Reading short stories challenge 2020

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
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Maiwenn
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Re: Reading short stories challenge 2019

Postby Maiwenn » Mon Feb 11, 2019 1:18 pm

Hey y'all,

I just discovered the site https://www.shortstoryproject.com/ which publishes short stories from Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romani, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Yiddish. It offers a few reads for free before you need to create an account. After that, presumably you have a few more free reads/month before having to buy a membership. The stories are published in their original languages with various translations as options. (To switch the language of the reading, click on the dropdown with the current language's name to see what's offered.) Based off an initial perusal, everything seems to be translated into at least Hebrew and English.
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SC reading: 3819 / 10000 AR
SC reading: 3334 / 5000 FR
SC reading: 65 / 2500 DE :?

Corrections are always welcome. :)

Christi
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Re: Reading short stories challenge 2019

Postby Christi » Mon Feb 18, 2019 1:06 pm

Christi wrote:Signing up for this challenge since it's one I will definitely be able to complete!

Languages and levels:
Korean, high beginner/low intermediate
Goal: at least 15
Books you plan to read:

Diary of Dana in Korea. It's a comic with 15 9 page chapters. It seems very good for vocabulary building so far so am using this as a stepping stone to more complicated stories.
Aesop's stories, if not too simple/boring.
Once upon a time in Korean. Fairy tales of about 3 pages each. I've read about half of the 23 stories already.
https://storybookscanada.ca/stories might read a few stories on this site I found, if the translations are actually well-written.

I have some more stories but am unsure if I will be able to read all of them.


I have decided to change my reading materials. Have decided to read the stories that are mentioned in my signature, since I think I will book more language progess that way. I did manage to read 4 chapters of Dana in Korea so am pretty sure I will hit my goal of 15 stories in one year :)
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2020 resolution words learned: 472 / 1000
Pages read at end of 2020: 220 / 1500

samothin
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Re: Reading short stories challenge 2019

Postby samothin » Tue Apr 16, 2019 5:31 am

samothin wrote:
samothin wrote:Languages and levels: Chinese - intermediate B1~
Goal: 19
Books you plan to read: Short stories collection at Popup Chinese (with audio)
http://popupchinese.com/lessons/short-stories

A link to your profile/shelf on Goodreads, LibraryThing etc:
I read a blog post in Luca Lampariello's site and became intrigued with the method introduced. I'll probably do this with the said method.
https://www.lucalampariello.com/reading-out-loud/

Tried doing 1 short story from Popup Chinese. Definitely way above my comprehension level. I'm replacing Popup Chinese with Learning Chinese through Stories podcast, similar approach.

Since the stories are shorter (below 10 minutes read) I'm aiming for 30 stories instead.


I've completed 59 stories in "Learning Chinese through Stories" Podcast that amounts to an estimate of 34 hours of listening ~ 2,065 minutes (assuming 5 minutes for side A, 30 minutes for side B).

The way I do it is:
- Listen to side A cold, while guessing the gist of the story
- Read transcript using "Read & learn Chinese - duShu" app
- Read while listening
- Listen to side B and try to understand the full discussion

I can definitely see improvement in the following:-
a. Listening, specifically parsing of sentences in normal conversation to help identify words that I don't know.
b. Speed/fluency, of understanding the conversation.
c. Confidence in reading
d. Understanding of the sentence structure/ pattern used in the conversation.

The way that I use the resource changed a lot from my initial plan, but I'm really happy with the resource and the results that I've experienced.

Now I'm doing scaffolded reading of a core novel. I'm using The Godfather, 教父, which I found enjoyable. I tried HP but I just couldn't.
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tommus
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Re: Reading short stories challenge 2019

Postby tommus » Tue Apr 16, 2019 2:53 pm

Maiwenn wrote:I just discovered the site https://www.shortstoryproject.com/ which publishes short stories ...

That website has a number of annoying features. You can't get "any" information without providing an email address. Nothing. Even then, they have a glossy but weird user interface. When I finally figured out how to get listings by language, I discovered it has only one Dutch-language short story. Hardly worth all the hassle. They have some better offerings in other languages.

Since I'm already signed in, I guess I could list what they have in the other languages:

Arabic: 28
Catalan: 2
Chinese: 5
Croatian: 1
Czech: 4
Danish: 5
Dutch: 1
English: many
Finnish: 1
French: 13
German: 42
Greek: 3
Hebrew: 78
Hungarian: 4
Irish: 1
Italian: 9
Japanese: 5
Maltese: 1
Norwegian: 1
Polish: 6
Portuguese: 2
Romani: 1
Romanian: 2
Russian: 39
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Dutch: 01 September -> 31 December 2020
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badger
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Re: Reading short stories challenge 2019

Postby badger » Wed Apr 17, 2019 1:50 am

Languages and levels: French B1/B2ish

Goal: (how many stories): 26

Books you plan to read:
"Winne L'Ourson" & "La Maison de Winnie L'Ourson" - AA Milne - 10 stories each
"Exil et le Royaume" - Albert Camus - 6 stories

I have been reading these off and on since the start of the year - probably 10 stories in total so far.

A link to your profile/shelf on Goodreads, LibraryThing etc:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/96147733-monsieur-le-blaireau
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Serpent
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Re: Reading short stories challenge 2019

Postby Serpent » Tue Jul 09, 2019 4:25 am

Just noticed I never officially signed up :lol: Copying my post from 2016.

Languages and levels: all of mine, but I currently own short story collections in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish, Belarusian, Czech, Ukrainian, Serbian and Swedish. I understand them well, apart from Swedish.
Goal: read a story every week and finish 3-5 of the books
Goodreads shelf: "slow collections etc", which includes some books I won't count, like poetry or multi-chapter stories.

Books you plan to read:
Racconti italiani +++
José Eduardo Agualusa - Fronteiras Perdidas +
Horacio Quiroga - Los desterrados ++
Cuentos fantásticos modernistas de Hispanoamérica
Las fuerzas extrañas; Cuentos fatales

Currently I can't say I'm particularly excited by these :|
Last edited by Serpent on Wed Jan 01, 2020 11:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: shortened the list
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LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
Corrections welcome

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Serpent
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Re: Reading short stories challenge 2019

Postby Serpent » Tue Jul 09, 2019 4:41 am

Today I also read my first short story of the year :lol:
I noticed that my copy of Fronteiras Perdidas was bookmarked with a receipt, and I checked because I didn't remember starting this book. The story I had bookmarked was called "O Evangelho segundo a Serpente" so it's obvious why I got curious about it 8-) Turned out to be a pretty random story, so I can see why I didn't finish it back then. (Bought the book in Lisbon, might have begun reading on the metro???)

Also just curious, has anyone read/counted a story thar you read within more than one week?
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LyricsTraining now has Finnish and Polish :)
Corrections welcome

Christi
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Re: Reading short stories challenge 2019

Postby Christi » Mon Jul 22, 2019 11:50 am

I should probably give an update. I think that so far I have finished about 10 short stories and was in the middle of reading a thin book (120ish pages), but quit reading in order to focus on other things. I also read some online articles, but I think I should just stick to books for now.
Am planning on having finished my short stories around mid-august and then read from my book again.

How is everyone else doing?
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2020 resolution words learned: 472 / 1000
Pages read at end of 2020: 220 / 1500

EmGeeFab
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Languages: English (N), German (advanced), Hebrew (early intermediate), Spanish (beginner)
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Re: Reading short stories challenge 2019

Postby EmGeeFab » Mon Jul 22, 2019 12:51 pm

We're over halfway through the year, but it looks like it is still OK to join.

Languages and levels: German (advanced/fluent); Hebrew (lower-intermediate)
Goal: 10 in Hebrew, 15 in German
Books you plan to read: Etgar Keret תקלה בקצה הגלקסיה and probably something else by him since he writes in colloquial Hebrew
Deutsche Erzählungen: Von Schiller bis Kafka
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humerusthings
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Re: Reading short stories challenge 2019

Postby humerusthings » Sun Sep 01, 2019 4:51 pm

Hello! Joining quite late in the year but here goes:
Languages and levels: French (A1), Korean (?A2-B1)
Goal: read 5 stories minimum!

Books you plan to read:
French
https://www.thefrenchexperiment.com/stories
https://www.thefablecottage.com/french
http://learn-french-free-with-stories.weebly.com/--> looks like an Awesome Resource!
- Harry Potter book (i'll count 1 chapter as 1 story if that is ok?)

Korean
- will hunt around for korean short story websites!

So far I've read 2/5 of the stories! :)
1) Un Scandale en Bohème (Sherlock Holmes)
2) https://www.thefablecottage.com/french/loiseau-et-la-baleine
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