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Fluent in Mandarin in 3 months? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5671 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 9 of 69 05 January 2012 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
If your goals are not realistic, and hence not achievable, then they are not goals. They are false promises, to yourself (and more importantly) to others. This sets false expectations of what is achievable, so that followers themselves become disillusioned and discouraged in their own more honest achievements. 10 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| mikonai Diglot Senior Member United States weirdnamewriting.bloRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4931 days ago 178 posts - 281 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Swahili, German | Message 10 of 69 05 January 2012 at 5:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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He appears to be one of the sort of people who can shoot for a virtually impossible
goal and be satisfied if he doesn't quite make it. You have to be difficult to discourage. Sometimes a person needs a realistic, if even on the high side of that, goal ("Try to get to B2 in a year," maybe is one), but some people can -- and should -- shoot as high as they can. For me, it would take the kind of mentality that if I don't actually manage to hit my ultimate goal, well, gosh darnit I'm going to get as close as I can! If you can pull off that sort of attitude you can make remarkable progress, even if you don't get to C1 level with a language, B1 or B2 is a great start. I'll admit that I have a hard time with something like that, so I wind up setting up a specific and reachable target for myself and making up a fairly specific plan as I go, adjusting it as circumstances change. But that's just what's more comfortable for me, and who knows whether that's the best way to do it? It's possible I need to challenge myself and set a ridiculous goal in a very short time period and push until it's over, and then take stock of where I am and what I've gotten done. I think it's a fine way to go about learning languages, but it takes the right attitude. If you can't ward of discouragement any other way, a more realistic goal may be what you need. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6552 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 11 of 69 05 January 2012 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
Like he did with Thai. What a joke. I personally haven't gotten anything useful from the guy, although I think it's a good site for beginners to check out, especially those who need encouragement to speak. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5132 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 12 of 69 05 January 2012 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm not going to discourage the guy. But there comes a point where you really have to look at past claims and performances, then weigh them accordingly with current claims. He's been at these missions for a while now. R. == 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6911 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 69 05 January 2012 at 8:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
This Mandarin project aside, I think it's a bit like fanatic's "quickly but poorly" idea mentioned on the forum a couple of years ago. If I aim for 1000 new words in a week (or month) I'll probably fail (but still learn a few hundreds), while the one who aims for 100 will only learn 100. 8 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| strikingstar Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5175 days ago 292 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Cantonese, Swahili Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written) | Message 14 of 69 05 January 2012 at 10:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, but you're only committing these words to short term memory. It won't last. If you learn only a hundred words. You have more time for stuff like grammar. Anyways, I don't know what his definition of Mandarin fluency entails but mine includes writing. Edited by strikingstar on 05 January 2012 at 10:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6911 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 15 of 69 06 January 2012 at 12:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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It's not a question of short term memory (who are you to say that I will forget everything?), or how much time I could have spent on other language related activities. I'm not saying that fluent Mandarin in three months is achievable, but if you aim high, you'll probably work hard, while a student who aims low probably won't work as hard (that's my experience from other disciplines, especially music - the "lazy" musician aims low, and it'll take forever to learn even just a dozen of tunes in the same time the avid musician learns ten times more). Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 06 January 2012 at 12:12pm 8 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6231 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 16 of 69 06 January 2012 at 12:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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I do like Benny's methods . The fact that he goes in gangbusters and speaks nothing but his target language
is clearly very effective. I disagree with his disdain for didactic courses, I believe in the right context these can be a very useful aid as well. I think he has a reasonable shot at "spoken Mandarin". I am curious to see how he does with the written characters. 1500 in 3 months is a pretty lofty goal indeed! I just began my own 6 month Mandarin challenge... Although I am trying to do it from the US, with a full time job and family responsibilities. Benny has raised the bar for me. Game on Benny! You can see what I am trying from my mainlymagyar blog. Which is essentially the same stuff I put on my mainly mandarin? log on this site. After sprinting out of the gate I hit some major speed bumps with the holidays but Benny has reinspired me to get cracking!, 7 persons have voted this message useful |
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