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17 minute languages

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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
vowelharmony
Triglot
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United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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6 posts - 7 votes
Speaks: English, Portuguese*, French
Studies: German, Swedish

 
 Message 1 of 8
14 July 2015 at 12:14am | IP Logged 
I'm sorry if this has been asked before; I just did a search and didn't find any results.
Has anybody used 17 minute languages? I just found this today and it looked interesting.
They tell you how many words you'll learn and what level you can reach.

http://en-us.17-minute-languages.com/
1 person has voted this message useful



dampingwire
Bilingual Triglot
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United Kingdom
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Speaks: English*, Italian*, French
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 2 of 8
14 July 2015 at 1:29am | IP Logged 
vowelharmony wrote:
I'm sorry if this has been asked before; I just did a search and
didn't find any results.
Has anybody used 17 minute languages? I just found this today and it looked
interesting.
They tell you how many words you'll learn and what level you can reach.

http://en-us.17-minute-languages.com/


It says:

Quote:
With 17 Minute Languages' unique long term memory learning method, you can learn
a new language in no time flat.


and then goes on to say that after 3 months you'll know 1300 words. That sounds well
within the reach of a motivated leaner.

They don't mention anything else (that I saw in my brief look) about any other aspects
of language learning (grammar, listening, speaking ...).

It looks like a web-interface to an SRS system, with leader boards and so on. Sounds
like memrise, but more expensive :-)
2 persons have voted this message useful



kanewai
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Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/kanewai
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1386 posts - 3054 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese
Studies: Italian, Spanish

 
 Message 3 of 8
14 July 2015 at 2:21am | IP Logged 
It looks sketchy. I wouldn't trust them.

17 minutes a day for three months is 25 1/2 hours, and yet they promise that you'll be
at a CEFR A2 level after that, with a vocabulary of 1300 words. While every course
exaggerates the level they'll get you to, this is ridiculous.

There are no screen shots to show you what the course is like, just repeated promises
that it is full of exciting and fun exercises.

Some of the links are dead.

Their 'about us' page is a mailing address.

They offer dozens of less common languages. Most legitimate courses spend years
developing their courses; the effort that would be needed to cover what they list
would be incredible. And I think they'd have more to say about who they were and how
they accomplished this.

My guess is that they haven't really developed programs for Bulgarian and Basque and
Ukranian and Wolof and Sinhala et al. If anything, I think they probably copied words
out of a book, inputted them into an SRS program, and started marketing it.
4 persons have voted this message useful



vowelharmony
Triglot
Newbie
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5399 days ago

6 posts - 7 votes
Speaks: English, Portuguese*, French
Studies: German, Swedish

 
 Message 4 of 8
14 July 2015 at 2:37am | IP Logged 
Thank you for your replies! You're right. It sounds too good to be true and it's sketchy. I like Duolingo and
Memrise, and I'm willing to pay for something better but it looks like this isn't it.
2 persons have voted this message useful



ScottScheule
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
scheule.blogspot.com
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645 posts - 1176 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French

 
 Message 5 of 8
14 July 2015 at 8:23pm | IP Logged 
Yeah, 1300 word in 3 months is what, about 14 words a day? That's pretty easy stuff. You can do that in about 20 minutes a day using Anki.
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donJhon
Newbie
Costa Rica
Joined 3239 days ago

5 posts - 10 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 6 of 8
04 August 2015 at 11:32pm | IP Logged 
ScottScheule wrote:
Yeah, 1300 word in 3 months is what, about 14 words a day? That's pretty easy stuff. You can do that in about 20 minutes a day using Anki.


You are forgetting reviews, 14 new words on day one is 28? on day two or three, etc. and it builds from there. I can not say what it will be but ultimately it will be much more than twenty minutes per day.
1 person has voted this message useful



donJhon
Newbie
Costa Rica
Joined 3239 days ago

5 posts - 10 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 7 of 8
05 August 2015 at 12:42am | IP Logged 
Checking out the "leaderboard" one of the top scorers had a 12 words per day average, another 8 and then the "leader" had 5.5 and after that it looks like only 2 or 3 may be the norm. So, the implied 17 minutes per day in three months is bogus but it looks like people are getting credit for more than 3100 words so, either it is possible to learn a lot more than the number advertised or else some have taken more than one language.

Also they claim to offer a lot more then just an online SRS system because they claim the beginner course will get you to A2 and the intermediate to B2.

Yes. it sounds too good to be true for only $30 per course. I notice a few people have learned more than 1300 words in the 90 day range more or less but are they at level A2?

I would like to hear from some actual users before biting on this.
1 person has voted this message useful



carlyd
Groupie
United States
Joined 3749 days ago

94 posts - 138 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 8 of 8
05 August 2015 at 7:18am | IP Logged 
I was looking at the founder's Facebook page and he does do a lot of language posts but he was also talking about his ebook bestseller called something like "How to make money on the internet with other people's content". He said he started the company summer of 2013 with 30 languages.

Pretty much all the other companies give you some look--a few days free, first lesson, etc.--so you can see what it is. Wish he did that too.


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