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Benny Lewis’ journey with Arabic | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4496 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 33 of 79 23 March 2013 at 11:28pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I met a Canadian guy at work this week. He has a wide vocabulary in Portuguese, but he hasn't had that much of practice yet, so he speaks just like you said! Ahahaha It's fun to see him speaking Portuguese, not in a bad way, but it's interesting! Edited by fabriciocarraro on 23 March 2013 at 11:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Sterogyl Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4148 days ago 152 posts - 263 votes Studies: German*, French, EnglishC2 Studies: Japanese, Norwegian | Message 34 of 79 23 March 2013 at 11:57pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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@fabricio and Tarvos: So "Fluent in 3 months" only means he WANTS to become fluent in 3 months because he can stay in the country for 3 months. And you can become fluent too, maybe not after 3 months, but after 6 months or several years or even 2 months. It depends on you and everything else. Very true, indeed.
But it really is nothing but a catchy name then. 6 months not enough means: it is not enough to learn an exotic language to a functional level. As for Chinese it takes years only to be able to read. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tmp011007 Diglot Senior Member Congo Joined 5850 days ago 199 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 35 of 79 24 March 2013 at 12:45am | IP Logged | ||||||||
it's hard to know what his real level is but it seems to be quite good for about six months. I find "his method" (one-to-one personalized classes) quite expensive but still effective. kŷdos to him I have to say I'm kinda impressed he's neither saying his arabic level is way better than it actually is nor writing about "how arabic is easier than Spanish"
at what level? most people are able to read some mandarin in about a couple of months 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Tsopivo Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4252 days ago 258 posts - 411 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Esperanto | Message 36 of 79 24 March 2013 at 6:10am | IP Logged | ||||||||
It's quite tiring to read the same comments over and over again from people who have not read past the title. Yes, "Fluent in 3 months" is just a title. Among the other blogs I read, one is called "just after bear taming" and another "princess sosso"; guess what, those bloggers are neither bear tamers nor princesses. What a disappointment! Seriously, a title is just a title. Get over it. As for whether 6 months is or not enough to learn an exotic language to a functional level, this is for each person to decide for himself. For instance, Benny might not be interested in being able to read beyond the very basic (common street signs, restaurant menus...) so your comment would not apply to him. It would be quite nice if people could stop judging each other all the time, especially if they are going to do so according to their own objectives, their own standards, their own needs and motivations to learn a language instead of just accepting that other people have different but equally valid goals and standard. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Sterogyl Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4148 days ago 152 posts - 263 votes Studies: German*, French, EnglishC2 Studies: Japanese, Norwegian | Message 37 of 79 24 March 2013 at 9:57am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I've read much more than the title and I really enjoyed reading his articles. I would not in the least criticize him if he wasn't selling anything. But since he names his language learning series "language hacking guide" and not "fluent in 3 months", I guess I did him an injustice him when I was dwelling on the title of his website. Sorry for that, mea culpa. His website is recommendable because it's very motivating. However, I still don't think it's target-aimed to rush through the basics of a language in three months just to learn as many languages as possible. But it's a sign of the times. As much as possible as quickly as possible. For fear of missing out on something. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tiger Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4096 days ago 15 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 38 of 79 24 March 2013 at 10:10am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Well my point is he oversimplifies complex languages and make them look too easy.
He shows you how a word changes its shape in Czech and tells you how it only needs a little bit of practice. But hey. He forgot to mention there are seven cases divided by 3 genders and each gender has several paradigms. Pes (dog) Now in order to conjugate this word you need to know its gender (masculine) Psa and its paradigm (pán - Mr.) That's a lot to remember at first for each new Psovi word rather than simple der, die ,das in German. Psa Pse Psovi Psem So that's it. If I choosed to learn Finnish someday. I won't be scared of all the grammar, but I'll be prepared and no "Why Finnish is so easaaaaay" article is going to change my opinion about it. But it can definitely mislead quite a few people and make them buy his hacking guide only to realize, there's really no shortcut in language learning but a hard work mixed with repetitiveness. @tarvos Look. I didn't want to quote the whole parts, but then again. It's the same old song. Benny shows you how to create new words like "small school , middle school, big school" but had I asked you for TV. You would have to learn it's 电视. "Looking at electricity" can make a little sense there, but would you guess that? I would probably build "look-box". And 10 different people would build 10 different words. So can Benny guess "steam turbine"? No. Nor can his readers based on that article. It's like writing an article on how easy chess is. Sure you can learn the rules in 30 minutes or so, but you won't be able to beat Anand instantly. I don't want this to be another Benny bashing thread, but to me Benny is in the same league as Laoshu. Quantity over quality. The opposite of Richard, Luca or Amir. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4488 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 39 of 79 24 March 2013 at 11:01am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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THERE ARE LIONS AND BEARS AND TIGERS OH MY!!!
I studied Russian and Latin which have cases and these were seriously the least of my problems. It's made up for by really flexible syntax, having no articles, etc. Thinking about languages in terms of "it's so hard, won't be able to do it" just is not a productive mentality at all.
Still pretty obvious. I don't see the problem. Word construction is much simpler, that you use another fairly obvious word doesn't change things. The point he makes is valid.
I have his hacking guide and he's very clear about the fact you need to put the effort in. The hacks concern things that deal with motivation, fear, and being demotivated by people like you who put bears around every corner. Edited by tarvos on 24 March 2013 at 11:06am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Zundung Newbie Belize Joined 4049 days ago 10 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* | Message 40 of 79 24 March 2013 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I think tiger only emphasize the fact that there are certain languages which are more complex than others if you're a speaker of language XY. Or do you think Benny is some sort of Messiah who can see the matrix and bust myths about complex (avoiding the word difficult on purpose) languages. I'm Czech. It's considerably easier for me to learn Russian than for a Swedish speaker. But If I and Nils decide to learn Arabic. We may both struggle with the new concept of dual. I don't think my language is the most difficult of them all. But I definitely don't think it's less difficult than Spanish for a native speaker of Romance or Germanic languages. You said it yourself you don't speak any Chinese yet, so what you're trying to prove is that Chinese may be easy as Benny says it is, because it is more acceptable than saying it's super difficult. The different mentality of Chinese as non-Indo-European language simply means that even though your pronunciation is top notch and you know how to build sentences. You may get weird looks from natives for using certain 100% correct phrase in absolute inappropriate context. Have you read/heard Ziad Fazah's English for example. The lack of idioms and the more natural English makes his correct English sound pretty alien to us. That's the Chinese language. You can change only a few elements in Mandarin sentence. There are so many rules, it's almost if there were none. If each and every sentence was unique. IDK. Mandarin Chinese makes Modern Hebrew look like a child's play. One article from a A2 level speaker doesn't change a damn thing about it. .............. I agree with Benny on so many things. For example I was learning German at school and now I can't do much but order in restaurants and get by as a tourist. It doesn't mean it takes 20 years to learn German. It only means I was taught in a bad manner. Now I'm about to change that, but what I can say for sure is that I won't be fluent even with this head start in mere 3 months. There's a research on how complex different languages are. A research made by thousands of linguists and polyglots. Benny can't see the matrix and hack you through a language in a very short period of time. It's the same thing as Moses's FLR courses. He only translates the most common questions you can get from a native speaker and once you learn this you can more or less recognize them in f.e. Thai and answer the speakers. They may then mistake you for a much more skillful speaker than someone who studied the Thai language for years. But it's only an illusion. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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