@Jenlara,

this mnemonics thing that he touts never made any sense to me. How many stupid stories of cows on a beach with a bullseye on their back can one come up with? You're right of course, memorising the characters is the best mnemonic there is. I wouldn't take too much advice from Benny regarding learning Chinese. He dismisses handwriting characters as last century's writing and outdated dead tree technology.

His hacking opus, is it a real book or just a collection of powerpoint slides?

He says that???!! Oh.... :( My beloved characters......

Mmm, it's an ebook, 129 pages in length. For a bit extra he also provides the translation (provided by natives) in around 22 other languages (you are provided with all of them, not just your own interest language). It also comes with a bunch of separate worksheets (Word files - these are basically journal-type activities), and 6 audio interviews with other polyglots, as well as the transcription for these (not exactly earth-shattering in content though - at least Steve, Moses and others don't charge for this kind of material!).

Like I said before, parts of it are worthwhile. But the majority of it could have easily been given as free advice (actually, his book is like a condensed version of his blog).

Mmm... I tend agree about mnemonics.... Although ^_^... I have to admit, Stuart Jay Ray got me in this article (http://stujay.com/2010/08/11/how-to-become-gift...). I played along with his little 'game' all the way, and by the end of it I'd unknowingly been taught the order and pronunciation of the Chinese zodiac animals, and I still remember it to this day (although I only looked at this article ONCE months ago!). Read at your own risk (o_o)

The issue of how to work on pronunciation probably deserves its own thread, rather than being tacked on to this endless thread.

If I were studying Mandarin today, and in control of my own program, I would not bother working on my pronunciation. I would focus on listening and acquiring words. I would start speaking when I felt like it, and when my ear had already become accustomed to the language, as I have done for Russian and Czech. I also do not believe in nit picking over individual sounds. There will always be some that sometimes or often elude us, like the "x" in Mandarin the infamous "ř' in Czech, or the "sj" sound in Swedish for that matter. It is rather the overall intonation and rhythm of the language, and of course the way we use words, that determines how well we are understood and how pleasing our speech is to native speakers.

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Imy - I agree with your point about mnemonics entirely. That is the main way I remember things. When things sounds like something and I can put a picture on it, I will rarely forget it. However, the mnemonics is a problem in Chinese because of the homophone. So one word can mean maybe over 30 things, so the mnemonics don't work so well unfortunately. But of course characters are different. Unfortunately it is a different part of the brain involved in remembering them (which the Chinese can go on and on about how complete their language is in terms of brain usage )..

Mnemonics does not work at all for me. By the time I thought of a cute sentence and imagined the little scenario, and remembered it, I forgot the word it's associated with or I forget the scenario.

It's also annoying for speaking, when you try to remember words and have to go through visualizing the cute scenario.

E.g. When learning Hebrew I came across this mnemonic for the word ohel, which means tent: OH HELL there's a snake in my TENT. But unless you remember the scenario properly, which takes way more time than learning the word, you could associate OH HELL with snake just as easily as tent.

Benny Is just trying to find new blog content, I think, since how many times can you write "I studied some word lists".

Mnemonics work for me. There is no lag for me due to the mnemonic when using the word in real time. My mind doesn't go through the story. The answer just pops into my mind.

In your "ohel" example, the context would usually make it clear whether it is snake or tent, I imagine. However I would not bother using mnemonics for common concrete objects like tents. Seeing those types of words in context is usually easier than using mnemonics.

I use mnemonics for symbols that are arbitrary like kanji or numbers. I suppose I would use them for words if I have to remember them for a test or something short term.

"If I were studying Mandarin today, and in control of my own program, I would not bother working on my pronunciation. I would focus on listening and acquiring words. I would start speaking when I felt like it, and when my ear had already become accustomed to the language, as I have done for Russian and Czech. I also do not believe in nit picking over individual sounds. There will always be some that sometimes or often elude us, like the "x" in Mandarin..."


There's absolutely no harm in spending a day learning the correct tongue positioning for the "x" sound in Mandarin. The learner will then also know how to pronounce the "q" and "j" correctly.

If you watch young kids learn a new word or sound, they will automatically look at your lips to gain more knowledge on how to pronounce the sound correctly. This is something you don't get by just listening.

It is not a matter of harm or no harm. It is a matter of what we like to do. I prefer to wait until I hear the sound better before worrying about pronouncing them. I feel it works just fine for me.

I want to compliment Benny on something I saw on this website. He is clearly stating that his stuff is not for the experienced learner of languages but for the beginner who is just starting out. I find it great he has recognised not only what his niche and competence is but he has also understood what probably got up so many people's backs, namely the fact they thought he was reducing their many years of work into just three months.

I have a question about one of Benny's videos. I find it completely implausible that he would have this level of comprehension of Chinese after such a short period of time. I do not speak Chinese, so perhaps my view of his guest's speech level is incorrect.

On this video, if you do not speak Chinese, you can click on the little red CC button and someone has manually entered very good English subtitles.

However, is it possible with Skype (I'm guessing this is what he used, I do not use Skype) to use speech recognition software to display the Chinese on the screen and then attach this to a machine translation program? In this way, as she is speaking, he can see a very rough English translation - enough to get the gist, nod his head and say "uh-huh". Or perhaps he recorded his portion of the video at a later time. Something doesn't seem right here, but perhaps it's just me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoWXYmLpNJY&feat...

She is speaking slowly and clearly and is choosing appropriate vocabulary for his level.

Mmmm. This is Yangyang. A well-known teacher of beginner's Chinese. I'm impressed he managed to get an interview with her ;)

I will now remember for the rest of my life that ohel means tent, although I will probably forget in which language.

One on one is pretty easy. Three months is a long time. And as someone mentioned the Chinese person is used to speaking to foreigners. You'll notice in other videos Benny says little and nods a lot.

But I think Benny correctly shows what you can expect after three months if you make an effort. If this seems surprising to some then one must admit that he's achieved something.

Oh yeah, if you don't understand any Chinese at all any exchange, no matter how basic will seem impressive. I think that's Moses' modus operandi with just about every language besides Mandarin and Cantonese. Just throw out the basic phrases and it will look impressive to most of the viewers.

I agree with budz. I guess there are no short cuts in life.

New website: www.fluentin2months.com

Hmm, that's interesting...

polyglot 2, what is the point of these links to Benny's site?

I apologize. The point I was trying to make was that Mr. Lewis also registered the domain name fluentin2months for whatever reason.

What about fluentin1month ????

Oh, I get it polyglot. Anyway I am way ahead of Benny. I am on a five days to fluency program now. I have just done a video on it which is loading at youtube. I will post a link here once it is up.

Here is the video. Five days to fluency in Czech (or any other language for that matter)

http://bit.ly/RHU7WW

@JujuLeCaribou: "What about fluentin1month ????"

Like fluentin2months and fluentin3months, it's registered to "A Happy DreamHost Customer".

R.
==

I like "A2, at best, in 8 months (and counting)". Benny needs to register this..

My idea for a blog would be "neverfluentenough" (because there is no one-size-fits-all 'stopping point' and there is always more to learn).

@iaing

Your suggested new name for Benny's website is excellent inasmuch as it would be a frank and honest reflection of what his "missions" are all about.

But I bet not many folks would buy books or DVDs with a title like that, eh? :-D

(Honesty is, maybe, not always the best policy...!)