Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Benny Lewis

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post Reply
164 messages over 21 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 9 ... 20 21 Next >>
tmp011007
Diglot
Senior Member
Congo
Joined 5828 days ago

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

 
 Message 65 of 164
21 April 2012 at 5:28am | IP Logged 
Clugston's Spanish accent is.. ehm, "not so good"?.. but if we're going to "judge" him according to his "high standards", then his Spanish accent just "sux" -biiiiiiggg time


Vaughan's accent isn't native either but he's got an amazing command of the Spanish lang ("D2" to "E1" xD)
1 person has voted this message useful



alang
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 6980 days ago

563 posts - 757 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish

 
 Message 66 of 164
21 April 2012 at 6:44am | IP Logged 
I understand why you stated the comparison is not really fair, but Christophe did put the video out there and is open to criticism, just like what he does to others. His Spanish video was intelligible to me, but of course he will not be mistaken for a native speaker nor be mistaken for Richard Vaughn's level.

I do find Benny inspiring for hunting down opportunities to use and improve his speaking skills.

Thanks for critiquing by the way. If I ever put something up, you can also do the same for me.



Edited by alang on 21 April 2012 at 6:53am

2 persons have voted this message useful



Wulfgar
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4430 days ago

404 posts - 791 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 67 of 164
21 April 2012 at 8:19am | IP Logged 
tmp011007 wrote:
Clugston's Spanish accent is.. ehm, "not so good"

I disagree. I think his accent is quite good. He's not nearly as fluent as the second speaker, but to call it "not so
good" seems a bit unfair to me.

1 person has voted this message useful



tmp011007
Diglot
Senior Member
Congo
Joined 5828 days ago

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

 
 Message 68 of 164
21 April 2012 at 3:49pm | IP Logged 
Wulfgar wrote:
tmp011007 wrote:
Clugston's Spanish accent is.. ehm, "not so good"
I think his accent is quite good.

"irony on"? xD


Michael K. wrote:
He told this one guy he'd never get a native Spanish accent if he never left the states.

His response:

You can kiss my accent!

I guess I'm with @anonymoose from http://www.chinese-forums.com:
"I don't relish giving such a harsh appraisal to a very good effort, but at the same time, I object to those who preach some revolutionary technique to learning languages which don't actually deliver when put into practice (as is usually the case).".. I know it's not the same, and I know he was talking about benny's mandarin but..
3 persons have voted this message useful



translator2
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6678 days ago

848 posts - 1862 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 69 of 164
21 April 2012 at 7:03pm | IP Logged 
I think you may be on to something there.

I cannot speak for Canada, but well over 80% of the American population is completely unfamiliar with the word "polyglot". It might as well be a foreign word. I have an e-mail address that contains polyglot and I have to spell it out each and every time, and most of the time people get it wrong "poliglot, polygolt, etc." No one knows what it is or has ever heard of it. So if you are from another country, just be warned that Americans outside those in the "language learning circle" will have no idea what that word means.

Arekkusu wrote:
   
I think people who insist on using the word linguist, such as Steve, do it because they feel that very few people actually understand the word "polyglot". Multilingual is another common word, but some make a distinction between multilingual people, who know multiple languages because they need to use them in the daily lives, and polyglots, who study languages to expand their horizons, not out of necessity.



Edited by translator2 on 21 April 2012 at 7:04pm

1 person has voted this message useful



alang
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 6980 days ago

563 posts - 757 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish

 
 Message 70 of 164
22 April 2012 at 3:38am | IP Logged 
translator2 wrote:
I think you may be on to something there.

I cannot speak for Canada, but well over 80% of the American population is completely unfamiliar with the word "polyglot". It might as well be a foreign word. I have an e-mail address that contains polyglot and I have to spell it out each and every time, and most of the time people get it wrong "poliglot, polygolt, etc." No one knows what it is or has ever heard of it. So if you are from another country, just be warned that Americans outside those in the "language learning circle" will have no idea what that word means.


This post reminded me of this commercial. Polyglot
4 persons have voted this message useful



translator2
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6678 days ago

848 posts - 1862 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 71 of 164
22 April 2012 at 5:15pm | IP Logged 
I strive to have as native-like an accent as possible. However, when it comes to others, I think that as long as you can be readily understood without your accent being a distraction to your listeners or causing their ears to explode or causing them to burst out in laughter, then you are fine. There is a big difference between having an accent (which is fine and normal and nothing to be ashamed of) and completely mispronouncing things. There are a few YT polyglots (not Benny) who makes sounds that are so bizarre or who put too much emphasis on certain sounds (like the guttural sound in Arabic), they really could benefit from a course in phonology or perhaps slow down, go back, and restudy the rules of pronunciation for that particular language. You can just tell that they have never spoken with another human being that way.

Some languages, like Russian and Portuguese, for example, have written systems that appear relatively simple, but they both really quite complex in terms of pronunciation, and you just cannot assimilate them quite so fast.

Video by Steve Kaufmann on this topic:
Sounding like a Native


Edited by translator2 on 23 April 2012 at 3:00pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Midnight
Diglot
Groupie
Czech Republic
Joined 4398 days ago

54 posts - 111 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, English

 
 Message 72 of 164
23 April 2012 at 6:18pm | IP Logged 
I think that fluency in 3 months is possible, but it really depends. I know one guy which learned Italian in means of months. And it's not that difficult to do so, if you are familiar with all the sounds and you have to only watch out for the stress which is in 85% on the penultimate syllable. However with all of his "talent" and drive, it took him several years to learn Mandarin. Alien writing, different vowels and consonants, different mentality of syntax. Can someone speak good Mandarin in 3 months? Yes. Can someone learn a language in 3 months? No, sorry. I think Benny's references to the young American who "speaks" 20 languages are just ridiculous. I'm not saying it's not an achievement, but it seems a bit delusional to me. Look at ZF for instance (indeed,indeed,indeed) that's what the 3 months of English look like, not to mention his other 58 languages.

Edited by Midnight on 23 April 2012 at 6:21pm



2 persons have voted this message useful



This discussion contains 164 messages over 21 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 810 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.3750 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.