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Benny Lewis | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| JimC Senior Member United Kingdom tinyurl.com/aberdeen Joined 5545 days ago 199 posts - 317 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 164 04 April 2012 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am aware that there has been some debate on here about Benny, and up to now I have
not made any comment due to the fact that I don't feel that I know a lot about language learning. I am only learning one language and I am nowhere near fluent after considerably more than three months. However, I just read this blog post by Benny and thought that it was worth sharing http://www.fluentin3months.com/possible I don't think that Benny makes any outrageous comments. What I take from it is that given the right motivation, it is possible to reach a reasonable degree of fluency in three months. It is not necessary or desirable for everyone. Anyone who does not wish to study at this intensity is free to do it differently. So from me, it's good luck to Benny and what he is doing. Jim PS Sorry, for some reason, I seem to no longer be able to post active links 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4713 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 2 of 164 05 April 2012 at 5:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I've just read this last Benny's post on his website and found it really interesting. The nuances between "wanting" and "needing" to learn a language is a very interesting concept.
Although I've never tried to "speak from day 1" as he claims to be a good method, that's just because I don't feel confident enough to do so. I usually take my time, for example, in Russian my first conversation was about 8 months after starting to learn it, the same with Dutch. I know Benny's approach can sometimes be a little harsh and people be a little skeptic, and he probably brought it on himself, but I agree with what he, Luca, Torbyne say, that you must have confidence and specially, that fluency in a language is not something you measure by the number of words you know (like some linguists tend to say), but by how well you can express yourself, your ideas, communicate in the language. For me, he comes as a great motivation and a prove that you can learn a language really well if you "live" the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4634 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 3 of 164 05 April 2012 at 5:23am | IP Logged | ||
Not to be condescending or anything, I'm just basing this off of the fact you're at B2 English, and I saw you post this two times, but just wanted to let you know that in the context you are using "...that you must have confidence and specially...", it should be "especially" 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4713 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 4 of 164 05 April 2012 at 5:44am | IP Logged | ||
Don't worry about it, sillygoose1! Thank you very much for correcting me! =) I've been to a "British English" school here in Brazil, could that be the reason? I mean, is it used differently in American and British English or that's not the case here? Edited by fabriciocarraro on 05 April 2012 at 5:52am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5563 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 5 of 164 05 April 2012 at 9:11am | IP Logged | ||
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It is the same in British English - 'especially' or 'specifically' would do :-)
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| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 6 of 164 05 April 2012 at 2:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think what Benny does is interesting and has a lot of merit. I used to be able to do what he does now
when I was a kid. I would love to see if I could have done it again now that I am an adult. I suspect not, but I respect and admire him for what he does. If he has tended to be surrounded by controversy, I think it is mainly because he is so enthusiastic about what he does that some people feel a little run over. I tend to be like that myself, so I know how people react to it. I consider myself a fairly good boss, but when I am on vacation and get a lot of time to think I tend to come back with 1000 ideas for things to do at work, and sometimes that can be a bit overwhelming. The good thing with Benny is that unlike my employees who have to follow my ideas, we are all free to learn from his ideas or to ignore them completely :-) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5667 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 7 of 164 05 April 2012 at 5:16pm | IP Logged | ||
I am not sure the controversy relates to his enthusiasm, but rather to the validity of his claims. However, I need to tread carefully here, lest the thread be closed. 12 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 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 8 of 164 05 April 2012 at 6:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know much about him but I'll be checking out his methods now that I'm hopefully going to Poland soon. I'd sure love to speak as much Polish there as possible:)
This claim is dubious, though:
Languages do need time. It may well be possible with related languages, but only if you've already had some exposure before and can understand a lot, even if you never made a conscious effort and can't say you've had any previous study of the language. It's like with Iversen's word list method. He can use it to learn 100 words in an hour. Does it mean if you do this for five hours a day you can learn 500 words a day? Not really, he's said so himself. Edited by Serpent on 05 April 2012 at 7:01pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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