14 hours, 10 minutes

Did a 60 minute marathon to catch up and strengthened to here. 

13 hours, 10 minutes

13 hours. Woo!

Plus 40 minutes

This is starting to feel like a chore and homework, which is making me feel a little resistant, but I must bully through. For science! And Portuguese! 

Vamos la!

12 hours, 10 minutes

I got through my whole hour today. I didn't finish strengthening, but that's okay. Duolingo has a new feature called Duolingo Stories which distracted me a bit. It's my dream language learning tool! Something I've been thinking about for a very long time and they managed to put it into action. Go Duolingo!

Phrases

O menino sai daqui

Deixa eu ver

Plus 40 minutes - 6/23/2017

Clearly, I took a break. You can see the decay that resulted from the picture above. In 40 minutes, I was only able to strengthen a few things back to gold. I have some catching up to do!

Deixa eu ver.

11 hours, 10 minutes - 6/20/2017

I spent most of the last 40 minutes strengthening everything. But I did almost finish the unit for phrasal future tense. I was hoping to finish it, but on the bright side, I only have two parts left before it's done.

Plus 30 minutes

Today, I felt reluctant to get on Duolingo at all, so I decided to start with 30 minutes. I also decided to work my way from the "top down". I strengthened the harder lessons and worked my way backward towards the easier lessons. This made me feel less frustrated by the time I got to the end of the time limit. 

I didn't finish strengthening, though. But as you may know if you've been following this blog, I took a break yesterday.

a ponte

a ponte e aqui

um, dois, tres

Placement Test Results - 6/18/2017

According to LingQ's placement test, I am at an intermediate 1 level. Their test is mainly vocabulary based, although it does have a reading segment at the end.

I think Transparent's placement tests are pretty well done, and they give you a lot of information, so I took that one next. I was actually surprised at how well I did. 59/159 points doesn't sound like a lot, but that's quite a bit of progress.

According to Transparent, I'm still a beginner.

There is more work to be done!

10 hours, 10 minutes

Deixa eu ver. Ten hours in and I made it to future tense. Time for a placement test? I think so.

Plus 40 minutes - 6/17/2017

Well, I'm almost at ten hours. I will take a placement test today, and I will post the results to this blog.

It will be interesting to see where I place after approximately ten hours on Duolingo.

I obviously have concerns about listening comprehension, since the robot voice does not sound human. I copy her, and my mom, who is learning Portuguese on Memrise, corrects my pronunciation. She is hearing native speakers, so I think my best bet is to go with her pronunciation.

Eu quero morar em uma livraria.

9 hours, 10 minutes

Can't believe it's almost ten hours. With all the strengthening, I'm actually feeling pretty good about my Brazilian Portuguese right now.

Quero uma batata com quiejo.

Plus 40 minutes - 6/16/2017

I studied for forty minutes this afternoon. I spent part of the time strenghtening and part of the time learning new skills. I am in present 3, which is nice. I am looking forward to learning past tense.

Eu nao tenho tempo.

O hotel tem quarenta quartos.

9 Hours, 10 minutes - 6/16/2017

Today, I studied for 30 minutes so far. I spent the whole time strengthening skills. I was also muito cansada. 

See below for how tired I was.

Eu estou cansada. Quero dormir.

40 minutes - 6/15/2017

Today, I studied for 40 minutes. (So far)

All of my time was spent strengthening. I was busy all day yesterday, so that's why.

Phrases:

Eu nao tenho tempo.

Eu volto ja.

Eu gosto da minha mae tanto.

Hour 8 (and the 10 minutes) - 6/14/2017

I studied for forty minutes, hoje. I cannot give the exact time frame, because I had to stop (and pause the timer) during the lesson.

Eu preciso dormir.

7 hours, 30 minutes - 6/13/2017

Hoja, I studied from 21:30 to 22:00.

Studying in hour chunks was a bit of a strain on my back, so I am going to try for 30 minute chunks. I actually feel like I remember a bit better this way, though maybe I am imagining.

Even with strengthening everything before moving on, I am about halfway through the tree. 

A few phrases I remember.

Eu gosto de vermelho.

Eu quero saber.

Ela quer saber.

Eu preciso saber.

Eles sabem como nadar.

Hour 7 - 6/12/2017

Hoje, I studied from 22:35 to 23:35

One of the phrases I remember.

Eu quero um presente. 

6 hours, 10 minutes - 6/11/2017

Just completed the sixth hour that goes along with the ten minutes from earlier. 

As you can see from the image, I got a lot done! Most of the learning emphasize vocabulary, but there were a few phrases as well.

I studied from 16:30 to 17:30. 

A phrase I remember.

Ele escreve em Novembro.

10 minutes - 6/11/2017

Today, I studied for 10 minutes from 14:40 to 14:50.

The whole time was spent strengthening skills.

5 hours, 10 minutes

Finally into present 2.

Studied from 23:38 to 23:48

Hour 5 - 6/10/2017

It is day 5, hour 5 of the "34 hour challenge". I am not feeling quite as optimistic as yesterday, but I am unsure if that is Duolingo's fault. Once again, I spent 30 minutes just strengthening skills. I guess that will be a daily thing to get used to. I started on adjectives 1 and didn't make it all the way through. 

I am looking forward to getting to the next verb sections. Verbs are always fun.

Some phrases I remember.

Eu nao tenho tempo.

A menina fala o lobo.

o menino caminha daqui.

And a funny one that I took a screenshot of

My pillow does not speak.

I hit 270 experience and am now on a 5 day streak.

Hour 4, 6/9/2017

Today is day 4, hour 4 of my 34 hour challenge.

I strengthened everything. This time it took a little over a half hour (not including the ten minutes from this morning).

I learned some family vocabulary and useful job terms as well. 

Some phrases I remember.

Estudantes bebem vinho.

O coronel fala com o diretor.

Mi neto chega em Julho.

Today, I studied from about 14:31 to 15:31

3 hours, 10 minutes

I realized that I need to do my time a bit differently if I was going to get 34 hours into 1 month. So I did the math and realized that 1 hour and 10 minutes a day would work.

I just did the ten minutes now, which I will probably do in a separate chunk each day.

It felt pretty good. I only strengthened skills, but I felt pretty good about knowing everything that was presented.

Hour 3 - 6/8/2017

Today is day 3, hour 3 of my "34 hour challenge". I spent the first 30 minutes strengthening skills. The rest of the time I spent learning new skills. So I didn't progress at the same rate as I did on the first and second date. I only completed two new circles. I think the strengthening process definitely has some merit.

Some phrases I remember.

Eu gosto de abacaxi. 

Falamos porque sabemos.

Minutos e segundos.

Falamos sobre livros.



I studied from about 13:00 to 14:00.

Hour 2 - 6/7/2017

Today is day 2, hour 2 of my 34 Hour Language Challenge. I am serious about this, y'all! So I actually feel more confident about my Brazilian Portuguese knowledge today. I feel like I can remember more. As you can see from my screen shot, I didn't complete a whole lesson.

I went back and strengthed some lessons that had faded from gold.

Some things I remember.

Eu somo uma menina.

Eu preciso dele.

Ela caminha daqui.

I studied from 18:00 to 19:00.

Hour 1 - 6/6/2017

This was the result of spending 1 hour on Brazilian Portuguese, starting as a total beginner. I was kind of surprised how much material you can actually learn in an hour.

I didn't feel super confident after the first lesson, but I did remember a few words.

Mainly menina, menino, and mulher. 

What is the 34 Hour Challenge?

The well known language learning site, Duolingo, claims that an hour on Duolingo is equal to one semester of a language course at a university. I had to test this theory! So, I came up with the idea for a 34 hour language challenge, which I will document in this blog. If you would like to do a 34 language challenge as well, here are the rules.

1. Pick a language you are not familiar with, but are interested in learning.

2. Spend at least one hour a day studying the language on Duolingo until you've reached 34 hours.

3. Take a placement test in the language.

4. Let me know how your challenge went. I'll add you to the "34 Hour Challenge" honor roll.


My mom is a huge fan of Memrise. So she decided that we should take this challenge to the next level. She is going to learn a language on Memrise. We are both going to take a placement test at the end of the 34 hours. So, if you want to choose Memrise over Duolingo, that works too.

For the Memrise challenge, the rules are the same as for the Duolingo challenge.

You can comment here if you want to be added to the "34 hour challenge" challenger's list for Duolingo or Memrise. Just let me know which one! I can add your blog name, your Duolingo/Memrise username. Or both!

Once you've completed the challenge, let me know and I will add you to the Honor Roll.

If you decide to blog about that challenge, please link me back to your blog so I can check it out as well!