Part 29
So, what should your 30/30 Challenge diary or blog look like? Depending on what kind of person you are, you can structure your diary entries in various ways. You can either create an Excel spreadsheet, use Lotus Notes or MS Outlook or any other kind of calendar software. Or you can create a simple text entry for every day of your Challenge. At any rate, your entry should have contain the following information:
- day of your Challenge
- date
- time of listening
- resource
- topic
- new words and phrases
- information on the speakers (accent, voice, intonation, speed, etc.)
- how did you feel during the listening process?
- additional information (such as tape script available on the Internet, etc.)
Here is an example that shows what your diary entry can look like:
Day 11
Switched on CNN after I woke up. Kept CNN playing in the background while I was fixing breakfast. The TV was on for about 15 minutes but I listened only intermittently so the net listening time might have been just 7 minutes. Some of the keywords I caught were "stock exchange", "high crude oil prices" and "investors". There a lot of words that I heard but didn't know how to spell. For example "volatility". I heard that word several times in connection with other words such as "market volatility" but it wasn't until I googled it later that day that found the correct spelling. I googled "wolletility" and google said "Do you mean 'volatility'?" and when I clicked on the link, a Wikipedia entry for "volatility" came up and when I read it, I could understand most of it.
On the way to work I listened to "A Simple Plan" -- an audiobook I bought at Audible. I'm already familiar with the story as I read the book a couple of months ago. Still, it was quite a challenge to follow the narrator on the audiobook as he spoke pretty fast. Because I concentrated on the traffic I think the net listening time in the car was about 5 minutes.
At work during lunchtime I listened to the last track of "A Simple Plan" again. This time I could understand much more although some words were still new to me. By the way, I remember that at the beginning of the story there is this word "duffel bag" which I hadn't heard before. I looked it up on the Wikipedia and it turned out that a duffel bag is similar to a ruck sack or backpack. I also learned that there are two spellings of the word -- 'duffel bag' (the original and more popular one) as well as 'duffle bag'. I must admit that "A Simple Plan" is a very gripping story and I really enjoy listening to it on my MP3 player during my lunchtime. When I started this habit as part of the "30/30 Challenge" my cow-orkers would give me funny looks but then I told them that I wanted to improve my English using a new method, their expressions changed to respect. The net listening time during lunchtime today was probably about 10 minutes and I understood most of the story.
On my way back home I continued listening to "A Simple Plan" but my thoughts drifted off quite often because I was also thinking about my work. I still had the story on in the background for at least 15 minutes and some of the phrases got stuck in my head.
At home I managed to switch on CNN again and I let it play in the background for at least 20 minutes. I would listen to it off and on, I remember there were some news about a Russian oil tanker that sank near the Black Sea due to a severe storm. I remember hearing the same report the night night before and the second time I could make out much more of the information. Tomorrow I'll continue to listen to "A Simple Plan".
If you have any English grammar or vocabulary questions,
please post them on this English Grammar Forum.
