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A new language in 2 weeks?

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
58 messages over 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 57 8 Next >>
TerryW
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United States
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 Message 41 of 58
06 May 2010 at 3:08am | IP Logged 
hypersport wrote:
I know Mexicans who tell me Portugese is as hard for them as it is for me, in other words...we don't speak it.    Spanish and Portugese aren't the same and aren't near as similar to one another as you'd like to believe.

A native Brazilian at work told me that Portuguese contains all of the sounds of Spanish, but not vice versa, and that it's easier for Portuguese speakers to learn Spanish than vice versa.

Does that logic sound right?
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maaku
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 Message 42 of 58
06 May 2010 at 8:35am | IP Logged 
To the OP, a local community college offers summer intensive language training. Each quarter of a college-level language class is compressed into two weeks (8 hours of class and 4 hours of homework every day). That'a a full year equivalent in six weeks.

Now most people in this forum will rightly scoff at what can be accomplished in one year of an American foreign language class, but with the right attitude and aptitude at the end of those six weeks you could have rudimentary speaking skills (say, toddler level) and basic literacy in the language. The original claim has been exaggerated, I think, but not by too much.
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Iversen
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 Message 43 of 58
06 May 2010 at 10:25am | IP Logged 
I suppose you could learn the sentences in a small language guide for travellers in two weeks time if your life depended on it. But I doubt that you would be able to understand any answer that went beyond the examples in the book.
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glidefloss
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 Message 44 of 58
06 May 2010 at 10:34am | IP Logged 
What about the original L-R poster? Couldn't she learn new languages in 1 week at 12 hours a day? I haven't been around this forum for a while, but I would have assumed someone would have made a serious attempt since I've last been here? Or has everyone pretty much discredited the whole idea?
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maaku
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 Message 45 of 58
08 May 2010 at 6:20pm | IP Logged 
I would point out that DLI/FSI require six months of intensive training (12 hours a day) for the easiest languages, 2 years for the hardest. And they have more experience with this than even anyone here..
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maydayayday
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 Message 46 of 58
02 September 2010 at 8:38pm | IP Logged 
Iversen wrote:
I suppose you could learn the sentences in a small language guide for travellers in two weeks time if your life depended on it. But I doubt that you would be able to understand any answer that went beyond the examples in the book.


This is exactly what I did do in the 80's when sent to work in Germany! Over a period of two weeks I memorised a German phrasebook at the rate of about 30 - 50 phrases per day and an additional vocabulary of 30 - 50 words per day which could be used in my 500 phrase 'understanding of the language'. I had access to German speakers who could put my prounciation, right after a fashion. I arrived in Germany and survived !


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Arekkusu
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 Message 47 of 58
02 September 2010 at 8:48pm | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
A Dutch friend of mine inists that there are some Dutch nuns who have developed a method where they can teach you a new language from scratch in two weeks.

In the sense of 26 languages in a year? I can only imagine how many languages the nuns who have been there for 10-20 years speak.

I get the impression it's a method where they TRY to teach you a language for 2 weeks.
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Arekkusu
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 Message 48 of 58
02 September 2010 at 8:53pm | IP Logged 
TerryW wrote:
A native Brazilian at work told me that Portuguese contains all of the sounds of Spanish, but not vice versa, and that it's easier for Portuguese speakers to learn Spanish than vice versa.

Does that logic sound right?

I'd venture (with limited knowledge of Portuguese) that all vowels are not necessarily equivalent, and further suggest that they probably do not interact in the same way.

But even if it were true, it's of little importance compared to the difficulty of actually learning the language.


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