Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Most ridiculous ways to "learn" a language

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
61 messages over 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next >>
Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5008 days ago

3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 1 of 61
14 June 2013 at 3:47pm | IP Logged 
I haven't found a similar thread and I think it is time to have one. I don't mean it as anything offensive to someone based on any kind of disagreement, just as a way to get a good laugh out of the nonsense we are facing so often on the internet, in the adds and in the language schools.

Learning in sleep.
One of the most famous dreams of lazy/crazy learners. Not proven (despite many attempts) and still sold.

Facilitating learning with hypnosis.
There are language courses promising this! Both classes and CDs. I'm not lying, I saw the website of the language school. While I have some experience with psychotherapy using the hypnosis, I trully don't think this can work the way described. It's either a nice placebo or it could be even harmful.

Listening with your skull during the class
This is something I have experienced in a week long intensive classes. It is based on the physical-biological fact that the sound spreads through other tissues as well. The theory is that after listening to the introductory dialog, you put the specific headphone on your head in the temporal area and it should help you learn better during the rest of the class. The classes were quite good by themselves and the results were in my opinion the same as if there was no such a thing. Just a placebo for some people.
6 persons have voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6596 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 2 of 61
14 June 2013 at 4:43pm | IP Logged 
I admire Khatzumoto and other people who don't want to stop learning the language even when they are asleep. Of course if you want to be like them, you have to do what they do while awake, first of all.

The 25th frame myth is still popular in Russia. You are supposed to stare at the random words flashing on your screen as they enter your subconsciousness...
Oh I even found a video. Watch this stuff for 60-90 hours and you'll learn 4000 words, lololololol.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Tedmac278
Triglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 4299 days ago

23 posts - 38 votes
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish
Studies: Estonian

 
 Message 3 of 61
14 June 2013 at 6:18pm | IP Logged 
Cavesa wrote:
I haven't found a similar thread and I think it is time to have one. I don't mean it as
anything offensive to someone based on any kind of disagreement, just as a way to get a good laugh out of
the nonsense we are facing so often on the internet, in the adds and in the language schools.

Listening with your skull during the class
This is something I have experienced in a week long intensive classes. It is based on the physical-biological
fact that the sound spreads through other tissues as well. The theory is that after listening to the introductory
dialog, you put the specific headphone on your head in the temporal area and it should help you learn better
during the rest of the class. The classes were quite good by themselves and the results were in my opinion
the same as if there was no such a thing. Just a placebo for some people.


This listening with you skull technique is the most ridiculous thing I've heard of. Sound waves pentetrating
tissues or not, the brain has no physical tactile receptors or otherwise. Your brain might have better luck
absorbing the sounds by putting the microphone on the bottom of your foot.

I do appreciate the purpose of this thread. I can't wait to hear some of the other outrageous techniques!
2 persons have voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4827 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 4 of 61
14 June 2013 at 7:02pm | IP Logged 
When I saw the title of the thread I thought it was going to be about methods which
appeared ridiculous on the surface but turned out to have merit.

I suppose I should have noticed that the quotation marks were around "learn" and not
"ridiculous"


If anyone can come up with any methods which might be described in terms of my first
paragraph, then I hope they will post them anyway.


Perhaps extreme forms of immersion might appear ridiculous to some, or perhaps any form
of extremism. For example choosing to read nothing but comic books in the target
language day in day out.

Or speaking to your cat only ever in L2, and to your dog in L3. (Cats and dogs rarely
speak to each other, so I don't think this is a form of animal cruelty).




4 persons have voted this message useful



Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5008 days ago

3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 5 of 61
14 June 2013 at 7:32pm | IP Logged 
Of course the brain doesn't have a way to get the sound. But it was obvious some people needed a good placebo :-D

I am tempted to add:
The textbooks promising fluency in thirty days or so.
Yeah, definitely falls into the cathegory.


2 persons have voted this message useful



Spanky
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5955 days ago

1021 posts - 1714 votes 
Studies: French

 
 Message 6 of 61
14 June 2013 at 8:56pm | IP Logged 
Mind Portal, anyone?

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=11384&PN=0&TPN=1 (remove the space within "T ID")

At last report, only 10 mice survived (no real indication of how multilingual the surviving mice may have become).



Edited by Spanky on 14 June 2013 at 8:58pm

4 persons have voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6596 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 7 of 61
14 June 2013 at 11:55pm | IP Logged 
Cavesa wrote:
I am tempted to add:
The textbooks promising fluency in thirty days or so.
Yeah, definitely falls into the cathegory.

Can you believe I bought "Portuguese in 3 weeks" already when I was at basic fluency in Finnish? I didn't believe the claim but this still sounded good.

The funny thing is that most of these books are okay (or even good) as long as you don't rush through the 20-30 lessons and sooner or later get to the pace of one lesson per week (the early ones are usually easier). But if you really attempt to do one lesson daily, and if they're not Assimil-style short lessons, you're doomed to fail.
3 persons have voted this message useful



leosmith
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6549 days ago

2365 posts - 3804 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 8 of 61
15 June 2013 at 1:42am | IP Logged 
Per Spanky,
The Mind
Portal


some other ones I've seen here, but can't find the threads:
1) the baked cookie vocabulary learning method - involved writing the word on a cookie and eating it (although I
was told reviews are tough)
2) the George Costanza method - doing the complete opposite of what seems to make the most sense
3) the Billy Madison method - having someone you like remove a piece of clothing every time you answer a
question
correctly
4) the sleep-deprivation method - some guy did Michel Thomas for something like 36 hours straight

Maybe a pro-member can search for links?

Edited by leosmith on 15 June 2013 at 1:49am



3 persons have voted this message useful



This discussion contains 61 messages over 8 pages: 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.6875 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.