Then others (like me) learn best visually, so reading is king. Slant Thank you for the great guest post Benny! I agree, Tim's "12 sentences" are probably only useful for "simpler" languages. I think that within 5 years real-time computer translation will be available on your smartphone. Thats how were gonna Honestly, the only thing Tim Ferriss really knows something about is marketing and selling quick fix solutions that are appealing to the lazy (similar to Benny Lewis "fluent in 3 months"). TESOL Quarterly. As adults, the good news is that we can emulate the immersion environment without having to travel, spend a lot of money, or revert back to childhood. This can be emulated through filling your calendar with 1-on-1 lessons, and having specific goals like reading a certain amount or watching so many hours of content in the language per week. Italian is -zione and Portuguese is -o. No joke, this was absolutely the best blog hell, best ANYTHING Ive read on language learning. I love everything in it but was more than pleased to get the Chineasy book because I was so tempted back when I saw it on kick starter and bummed that I didnt. In one of the first sentences from benny, it says In think instead of I think. For someone talking about languages you might wanna fix it haha , Yep, we fixed that typo! Take each language one by one, until you reach a stage where you know you can confidently use it. And what do words like fluency and mastery mean on a practical level? Its not as simple as falsifying facts. In learning languages (for example, when listening to my parents speak Yoruba) I try to focus not just on vocab, but also , (1) memorizing popular/useful go-to phrases, (2) transitions between concepts always struggled with bridging my sentence parts smoothly (I guess its mostly prepositions), (3) later on verb-noun conjugation, to make it sound better, Loved reading this article. I could speak for 15+ minutes, but I couldn't understand anything that I heard. But, I disagree that you need human-level intelligence for translating. I saw that Uber recently launched in Panama City and Im an ideal fit for the community manager role. WebAccording to Ferriss, these eight golden sentences are just about all you need to know in order to understand how the language works because they show how verbs are conjugated between speaker and subject, whether they show gender and number, direct and indirect objects, negations, and tense. WebSome business school professor will probably be rude enough to bring up the fact that if 225 million orangutans had engaged in a similar exercise, the results would be much the same215 egotistical orangutans with 20 straight winning flips. And its not that Im claiming that what Benny does isnt impressive. Thanks dude. This concept is not limited to songs. This is one of the best posts on this blog yet! Tim Ferris' 12 Golden Sentences - Improved (Mindkraft W02 Recap Part A) Stuart Jay Raj. You can make these changes by focusing on the sounds of a language rather than just on the words. Tahta, S., Wood, M. & Loewnthal, K. (1981b). I love Noomi (or Naomi?) And not to mention a lot of Finnish kids nowadays use slang words that come from English. I started with Italian and wonder if I will be able to read and understand a real book when Ive finished the lessons. Are Saunas the Next Big Performance-Enhancing "Drug"? http://lingohut.com/ is my personal project, if your native language is not English click on the I speak English button to find your native language. Im really into language learning and there were a lot of resources pointed out that I didnt know about. The apple is red. I find I understand the grammar much better once Im already speaking the language. You CANNOT WRITE Cantonese or Mandarin, period. All rights reserved. This framework provides you with a way of setting specific language goals and measuring your own progress. I should start adding pronunciations again. As a Polish speaker that is rather impressive. Adults can be good language learners, but not better than children. And in the absence of such a freedom, to try recreate such and immersion at home actually could work. Thanks for post this, Tim. I found that I needed to let some stubble grow out, ditch my bright light clothes for darker and heavy ones (despite the temperature), exchange my trainers for dull black shoes, ditch my hat (I never saw anyone with hats), walk much more confidently, and change my facial expressions. Good timing, too! Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? thank you, very useful info, saw girl know English pretty well without studying, just was watching movies in English since early childhood and she seems know English decently [Moderator: YouTube link removed.]. Agreed! 5. Lithuanian is much easier to learn via Finnish. Aujourdhui, 9ans aprs ma dernire leon de Jap, les Kanji sont quasiment tous oublis (jtais cens en connatre quasiment 350), par contre quand je les vois je sais que je les ai appris autrefois. (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.). Ive made friends on a train in China through Mandarin, discussed politics with a desert dweller in Egyptian Arabic, discovered the wonders of deaf culture through ASL, invited the (female) president of Ireland to dance in Irish (Gaeilge) and talked about it on live Irish radio, interviewed Peruvian fabric makers about how they work in Quechua, interpreted between Hungarian and Portuguese at a social event and well, had an extremely interesting decade traveling the world. Last year I started a project that provides free conversational languages lessons to folks who speak any of the 53 languages we teach in. Learn to be difficult when it counts. But waitwhere do you find a native speaker if you arent in the country that speaks that language? I really like your approach of speaking from day 1. Adults have to make a conscious effort to learn something that children acquire naturally. La pomme, est-elle rouge ? (Although I can see a lot of patterns just looking at it in French, which I do not know at all. Running this way will help you out tremendously, I promise. All of those sources are too old to even be used in research. This means that rather than go through the same list of vocabulary in the same order every time, you see words at strategically spaced intervals, just before you would forget them. Ive talked to many people to try to pinpoint the never-agreed-upon understanding of fluency, and Ive found that it tends to average out around the B2 level (upper intermediate). I tried learning Japanese, Spanish and Thai using this type of method and failed to learn all three languages. Its a really good look into how we learn, and how to teach preposition, using cognitive linguistics. Now that youre armed with Excellent post. you can read a very very in depth review on his website , http://www.fluentin3months.com/lingq-review/. Doesnt sound like spam at all! Go to that countrys equivalent URL for Amazon or Ebay (amazon.es, amazon.fr, amazon.co.jp, etc.) Yeah, I always felt that the "12 sentence" bit by Ferris is the weirdest bit of hokum on the language scene. You can take it offline and see about language related meet-ups in your city through The Polyglot Club, or the meet-ups pages on Couchsurfing, meetup.com, and Internations. To make your specific goal Attainable, you can break it down further. To help you be smarter with your goals, make sure to track your progress and use an app like Lift to track completing daily essential tasks. He was driving towards towards us, and we would meet at some gas station. Ich werde es morgen wissen. Tim Ferris' '12 Golden Sentences' have become a staple in many language learners' 'go to' tool kit when approaching a new language. Tim himself likes to use color-coded physical flashcards; some he purchases from Vis-Ed, others he makes himself. Question of the Day: What tools or approaches have you used for learning languages? The worst in my German class in school, only able to speak English into my twenties, and even after six entire months living in Spain, I could barely muster up the courage to ask where the bathroom was in Spanish. Dont forget that despite lack of direct linguistic relationships, Finnish is still definitely influenced by other European languages, through religious vocabulary that would have come via Latin over the ages for instance, as well as modern words related to technology that may be borrowed from English. Before Tim Ferriss Became Tim Ferriss: A True Story | Inc.com Well well well Tim Ferris. It seems logical enough, right? When you watch subtitled movies it is easy to become very good in a different language even if you dont pay the effort. You can come up with the mnemonic yourself, but a wonderful (andfree) resource that I highly recommend ismemrise.com. This is often overlooked, but has made a world of difference to me, even in my early stages of speaking several languages. But theres no point telling people things that arent true and encouraging wishful thinking and unrealistic expectations for the sake of making them feel good or to help him sell his books. Empathizing with Gulnara .. But realistically, we tend to write emails and text messagesnot essayson a day-to-day basis (unless you are a writer by trade, and you may not have those goals with your L2). You didnt post any. The links he gives are very helpful and his motivation to learn and encourage others to learn is inspiring. The show highlights short life advice from the best in the wor Im definitely looking to applying these steps and reading your book! We give him the apple. One of the most researched areas in second language acquisition is the critical/sensitive period for learning language. You dont have to go on Skype! Why would people write so many books and blogs about how easy it is to learn a language if we could learn any language better than children? This post deals with suicide and child sexual abuse and might be triggering Anyway, if you want to check it out (as a muse or for the learning Chinese characters) Ive got a website up at http://www.hanziwallchart.com. Cool. Pro Free account without a time limit The Basic account is totally free (has no time limit) and is very generous. I speak 3 languages now and I am learning my 4th. I saw your comment yesterday and it took me a day of thinking but I have a hint for you! You cannot WRITE and READ Mandarin..Mandarin is the spoken version, you WRITE and READ Chinese..a very common mistake. Time with a native, a good Youtube video explaining the sounds, and practice for a few hours may be all that you need! Some of my favorites, with reasons, are below: The apple is red. Age, Rate and Eventual Attainment in Second Language Acquisition. Thank you so much for explaining and helping out so many of your readers! However that I have to add that rules 2 and 5 dont work with Finnish, the language Im currently learning. However I did not expect it to have so much impact on the rest of my life, I ended up buying your books simply because they are worth every cent! In school, it took me 5 year to learn German. How does a perfectionist learn a language? Translations and recordings of Tim Ferriss' 12 Sentences by native My daughter is fluent in both French and English too. Tip number 1 is so important. Just opened my latest quarterly TIM05 and it yet again delivers! In brief, A means beginner, B means intermediate, and C means advanced, and each level is broken up into lower (1) and upper (2) categories. Some of the computer-generated sentences are so absurd you cannot possibly forget them, and who knows, one day I may need to say I have a snake in my shoe in Italian. While a child learns any language instinctively, adults need to turn to their intelligence to learn the rules. Paretos Law can be summarized as follows: 80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs. Tim Ferriss 15. He showed me an example when I interviewed him about how he learns languages in the below video. Then we might text back and forth developing my kanji reading and basic writing skills. Now, even after many more hours of listening practice and weekly tutoring for months, I still only catch 2-3 words per sentence. [3] If you are living in a country where bargaining is the norm, the ability to haggle proficiently and not be taken advantage of, is a powerful incentive to become fluent. For some people being in the country is simply a fire under your ass that forces you to improve. One of my more controversial pieces of advice, but one that I absolutely insist on when I advise beginners, is that you must speak the language right away if your goals in the target language involve speaking it. Nothing more, nothing less. Incidentally, my experience with Chinese bears out Tims dictum that _what_ you learn is more important than how you learn it. . Another thing is that face-to-face will beat online lessons and resources every time in my opinion. & Garca Lecumberri, M. L. Keep it as amazing as it and enjoy your life. The short version is, I reached out to people like Benny for advice and everyone kept saying that I needed to do more. For instance, I sat a C2 exam in German, and managed to hold my ground for the oral component, when I had to talk about deforestation for ten minutes, but I failed the exam on the listening component, showing me that I needed to be focused and pay attention to complicated radio interviews or podcasts at that level if I wanted to pass the exam in future. Second Language Acquisition and the Critical Period Hypothesis. If you need to hear and use a language consistently to be immersed, cant virtual immersion be just as effective? Learners do have a pretty pragmatic approach when it comes to learning a language and walk pretty much in the same shoes like you. But its not too late for us! Im glad you said something Scott otherwise I would felt obliged to point it out, haha. Each language with a non-Roman alphabet can be processed differently, but quickly. Thanks for the references Scott. I love learning languages and use a lot of his tips. Spaced repetition is also popular learning system in med school where I live. The ability of the childs brain to learn language is just breathtaking. I like the idea as a sort of grammar cheat sheet. Thats kind of splitting hairs, especially considering its in the middle of a long list of languages. Hi Agne, noticed your comment here and thought Id share a blog article that provides a run down of some of these similar types of tools. Your website looks like exactly the recourse I need . You can even reference Google Translate or a dictionary for that language while you chat, so you can learn new words as you go, when you need them.