|
 |
Barry Farber | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6515 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes  Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 25 of 34 25 February 2009 at 1:32am | IP Logged |
|
Thanks to Olympia I have spent an hour or so reading through the ebook version of Farber's book (except the chapters about grammatical notions) and I have to confess that I liked it, sorry. I can't see any reason to discuss his political views at length here because the references are so few and innocuous that they shouldn't bother anybody. He obviously is very proud of his accomplishments,- I can't know whether this really is justified, but I found even this part of the book both witty and entertaining, so I'm not complaining, - after all I have read the book for free.
The kind of advice that he gives from somewhere around the middle of the book is not revolutionary new, but in my opinion both sane and useful, - even though the pun-based memory tricks of Harry Lorayne aren't my cup of tea. However his use of a lot of different materials simultaneously is a really good plan, and I noticed en passant that he recommended Pimsleur, flash cards and running around with a cassette deck AND speaking out loud, and he defended both the use of grammars and of touristical phrase books (which he compared to hummingbirds). On the other hand he warned against the belief that you can learn a language just by listening passively to something running in the background. This is all sound advice. The more extreme descriptions of exstatic gratitude by locals just take up a page or so, so I can bear with them - but this part of the book has a slightly unrealistic ring to it. My advice: bring money, and don't count on being able to get things for free just by learning a few words in some exotic language. Unfortunately this kind of over-the-edge writing isn't unusual in US-American books. Edited by Iversen on 25 February 2009 at 9:30am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5577 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 26 of 34 25 February 2009 at 1:50am | IP Logged |
|
I bought the book a few months ago, and I liked it too, so don't get me wrong. It's just part of my British culture to take the p**s out of flamboyant Americans. Indeed, I've been following his language learning advice with a lot of success- apart from the bit about accosting random foreigners in the street.
His tip on choosing a language on the basis of how sexually attractive you find its native speakers was particularly inspiring... hence I can't wait to get started on Romanian! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Olympia Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5793 days ago 195 posts - 244 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Old English, French | Message 27 of 34 25 February 2009 at 1:54am | IP Logged |
|
I thought it was entertaining when I read it last summer, but yeah, he makes everything seem WAY too easy. I mean, you don't just read a tiny self-study book on Chinese and then find some Chinese sailors and suddenly become a fluent Chinese speaker. Moreover, you don't learn Indonesian through a boat captain's instructions in eight days. I just had a conversation tonight with a person who has been struggling the last ten years to learn Indonesian--and he's married to a native speaker. Not to mention he already speaks Polish, English, Mandarin, and Spanish more than fluently. He assured me it can't be done in eight days. Unless you are Daniel Tammet, I really don't think you can even hope to be anywhere near fluent in a week. Maybe Barry Farber wasn't close to fluent in reality, but he makes it seem that way.
I guess one could say that his optimism is inspiring and will motivate others to learn additional languages, but I think he's really setting a lot of people up for disappointment and/or failure. However, if you do put things in perspective and realize his claims are a bit lofty, it is a relaxing and enjoyable read. I think the people who can appreciate it most are the people who've already learned a second language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Stephen Groupie Australia Joined 6223 days ago 61 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 29 of 34 25 February 2009 at 5:21am | IP Logged |
|
I read the Farber book a while back and could summarize it as just a collection of resources that are useful to have in your armoury to attack a language from simultaneous and multiple points.
I found that it was written prior to the explosion of the internet and as such nothing on the web is mentioned or referred to. Good for inspiration and resources to use, but pretty low I think on technique. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| krog Diglot Senior Member Austria Joined 5861 days ago 146 posts - 152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Latin | Message 30 of 34 25 February 2009 at 8:05am | IP Logged |
|
That book could easily be edited down into a four-page supplement in the Sunday Mail. Maybe two pages. With pictures.
It'd be nice if there was a 'secret' version of this book that didn't consist of padding and preening, and gave us 'just the facts' about his language-learning CV. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Stephen Groupie Australia Joined 6223 days ago 61 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 31 of 34 25 February 2009 at 9:53am | IP Logged |
|
I really don't mean to detract from Mr Farber's language acquisition accomplishments; it's merely an honest review of his book. As I said the inspirational element is quite real. I loved his anecdotes about how he learned his own languages and the time he puts in talking about individual ones. There doesn't seem to be though, much strategy other than building resources. At the same time, I understand that language acquisition is really down to the hard work of the individual as Moses McCormack emphasizes on his videos, but I would have liked to have seen more strategies like the Professor's ideas on shadowing etc.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Walshy Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6754 days ago 335 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German | Message 32 of 34 07 March 2009 at 4:35pm | IP Logged |
|
I enjoyed his book very much, but I just wish he went into more detail on the languages he knew and how well he knew them.
As someone already mentioned, there's a lot of "I picked up a $1.50 book, fast forward a few months and I could speak the language", which bugs me. :/ And lay off the metaphors, for heaven's sake. ;) Edited by Walshy on 07 March 2009 at 4:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
