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Benny Lewis’ journey with Arabic | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4706 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 73 of 79 25 March 2013 at 10:44am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
This situation never exists, or rarely. Therefore it has no practical application for me to think about it and I'm not interested in debating how hard or how long it would take. It just takes however long it does.
I am not failing to understand anything. You're just spouting 4000 reasons why Chinese is the hardest language because "Uncle Dave told me so". Don't you understand that I don't care? It can be however hard it is, IT. DOESN'T. MATTER. I AM NOT HERE TO DEBATE DIFFICULTY OF LANGUAGE XYZ. I just deal with what I know and I learn what I don't yet understand. 2 months, 6 months, 24 months, it doesn't matter. .........................
It's fine for me. I like my intermediate levels, I can talk to people. I find the beginner stage boring, actually. I like being able to understand what is said to me, the faster the better.
There are no shortcuts in Amharic, what's your point. Benny's shortcuts are not a magic bullet. He states this explicitly about 404500 times on the website. Only you just looked at the title, thought it was rubbish and didn't read the articles. Close-minded much?
After a year doing what? Hours matter, not years. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Zundung Newbie Belize Joined 4267 days ago 10 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* | Message 74 of 79 25 March 2013 at 11:38am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
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@tarvos
The situation is theoretical. But it can happen. For example my TOP language has changed throughout all the years I've been alive and will go on doing so. Just a few months ago. The language I was most interested in was Danish. And before it was Japanese. Now I can imagine learning both. And achieving advanced fluency in Danish much sooner. Sure the pronunciation is pretty tough, but thanks to my knowledge of English and a partial knowledge of German and Swedish, it wouldn't be that much ofa big deal. After mastering the phonological aspect of Danish you can already read Harry Potter in it and expand your passive vocab. You can't do the same with Japanese. It'll look a little bit like this. ??????????no??????????ku??????????????n??????no????????????? hon. I'm not saying Chinese is the hardest language on the planet. But even native speakers of Chinese learn how to read it throughout elementary and high school, while we master our alphabets (Greek, Russian, Hungarian) in a month or so. All I'm saying is that articles like Benny's diminish people's achievements. If a person worked real hard to get there, they won't be happy when someone makes it look so easy after 3 months of self-study. I don't like when people diminish achievements. Learning 5 Romance languages isn't a less of a achievement, because reaching fluency is never an easy task although the languages are similar. Learning Italian, Catalan, French, Spanish and Romanian is a wonderful achievement. Then comes someone and says it's easy, because they come from the same root. I diminish nobody's achievement.Ziad Fazah may not speak 58 languages, but he's an accomplished polyglot and a nice person. Sure there are many people who achieve great things and are being d***s about it. They might stay being complet a**holes for the rest of their life, but it doesn't change the fact they say are wonderful neurosurgeons. ..... Close-minded? Haha. I'm not. The thing is. I can be super positive about swimming, but that won't make me a better swimmer than Michael Phelps in a 2 weeks period. ................... Don't act a fool. When I say one year. I mean the same amount of lesson hours for both languages. You keep on putting stuff in my mouth as if I had said one year of Italian 6 hours a day while reading one lesson of Assimil Mandarin and then slacking the rest of the year. Edited by Zundung on 25 March 2013 at 11:42am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Zundung Newbie Belize Joined 4267 days ago 10 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* | Message 75 of 79 25 March 2013 at 11:47am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The majority of this forum takes language learning seriously.
The typical reader of Benny would be http://www.youtube.com/user/Linguist1967 Let's make a thread about him. About his wonderful videos made upon 30 minutes of learning the particular language. This I why I prefer quality over quantity. This kind of videos actually tends to be boring... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4706 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 76 of 79 25 March 2013 at 11:48am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
It can happen, but it really doesn't matter to me and I don't pay that much attention to it.
Obviously you have an advantage. But that doesn't really matter does it? So it'll take me a bit more time to learn the alphabet, then what?
A week in my case for Russian. On slow mode. A week for Hebrew as well, but a bit longer if you include the niqqud. Not so bad. Regarding the Chinese alphabet, yeah it'll take longer because of the characters. But if it takes a native a while to learn all the words (which it would for me anyway - and you don't need all the words) then I don't bloody care. Point is to get to a level where I can talk to people, and that's perfectly doable in a month or 6. Steve Kaufmann learned how to speak Chinese as a diplomat in 9 months in Hong Kong. And he's practically the opposite of Benny learning-wise. It's just. all. scare tactics.
Ok now you're saying I'm not allowed to work hard and make you look stupid in 3 months because you'll be envious if I do??? What? Can't you determine the value of an achievement on your own? How does anything BENNY does impact on your life? This sounds to me like you have a self-confidence problem. For the record, I posted a video of me speaking Swedish after four months and it was well-received afaik. The fact that I got to conversational Swedish in four months (and even better in nine months), does that reflect badly on anybody who took 5 years at university to learn Swedish? I think not. I just applied myself, used the right techniques and got results. And I kept a log in which I consistently wrote in Swedish, I attempted to speak Swedish with people after 2 or 3 months. I kept a log so that I would be ACCOUNTABLE for my progress. Anyone can see that I make mistakes and that it's a human process. I still make mistakes in Swedish, but I am at a level where I can comfortably read novels, have excellent social interaction with my teacher, read wikipedia articles sans dictionary and so forth. I occasionally even contribute in the Scandinavian section and attempt to read Danish and Norwegian. No difference with Steve Kaufmann, Benny Lewis, Luca Lampariello, or Moses McCormick. Complete and full accountability, and guess what? I learned how to do it really fast, because I APPLIED MYSELF. There's nothing scary about that and you can view my whole log and see how it went. If you're envious because I did something differently or quicker than you did then what you need is to grow a spine. Stop focusing on what other people achieve and look at yourself.
But you're the one saying that there's a difference between learning Catalan and Chinese, not me??? .....
I don't think Benny states you will be better than a native in 3 months time. Wrong parallel. ...................
You haven't specified anything. I don't know what you mean by a year. Either be explicit or I can't compare what you're trying to say. Edited by tarvos on 25 March 2013 at 11:59am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Zundung Newbie Belize Joined 4267 days ago 10 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* | Message 77 of 79 25 March 2013 at 12:40pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
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You're constantly editing your post to stir it up, aren't you?
Again. Why are you still talking about scare tactics? What would anyone gain from lying to people who also want to learn the language? An Steve Kaufmann sure could learn how to speak Chinese in 9 months, but we're not talking about fluency here and it's a nice example of immersion :D Backfire. Kapooya!!! Your experience with Swedish is nothing new to me. And it doesn't make me look stupid. I said people who studied a hard language and felt like giving up. Talented people. May feel their achievement is being diminished by some A2 speaker. Of course it will take less time for you to learn a language if you truly want to and spend a lot of time and energy doing that. Do you think you or Benny have some secret techniques? It's simply the passion for the language that makes it easier for you to learn it than for people who just took it up, because they wanted to major in something or had to. My self confidence might not be the the size of Texas, but as far as languages are concerned. I'm fine. I'm not here to compete with you. Language learning is not competition for me. Unlike for you or Benny who had to add up 3 languages under a year in order to catch up on Steve or Luca... EDIT: I would like to add that I learned a good deal of Spanish in last three months and met a guy who spoke the same-level Spanish having studied it for 2 years. I'm not feeling superior in any way though. Edited by Zundung on 25 March 2013 at 12:52pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sterogyl Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4366 days ago 152 posts - 263 votes Studies: German*, French, EnglishC2 Studies: Japanese, Norwegian | Message 78 of 79 25 March 2013 at 12:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
He learned Chinese full-time at a language institute. It was his job at the time to learn Chinese and to take classes. Because of his diligence he was able to finish the course faster than others. He did NOT learn Chinese with his current "input method". Benny, on the other hand, who allegedly works full-time as a translator, learns languages on his own and in his free time. Someone who works doesn't have the time and energy (very important factor) to learn a language like Kaufman has learned Chinese. Again, Chinese: Only because you imagine things in a certain way it doesn't mean that this reflects reality. You will not learn Chinese to an intermediate level in three months. It will take longer than that. Swedish and French are much easier for you than Chinese. Even if you want Chinese and every other exotic language to be easy, they are not. I would also like to know why you are talking about scare tactics. Who would have an interest in discouraging other people to learn a language? It makes no sense. Another thing that interests me is the reason why you so aggressively defend him. Are you Benny? Or are you so believing in his teachings that people who might prove him wrong make you sad? It is a good idea to read his articles (or his books) if they are motivating you. There's nothing wrong with that. But there are no miracles, shortcuts like "just *hack* the language and you will learn in 3 months what a sinologist has learnt in 3 years and put that dumbass to shame". I can understand why some may find he's diminishing the achievements of others. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6378 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 79 of 79 25 March 2013 at 12:57pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Time to close this thread.
13 persons have voted this message useful |
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