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I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years: Here’s How

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Re: I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years: Here’s How

#21

Post by freehunter »

acqq wrote: post #16

I just don't believe his claim: "C1 fluency in French in about 5 months" if he started from 0 unless he didn't do anything but learning the language in the target country. C1 is a damn high fluency: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Re... "Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvi…

Yeah, I lived in Germany for just under a year. My great-grandparents spoke nothing but German, and my grandparents were about 50-50. Even being steeped in German my whole life and living there for a year, I only passed the B2 level test after I got back from Germany. Today, I could probably pass the A2, just because I don't know anyone anymore who I can speak German with at any deep level.

C1 in 5 months without living in the country and speaking nothing but that language would put this person into "dangerously intelligent" territory. Super-human levels of language skills. With this "method", I have to wonder if he didn't just memorize phrases and words really, really well. Does he know the grammar and rules well enough to construct a compound thought on the fly and not sound overly foreign? Because you need to be able to do that for C1.

Re: I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years: Here’s How

#22

Post by eric_bullington »

acqq wrote: post #16

I just don't believe his claim: "C1 fluency in French in about 5 months" if he started from 0 unless he didn't do anything but learning the language in the target country. C1 is a damn high fluency: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Re... "Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvi…

Well, if he was immersed in the language, I could believe it. I got to that level in French at age 17 within about 4 months. Of course, I knew the basics before I went, and I was studying in a French school and living with a French family, which made a huge difference (although I attribute my greatest language learning to watching 21 Jump St. in French every day after school -- fortunately, since I had avoided the show like the plague back in the States).

I went on to learn two other languages to that level -- and became a professional translator and interpreter in the process -- but it took me longer because I was never again immersed in a language to the same extent (up to now, at least).

Re: I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years: Here’s How

#24

Post by eric_bullington »

freehunter wrote: post #21
acqq wrote: post #16

I just don't believe his claim: "C1 fluency in French in about 5 months" if he started from 0 unless he didn't do anything but learning the language in the target country. C1 is a damn high fluency: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Re... "Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvi…

Yeah, I lived in Germany for just under a year. My great-grandparents spoke nothing but German, and my grandparents were about 50-50. Even being steeped in German my whole life and living there for a year, I only passed the B2 level test after I got back from Germany. Today, I could probably pass the A2, just because I don't know anyone anymore who I can speak German with at any deep level. C1 in 5 months without liv…

See my response, but I think it's possible. When I first saw this post, my first instinct as a professional (and nationally-certified) translator and polyglot (fluent in 4 languages at some point of my life) was to brush it off. But I see he places appropriate emphasis on vocabulary acquisition, which many language learners fail to do.

It's possible, at the very least. I did this in about 4-5 months at age 17 while living and studying in France (plus I was dreaming and thinking in the language by that point), and I only knew the basics before leaving. I consider myself smart, but not "dangerously intelligent". I have scored very high on foreign language aptitude tests, so I'm not totally representative. But it's certainly possible.

Re: I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years: Here’s How

#25

Post by alasano »

I was forced to leave my home country at the age of 3 because of war and then after 6 years in Germany we were given no choice but to leave the country since the refugees were costing the German government too much money and various other reasons.

There's plenty of time to make a new life in 6 years only to be forced to throw it all away. We were given a choice between Australia, the US and Canada. We ended up in Quebec city where I've been for almost 14 years now (since September 98').

Even though the journey was hard for the 4 of us, harder for my parents than for me and my sister, I regret nothing. I'm fluent in 4 languages and functional in 2 others with a brain wired for learning to speak.

Upon arrival at 9 years old I was the best in French after only 1 year, in a school filled mostly with people raised on the language. Plus I was picking up English at an amazing rate thanks to the Simpsons playing 6x more often than in Germany. Add subtitles and the fact that I knew all the episodes anyways and you get an abnormal learning rate.

What I'm trying to say is, bullshit as to C1 fluency, I was under ideal conditions to get there (and C2) in a little less than a year with a brain that acts like a sponge at that age. His method may get him towards his objectives faster but I think he may overestimate his abilities.

Re: I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years: Here’s How

#27

Post by sparknlaunch12 »

Immersion is most powerful. ie living in the country, forcing you to live, eat, breath the language.

However as described, a mixture of techniques is needed. Writing, reading, talking, listening. Plus practice, practice, practice.

There are a few examples of people learning languages quickly... Like get fluent in 3 months. Once you understand the mechanics it is easier.

Also some languages are easier than others. Germanic languages 'should' be easier for English speakers.

Re: I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years: Here’s How

#29

Post by wisty »

acqq wrote: post #16

I just don't believe his claim: "C1 fluency in French in about 5 months" if he started from 0 unless he didn't do anything but learning the language in the target country. C1 is a damn high fluency: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Re... "Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvi…

5000 vocabulary cards. It won't be enough.

You need (say) 5000 words, but you'd need a lot more idioms to be near native.

Re: I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years: Here’s How

#30

Post by mdaniel »

binarycrusader wrote: post #11
5vforest wrote: post #3

This is great -- although IMO not a replacement for programs like Rosetta Stone, as this method requires significantly more dedication.

I often see Rosetta Stone advertised and mentioned, and I even briefly toyed with a demo version in the past, but it didn't click for me. Can anyone provide their own success story for Rosetta or a competing alternative?

I bought all 5 levels of Rosetta French version 3, and I lambast it at every opportunity.

There is one positive item, one huge negative and one poor implementation point.

The positive is that I think the mechanism, or put another way the Rosetta Stone platform, is mostly good. The combination of visual and aural, with a relatively simple screen-is-one-concept approach, is good.

The negative for me was the actual content itself. I learned about ladders, and horses and crazy things that not once have I encountered here in Paris. It would have been helpful to learn food items, grocery store items, things folks (even tourists) would likely find useful.

I hesitate to mention this because it might not have been a Rosetta Stone objective, nor might it fit into their framework/platform. But, there were no verb tense lessons. Even just rote learning of "je voudrais ..." [I would like ...] would get you out of 80% of the conversational jams when trying to get a sandwich, or similar.

The poor implementation point is that I did not experience any good luck using their voice recognition engine. Perhaps it is because I really have horrible French pronunciation. However, isn't that the very situation Rosetta is trying to correct? I found no way to discover why it was upset with my pronunciation. It was just a very frustration experience.

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