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Language Transfer: the Cyprus Project

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Crush
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Studies: Basque

 
 Message 1 of 42
08 October 2011 at 12:40pm | IP Logged 
I came across a site, a non-profit group called Language Transfer, which supposedly has a new method for learning languages (the "thinking method"). They claim you can learn a language in 15-20 hours, or maybe just feel comfortable in that language i'm not sure exactly what. They say the course's inspired by Michel Thomas.

Anyway, they've currently got the first parts (of almost four hours each) of two courses: Inglés para hispanohablantes and Greek for English speakers. The second portion of the Greek course they say should be available next week, and they are also talking of (or perhaps already recording?) a Turkish course.

Here's a link:
http://www.languagetransfer.org/

I haven't gone through either course yet, but i've downloaded the Greek course to give it a shot.

Edited by Crush on 03 July 2014 at 3:02am

13 persons have voted this message useful



Crush
Tetraglot
Senior Member
ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5863 days ago

1622 posts - 2299 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto
Studies: Basque

 
 Message 2 of 42
21 October 2011 at 11:04am | IP Logged 
I posted elsewhere what the course touches, and thought I'd share it here as well as it didn't seem to really attract any attention and I think it's an exciting project.

Tracks 1-12
    - I know how to conjugate verbs for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person singular. I currently assume that all verbs (except the verb "to be", which we never officially covered but which the student magically knew and i have now picked up listening to the student's responses) are regular and that there is no distinction between formal/informal in the 2nd person.
    - Two or three tracks ago i learned about "gender" in Greek. Up until then i had only learned neuter words.
    - I can use adjectives according to gender.
    - I don't know if Greek has cases, but like in English there are special accusative forms for the personal pronouns (i/me, you/you, he/him). Currently i know the me/you forms.
    - I can talk in both the present and future tenses. Future seems to be way too simple. Smile
    - I can "combine" verbs (at least the verb "to want"). Eg. I want to be in the park: thélo na imé sto párko, lit. "(I) want that (i) am in-the park"
    - As far as vocabulary goes, i'm not sure, somewhere between 30 and 50 words? 7 verbs and a handful of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. Why/because is just like in Spanish (and sorta like French): Yatí, lit. for what (por qué/porque, pour quoi). Interesting but it always surprises me to notice these sorts of things. Also, a lot of words are confusing me, such as né, which means yes despite the "n" unlike all other languages i've studied (no, ne/non, не, nein), and "i" (meet), which means "or" and not "and".

I've surely missed a few things, but i thought it might be nice to document what exactly you can expect from the course. It's the first of five parts, and i've still got over half to go.

Track 13:
    - learned the other genders of "the" and "a"
    - a few more vocabulary words
Again, i'm probably missing a couple things.

Tracks 14-24:
    - other verb forms. It appears there are three forms. ete, ite, ate (based on forms to the 2nd person formal/plural)
    - informal you!
    - accusative of nouns (neuter nouns don't change, masc/fem yes)
    - use of accusative after pronouns
    - we also finally covered the third person plural, though the student had already answered a prompt about it correctly in a previous track...?

Tracks 25-26:
    - dual verbs: line verbs ("repetition") and dot verbs ("single instance"). I have a feeling it's similar to aspect in Russian. I've heard of the "aorist" in Greek, but I'm not sure if this is it.

I can't really remember what went on in track 25 as track 26 seemed to be so important and sort of masked out what went on then. No new big grammar points, though.

Tracks 27:
    - More dual verbs, including words that change form completely (vlepo (i see) -> tho)

One thing to note is that while the student seems to have a great memory (or there was some behind the scenes studying?), her pronunciation can be a bit misleading at times. A lot of the t's/d's/th's are mixed up (for example, saying síntoma - soon - I repeatedly heard her say sínDoma.)

And lastly: in the last track of the course the teacher mentions that the entire Greek course has already been written, it's just waiting to be recorded.

Perhaps I should've started (or will start, when more courses come out) a language log...

Edited by Crush on 21 October 2011 at 11:06am

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newyorkeric
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 Message 3 of 42
21 October 2011 at 11:27am | IP Logged 
I checked out the link quickly but it seems like the Greek course is only available on rapidshare. Unfortunately, I can't access rapidshare easily where I live. Others may not have that problem, but I wish they would just load it onto their website.
1 person has voted this message useful



Crush
Tetraglot
Senior Member
ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5863 days ago

1622 posts - 2299 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto
Studies: Basque

 
 Message 4 of 42
21 October 2011 at 3:46pm | IP Logged 
I'm uploading it (the Greek course) to Megaupload now. Check back in about an hour. If there's a better place for me to upload it let me know.

UPDATE: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CME9BWWT here's the Greek course on Megaupload.
http://www.mediafire.com/?gp72y3viih510xo here's the English (for Spanish speakers) on mediafire.

Edited by Crush on 21 October 2011 at 5:01pm

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Cainntear
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 Message 5 of 42
21 October 2011 at 5:26pm | IP Logged 
newyorkeric wrote:
I checked out the link quickly but it seems like the Greek course is only available on rapidshare. Unfortunately, I can't access rapidshare easily where I live. Others may not have that problem, but I wish they would just load it onto their website.

Bandwidth costs for a plain website are practically nothing, but if you get hundreds of people downloading several gigs of data, you'll find your bank balance taking quite a hit.
3 persons have voted this message useful





newyorkeric
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 Message 6 of 42
21 October 2011 at 5:27pm | IP Logged 
It says that the Greek course is unavailable.
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Cainntear
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Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
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4399 posts - 7687 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

 
 Message 7 of 42
21 October 2011 at 6:13pm | IP Logged 
I'd be interested to know more about the author's background. On the languagetransfer site he goes no further than calling himself a "pedagogical linguist", which could really mean anything. I've managed to find one news article that says he's been teaching languages for 7 years, which is a reasonable length of time, but there's no mention of his academic background.

Edited by Cainntear on 21 October 2011 at 6:14pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Crush
Tetraglot
Senior Member
ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5863 days ago

1622 posts - 2299 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto
Studies: Basque

 
 Message 8 of 42
21 October 2011 at 7:48pm | IP Logged 
Here's the Greek course uploaded to mediafire:
http://www.mediafire.com/?fdqi1hu6oxhu6f2


3 persons have voted this message useful



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