Output Challenge 2019 Registration & Discussion Thread

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
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Output Challenge 2019 Registration & Discussion Thread

Postby rdearman » Thu Dec 27, 2018 10:28 pm

Welcome to the Output Challenge Registration thread. I hereby officially open the registration for the Output Challenge 2019 !!! The Output Challenge runs from 1st January 2019 - 31st of December 2019. 12 months or 1 year to complete the challenge.

The idea of the Output Challenge is output both writing and/or speech in your target language. The hope is by increasing the amount of output you produce, you'll be able to identify gaps in your knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation or other problematic areas of output.

The challenge entails:

50,000 words or 1 nanowrimo novel
50 hours of recorded speech (only minutes where you are speaking count)

You can post your writing for correction on sites such as lang-8, and perhaps find people willing to give corrections of your audio recordings. It would be very helpful if you can state if you're willing to provide advice or corrections in your native language.

To register, please state:

LANGUAGE:

CHALLENGE: (Audio only, Writing only, Full Challenge)

CURRENT LANGUAGE LEVEL: (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2)

WILLING TO CORRECT LANGUAGE: (Yes/No "Your native language")

COMMENTS: Any comments you feel like adding as to your reasons for choice of language, type of challenge or material you want to produce or your expectations for the outcome.

The rules are straightforward, but are open to questioning. In the normal course of the challenge if you feel that what you are doing is in the spirit of the challenge, e.g. producing copious amounts of output in your target language, and it is helping you improve, then it is probably OK. If you don't know, just ask. Generally, if you wrote it, pen, paper, keyboard, blog, poem, traffic ticket, then it counts. Audio is slightly more difficult, but if you are talking, singing, whatever and being recorded it counts. If you're not recording it, then it doesn't count. The reason is that we're only counting output that could be shared. You don't have to share, but the potential has to exist. So chatting with your neighbour over the fence doesn't count, unless you get permission and record it.

If you're uncomfortable with the audio then feel free to just signup for written output only.

Some other points are:
- You can be at any level when the challenge starts.
- Any work or material completed in this challenge can be used on any other challenge.
- You can join the challenge at any point while the challenge is running.
- You are welcome to link to your other logs in this thread.
- Anything you've written or recorded from 1st January counts, even if you'd not yet officially registered.

We don't have a cool Bot like all the other challenges, so you have to do it the hard way. Save your writing and use the word count tool in your software. Count the minutes in your audio. Save it all on a pen and paper or spreadsheet. You can also use the very cool progress bars available on this forum, the instructions for progress bars are in the FAQ.

I strongly encourage you to check-out the mini-challenges and prompts from previous years. https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=710

We are now allowing multiple languages. So you can register for more than one.

Please note this is the registration thread and the discussion thread. If you have a writing or audio prompt which you'd like to share then please do! Mini-challenges or Nanowrimo style "Word Sprint Challenges" and "Word War Challenges" are also welcome! In the past people have contributed daily writing prompts as well as monthly challenges. So please join in and let's Output!
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Re: Output Challenge 2019 Registration & Discussion Thread

Postby zKing » Thu Dec 27, 2018 11:13 pm

LANGUAGE: Cantonese

CHALLENGE: Writing only

CURRENT LANGUAGE LEVEL: ~B1

WILLING TO CORRECT LANGUAGE: No (sorry, no time)

COMMENTS: Since English words to Chinese characters usually translates roughly to a 2:3 ratio, I'm going for 75k Chinese characters (vs 50k words). With some days off that's: ~1500 / week (@ 50 weeks), or ~300 / day (@50 weeks, 5 days per week). However, while I am going to attempt to finish this in 2019, I am less concerned with the time frame... so if life gets in the way, I plan to continue to pursue this 75k target until it is finished even if it pushes into the following year. I just want to develop a habit of regularly writing in my TL.

Most of my writing will likely be journal entries, but if I run dry on things to write about, I may simply take an English book and roughly translate pages from it, just to keep up my output practice. I may end up with a VERY poorly translated version of Harry Potter in Cantonese. :lol:
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Re: Output Challenge 2019 Registration & Discussion Thread

Postby Spoonary » Thu Dec 27, 2018 11:35 pm

You know what? I'm actually going to do this. I didn't want to take part in any challenges for the coming year, because I didn't fancy setting myself up for failure. However, I really want to focus on output in 2019 so here goes nothing.

LANGUAGE: Spanish and Italian

CHALLENGE: Full Challenge (1/2 Spanish, 1/2 Italian)

CURRENT LANGUAGE LEVEL: Clinging onto C1 in Spanish, maybe B1 Italian

WILLING TO CORRECT LANGUAGE: I really don't have the time, sorry.

COMMENTS: I will be writing 25,000 words and recording 25 hours in each language, if that's ok. I figure if I aim for 15 mins per day and 1000 words a week, I will overcompensate for days I miss :roll:
Last edited by Spoonary on Fri Dec 28, 2018 6:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Output Challenge 2019 Registration & Discussion Thread

Postby rdearman » Fri Dec 28, 2018 12:09 am

LANGUAGE: Mandarin

CHALLENGE: Writing only

CURRENT LANGUAGE LEVEL: A0/1

WILLING TO CORRECT LANGUAGE: If time permits

COMMENTS: I'm doing scriptorium where I'm writing out by hand a Chinese easy reader in order to practive writing characters. I agree with the 75k target, so I'll try to hit that.
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Re: Output Challenge 2019 Registration & Discussion Thread

Postby lingua » Fri Dec 28, 2018 7:21 am

LANGUAGE: Italian

CHALLENGE: Full Challenge

CURRENT LANGUAGE LEVEL: B1ish
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Super Challenge 2022-23:
DE: books: 0 / 2500 film: 1654 / 4500
IT: books: 3065 / 5000 film: 5031 / 9000
PT: books: 2921 / 5000 film: 5010 / 9000

Output Challenge 2023:
IT: write: 0 / 50000 record: 84 / 3000
PT: write: 0 / 50000 record: 0 / 3000

PT: Read 100 books: 28 / 100

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Re: Output Challenge 2019 Registration & Discussion Thread

Postby Brun Ugle » Fri Dec 28, 2018 7:41 am

Yay! This challenge is probably one of the best things that happened to my Spanish. I spent a very painful year struggling to write my log in Spanish and to do all those recordings. I only made it about halfway on the recordings and one third of the way on writing. (Ignore my progress bars. I gave up on updating them long ago.) And my log is very thin. But even so, my Spanish improved dramatically. (Just ask Zenmonkey.) I think it will be easier this year and maybe I have a chance of actually making it through the challenge in Spanish. I hope a full challenge will bring me up to C1 at last.

I’ll also be doing the challenge in German. I hope a half challenge in German will have the same effect on that language as my near half challenge in Spanish had on my Spanish.

LANGUAGE: Spanish, German

CHALLENGE: Spanish = full, German = half

CURRENT LANGUAGE LEVEL: Spanish = B2, German = maybe A2 in productive skills

WILLING TO CORRECT LANGUAGE: Yes, English.
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Re: Output Challenge 2019 Registration & Discussion Thread

Postby philomath » Fri Dec 28, 2018 4:45 pm

LANGUAGE: Spanish

CHALLENGE: Full

CURRENT LANGUAGE LEVEL: B1/B2

WILLING TO CORRECT LANGUAGE: No (too busy, sorry!)
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Re: Output Challenge 2019 Registration & Discussion Thread

Postby Skynet » Fri Dec 28, 2018 7:16 pm

LANGUAGES: French & German

CHALLENGES: Full DOUBLE* writing challenge + full SINGLE speaking challenge for both languages.

CURRENT LANGUAGE LEVELS: (French: B2?, German: A0)

WILLING TO CORRECT LANGUAGES: YES! Shona & English. Expect delays in getting feedback - I am exceptionally busy.

COMMENTS: 50,000 words/ (14 words per line * 30 lines per page * 24 pages per quire) = ~ 5 quires per language. In 2019, I am doubling my stakes and betting against the house. 100,000 words = 10 quires for each language!
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Re: Output Challenge 2019 Registration & Discussion Thread

Postby I_likes_languages » Sat Dec 29, 2018 1:17 pm

LANGUAGE: French

CHALLENGE: Full Challenge

CURRENT LANGUAGE LEVEL: B2/C1

WILLING TO CORRECT LANGUAGE: Too busy :-(

COMMENTS: My reading and listening skills have greatly improved thanks to the SC, but I need this as an incentive to spend more time on my active skills. I'm looking forward to hearing how everyone is doing!
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Re: Output Challenge 2019 Registration & Discussion Thread

Postby lavengro » Sat Dec 29, 2018 4:21 pm

LANGUAGE: Italian

CHALLENGE: Full

CURRENT LANGUAGE LEVEL: I can say hi and bye in Italian (this is a bit of a 2-fer, as I just use "ciao" for both) and whether the dog eats apples, cake or cookies. So, A1-ish?

WILLING TO CORRECT LANGUAGE: More than willing. In fact, I already do this spontaneously during my commute to work - it is either that or weep silently at the decay in people not word using good, or whatever.
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