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Benny Lewis

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post Reply
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Snowflake
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5719 days ago

1032 posts - 1233 votes 
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 25 of 164
06 April 2012 at 2:29am | IP Logged 
I was simply replying to "I don't think he actually talks from day 1...."
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이희선
Groupie
Australia
Joined 4729 days ago

56 posts - 97 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 26 of 164
06 April 2012 at 8:43am | IP Logged 
fabriciocarraro wrote:
In my opinion, having set such a high goal is not reason to be made fun of. If I aim for a
10 in an exam and get an 8, it's still better than aiming for a 6 and getting either a 7 or a 5. Although 7 > 6, still 7
< 8.


I don't disagree with your opinion, but I think the naysayers think he was taking the wrong exam.
1 person has voted this message useful



Splog
Diglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
anthonylauder.c
Joined 5429 days ago

1062 posts - 3263 votes 
Speaks: English*, Czech
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 27 of 164
06 April 2012 at 10:33am | IP Logged 
People often say "You should aim for the stars, and even if you miss you'll land on the moon". I have two problems with it, though:

Firstly, there is a great difference between ambition (which is motivating) and delusion (which is no use at all). Stretching yourself to a challenging but achievable goal is ambition. Shouting out that you are going to achieve the impossible is boastful delusion.

Secondly, if you aim for the stars and miss, you actually risk flying off into space never to be seen again. Whereas if you have set your sights on the moon in the first place, you would have had a better chance of landing on it.

What actually matters, of course, is the results you actually achieve. Many people said that with hard work Benny could reach A2 or even B1, and they were proven right. Yet, at the time many others called them "haters" and said they would be made to look foolish when the C1 goal was achieved.

A mature response at the end of the three months would be: "C1 was an unrealistic goal, but with hard work A2/B1 proved to be possible. The "haters" then were "realists"".

In summary: Benny achieved A2/B1 in three months through hard work. That is admirable, but not unexpected.

And now, I fear I have fallen into the trap of talking about Benny in a way that may lead to thread closure. So, apologies.

Edited by Splog on 06 April 2012 at 10:36am

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fabriciocarraro
Hexaglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
Brazil
russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4475 days ago

989 posts - 1454 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French
Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese

 
 Message 28 of 164
06 April 2012 at 6:47pm | IP Logged 
Splog wrote:
And now, I fear I have fallen into the trap of talking about Benny in a way that may lead to thread closure. So, apologies.


I hope not! In my opinion your post was very polite, and not at all provocative.

Although I think that aiming high was a good idea, I can relate to what you've said about the realists. I was skeptic myself about the C1 level achievement in only 3 months, but I also never said "Benny, you're not gonna make it!" or "Benny, that's impossible!", even though I thought it was. I just said "Go for it! I hope you'll succeed!" and I think that's a much better approach.

I don't know if there are any Lost fans out there, but I must quote John Locke on this: "Don't ever tell me what I can't do." =)

Edited by fabriciocarraro on 06 April 2012 at 7:42pm

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emk
Diglot
Moderator
United States
Joined 5292 days ago

2615 posts - 8806 votes 
Speaks: English*, FrenchB2
Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 29 of 164
06 April 2012 at 6:57pm | IP Logged 
I think my favorite photo of Benny is from his "no pain, no gain" post, where he's been
trying to understand rapid-fire Chinese for the last hour:

Photo

I've had days almost that bad. :-) While I've always loved Iverson's "listen like a
bloodhound following a trail" advice, I do like the over-the-top visual image, too.
2 persons have voted this message useful



tmp011007
Diglot
Senior Member
Congo
Joined 5829 days ago

199 posts - 346 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, English
Studies: French, Portuguese

 
 Message 30 of 164
06 April 2012 at 8:25pm | IP Logged 
fabriciocarraro wrote:
I don't know if there are any Lost fans out there, but I must quote John Locke on this: "Don't ever tell me what I can't do." =)

err.. don't make me talk about Lost in a way that may lead to thread closure xD
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translator2
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6679 days ago

848 posts - 1862 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 31 of 164
06 April 2012 at 11:03pm | IP Logged 
Fluency in Five Days

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hrhenry
Octoglot
Senior Member
United States
languagehopper.blogs
Joined 4890 days ago

1871 posts - 3642 votes 
Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe

 
 Message 32 of 164
06 April 2012 at 11:44pm | IP Logged 
translator2 wrote:
Fluency in Five Days

Awesome! What, with my 4-hour work week where I make gobs of money and my 4-hour workout that's produced a body that all the other hotties want to climb up on, I'll have plenty of time to try this myself!

Seriously, that's such a misleading title. He's already been studying Czech for a while and will continue studying until his trip in the fall.

The first foreign language that I studied, and the one that continues to be my strongest is Spanish. I had studied it pretty thoroughly for five years before moving to Mexico. I can say with no hesitation that I was immersed for eight or more hours trying to use Spanish and was nowhere close to fluency after five days, as Steve is contemplating. I know it was a gradual thing, but somewhere between three and four months, something clicked and I felt like I could finally communicate with people. But those first few months were a hard road to travel.

R.
==


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