laban Triglot Groupie Israel Joined 5820 days ago 87 posts - 96 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English, Italian Studies: Norwegian, German
| Message 1 of 5 14 May 2012 at 5:36pm | IP Logged |
fluent in 3 months
What do you think about this guy and his program? anybody heard of him before / had any experience with his materials?
I snooped a little about this self proclaimed "polyglot", and something just doesn't
"smell" right.
Firstly, I'm not sure to what extant does he actually know all the languages he claims
to speak, if at all.
Secondly, he comes across as someone who is just trying to push his 'nothing' product.
In his displays he keeps stating the obvious and repeating himself.
But then again, the concept is capturing, and if any of what he says is true - then it
could prove interesting.
So, I'm interested to know what do you guys think? or better yet, know.
Thanks.
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Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian
| Message 2 of 5 14 May 2012 at 5:57pm | IP Logged |
You can read this whole thread about Benny Lewis: link
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Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6437 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 3 of 5 14 May 2012 at 6:19pm | IP Logged |
His Esperanto is solid.
I've never seen a plausible claim that he's not fluent in a language he explicitly claims fluency in. Bear in mind that he does not claim fluency in every language he's studied, and bear in mind that 'fluency', as it's used on this forum, is not the same thing as the surprisingly common North American concept of "speaks indistinguishably from a native".
Aside from that, he appears to believe in aiming high and achieving something lower than aimed for as a method of achieving more than he would if he aimed lower. This and his style of presentation seem to be the source of most of the flak he gets.
Some of what he says is obvious. Some of what he says is (in my opinion) wrong. Some of it is useful. Personally, I've read his book and didn't think much of it, but it has some ok tips. Where I think his style really shines is in pointing out that people don't need to be silent studying in classrooms for years before they dare say more than a few words - if you already don't have this misconception, great.
Edited by Volte on 14 May 2012 at 6:26pm
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laban Triglot Groupie Israel Joined 5820 days ago 87 posts - 96 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English, Italian Studies: Norwegian, German
| Message 4 of 5 14 May 2012 at 6:40pm | IP Logged |
@Josquin - Thanks! if only searching these forums was easier... :)
@Volte - My thoughts exactly! Thanks for confirming it for me. He does seem more
of a 'coacher' than a 'language expert'.
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meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5965 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map
| Message 5 of 5 14 May 2012 at 6:45pm | IP Logged |
Please use the thread in the Polyglot subforum for this discussion.
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