Hey guys! Can you believe it’s almost May already? I thought the earlier months were going by quick, but April seems to have vanished, which means it’s now less than six weeks until I leave Austria, boo!
Still, there are some fun things to look forward to: including all the language challenges that are starting tomorrow! Now, I did say the other day that sometimes challenges stress me out, but one of these is my favourite and it’s long-term, so it’s pretty low-key. Plus, by May the first rush of the new year is over and everyone’s starting to give up on their resolutions – so I think a challenge can be a nice boost to keep you motivated.
So without further ado, here are the challenges beginning in May 2016!
So first up is my favourite, the Super Challenge. The aim of this challenge is to read 100 books and watch 100 films in your target language between 1st May 2016 and 31st December 2017. There have been two Super Challenges so far and I’ve taken part in both, though I’ve never managed to finish one yet. Still, I’m hoping to do so this year.
For the purposes of the challenge, a book is fifty pages (so once you log fifty pages, that’s one book counted!) and a film is 90 minutes long. That means for one language, you should read 5,000 pages total and watch 150 hours of film/TV. It equals out to around nine pages and 15 minutes per day, which is pretty achievable, especially if you’ve just picked the one target language. There are some restrictions as to what can be counted as a ‘film’, but TV shows are acceptable, so I’m most likely going to stick with those.
I will, of course, be taking part again, with German, Mandarin and Spanish – and I’ll be keeping track of what I’m reading and watching on the blog.
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Super Challenge Site
We’ve talked many a time about the 6WC – but it’s back again in May. This is another one of my favourite challenges because it’s just long enough for you to see some real progress, but also short enough that you can avoid burning out if you have a good strategy.
I’m using the 6WC for Japanese again, and I’m hoping to put in a lot more effort this time – though I didn’t do terribly in February. I’ll be keeping track on my Language Learner’s Forum log (I’ve been neglecting it for so long…), but as I’m still updating every week here, you’ll still see the highlights if you don’t want to go to the forum.
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6WC Site
This one maybe doesn’t seem like a language challenge and, well, it’s not exactly. It’s a writing challenge; specifically, you’re supposed to try and write a short story every day for the month of May. I’m looking forward to doing this in English but I’m also going to occasionally try and write something in German. Writing is a skill that I think can be so difficult to practise, but I think this will be a fun way to try, especially since I’ve never really written stories in German, only essays and reports, things like that.
If you sign up for the challenge, you get emails throughout the month with writing prompts, should you need them. There’s also a whole community on the website who are great and encouraging, which just makes it even more fun!
This is another challenge emerging from the Language Learner’s Forum and it’s going to last for the same amount of time as the Super Challenge – which is useful, as they kind of go hand-in-hand. The point of the SRS Challenge is to create and learn 10,000 SRS cards between the 1st May 2016 and 31st December 2017, though there aren’t really any strict rules for it. The cards can have words, audio, sentences or whatever on them, as well.
I think I’m going to low-key take part in this challenge too; I’ll probably announce my intentions on the forum but if I don’t make it to 10,000 cards, I’m not too worried. It’s really going to be most useful for German (where I’ll use sentences from my reading) and Japanese (where I’ll finally start learning words properly…), but I’ll see how it goes. I’m not great at keeping on top of my SRS things, honestly.
Let me know if you’re going to take part in any of these challenges starting in May! We can be challenge buddies! 😉
P.S. I will also be making a continued effort to finish my A to Z Challenge posts throughout May. I haven’t forgotten about it, I promise…
I didn’t know that the language forum existed! This will be great for while I’m in Japan for a year so I might do some of these 🙂
Yeah, it used to be the HTLAL forum but a lot of the users left that because of admin issues with the site being updated. I go through stages of visiting it a lot then not again for a while, but it’s really a great community – everyone’s so supportive and helpful. And oh yes, have fun in Japan by the way! I definitely recommend a challenge or two regardless, but they’re sometimes way more fun in country because of the access to native materials and the extra drive to learn! 😀
Thank you! I’m looking into getting Japanese eBooks and Japan Hulu – I’ll probably be watching TV shows more than films, but 90 minutes is like three episodes of anime? I think it’ll work out pretty well 🙂
I had no idea there were challenges like this, maybe it’ll help motivate me a bit more 🙂
I find them really useful – and so fun, probably because they break up my usual routine. I hope you enjoy them too! 😀
[…] think that’s it for an update on what I’ve been up to! I also read this post (I just found her blog), and learned about the Super Challenge! Basically it’s reading […]
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