The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge - Sign Up and Discussion

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
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coldrainwater
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Re: The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge - Sign Up and Discussion

Postby coldrainwater » Thu Dec 19, 2019 5:00 am

rdearman wrote:Do you feel this helped you progress?
Perhaps more than anything, it amplified how much I enjoy participating in challenges and I see it serving as a model and springboard for additional challenges in 2020 and beyond. I had a few months of heavy career work in July-September and the challenge definitely encouraged more listening time and helped me move the flag forward, even if only a little in those months.

I started as an intermediate Spanish learner and had a very deeply engrained listening habit from day 0. If anything, the existing habit helped me in the initial phase of the challenge and made for a smooth transition into a new language as a beginner midway through. Speaking personally, I see more benefit from this challenge for bringing a language from beginner to advanced beginner or intermediate than from other use cases. It is the beginner stages where wanderlust is more likely and where habits may not yet be well-formed. For me, taking a language (or language component such as writing) from intermediate toward advanced would likely require a different sort of challenge working directly on weak points in a targeted manner.

I think this 365 challenge would couple extremely well with a secondary, more aggressive and targeted challenge. I may take that approach in 2020.
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Re: The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge - Sign Up and Discussion

Postby IronMike » Thu Dec 19, 2019 3:39 pm

I guess I should have been more specific, @rdearman. If it weren't for the 365 challenge, I wouldn't have gotten the 1/2 on the Italian DLPT nor the 2+/2+ on the Russian DLPT and 2+ on the OPI. This kept me focused. I'm hoping it'll help me get back on the [DLPT] board with BCS in the coming year.
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Re: The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge - Sign Up and Discussion

Postby Fenderman » Mon Dec 30, 2019 1:36 am

As others have written, the 365 challenge was a huge help to me this past year. I can say without hesitation that there were at least 30 days during the year when I didn't feel like studying but because of the challenge I put in my 30 minutes and was glad I did because it brought consistency to my studying which I had lacked before.
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Re: The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge - Sign Up and Discussion

Postby aravinda » Mon Dec 30, 2019 9:57 am

My experience was similar to that of Fenderman (and others) except that in my case there were many more days I didn’t feel like studying. I think I didn’t miss a single day until October or so. I am (was?) the type of person who studies the first ten chapters of a course over a single weekend and then stop studying over the next couple of weeks. So, this is by far the the longest I have ever studied a language consistently. And this is the only challenge I have participated so far and I think PM did a great job running the challenge. Thank you, PM!
However, as I was busy with other things I couldn’t give more than 30 min for German. If I could have combined this with intensive periods of study, I could have achieved much more because I tend to reach higher levels with intensive studying.
Still, I managed to “finish” Assimil German with Ease, although I didn’t do the “active wave” and didn’t listen enough times to the audio. In addition to that I did Basic German: A Grammar and Workbook (Routledge) and a few chapters from several other books. At the moment, I am reviewing grammar with Deutsch Grammatik leicht A1 and A2 (Hueber). Unfortunately, around the Christmas, I couldn’t find the time or energy to study as I moved house during that time. As I have lost track of the the exact number of days I missed (5-7 days, maybe more but not continuously), I won’t be able to post my score for December. Sorry about that.
The next year is going to be buiser for me, so I’m not sure if I should join the challenge for 2020.
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Re: The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge - Sign Up and Discussion

Postby PeterMollenburg » Mon Dec 30, 2019 9:09 pm

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

A quick reminder that even if the 31st of December, 2019 is your last day for this challenge, it won't finish for some participants, who started later, for another month. Of course, you can join and begin the 2020 challenge, but official final results for the 2019 version are still a little way off.
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Re: The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge - Sign Up and Discussion

Postby Elsa Maria » Wed Jan 01, 2020 6:31 pm

I think this challenge did a lot for my Danish. It is hard to quantify, but I can think of one concrete example. At the beginning of 2019, I tried to read a Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) short story. It far beyond my level without constantly looking at the English translation.

I just tried a Karen Blixen short story, and I can now read it, with imperfect comprehension, without consulting the English translation. Karen Blixen is difficult literature, and I still have a long way to go before I can read such works with ease. But I can now read contemporary fiction with relative ease, and that was not the case a year ago.

I was already at an intermediate level, so most of my time was spent on reading, listening to podcasts for natives, and watching the news. My 2020 challenge is going to look more like studying because I am going into it at a lower level, but I am looking forward to doing something a bit different this year.
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Re: The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge - Sign Up and Discussion

Postby Adrianslont » Thu Jan 02, 2020 10:33 am

Thanks for your big effort, Peter.

This was my first challenge, I didn’t see myself as a challenge kind of guy - more like a work at his own lazy pace kind of guy!

This challenge was definitely good for me. Studying two languages, I have tended to let one or the other go fallow at previous times. In 2019 the challenge (I actually did two challenges) ensured that I worked consistently in both and I saw progress in both.

I’m not doing this challenge in 2020 but I’m now a challenge guy to some extent - and I’m trying the Output Challenge. And I’m hoping that it will make me come to grips with some approaches I haven’t preciously spent enough effort on - but I won’t go into that here.

Congratulations to everyone who gave it a red hot go, and especially those who scored 365! Or nearly did!
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Re: The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge - Sign Up and Discussion

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:23 am

Arizakai wrote:
PeterMollenburg wrote:
Arizakai wrote:
PeterMollenburg wrote:
Arizakai wrote:May I join this challenge for the last two months of the year? I would sign up with Swedish.


Of course! Good luck! Start date 1st of November?

Yes. Thanks. :)


You’re in!

@PM
Sorry for the unnecessary confusion but instead of Swedish I will do the challenge with French and Japanese. So two blocks from 1 Nov for 2 months. My goal is to learn how to study a little more systematically every day.


I've just been tidying up some things with the 2019 365 Day Language Challenge.... I noticed, Arizakai, that you wanted to sign up for two months. You can actually do three - see the rules below (where I have highlighted).

PeterMollenburg wrote:RULES

Start and end dates:
1. The competition start date is 1st January, 2019, but will extend out for late-comers to February 1st, 2019. The end date comes after 365 days of study, so if you begin studying on Jan 1st 2019, your last day of study is 31st Dec 2019. If you begin studying on February 1st, 2019, your last date of study will be January 31st, 2020.

2. Those who begin later than 1st of January 2019, but before the cut off date of February 1st, 2019, must finish after 365 days of study, so if you begin on Jan 20th 2019, your last day of study will be Jan 19th 2020.

3. You can start after the 1st of February, 2019, but you must finish 31st Jan 2020. Therefore, you can still participate, you just won't be participating for a full year.


So if you want to go through to the end of January 2020, be my guest. Sorry if this news comes late and if you have changed your study habits. If you happened to have joined the 2020 challenge, there's no reason why you cannot include scores for January 2020 in both challenges i.e. for the end of the 2019 challenge up to the end of Jan and for the first month of the 2020 challenge.
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Re: The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge - Sign Up and Discussion

Postby Arizakai » Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:31 pm

PeterMollenburg wrote:I've just been tidying up some things with the 2019 365 Day Language Challenge.... I noticed, Arizakai, that you wanted to sign up for two months. You can actually do three - see the rules below (where I have highlighted).

So if you want to go through to the end of January 2020, be my guest. Sorry if this news comes late and if you have changed your study habits. If you happened to have joined the 2020 challenge, there's no reason why you cannot include scores for January 2020 in both challenges i.e. for the end of the 2019 challenge up to the end of Jan and for the first month of the 2020 challenge.

Well, I was not even able to finish December. My last day of study was Dec 20 and then I could not go on at all. So I quit the challenge on Dec 20. For a while I considered to continue in 2020 but then I decided against. The regime that suits me most is that I study whenever I feel like to, some days I study for a few hours and other days I do nothing. Anyway, many thanks for running this challenge, it was an interesting experience. Good luck with your language study.
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Re: The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge - Sign Up and Discussion

Postby PeterMollenburg » Mon Feb 03, 2020 9:30 am

December leaderboard updated, as well as the final leaderboard (January). See below. As always please notify me if you see any errors or have not provided your score and wish to do so. Well done to everyone. I fancied it up with my most awesomely awesome computer skills by adding some colour, places and even ...hold onto your seat... increased the text sizing. It's a shame I can't offer some seriously awesome prizes, but it's great to see a good deal of us that are extremely persistent with our language learning despite the perhaps not so great rewards at times. The feeling of progressing in a language is an awesome experience in itself (but still a suitcase full of cash wouldn't hurt, right ;) ).

For those who didn't place, I know that this challenge is just as hard, if not harder for some who didn't finish near the top. I'm sure some of you have incredibly challenging lives or have had very difficult days throughout the year in which it's been near on impossible for you to study. So, well done for all those who did the best they could to study more consistently over the course of the challenge than they have ever done so before - being consistent is an extremely important ingredient in language learning. I hope you've gained some momentum ;)

And for those that did reach 365 days/points. Well *&^%**ng done! Bloody awesome effort! And I nominate strannik
strannik wrote:...
as captain of the 365 Club. Not only did you finish with a score of 365, but you did so in three languages. That's diligence and some serious motivation!




January 2020 Leaderboard - FINAL LEADERBOARD




First Place
365 points - no missed days
adrianslont: French
coldrainwater: Generic
Elsa Maria: Danish
Koolawant: Japanese
Lianne: French
Lingua: Italian
mjfleck2000: Spanish
PeterMollenburg: French
Radioclare: Russian
Serpent: Generic
strannik: French, German, Russian
Teango: Generic


Second Place
357 points
adrianslont: Indonesian
Fenderman: Spanish


Third Place
317 points
LunaMoonsilver: Mandarin






285 points
Godryka: Mandarin (start date: January 31st)
Neurotip: Greek

261 points
IronMike: Generic

157 points
kanewai: Spanish. Withdrew completely from challenge. Final Spanish score = 157.

143 points
Godryka: French (start date: January 31st)

90 points
Elsa Maria: Dutch. Withdrew from Dutch, but continues with Danish. Final Dutch score = 90.

80 points
ロータス - Mandarin. Withdrew completely from challenge. Final Mandarin score = 80.

60 points
tomgosse: French. Withdrew completely from challenge. Final French score = 60.

50 points
Arizakai: French, Japanese. Withdrew completely from challenge. (start date: November 1st).
French and Japanese final scores = 50

43 points
Jim: French. Withdrew completely from challenge. Final French score = 43.

21 points
kanewai: German. Withdrew from German, but continued with Spanish for considerable period. Final German score = 21.

15 points
PeterMollenburg: Dutch, Arabic. Withdrew from these two languages, but continues with French. Dutch and Arabic final
scores = 15.

-3 points
Spoonary: German. Withdrew completely from challenge. Final German score = -3.
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