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Benny’s Book | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7035 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 57 of 91 20 January 2014 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I don't read much on Benny or his site, but I also don't ever recall seeing or hearing Benny will be able to read and write fluently in his 3 months challenge. I only remember he will try to speak and communicate to reach a set goal. @shk00design, Can you provide more information and evidence where Benny made this claim? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5040 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 58 of 91 20 January 2014 at 11:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yes but that really depends on how transferable any skills you want to put to use are. People's 'strengths' and 'weaknesses' are usually their most prominent qualities with different labels i.e. a bonus or a burden depending on the task at hand. Sure, I could explain stuff better to other mathheads when learning languages ... as long as math applies to what's being explained (e.g. mathematically demonstrating why 'learning inductively' is total BS and such). But trying to math my way around say etymologies... I somehow don't see that :) 'Engineerness' (or lawyerness) is a compound of many traits, ranging from extremely helpful to utterly useless for language learning and teaching, just like any skills / knowledge / mental frameworks shared between teachers and students -- they may or may not be a helpful resource. Individual success is what reveals some ability to match tools and tasks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4521 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 59 of 91 21 January 2014 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I find the easiest people to teach aren't necessarily the ones with the same background as me - I am a scientist, CLEARLY - but the ones who put in the hours at home and are attentive to detail. And also people with whom I have personal interests in common! It does help if I don't have to explain the concept of a case, or the grammar terms - but I can perfectly do without. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4183 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 60 of 91 22 January 2014 at 3:13am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I've had a couple of people suggest that my language ability was partially determined by my law/music background. I think what is typically meant by that is that the legal background just helps with learning unfamiliar concepts in general, and music backgrounds tend to help with accents and sounds of a language. I haven't had a class with anyone else who had a similar background, so I'm not sure how much it actually worked in my favor. Just looking at my classmates this summer, the thing that really seemed to be the dividing factor between those of us who made the most noticeable progress was that we all reached a certain degree of fluency in a language already. What I also noticed is that things I can do well in my native language, I can do pretty well in a foreign language. My favorite example is spelling--I've always been a good speller, so Polish spelling comes pretty naturally to me even with some very strange consonant clusters. I can usually just look at a word and see if it's spelled correctly. I don't think I've ever worked directly with engineers though, so it would be interesting to see how our learning styles might be different.
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| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5244 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 61 of 91 23 January 2014 at 3:12pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Rather than think in terms of specific academic backgrounds as conducive to learning a language, I think it may be
more relevant to think in terms of what are the success factors in language learning in general. I don't think that lawyers, engineers, doctors, etc. have any special talents for learning languages. Is an ear for music good for developing good pronuciation? It surely it, but that is just one part of the big picture. What I think is very important is discipline and a systematic approach, among many factors.This is common to many disciplines and perhaps some more than others. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6364 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 62 of 91 17 March 2014 at 8:09am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Anybody taking bets on how long it will be before he goes on Amazon and rips negative reviewers a second one? 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6517 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 63 of 91 17 March 2014 at 10:32am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It would be strange if Benny didn't go on Amazon with his book as soon as possible (I haven't checked whether it already has happened). As for negative criticism he has had his share, and he might reply - as usual. But what happens at Amazon is not our business here, and we have lost several members due to angry outbursts and violent discussions about Benny, so please keep a calm and civil tone even if you don't like him or his book. Edited by Iversen on 17 March 2014 at 2:14pm 11 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| t1234 Diglot Newbie South Africa Joined 3952 days ago 38 posts - 83 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Turkish, Polish | Message 64 of 91 17 March 2014 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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TLDR: Don't buy, just read his blog.
Short summary: The book is simply his blog rehashed. The writing has been improved and expanded upon and the book is organised logically, therefore it's easier to read than the blog. Instead of giving a review of the book I'll instead give a probability as a percentage of whether this book will be helpful for you. Scenario 1: You are monolingual and have never studied another language. You have decided you want to learn a new language and don't know where to start. In this scenario the book is more going to be more useful. One advantage is that it's newer so can reference things like the internet, unlike older similar books which obviously aren't up to date. Recommendation: 80%, buy the book if the price doesn't bother you. Contains simple beginner stuff and will generally point you in the right direction. If you don't want to pay, simply read his blog from start to finish and use Google. Scenario 2: The opposite of Scenario 1. You are an experienced language learner and have been learning for at least 6 months. You have reached at least B1 and are continuing to improve. Recommendation: 15% or less, don't buy the book. If you know of Benny there is nothing in here that is new. If you don't know of Benny, go to his site and look through some of his popular articles. Scenario 3: Basically in this scenario you are already learning a language. Possibly you begun recently and are looking for tips, or maybe you've been learning for a while but aren't improving. Recommendation: 20%-50%. Buy only if the price is right for you and you don't have time, otherwise read his blog. Obviously the book may contain just the right advice for you to help you improve, but for some it may not. Any help the book can give you is either on his blog or in the HTLAL forum, it's just a matter of searching. The only advantage of his book is that everything is in one place. The disadvantage is that these are Benny's methods, and therefore emphasise the methods that he believes will work. 8 persons have voted this message useful |
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