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Too many people selling language courses? | ||
Tags: Business | Language Program | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6917 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 61 15 June 2011 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Is it just me or are there entirely too many people trying to turn their language learning hobby into a business by promoting how "easy" it is to learn a language or regurgitating what they have learned from other courses? Gee, I have studied five languages and I have worked with them professionally everyday (reading, listening, studying vocabulary for 8-9 hours a day for 20 years) and yet sometimes I still think I have barely scratched the surface of what there is to learn and yet all these younger people are able to learn 15, 20, 30 languages in such a short amount of time. I still see words I do not know everyday and sometimes I struggle to understand what someone is saying even after 20 years. What am I doing wrong? Do these people have some kind of secret or is it that they have never had any practical use for their languages?
Maybe because I am a translator and I read about new (sometimes very difficult technical, medical and legal) subjects and vocabulary all the time,it is simply a matter of them "not knowing what they do not know" because they have not been exposed a foreign language in a practical setting. I remember before the internet when I used to think that I was the only person in the U.S. interested in learning multiple languages, now it seems to have become a crazy amateur fad. Now that book publishers are no longer needed (e-book publishing, for example) and anyone can self-publish, I fear the decline of the foreign language textbook. And I guess we can forget about any kind of language book in the future with any kind of depth to it. Here is one example of many: Linguisticator video Click here for course costs Has anyone purchased this course? Did it help you? I guess this is just part of the new-age fad to "turn what you love into a business", but it does seem that a lot of people are selling the same ideas. For example, here is an example of hundreds of people selling the same 29-page e-book to learn Chinese on Amazon: Secrets to Learning Chinese You can find the same thing for other languages too. People are just copying and re-selling language e-books. They just find a pdf file somewhere, slap on a new cover, add their name as the author and put it on-line for sale. Edited by translator2 on 15 June 2011 at 11:57pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6444 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 2 of 61 15 June 2011 at 11:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, there are far too many people selling their ideas. I'll be kind, though, and not point out the most blatantly obnoxious ones.
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| jondesousa Tetraglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/Zgg3nRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6262 days ago 227 posts - 297 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Mandarin, Spanish | Message 3 of 61 16 June 2011 at 3:45am | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree with you, translator2. It is unfortunate. I fortunately don't get so easily duped, Burgos many people
do? And if you are not able to learn successfully after reading it, what does that do to your moral? It is really sad. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6437 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 61 16 June 2011 at 4:02am | IP Logged | |||||
A quick search shows that Aaron Ralby actually is rather more qualified than the video would suggest. While I can't say much in favour of his advertising work, he has an actual background in languages.
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| etracher Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5332 days ago 92 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Modern Hebrew, Russian, Latvian | Message 5 of 61 16 June 2011 at 12:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, if the academic bio is actually true then I would assume that he has likely racked up so much debt that he's trying to find anyway to cash in and pay it all off. I can't say that I blame him in such circumstances, although nor can I say that I would pay the kind of money that he is asking. The same thing goes for the various Road Running videos and Language Hacking Guides and other such things floating around the internet. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6009 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 6 of 61 16 June 2011 at 1:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Regardless of his credentials, $40 per hour for a prerecorded course is crazy! That's more than many people charge for one-on-one lessons....
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| etracher Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5332 days ago 92 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Modern Hebrew, Russian, Latvian | Message 7 of 61 16 June 2011 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
Most definitely. In addition, I was looking at the link above in which the Linguisticator lessons are sold and there is also a general plan of the contents of the course.
For about $300 you will have access to 10 lessons for 90 days, plus you will receive one hour of Skype contact with the esteemed Dr Ralby. I think that one could easily purchase an introductory textbook on general linguistics, a phonetics text (such as Catford), a mnemonics handbook (such as Higbee's "Your Memory"), a time management book and perhaps a few other linguistics manuals and have more or less the content that is being presented for $300 at a much lower price. Plus one would not have a 90 day limit on access to the material. The remaining money could be better spent on a tutor or private teacher. EDIT: added quote Edited by etracher on 16 June 2011 at 3:03pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| unzum Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom soyouwanttolearnalan Joined 6912 days ago 371 posts - 478 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 8 of 61 16 June 2011 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In my opinion, there isn't really a need for these over-priced ebooks/courses, because you can find out much of this stuff for free on the internet.
I think it's important to find out about language learning from many people with different ideas before finding out what's most useful for yourself. Don't believe everything that one person says, especially when they say that their method is the only way to learn a language. Different things work for different people and no one person has all the answers. If people are wondering where to get all this information for free, start off by looking at 'language learning articles and tips' section on the 'General language' page on my website. Personally, I found Success with Foreign Languages to be the most helpful because it looks at language learning techiques that several language learners used, all with widely differing ideas and learning styles. Another useful one is On the Mortality of Language Learning Methods which will hopefully make you aware of the marketing stategies that people use when selling mainstream language learning publications and online courses and ebooks like the ones referred to in this post. There are also books that I would recommend, but you can get many of these through your library and try them for free. Or check out the reviews on Amazon or the opinions here before you buy (you could also get it second-hand to get it even cheaper). In conclusion, in this day and age of internet and libraries, there's no reason you can't teach yourself the basics of how to learn a language without spending money. Edited by unzum on 16 June 2011 at 5:32pm 6 persons have voted this message useful |
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