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Unofficial Michel Thomas courses project | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6543 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 73 of 97 26 September 2011 at 10:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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The Khan Academy is mainly in high school math/lower division university level math, all of which is free. Of course, Bill Gates and Google donated millions to the project, but the guy behind it, Khan, started the project without the goal of making a lot of money. Isn't language learning, at least at the level we are talking about, really just high school level material?
Of course, "retired" Hedge Fund managers(Khan) can be so generous, donating probably 40 hours a week for the benefit of mankind! But the fact that there is even a need for effective language learning programs is a crime, knowing that Language Departments around the world have had grants that could've easily produced programs, something similar to Pimsleur, MT, Assimil...etc) available to the public. Then again, making a vast repository of videos is something very few people are qualified to do. When it comes to language learning, the videos produced by Dr. Arguelles are the only ones I don't shut off after 30 seconds. These people are surprisingly rare, which is strange, knowing that there is a glut of PhDs in languages. Edited by Kugel on 26 September 2011 at 10:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Oyalt Diglot Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5027 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Italian | Message 74 of 97 04 October 2011 at 6:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Now, I'd really like something like this to really work but it seems like it won't and now a lot of people are going to go without what could have been a great way to do something they love, LEARN LANGUAGES!!! I hate how no one could just say, "Oh sounds like a great project! I think I'll contribute!" I think the OP made it clear he wasn't here for criticism. Are you guys serious? I'm in high school and I think I have more enthusiasm for learning languages (what this website/forum is made for) than over half of its members, because all you guys seem to be doing is arguing. Not to mention patience. I think all of you just had a bad day and needed somebody to take it out on because everyone has gotten really off topic.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6384 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 75 of 97 04 October 2011 at 7:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Bottom line, people like to be compensated for their work. Good intentions won't carry most people to the end of a very long project like this one.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6016 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 76 of 97 04 October 2011 at 10:44am | IP Logged | ||
There's discussion here of why it won't work, and if he still believes he can achieve it, he can try to plan his way around those obstacles. We could have all just ignored him. What then? This thread would have been populated exclusively by people volunteering to be the students on the courses. Nothing, absolutely nothing, would have been achieved. If some of us reacted angrily, it's because he (like yourself) decided to quite presumptiously tell us that those of us who seek to make a living out of our passion for languages, aren't genuine enthusiasts. I've spent more money on languages than you've ever seen. I've spent more time on languages than you can imagine. I couldn't do what I've done if it was just a hobby. I'm dedicating my life to it, and I need to make a living from it. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6543 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 77 of 97 05 October 2011 at 3:27am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think anyone here really reacts angrily because this forum is where one can try out new ideas and bullshit around with anonymity (a great deal of what I type is nonsense). What the original poster should do, and I think it's very obvious, is spend a few hours trying to make such a course, even just 30 min worth. I think he'll find out that you really do need to have fluency to make anything that's original, otherwise you'll just be copying various explanations and techniques from a dozen or so language manuals. But that in itself would be worthwhile...it just wouldn't be originally what you thought from the beginning.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| carlonove Senior Member United States Joined 5991 days ago 145 posts - 253 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 78 of 97 05 October 2011 at 5:20am | IP Logged | ||
This thread peaked here. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6016 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 79 of 97 08 October 2011 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Neil_UK,
You might be interested in this thread. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5788 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 80 of 97 11 October 2011 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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"it. In fact, the first thought that crossed my mind when I saw my older brother
cramming for a school test was that he was cheating! But I subsequently learnt that it wasn't cheating, and that not only was it encouraged but was an established and integral part of the examination process. Equally, how many of us have revised intensively for an exam, obtained a grade much better than we might have, and weeks later forgotten nearly everything?" This is so true! I used to do exactly that but now (10 years later) it does indeed seem like cheating! The clearest case (I think) is that I remember memorising formulae literally just minutes before the exam using mnemonics, almost all of which would be forgotten by nightfall- supposedly not cheating. I now fail to see how this differs morally from writing formulae down in a secret place to take into an exam, which certainly would have been cheating. Another example is that I worked out that it helped to give myself a massive sugar boost just seconds before walking in (Mars bars, snickers etc) again this can't have been considered cheating because I did it in full view of the moderators. Yet if I'd taken performance enhancing drugs that would have been cheating. I guess I have been privileged to see how unfair life is by a combination of being very successful academically (which like most people I wrongly put down to my own merit at the time) and very unsuccessful in the following decade in terms of career (which has shattered some of my illusions about myself). Every time I see a way someone is more successful than me unfairly (perhaps through using forms of cheating that society accepts as non-cheating as was the case with cramming above, e.g. by being good at bullshitting people, taking credit for the hard work of subordinates, etc etc etc) I realize that far from meriting academic success I did most of this myself when studying (though I never took credit for other people's work, but then that is far less accepted in academia than in life, many bosses [in my experience] don't really care who does what, just that it gets done). Edited by Random review on 11 October 2011 at 3:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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