Super challenge update thread

As an insurance, I will make my updates also here ( in fact I will make most of them here first - since HTLAL. is getting increasingly troublesome and I would like to break the rule about not copying from the forum as little as possible). I also encourage anyone from HTLAL to post here as well.

So:


We have started in all time zones

For those of you who need to register, or want to look at the rules I will make a link to the general Super Challenge thread.

http://polydog.org/index.php?threads/the-super-challenge.28/

And now in this thread you can make your updates, and give advice on content.

The Super Challenge 2014-15 is officially rolling!

If you want to discuss interpretation of rules or give advice on content you can go to this discussion thread.

http://polydog.org/index.php?threads/super-challenge-discussion-thread.82/

[MICROTAG]

FILMS
1. Robin Hood (Disney)

I figured it would be better to start with something easy, and this little jewel that I have known forever seemed
like a good bet. I watched it last night, after midnight, and I am happy that although I cannot follow all the
dialogue, I can still recognise a lot more words and sentences, than last year.

I think I will start out with my Disney movies, progress to Twilight and American comedies in translation, then
more serious American movies, and then at the end, actual Russian movies.

I am so happy to have started!


BOOKS

1. Agatha Christie: Appointment with death - first 50 pages

In a moment of hubris, I thought: "Hey, if I can do 50 pages a day, I can sweep through Russian literature in
no time". Delusional. Totally delusional. The only reason why I could do 50 pages today was because I have
just been reading part of the book in April, and have looked up some of the words, because this is a holiday
and because I got up at 5 to start reading and have spent all day on it. Not something I can reproduce on a
daily basis.

But I am still euphoric. When I read a Russian book last year, I understood perhaps 5-10%, and now I am up
to 40%. Compared to those who only have to look up 5-10 words a page, that may seem ridiculous, but for
me that is a huge step. I read a lot out loud in order to figure out the unknown words, and it actually helps a
lot.

FILMS

1. Robin Hood (Disney)

New material

2. The Jungle book
3. The Jungle book 2
4. Garfield
5. The Little Mermaid
6 - The little Mermaid 2

I have not seen as many Disney movies in such a short time in my life, but they are absolutely brilliant for learning, since the language is very clear. I enjoyed Garfield, but it was extremely hard to follow. Some of them have a type of dubbing which I loathe, though: a man reading the entire dialogue in Russian, while you can hear part of the English dialogue underneath.

BOOKS

1. Agatha Christie: Appointment with death - first 50 pages.

New material

2. Agatha Christie: Appointment with death - next 50 pages.
I really like the book, and it is nice to see how many more new words I learn when I read this much

Done 15 % LR of Stephen King "Es" (English "It"), the audiobook is almost 50 hours and the book is 1536 pages.

If I don't read German fluently after this book, I give up (Only joking of course)

I am sure that you will see a vast improvement! In French a couple of books took me from knowing almost no French until understanding almost everything almost 40 years ago. A book this size should take you a looong way, particularly because I assume you have a pretty good level to begin with.

LR 33 % of Stephen King Es.
Now I have a tendency to speak German instead of English.

Sunny greetings from Gran Canaria.

Nah. I had full 7 minutes sunbathing yesterday in 13 degrees Celcius, so I am good.

I am not a "high quantity reader". I am more the selective type of reader. I like to read "high quality" adapted to my personal interests. Quantity-reading is not attractive for me. It does have a value for me, whether I read a fascinating article in Danish about icebergs or a relevant article about a certain health problem and its cure. Or, if I selectively read 3-5 articles in the local German newspaper, which specially interest me. Numbers of read pages say nothing to me. I did have to read a lot of pages of two different novels in my Danish course. But I was only motivated to do that to be well prepared for the next lesson. As far as I am free of choice to read or not to read, I read in sequences of interest. For example one short story in my "Sprachkrimi". I have also read a whole "Sprachkrimi" in one go, but this "came over me" and was not strategically planned.

Fasulye

Done 52 % LR Stephen King Es.

My Super Challenge is going slow going, as expected. I suspect this will be the case until I get to about the B1 level. When all is said and done, I'd like to far exceed the 50 book units by the end of the challenge. Current progress: 15.2 films, and 1.7 books currently.

At last I'm finished with Stephen King: Es (And stutter Bill )
That was 51 h 52 m LR

Good news: German 1040 pages, 22 films/audio and Spanish 1080 pages, 19 films/audio. I'm in the middle of two books so will add those once I'm done. The German one is ~500 pages, so it's going to be a while.

Bad news: Russian 15 films, 111 pages. Half the films are with subtitles, half without, mostly all incomprehensible (maybe 25%-50% at most). I've decided for now to focus on studying Russian more rather than worrying too much about the Super Challenge. It's fun to delve into native materials, but I really need to get my comprehension and vocabulary to a higher level for them to be really effective.

French Books: 1507 pages
French Films: 13:37:31 hours

Norwegian Books: 580 pages
Norwegian Films: 15:20:03 hours

Mandarin Books: 403 pages
Mandarin Films: 39:37:25 hours

Georgian Books: 259 pages
Georgian Films: 12:33:38 hours

German Books: 517 pages
German Films: 11:28:01 hours

Russian Books: 222 pages
Russian Films: 18:14:08 hours