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Benny the Irish Polyglot teaches us how to learn a language in 3 months


BWL

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http://www.fluentin3months.com/

One of my favorite blogs, written by an Irishman named Benny has him sharing his personal techniques on how to learn a language in 3 months. Granted, he is extremely talented and gifted so his methods may not serve everybody! I like his posts anyway, they are highly entertaining and clearly show his love of language and travel.

He also insists that learning Chinese is not as hard as people think it is: http://www.fluentin3months.com/chinese/

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That's really interesting. I've never heard of that blog before, but I think I may have to bookmark it now - very useful! I've just skim-read some of his posts and I must admit, he's given me a new perspective on things. In particular, the article about Esperanto helping you learn to communicate in another language more quickly and effectively made me think - I've always thought Esperanto seemed rather pointless, but he made some good points about using it as a "practice" language.

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Thank you.  I was not aware of this great resource. There is so much of value on the site; I could spend quite a lot of time there. 

What I appreciate most is that he is helping us to raise our expectations. Telling us we are capable of learning a language in three months, is kind of like telling runners it is possible to run a mile in less than four minutes.  Well, once Roger Bannister accomplished this back in the 1950s, thereafter many runners were able to do so as well.  And nowadays we don't even think twice about a sub-four minute mile since it has become commonplace, and isn't even an achievement.

I also appreciated the article about perfectionism and its negative effects upon is. 

Yes, definitely bookmarked!

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I love omniglot.com ! It's one of my favorite websites and it was also where I first learnt about the amazing Cree / Blackfoot / Inuktitut Syllabary! Check it out if you want to know what a truly exotic writing system looks like!

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Seems like an interesting site. I haven't had much time to check it out, but I certainly will try some of the things he wrote about. Watched the video and it creeped me out a bit how fluent he was in all those languages  :tongue:

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To make things a little more competitive (or to give encouragement to those who are intent on learning even more exotic languages!) I am currently looking some youtube clips of another polyglot who's either American or Canadian and who can speak over a dozen languages fluently ! And not just the typical Spanish, German and French but also Burmese, Korean, Tagalog and Hindi! I'll tryto look his clips up on Youtube!

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Found it! Look up zennman2222 on Youtube. In his various video clips, he speaks: Swahili, Indonesian, Arabic, Portuguese, Uighur, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French,Burmese, Korean, Dari, Farsi, Japanese, Tagalog, Thai, Khmer, Russian, Hindi, Cantonese and Turkish; in addition to his native English. (Consider my mind officially blown away!)

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This is really cool, thanks for the link. I;m surprised more people don't know about this....a resource this useful should definitely be garnering more credibility and respect than software like Rosetta Stone...Bookmarked it, I'm sure I'll be referring to it a lot as long as it's up =]

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It's really fascinating that there are such amazingly talented people out there. I strongly believe that polyglots or hyperpolyglots are people who have a genetic predisposition or inborn talent. I studied music and learned to play the piano from a very young age but look where that took me! In contrast Mozart became a child celebrity and well-known child prodigy, so obviously he had inborn talents in music that are far beyond what I am capable of.

In the same way, I believe that hyperpolyglots are born and not made. While yes, we may train ourselves to become fluent in various languages, the ability to to develop fluency in 12 or more languages in adulthood is no mean feat!

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It's really fascinating that there are such amazingly talented people out there. I strongly believe that polyglots or hyperpolyglots are people who have a genetic predisposition or inborn talent. I studied music and learned to play the piano from a very young age but look where that took me! In contrast Mozart became a child celebrity and well-known child prodigy, so obviously he had inborn talents in music that are far beyond what I am capable of.

In the same way, I believe that hyperpolyglots are born and not made. While yes, we may train ourselves to become fluent in various languages, the ability to to develop fluency in 12 or more languages in adulthood is no mean feat!

Absolutely.  I agree.  It does take a special talent.  Just as one has an ear for music I think the hyperpolyglot has an ear for languages.  Being able to hear the sounds, reproduce them, develop the fluidity in the sentence construction and grammar, is quite amazing.  Think of just getting the accent down properly; that is an achievement in and of itself that many do not master. 

Speaking of amazing, than you so much for the link to the YouTube user zennman2222.  Wow, he is absolutely extraordinary!  Very exciting to watch and to hear. 

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Absolutely.  I agree.  It does take a special talent.  Just as one has an ear for music I think the hyperpolyglot has an ear for languages.  Being able to hear the sounds, reproduce them, develop the fluidity in the sentence construction and grammar, is quite amazing.  Think of just getting the accent down properly; that is an achievement in and of itself that many do not master. 

Speaking of amazing, than you so much for the link to the YouTube user zennman2222.  Wow, he is absolutely extraordinary!  Very exciting to watch and to hear.

You're most welcome! I like how he really tries to get a hang of the grammar and pronunciation first before learning new words. He has a really good ear for accents and really sounds almost like a native speaker sometimes.

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http://www.fluentin3months.com/

One of my favorite blogs, written by an Irishman named Benny has him sharing his personal techniques on how to learn a language in 3 months. Granted, he is extremely talented and gifted so his methods may not serve everybody! I like his posts anyway, they are highly entertaining and clearly show his love of language and travel.

He also insists that learning Chinese is not as hard as people think it is: http://www.fluentin3months.com/chinese/

No wonder  you know so many languages. Do you know a bit of Hindi?

"Aur batao aap kya kar rahe ho"

Can you please tell me what I have written above? It will be awesome if you can :)

I am off t check out the blog yo have linked to.

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No wonder  you know so many languages. Do you know a bit of Hindi?

"Aur batao aap kya kar rahe ho"

Can you please tell me what I have written above? It will be awesome if you can :)

I am off t check out the blog yo have linked to.

It is definitely Hindi. It means "And tell (me), what are you doing?" It is a question rather than a statement.

Also, the grammar is slightly wrong. "Aap", meaning "You" is never used with "batao" and "kar rahe ho".

It should be "Aur bataye aap kya kar rahe hain?" if you were speaking with someone older and more respected or with a stranger (like saying "vous" in French, "Usted" in Spanish and "Sie" in German).

It should be "Aur batao aap kya kar rahe ho?" if you were speaking with someone younger or someone whom you are close friends with. (like saying "tu" in French and Spanish and "du" in German)

I believe this may be copied from the lyrics of a song, although I might be mistaken.

I hope this helps!

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I am really amazed. Wow! You have completely nailed it. I would like to assure you that it's not copied from any lyrics. That's how we speak here in Delhi, the capital of India. Although what you stated holds true, what I have written is also true. You can either say 'batao' or 'bataie' here in Delhi, but if you are in the southern regions like Bihar or Jharkhand, you will have to use 'bataiye' instead of 'batao' if you are speaking with your elders.

Where did you learn Hindi? It seems as though it's your native language. Wow!

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I am really amazed. Wow! You have completely nailed it. I would like to assure you that it's not copied from any lyrics. That's how we speak here in Delhi, the capital of India. Although what you stated holds true, what I have written is also true. You can either say 'batao' or 'bataie' here in Delhi, but if you are in the southern regions like Bihar or Jharkhand, you will have to use 'bataiye' instead of 'batao' if you are speaking with your elders.

Where did you learn Hindi? It seems as though it's your native language. Wow!

That's very nice of you! I'm far from 100% fluent but I would definitely like to practise! Maybe we could suggest to linguaholic to eventually start a Hindi language sub-forum  :smile:

I did not know that about Hindi in Delhi but thanks for letting me know! i won't be confused when I go to Delhi and people talked to me like that!  :smile:

I grew up in Malaysia where Indian languages are commonly spoken as well. Most of the Indians in Malaysia are either southerners from Tamil Nadu or else Panjabis from further north but Hindi music and films are very popular everywhere.

My family is of Chinese origin so that's why I speak Chinese as well and English is used a lot just like in India. I picked up other languages at university, work and from my travels.

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I do not have a desire to be a polyglot, but getting as much help and as many tips as possible from those who language learning comes easy to is to valuable to pass on. Thank you for the resourceful charing!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I guess where you have a life where you aren't fully tied down (spouse and kids) you can do that kind of travel. I'm somewhat envious of those who seem to pick up languages so easily though. I'm going to have to spend time on all these sites everyone is posting, but I know I'll easily get sucked in! As in, I'll go on to look at a couple things and then I'll look up and find I've wasted several hours there.

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Fantastic site!  Thank you so much for sharing this.

Sites like this are really great, in my opinion, because they show us what is possible.  Even for the average person.  I mean, who says Benny is abnormally talented?  Maybe he has just an average brain like all the rest of us, and the difference is that he's figured out the right technique AND has the drive to see it through.  I mean, just think what the average brain would be capable of if they spent an hour a day (an "intensive", but not an outrageous amount of time) studying a language.

I also second what he says about Esperanto.  There was a study that said that students who took one semester of Esperanto and then 3 semesters of French actually advanced FURTHER in French than students who instead took FOUR semesters of French!

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Polyglot? Does that mean he knows several languages? I ought to look up the new word as well as this site. Very interesting!

He knows quite a few, the last time I checked his Youtube channel, he can speak 8. Could have changed though, it's in his blog I think.

I only discovered his youtube channel, and boy does he know his languages. His Spanish accent was quite on the spot as well.

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