|
 |
Fluent in 3 months method? | ||
Tags: Fluency | Learning Technique/Method | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5701 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 9 of 42 23 June 2011 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Two years ago I went to Spain as an au pair. Even though I had prepared through self-study and could understand basic Spanish, I suffered from a massive culture shock (mostly caused by the heat and the noise, you don't get that much of it in Germany) and couldn't form a coherent sentence for two weeks. Because I had a job to do, the host parents resorted to using English with me for the first time. I worked with the kids who obviously couldn't speak English or German. I went to language classes (Spanish only) and talked to people on the street and everywhere, using only Spanish. I spend less than ten minutes a week using German, maybe half an hour (or less) a day using English. I also speant some time on Japanese.
It took me half a year to move on from conversations that were guided by the other person and his or her ability to guess what I might be meaning, and have conversations in which I actually dared to bring up new information, tell stories about things the other person didn't know etc. I understand Spanish well. I don't speak it well, in spite of having forced myself to speak it as much as I could bear to for the entire ten months I was there; being quite a shy and introverted person. (Unintentionally, I also picked up enough passive Catalan that I enjoy watching TV, reading in or listening to Catalan, but I couldn't speak it to save my life.) Edited by Bao on 23 June 2011 at 11:37pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5604 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 10 of 42 23 June 2011 at 11:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
Here is a brief outline 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| irishpolyglot Nonaglot Senior Member Ireland fluentin3months Joined 5568 days ago 285 posts - 892 votes Speaks: Irish, English*, French, Esperanto, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Sign Language Studies: Mandarin | Message 11 of 42 24 June 2011 at 1:07am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Hey guys and girls! I can see a small possibility of this currently interesting thread deteriorating into a circus if certain people appear, so I'll have my say now before it's too late :)
There is no "Fluent in 3 months" method. My blog is a travel blog as much as it is a language blog. I don't promise anything. I am an electronic engineer who has successfully learned languages and share what I know with the world for free. I make about one or two sales per day of a product that helps support my travels and explains in more detail what I do, but as you can see from the site there are no banners to push people to buy it. My mission is to convince as many people as possible to try to learn a language and with my blog's very rapid growth I am reaching a large audience and happy to say that I am somewhat succeeding in convincing a lot of people to try to learn a language! These people would not have tried before. Thanks to everyone here for sharing it with their friends :) About the title: I move country every 2-3 months, and I tend to aim for fluency or conversational level, therefore the name works as it's goal and travel based, not a promise. Why 3 months? Because that's usually the tourist visa limit and my ideal stay time in my current lifestyle. Simple as that. It's an excellent description of what my travels are about, and I'm not changing it just because some people don't get it. If people start whining about the name, or calling me a snake oil salesman etc. then whine away because I ain't joining in ;) I'm a traveller and cultural explorer way more than I am a language learner. However I do speak several languages at very good levels. You can see me interview or get interviewed by natives in several languages on my youtube channel. Even Mr. Kaufman has said that he finds my French impressive after seeing my Quebecois culture discussion. He's a smart man but we argue a lot because we have very different goals, and thus very different approaches are necessary. There is also a personality clash, which has nothing to do with language learning. If you want to read a language well go straight to his site, but his advice and many other sources are not good if you must speak soon. If you want to speak "some day" then you are not under the kind of pressure me and many others are under. My learning method is the communicative approach; I certainly didn't come up with it, it's what has been used between cultures for hundreds of years and absolutely destroys academics and passive learning in terms of efficiency and speed when the goal is conversational. For reading and writing, there's little information on my blog that can help. I describe how it works for me and could work for many others. A brief summary has been accurately described and linked to by Splog and Liddy. Yes, you need to be outgoing to do it, and I have successful convinced many many "shy" people to try it. I know many here (including Splog) will disagree that you can change this introversion/extroversion in people, but I try and succeed often. @Kuikentje You say absolute beginner, but I was interviewed for Onze Taal (a magazine I'm sure you know) in Dutch at that level (that's my 6 week-level). It's intermediate and I advanced quicker than normal because my German helped a lot. You will see the interview in the November edition. Look out for it :) The author will confirm my level as definitely not being beginner. In Turkish I've started in the last two days (I was ill from travelling and sleep deprivation for my first days here) - I am already making progress and will start making videos in Turkish asap. I'm happy to answer people's questions as I pass through this thread, but if the tone goes negative as it sometimes does in forums, then I will not play that game again. I focus my energy on helping people, not arguing or debating. I will give my advice and share my tips. I meet many many successful and failed language learners in person and hear many stories, so I know what I'm talking about, but I don't have any qualifications as a linguist, so if you need such credentials I can't help. My goal isn't to convince the world that I'm right. Some will listen and some won't! Please read a few posts on my blog and you'll see what I'm about! 16 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Logie100 Diglot Newbie New Zealand Joined 5252 days ago 35 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 12 of 42 24 June 2011 at 1:54am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Hey Benny :) I bought your language hacking guide yesterday, very interesting. I'm the guy that asked about the files on your facebook page. Anyway, you said you used to be shy, but not its not possible to believe you were ever shy. Do you think simply the act of language learning can make you more confident? for example.Im not very good at conversation because I get shy and cant think of topics to talk about, but when I have agreed with a native to meet and practice my German over lunch, I am expected to have a conversation and not force them do all the speaking. whereas if I am just out with another English speaking person, its not neccesary to speak. I'm thinking maybe if I practice speaking my languages with natives often, I'll get used to conversation in general and be able to hold interesting conversations in English too.
I also think that maybe thinking of what to say in a language you are learning takes away some of the nerves and just forces you to say whats on your mind rather than worrying what the other person says, im sure that its like this for me. Thanks :) 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| irishpolyglot Nonaglot Senior Member Ireland fluentin3months Joined 5568 days ago 285 posts - 892 votes Speaks: Irish, English*, French, Esperanto, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Sign Language Studies: Mandarin | Message 13 of 42 24 June 2011 at 2:31am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I come from a small Catholic town in Ireland, and I went to an all boys school run by priests. I was the youngest in my class and in university and preferred to be at home watching Star Trek and doing Mathematics homework than out partying. I went out to about four parties per year during university. This was my reality before I started travelling.
It's been a tough transition, but I've changed from shy/introvert to become outgoing. You can see me discuss this issue here: http://www.fluentin3months.com/stop-being-shy/ I have very strong opinions about it because of the amount of people I can get speaking with a simple pep talk, and because I changed myself. The change was not overnight and I don't expect people to be the life of the party after reading a few of my blog posts. But I will continue to push people and tell them very frankly to stop embracing self-fulfilling prophecies ("I can't speak to them because I'm shy", a.k.a. "I think I'm shy, therefore I am shy"). My main secret if I had to summarise it is that I just don't think about it. For example, yesterday my waitress was a pretty vegetarian so I could have run through the possible conversation permutations and told myself thousands of ways I could screw it up, but instead when she came back I asked her what her recommendations for veggie restaurants are, and when she told me, I said would you like to join me to one later? If she said no, then I would have just asked someone else later. The best way to get over shyness is to force yourself to do it often. A friend of mine calls it social skydiving, and I'd recommend you give yourself that challenge. I don't think about what I need to say, I just say it. Mistakes and all! I get feedback as I speak and I learn that way. If people here think that natives won't have patience with you then frankly you haven't met real natives. The only people in the world that were mean to me in attempting their language were Parisians... and linguists :) 99% of the planet aren't perfectionists, so you shouldn't be either. Travel and language learning both combined made me less shy. Just speak to as many people as possible, keep your chin up and stay positive, and shrug off rare rejections and slowly your shyness will wither away. 8 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6485 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 14 of 42 24 June 2011 at 3:01am | IP Logged | |||||
The name of your blog (fluent in 3 months) is deceptive. It's designed to get people to come to your site because they believe it will tell them how to become fluent in three months. That's why many of us object to it. Do you get it? Congratulations on your product sales. $57 x 2 x 365 = $41,600/year. Quite a nice travel budget. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5197 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 15 of 42 24 June 2011 at 3:15am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I have adopted much of Benny's advice in learning Portuguese. I found two people here on island- population about 50,000- with whom I can practice Portuguese. One is a native and the other is Argentine, but he lived in Brasil for 10 years and was married to a Brazilian. I also have several skype friends and speak in Portuguese at least an hour a day most days of the week. If I can do this on a tiny island in the Caribbean, imagine what those of you who live in big cities in the rest of the world can do!
I'm not saying that Benny's way is the only way, and neither does he. I just find this way of learning much more enjoyable than doing a course and I feel that I am progressing at a more rapid pace than when I learned Spanish. It is a lot of fun to speak to my Brazilian friends. I would have never met them otherwise- they don't speak Spanish or English very well. I have gained so much by learning Spanish and, now, Portuguese. I feel like I am gaining another soul to go with my anglo and hispanic souls. For those of you who think that knowing Spanish is an asset to learning Portuguese, you're right, it is, but only so much. They are, indeed, two very separate languages. I would definitely use this method (modified for me) for my next language, which will be French. After which, who knows! Edited by iguanamon on 24 June 2011 at 3:28am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Alacritas Tetraglot Newbie Portugal Joined 4863 days ago 24 posts - 41 votes Speaks: English*, French, Portuguese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, German, Latin, Bulgarian | Message 16 of 42 24 June 2011 at 3:39am | IP Logged | |||||
Judging by your tone (which is of course not perfectly clear in writing), you seem to find making a living immoral. I find that confusing, but to each his own, haha! Also, about the name, it's really just a description of what he's doing. He's trying to achieve a level of basic fluency in a language by means of 3 months immersion. "Fluent in 3 Months" sums that up in a catchy sort of way. I can see how some people would see it and think, "Oh my God, I can learn X in 3 months, just be going to this site and following blindly the directions". But if they look at the site, and read what it says there, they will see that it is not a method to learn a language. Just a blog about a funny guy trying to learn languages in different countries, staying usually for 3 months. Oh, and there's a book that has advice on how to learn a language -- but still, no "Guaranteed Method to Get You to Fluency -- in 3 months, or your money back!" Nothing like that. There's lots of useful information in his blog, and most of it is a few stories from his time in the country, a description of progress, and some thoughts about the language and/or culture. And it's totally free. The book isn't even that obvious to find on the site, actually. It's not on the front page at all, you have to go to About or Resources in order to see it. And there, once you're on that page, the advertisement isn't particularly blatant or anything. 13 persons have 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. |
