One of my friends here in GR has recently made manifest being “extremely skeptical” about this book, and, very specifically, about the poss
[image]
One of my friends here in GR has recently made manifest being “extremely skeptical” about this book, and, very specifically, about the possibility of learning any language in 3 months.
I really don’t agree. Benny Lewis may prove right in some cases, for some languages. He’s a living proof, that, though not a talented (endowed with the “gene”, one could say), natural-born Polyglot, he became a self-made one. That’s why I’m offering the content (main lines) of his presentation in Ted X under the title ” Hacking language learning”.
Benny Lewis found himself at the age of 21 with a degree in Electronics Engineering and no other language learnt, apart from his English. Then he moved to Spain, in the hope of learning Spanish. But it really didn’t work out.
Anyway, there, he met with a polyglot; and that fact made him change his whole attitude towards the languages learning issue. He concluded also that one of the reasons he wasn’t learning any language at all (beyond his native English) was that he wasn’t (deeply) motivated (passionate about). He thought of himself as already “too old” and fearing “embarrassing” the native speakers.
His analysis of several polyglots (some, you can easily find them on YouTube) made him think that all these people are “passionate about the literature…and movies” of the languages at stake.
His own experience [ “now” learning his 12th language--Egyptian Arabic--] made him consider several obstacles most people have regarding learning another (new) language. They are:
(1) The idea that you’re not talented; or have the gene.
(2) You’re too old; but there are cases of learners at the age of 60 (plus) who made it.
(3) You cannot travel; yet we’re living in a global space, travelling is a lot easier nowadays.
(4) You have bad memory; yet there are helpful techniques to circumvent the limitations on this field; like spaced-repetition or mental imagery/association.
(5) You’re going to frustrate the native speakers, when in fact “mistakes” should be welcome; it’s part of the process: as Lewis said: “you should embrace the beginning stage”.
Lewis worked as a professional of translation… and now travels the world around to learn new languages. The Ted X recording shows some of his dialogues with friends he’s gotten in such places such as the Sahara desert or... the Ohio, USA…or in the inner/middle Brazil .In the latter spot: to meet someone, to have the chance to learn Egyptian Arabic.[!]
Once you overcome (at least some of) those obstacles you can start/try a new language. Logic says so.
Once I’ve watched the case of a 16 year old American polyglot (Tim*) being interviewed by one reporter from the British magazine The Economist. At a certain point, the interviewer asked Tim something like: adding new languages, wouldn’t that turn the process more difficult. Tim was quite peremptory: the more languages he knew, the easier was becoming, learning new ones.
Yet….some languages… for some people, make me wonder.
