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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7189 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes  7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 19 01 May 2005 at 5:27am | IP Logged |
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I'm just wondering if anyone on the forum has seen this page: www.thelinguist.com. It is the website of an english teaching system called "The Linguist". The creator of the system Steve Kaufmann speaks 9 languages. On the website you can hear him make a short statement in each of those 9 languages. I have to say that his Swedish is pretty good, one of the best non-native speakers I have heard, but he is not completely without accent.
Those on the forum who understand mandarin, can also listen to an interview with him in mandarin and english here: http://audio.thelinguist.com/media/att.wmv. In it he talks about his methods of learning. (BTW, I am not trying to sell the linguist system to anyone. I just thought it was an interesting webpage. Besides the only language taught by the system at this time is English.) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| pentatonic Senior Member United States Joined 7253 days ago 221 posts - 245 votes | Message 2 of 19 01 May 2005 at 6:55am | IP Logged |
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I went there a few months back and watched all the videos in the various languages and it was impressive eventhough I had no idea how well he was speaking. If I remember correctly there are also French, Spanish, and Japanese versions.
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| Marcus Groupie Australia Joined 7217 days ago 55 posts - 55 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Spanish | Message 3 of 19 01 May 2005 at 8:21am | IP Logged |
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That was really interesting watching him speak those languages. Like Pentatonic, I'm not quite sure how well he was speaking them, but it sure sounded good! It's motivational if nothing else.
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| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7382 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 19 01 May 2005 at 8:35am | IP Logged |
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Interesting site and interesting guy!
I can judge only the accent, but his French accent is very good, Italian, German and Spanish not amazing but OK. This is not relevant to the method he professes but since the gentlemen tells readers 4 or 5 times in a row 'I speak 9 languages' in his video I guess he won't mind us rating him. Edited by administrator on 01 May 2005 at 8:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Malcolm Triglot Retired Moderator Senior Member Korea, South Joined 7321 days ago 500 posts - 515 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 5 of 19 01 May 2005 at 4:01pm | IP Logged |
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Maxb: Thanks for the highly motivating link. I especially liked the half-hour Mandarin/English interview, and I agree with all his points. His Mandarin pronunciation is quite good, although his "x" sounds a little too much like an "s" in "xing4qu4". Edited by Malcolm on 01 May 2005 at 4:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Luminis Triglot Newbie Tunisia Joined 7160 days ago 6 posts - 5 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, French, English | Message 6 of 19 01 May 2005 at 4:32pm | IP Logged |
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There is even a blog about learning languages :
http://www.thelinguist.blogs.com/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7324 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 19 01 May 2005 at 5:06pm | IP Logged |
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I discussed this with one of the forum members before and I have to say that his approach to things are too commerical. The testimonials are unrealistic.
I actually got to know more about him through a book he wrote called "The Linguist" translated into Chinese. (Interestingly, the English version of the book is not available on Amazon) The book is at an ok level, where he spoke about his life in most of the book, and his learning strategies in the rest. His philosophy is to listen to what interests the learner; pratice reading, writing, speaking, listening. He also thinks that grammar comes with practice. Although he has put a lot of effort into his langauge learning, I have to say that he is very fortunate to have the environment to learn most of his languages. Technically, his English and Swedish should be fluent, because he was born in Sweden with Swedish-Jewish parents. His parents also speak German, giving him a huge advantage. He lived in French-speaking Montreal, and learned French in school. He spent many years as a diplomat in China, and married a Hong Kong lady. He also spent more than 9 years in Japan. I think that he speaks European languages quite well without big accents. His Mandarin and Japanese sounds quite good as well. He's having a lot of trouble getting the tones right in Cantonese though. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Malcolm Triglot Retired Moderator Senior Member Korea, South Joined 7321 days ago 500 posts - 515 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 8 of 19 02 May 2005 at 4:16pm | IP Logged |
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Victor, his accomplishments don't seem quite as impressive now that I know his background. In fact, I'd be surprised if he didn't learn all those language after spending so much time in each country and having the family background. At age 17, when he only spoke English, he must have already had passive knowledge of quite a few other languages (French, German, and Swedish). I'm curious as to which 9 languages he actually speaks. There are 11 on his website, and he clearly considers the Chinese dialects as different languages.
Also, other than his Mandarin, we haven't really seen him use these languages in natural situations. Repeating a pre-written script with good pronunciation may be impressive enough for some, but I'd like to see him use the languages spontaneously. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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