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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6317 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 1 of 8 24 January 2008 at 6:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Dear Professor Arguelles,
As this is my first thread addressed to you, I would like to just begin by thanking you for your extremely helpful and thorough information you have provided over the years. It has been a large influence in my studies. Since you are a notable advocate of the older Assimil and Linguaphone series, I have been wondering lately whether you might consider the possibility of designing yourself some kind of beginner-to-intermediate/advanced product that would essentially combine the methods of the older Assimil and Linguaphone range and be superior in depth and quality to the modern methods that now seem to dominate. I imagine such a product would include, according to your learning methodologies and the strengths of older Assimil and Linguaphone courses: - Naturally-spoken dialogues to allow repetitive listening and shadowing. Goal should be to internalise the material as with Assimil's courses. - The exact same dialogues for each course of the first volume, fostering quicker comprehension between languages. - A comprehensive two-volume series for every language focusing on literature (where such a tradition exists) plus cultural content and more advanced dialogues to create a balance between elevated and colloquial language (just a personal suggestion, but I'm not sure how that would work exactly and whether it would be feasible or practical). - A structure similar to that of El Catalán Sin Esfuerzo (at least in the advanced volume). I'm aware the suggestion might lean more than slightly towards the impractical or the impossible, since you are currently working towards one day establishing a polyglottery academy and the market for such products perhaps isn't particularly large. Taking into account, however, that this academy would help to develop independence in the learner, it goes without saying that having high-quality products is absolutely essential to those who plan to devote themselves to the study and acquistion of languages both independently and in as efficient a manner as possible. Whether or not this suggestion could ever be seriously considered, I'm sure we would all agree that you certainly have the range of experience and knowledge it would take to create an effective series of language courses that would greatly benefit those, such as myself, who are determined to pursue the path of the polyglot. Thanks again and all the best, Christopher Button Edited by Fränzi on 26 January 2008 at 7:09am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BGreco Senior Member Joined 6394 days ago 211 posts - 222 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Spanish | Message 2 of 8 26 January 2008 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I know I mentioned this in another thread, but here it goes again. I will most likely develop a language learning program (not sure what format) over the next 2 years. Ideally, this would be an online, free program similar to Assimil with many languages. I think the idea of making all the dialogues the same in every language online would make a lot of sense, but we could work with the ideas. This is an plan that I am very passionate about and committed to, and I have no plan on gaining a dime from it.
I know the basic idea of having an audio file on the web page and available for download, with a side by side translation (and literal translation?). This could be done extremely easily. Any other ideas? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| PolyglotNZ Pentaglot Groupie New ZealandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6205 days ago 71 posts - 91 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, German, Mandarin, Japanese Studies: Polish, Swedish, Hungarian, Russian | Message 3 of 8 27 January 2008 at 5:35am | IP Logged | ||
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Wie geht's, Fränzi?
Some people may disagree, but I like the idea of adding video to the language programme. They have done that in Голоса (Golosa) for Russian, in French in Action, in الكتاب (Al-Kitaab) for Arabic and many other textbooks. I find it relaxing and I tend to watch the videos just for fun. The acting can be really bad sometimes, but it is the language I am trying to master. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6539 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 8 27 January 2008 at 11:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Would it be beneficial to compile a list of sentences/phrases in one's native language with the purpose being translating the list into the targeted language? Granted, many languages have logic differing greatly from each other, but perhaps there is some universal logic that all languages have in common, at least in language families. For example, going through a "memory mansion" with each location representing a phrase/sentence that demonstrates one of the many elemental functions of the targeted language's logic. In English there are 36 different locations if you want to cover the six major tenses(present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect) in all persons while covering singular and plural. I suppose then you could add another 36 locations to cover the progressive tenses; and in addition to the now 72 locations, covering the passive voice. Naturally, the number would be much higher for other languages.
I ask this because often times I feel that organizing pieces of information into logical places in my mind makes it easier to retain and understand information. It's certainly not a tool for fluency, but you have to start somewhere, right? I hope this isn't too off-topic. Are there documents, particularly by Catholic monks, that make use of memory techniques in the study of foreign languages? Edited by Kugel on 27 January 2008 at 11:33am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| PolyglotNZ Pentaglot Groupie New ZealandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6205 days ago 71 posts - 91 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, German, Mandarin, Japanese Studies: Polish, Swedish, Hungarian, Russian | Message 5 of 8 27 January 2008 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Kugel,
If you are looking for language universals, you should read Language Universals & Linguistic Typology by Comrie or Introduction to Typology by Whaley. Both books are a bit dry, i.e. very academic, but they provide you with an introduction to the different things going on in the worlds languages. Edited by PolyglotNZ on 27 January 2008 at 3:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6539 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 6 of 8 03 February 2008 at 10:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Those books probably would solve a lot of my language learning problems. I always have nagging questions regarding logic or grammar for areas such as why the mind automatically figures 'comply regulations' wrong, and 'comply with regulations' correct; that, and other things as well.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| PolyglotNZ Pentaglot Groupie New ZealandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6205 days ago 71 posts - 91 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, German, Mandarin, Japanese Studies: Polish, Swedish, Hungarian, Russian | Message 7 of 8 03 February 2008 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, for those sort of questions, it is better to look at argument structure and syntax. Have a look at Logic as Grammar: An Approach to Meaning in Natural Language written by Norbert Hornstein and published by MIT. Another book that might interest you is Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Argument Structure: Implications for Learnability edited by Melissa Bowerman and Penelope Brown and published by Lawrence Erlbaum. Check the library at your local university (if there is one) or just the local library of your town. They might have them there. If you have any question about those topics, send me a PM and I will be glad to help you! Edited by PolyglotNZ on 03 February 2008 at 11:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7257 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 8 of 8 10 February 2008 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mr. Button, thank you very much for your letter. Indeed, I would be quite happy to spend a period of my life overseeing and coordinating a language-learning series whose content would be culturally rich and whose structure or lesson plan would be as parallel as possible for all languages so as to facilitate polyglottery. I think this would be a very important service, which is why, as the focus of research, it is an integral part of my ideal vision for a language academy.
Mr. Kugel, in answer to your question about Catholic monks and memory techniques for language learning, read Jonathan D. Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, Penguin, 1983. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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