese books: 1 / 5000
Watch 9,000 minutes of Japanese videos: 297 / 9000

Mista
Blue Belt
Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
x 1459

Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2018/2019

Postby Mista » Thu Jan 03, 2019 7:54 pm

Turns out i have to complain about the list of languges available once again. This is a little weird, because I did Latin for the last SC too, and had no problems back then, the bot took my registration and a number of subsequent updates. But now - Latin is no longer in the list of languages. Any chance we could have it back on?
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 23092
Contact:

Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2018/2019

Postby rdearman » Thu Jan 03, 2019 8:23 pm

Mista wrote:Turns out i have to complain about the list of languges available once again. This is a little weird, because I did Latin for the last SC too, and had no problems back then, the bot took my registration and a number of subsequent updates. But now - Latin is no longer in the list of languages. Any chance we could have it back on?

I inserted it.
ISO code: la
Name: Latin
2 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
kanewai
Blue Belt
Posts: 753
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 9:10 pm
Location: Honolulu
Languages: Native: English
Active: Italian
Maintenance: Spanish, French
Priors: Chuukese (Micronesian), Indonesian, Latin, Greek (epic and modern), Turkish, Arabic
x 3219
Contact:

Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2018/2019

Postby kanewai » Thu Jan 17, 2019 3:20 am

I'm wondering how everyone is going with the challenge, and how things have gone for the first 8 months?

I'm still adjusting my goals here. I signed up thinking I would do three "half challenges" in Italian, French, and Spanish. The audio part turned out to be easy - in the U.S. we have more and more international podcasts, tv shows, and audiobooks available each year. This was the hardest part of the first Super Challenge I did. Now it's the easiest part to finish.

Reading has been a different story. Just doing a half challenge wasn't enough - it worked out to about 26 pages a week, and that wasn't enough intensity for me to feel like I was making any progress. Over the summer I thought I'd aim for a full challenge for each, but that pace is turning out to be too intense to maintain. I think I could still do it, but there'd be absolutely no room for flirting with new languages, or doing proper grammar study (which I still like to do occasionally), or read anything in English. Right now I'm looking for a good middle personal middle ground.

Random thoughts:
- The Book Club has been a nice way to read books at the same time as others. I've joined them for about half the books.
- I like Italian translations of Latin books better than English translations so far. Though ... this is only based on one book.
- I don't like Italian translations of American sci-fi. This opinion is also only based on one book.
- I tell myself to stick to one book at a time, but I'm finishing up three and I just ordered three more. One benefit, at least, is that I have a deeper respect for great writers.
- This also means that I'm more likely to quit books that are only good to average.
- I've read an insane amount this past year ... maybe I should keep the pressure up and keep aiming for a full triple challenge.

The books so far:

French
Patrick Modiano. Rue des boutiques obscures. 1978
Marcel Pagnol. L'eau des collines. 1962. Fantastic. The best so far of this challenge.
Maurice Druon. La reine étranglée. 1955. Second in a series on the fall of the Capetian dynasty.
current: Alexandre Dumas. Le comte de Monte-Cristo. 1844. Dumas is a master.
on deck: Michel Houellebecq. Sérotonine. 2019. The author himself sounds like a total creep, but he's a great writer.

Spanish
Cixin Liu. El problema de los tres cuerpos. 2006. translated from Chinese
Gabriel García Márquez. Cien años de soledad. 1967. Good but exhausting.
Shūsaku Endō. Chinmoku (Silencio). 1966. translated from Japanese.
current: Santiago Posteguillo. Africanus: el hijo del cónsul. 2006. First in a trilogy set during the Punic Wars
on deck: Mario Vargas Llosa. El sueño del celta. 2010. Llosa might be my favorite contemporary writer.

Italian
Elena Ferrante. Storia della bambina perduta. 2014
Ludovico Ariosto. Orlando furioso. 1532. raccontato da Italo Calvino. 1971. Wonderfully different than the English and French epics.
James S.A. Corey. Leviathan. Il risveglio. 2011
current: Apuleius. Le metamorfosi, o L'asino d'oro. 2nd century. An amazing and shockingly obscene story from ancient Rome.
on deck: Leonardo Sciascia. Il Consiglio d'Egitto. 1963

English (non-challenge)
Zora Neale Hurston. Barracoon. 2018
James S.A. Corey. Caliban's War. 2012. Good, classic sci-fi
current: x
on deck: James S.A. Corey. Abaddon's Gate. 2013
5 x
Super Challenge - 50 books
Italian: 11 / 50
Spanish: 50 / 50
French: 16 / 50

Monox D. I-Fly
Blue Belt
Posts: 640
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 5:22 pm
x 307

Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2018/2019

Postby Monox D. I-Fly » Thu Jan 17, 2019 1:27 pm

kanewai wrote:I'm wondering how everyone is going with the challenge, and how things have gone for the first 8 months?

Damn, it's 8 month already? I'm still at roughly 20%, half of what's supposed to have been gone through. The bronchitis/cataract arcs in my life really hindered my progress, not to mention the freelance jobs. Kono mama ja, hal astathii'u?
0 x
Read 5,000 pages of Arabic books: 5 / 5000
Watch 9,000 minutes of Arabic videos: 19 / 9000

Read 5,000 pages of Japanese books: 1 / 5000
Watch 9,000 minutes of Japanese videos: 297 / 9000

User avatar
Lianne
Green Belt
Posts: 457
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:29 pm
Location: Canada
Languages: Speaks: English (N)
Actively studying: French (low int)
Dabbling in: Italian (beginner), ASL (beginner), Ojibwe (beginner), Swahili (beginner)
Wish list: Swedish, Esperanto, Klingon, Brazilian Portuguese
Has also dabbled in: German, Spanish, toki pona
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=12275
x 1298
Contact:

Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2018/2019

Postby Lianne » Thu Jan 17, 2019 2:40 pm

I pretty much just started. :( I've done the last few Super Challenges, never successfully. In 2018 I signed up and somehow just never got started. But, I'm doing the 365 Day Challenge (successfully so far!) and as part of that I've gotten back into Buffy contre les vampires! So, I almost certainly won't complete the reading part, but I'm hoping this'll be the first Super Challenge wherein I finish the watching part.
1 x
: 3 / 100 French SC (Books)
: 7 / 100 French SC (Films)
: 0 / 50 Italian Half SC (Books)
: 0 / 50 Italian Half SC (Films)

Pronouns: they/them

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7264
Contact:

Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2018/2019

Postby IronMike » Sun Jan 20, 2019 1:51 pm

I just noticed the bot didn't record my entry from yesterday. Anyone else notice any missing minutes/pages?

[Edit: I changed my Twitter @name recently...could it be because of that? Do I have to change it back (don't want to) or do I have to re-register? If yes to the latter, is there a way to get my previous pages/minutes?]
0 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

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 23092
Contact:

Re: The Super Challenge - discussion thread 2018/2019

Postby rdearman » Sun Jan 20, 2019 7:04 pm

IronMike wrote:I just noticed the bot didn't record my entry from yesterday. Anyone else notice any missing minutes/pages?

[Edit: I changed my Twitter @name recently...could it be because of that? Do I have to change it back (don't want to) or do I have to re-register? If yes to the latter, is there a way to get my previous pages/minutes?]

It is probably because it no longer recognises you. If you PM me with the old @ name and the new one I can change it in the SC database and it should be OK.
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.


Return to “Language Challenges”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests