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Benny Lewis | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5958 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes  Studies: Mandarin | Message 25 of 164 06 April 2012 at 2:29am | IP Logged | ||
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I was simply replying to "I don't think he actually talks from day 1...."
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| 이희선 Groupie Australia Joined 4968 days ago 56 posts - 97 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 26 of 164 06 April 2012 at 8:43am | IP Logged | ||
I don't disagree with your opinion, but I think the naysayers think he was taking the wrong exam. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5668 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 27 of 164 06 April 2012 at 10:33am | IP Logged | ||
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People often say "You should aim for the stars, and even if you miss you'll land on the moon". I have two problems with it, though:
Firstly, there is a great difference between ambition (which is motivating) and delusion (which is no use at all). Stretching yourself to a challenging but achievable goal is ambition. Shouting out that you are going to achieve the impossible is boastful delusion. Secondly, if you aim for the stars and miss, you actually risk flying off into space never to be seen again. Whereas if you have set your sights on the moon in the first place, you would have had a better chance of landing on it. What actually matters, of course, is the results you actually achieve. Many people said that with hard work Benny could reach A2 or even B1, and they were proven right. Yet, at the time many others called them "haters" and said they would be made to look foolish when the C1 goal was achieved. A mature response at the end of the three months would be: "C1 was an unrealistic goal, but with hard work A2/B1 proved to be possible. The "haters" then were "realists"". In summary: Benny achieved A2/B1 in three months through hard work. That is admirable, but not unexpected. And now, I fear I have fallen into the trap of talking about Benny in a way that may lead to thread closure. So, apologies. Edited by Splog on 06 April 2012 at 10:36am 31 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4714 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 28 of 164 06 April 2012 at 6:47pm | IP Logged | ||
I hope not! In my opinion your post was very polite, and not at all provocative. Although I think that aiming high was a good idea, I can relate to what you've said about the realists. I was skeptic myself about the C1 level achievement in only 3 months, but I also never said "Benny, you're not gonna make it!" or "Benny, that's impossible!", even though I thought it was. I just said "Go for it! I hope you'll succeed!" and I think that's a much better approach. I don't know if there are any Lost fans out there, but I must quote John Locke on this: "Don't ever tell me what I can't do." =) Edited by fabriciocarraro on 06 April 2012 at 7:42pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5531 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 29 of 164 06 April 2012 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think my favorite photo of Benny is from his "no pain, no gain" post, where he's been
trying to understand rapid-fire Chinese for the last hour: Photo I've had days almost that bad. :-) While I've always loved Iverson's "listen like a bloodhound following a trail" advice, I do like the over-the-top visual image, too. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tmp011007 Diglot Senior Member Congo Joined 6068 days ago 199 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 30 of 164 06 April 2012 at 8:25pm | IP Logged | ||
err.. don't make me talk about Lost in a way that may lead to thread closure xD 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6918 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 31 of 164 06 April 2012 at 11:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Fluency in Five Days
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| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5129 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 32 of 164 06 April 2012 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | ||
Awesome! What, with my 4-hour work week where I make gobs of money and my 4-hour workout that's produced a body that all the other hotties want to climb up on, I'll have plenty of time to try this myself! Seriously, that's such a misleading title. He's already been studying Czech for a while and will continue studying until his trip in the fall. The first foreign language that I studied, and the one that continues to be my strongest is Spanish. I had studied it pretty thoroughly for five years before moving to Mexico. I can say with no hesitation that I was immersed for eight or more hours trying to use Spanish and was nowhere close to fluency after five days, as Steve is contemplating. I know it was a gradual thing, but somewhere between three and four months, something clicked and I felt like I could finally communicate with people. But those first few months were a hard road to travel. R. == 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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