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.
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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.
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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. |
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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
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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).
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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