Language Hacking

[Trembly]

Thought some people would find this interesting . . .

http://speakfromday1.com/tedx/

http://www.fluentin3months.com/

[kriswillems]

We say him before on this forum. He would go on a holiday to Thailand and during this holiday he would learn to read and speak Thai. We saw some of his videos of the results.

- he didn't manage to read

- he could only say a few phrasebook sentences

This is not that bad after just a short holiday here, but it was much less than he originally claimed.

I don't believe in miracles. Learning a language takes time and effort. Pretending it's very easy will not help anyone except the people that try to sell books and courses about how to learn a language in a day, a week, a month or 3 months.

[Learned]

Yeah, I think he manages to persuade people with no language skills that he has 'mastered' a language in three months but anyone versed in that particular language often disagrees.

Still, it makes him money so it (sort of) works for him!

[wprime]

Yeah, I think he manages to persuade people with no language skills that he has 'mastered' a language in three months but anyone versed in that particular language often disagrees.

Still, it makes him money so it (sort of) works for him!

Like most things in life, the key is to know enough that you can be confident about it, but not enough that you realise you actually know nothing at all!

[Slappz]

His methods (and results) have been heavily criticized. Essentially he makes bold claims and delivers lackluster results. I wouldn't really consider what he is doing as "hacking languages".

[meadish_sweetball]

I applaud his enthusiasm; I think his ideas about attitude are great for the initial stages and to get to a level where you can interact OK, especially for people who don't have that extra knack for languages that creates a positive feedback loop and provides a natural drive for those who do have it.

(Pop psychology of the day: Whenever we feel that we are good at something and get recognition for it, it encourages us to keep going, but when we are part of a setting or situation where it is obvious we are not as skilled as others, we tend to become down about it and maybe lose interest, even though we really would like to learn more.)

Essentially, perseverance pays - use what you do know to the greatest extent possible and have a friendly and energetic attitude, and don't let yourself get let down if somebody does not want to communicate or is dissing your efforts - you will eventually find people who do want to communicate and are helpful.

Now, for learning languages very different from your native language and any others you have learned along the way, Thai being one, you need more perseverance, and to learn it properly, there are many aspects that combine to become major hurdles if you do not study at least some theory - this is why I think his attempt at Thai did not work out so well. But, he is having fun and he has learned more basic phrases in more languages than most people know, so why not?

[DavidMavec]

That is cool that he tries to learn languages so much in my opinion. But his claims are quite off too. He says that he has a C-2 level in Spanish (basically native equivalence) but it is not even close listening to him. He speaks pretty well but not at a C-2 level and Spain is one of the countries where he spent a lot of time living.