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Benny Lewis | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| tmp011007 Diglot Senior Member Congo Joined 6068 days ago 199 posts - 346 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 65 of 164 21 April 2012 at 5:28am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Clugston's Spanish accent is.. ehm, "not so good"?.. but if we're going to "judge" him according to his "high standards", then his Spanish accent just "sux" -biiiiiiggg time
Vaughan's accent isn't native either but he's got an amazing command of the Spanish lang ("D2" to "E1" xD) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7220 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 66 of 164 21 April 2012 at 6:44am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I understand why you stated the comparison is not really fair, but Christophe did put the video out there and is open to criticism, just like what he does to others. His Spanish video was intelligible to me, but of course he will not be mistaken for a native speaker nor be mistaken for Richard Vaughn's level.
I do find Benny inspiring for hunting down opportunities to use and improve his speaking skills. Thanks for critiquing by the way. If I ever put something up, you can also do the same for me. Edited by alang on 21 April 2012 at 6:53am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4670 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes Speaks: English* | Message 67 of 164 21 April 2012 at 8:19am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I disagree. I think his accent is quite good. He's not nearly as fluent as the second speaker, but to call it "not so good" seems a bit unfair to me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tmp011007 Diglot Senior Member Congo Joined 6068 days ago 199 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 68 of 164 21 April 2012 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
"irony on"? xD
I guess I'm with @anonymoose from http://www.chinese-forums.com: "I don't relish giving such a harsh appraisal to a very good effort, but at the same time, I object to those who preach some revolutionary technique to learning languages which don't actually deliver when put into practice (as is usually the case).".. I know it's not the same, and I know he was talking about benny's mandarin but.. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6918 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 69 of 164 21 April 2012 at 7:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I think you may be on to something there.
I cannot speak for Canada, but well over 80% of the American population is completely unfamiliar with the word "polyglot". It might as well be a foreign word. I have an e-mail address that contains polyglot and I have to spell it out each and every time, and most of the time people get it wrong "poliglot, polygolt, etc." No one knows what it is or has ever heard of it. So if you are from another country, just be warned that Americans outside those in the "language learning circle" will have no idea what that word means.
Edited by translator2 on 21 April 2012 at 7:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7220 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 70 of 164 22 April 2012 at 3:38am | IP Logged | ||||||||
This post reminded me of this commercial. Polyglot 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6918 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 71 of 164 22 April 2012 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I strive to have as native-like an accent as possible. However, when it comes to others, I think that as long as you can be readily understood without your accent being a distraction to your listeners or causing their ears to explode or causing them to burst out in laughter, then you are fine. There is a big difference between having an accent (which is fine and normal and nothing to be ashamed of) and completely mispronouncing things. There are a few YT polyglots (not Benny) who makes sounds that are so bizarre or who put too much emphasis on certain sounds (like the guttural sound in Arabic), they really could benefit from a course in phonology or perhaps slow down, go back, and restudy the rules of pronunciation for that particular language. You can just tell that they have never spoken with another human being that way.
Some languages, like Russian and Portuguese, for example, have written systems that appear relatively simple, but they both really quite complex in terms of pronunciation, and you just cannot assimilate them quite so fast. Video by Steve Kaufmann on this topic: Sounding like a Native Edited by translator2 on 23 April 2012 at 3:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Midnight Diglot Groupie Czech Republic Joined 4638 days ago 54 posts - 111 votes Speaks: Czech*, English | Message 72 of 164 23 April 2012 at 6:18pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I think that fluency in 3 months is possible, but it really depends. I know one guy which learned Italian in means of months. And it's not that difficult to do so, if you are familiar with all the sounds and you have to only watch out for the stress which is in 85% on the penultimate syllable. However with all of his "talent" and drive, it took him several years to learn Mandarin. Alien writing, different vowels and consonants, different mentality of syntax. Can someone speak good Mandarin in 3 months? Yes. Can someone learn a language in 3 months? No, sorry. I think Benny's references to the young American who "speaks" 20 languages are just ridiculous. I'm not saying it's not an achievement, but it seems a bit delusional to me. Look at ZF for instance (indeed,indeed,indeed) that's what the 3 months of English look like, not to mention his other 58 languages. Edited by Midnight on 23 April 2012 at 6:21pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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