Dooo, maybe we should start a new thread called "Benny Watch"...? :-D

Only if Pamela Anderson is involved somehow.

We can also discuss Mark Zuckerberg's level of Chinese ;-)

http://studymorechinese.com/profiles/blogs/mark...

http://www.china.org.cn/world/2011-11/18/conten...

"Zuckerberg said that he spent an hour studying Chinese every Wednesday and Friday and tried to learn more about the country by talking with staff from the Chinese mainland. He commented that he can speak Chinese slowly, but smoothly and that his tones are accurate."

The new HSK 3 is ridiculously easy, relating this to B1 is not right.

It would be difficult for someone to be immersed in Chinese for 5 months and not be able to reach this level for listening and speaking.

Having said that, it is certainly not clear from his videos that he is at even this level.

iaing wrote:
"The new HSK 3 is ridiculously easy"

Yes, if you only look at the listening part, it is quite easy (speaking is not part of the test, there are special speaking tests).

The real difficulty of the test lies in the reading and writing. If you don't know all 650 characters of the HSK3, you will fail the reading and writing tests.

There is a lot of time pressure especially in the reading part: you must read 30 dialogues & statements and find the correct answer in 25 minutes. That's less than 1 minute per question. If you are not really fast in Chinese reading (no Pinyin!) and also thinking, you will fail this part!

@iaing
I will answer your message as one of Japanese HSK candidates.

Please don't exaggerate.
I don't think the new HSK 3 is ridiculously easy, but I have to say this level is not terribly difficult if you study Chinese for a certain period.
Even the candidates who have HSK5 level or 6 level cannot get a perfect score. It means even advanced level learners still have something to learn in HSK3 level questions. They understand these questions but still have a certain difficulty in using HSK3 level words or locutions comfortably or perfectly for a daily conversation.
For example, someone who got over 900 scores of TOEIC still has a certain difficulty in using English for business or in a daily life.

The results are in: After almost five months our friend has been evaluated in an "unbiased and fair" assessment to be at B1 for his spoken Mandarin level, with his reading and writing skills way below that. He himself calls his mission a "complete success", which of course does not surprise anyone. The accolades are rolling in at his blog...mission accomplished!

He exploits every PR opportunity.
I am wondering why the school bothered investing time in doing such a long evaluation.

There are many great things at LingQ, but the length of this thread is not one of them.

I don't understand people complaining about certain threads. First of all, this thread has by no means been entirely about what the thread title says. Secondly, no one is obliged to open this thread, let alone read it or comment.

@roan
Just ignore this thread. Is this so difficult?

This thread is about a person who is fooling thousands of other (potential) language learners. Language learning is mostly hard work and becoming "fluent in 3 months" with "language learning hacks" bought from Benny is just nonsense. It's a topic worth being discussed here because negative comments in Benny's channels will be purged by him.

I agree that the topic is worth highlighting, but the thread is 30 pages of everybody agreeing that Benny can't do what he claims. It's not very constructive. A community of motivated linguists such as there is here should have buckets of things to discuss rather than concentrating on the negative aspects of one or two charlatans. This seems to be the most active discussion there has ever been on this forum.

.

In German we call this the "Sommerloch" (summer gap / summer doldrums / silly season) - a word to describe that people have no better or no more important things to discuss ...

Roan - It is called entertainment.

I agree with Hape. If you don't like the thread, ignore it and don't moralize about what people should or should not be discussing. Let people discuss what they want to discuss. In fact, why don't you start a new thread with some of the items of your "bucket list"?

Yep - if you don't like the thread, just choose to ignore it. It's really that simple! ;-)

I do sometimes think, however, that it may be better to start a whole blog called "Benny Watch". We could devote the whole thing to a really tough critical examination of his missions, highlighting any dubious or unproven claims, etc.

Such a blog would be useful counter-hype for any 15-year-old language-virgin about to invest 60 bucks on Benny's book or dvd, informing them instead about safe and tried methods such as LingQ.

(It goes without saying that we would only allow Benny and his followers to leave comments if they fully agreed with us - just like the way he runs comments at his blog! :-D)

Maybe we should do this?

JayB wrote
""Benny Watch". We could devote the whole thing to a really tough critical examination of his missions, highlighting any dubious or unproven claims, etc.

Such a blog would be useful counter-hype for any 15-year-old language-virgin about to invest 60 bucks on Benny's book or dvd, informing them instead about safe and tried methods such as LingQ."

I agree. In its current mispelt state "Benny Lewes" is not going to be found on many google searches and therefore our, hopefully, useful input is currently not that valuable for someone making a decision where to invest his 60 pounds.

@roan

Agreed.

30 pages of discussion about him is an absolute waste of time and energy. Frankly, it is childish to remain on the subject and your time could be better spent learning your target languages.

The pathetic emails I've received from him this week have finally convinced me to give up on ever trying to reconcile our differences. My blog is still quite new and I have been making an effort to extend a hand of friendship to others but with people like him I really have to draw the line.

He talks as if being his friend is a privilege and an honor that can only be earned and that he has some kind of monopoly on the language learning blogosphere.

Utterly delusional.

My partner and I were reading his emails last night laughing in disbelief at how audacious he is. My girlfriend (knowing nothing about any of this) asked me, "Is this guy for real?"

All of his hostility toward me is simply because I questioned his (now proven) absurd claim to learn C1 Mandarin in 3 months and I dared to tell the truth about the clear-as-day, opportunistic motives behind his 'biggest language learning survey ever'.

Let it be on record that I never once intended to be a Benny basher or a "troll". Some things just need to be said.



One other thing before I unsubscribe from this thread:

He stated in an interview on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goVeeZ3YLvo - that part of his traffic-building strategy is to 'create arguments on forums' so by continuing these discussions all you're doing is giving him the promotion that he wants.

To counter Roan's concerns, as Benny's Chinese Mission is coming to end end, so will this thread eventually, so again, no harm done, and if you don't like, just ignore it.

Regarding a Benny Watch, well if people wish for it, we'll have one, but I doubt I'll be as interested in his future travels as was the case for Chinese, the reason of which being that I am a learner of that language myself.

"Benny watch"..............
I really like this idea !

Mezzogguild wrote
" it is childish to remain on the subject"

I do not agree with your assessment about the many contributions. This is a discussion and it happens to be passionate. Mostly it is a constructive exchange though. It is important to evaluate claims. This is what academics do all the time and at length. Calling us "childish" I do not find constructive.

@Marianne10

I agree. I have a lot of respect for Donovan, but it is a little bit strange for him to make critical remarks here about Benny - but then say that everyone else who does the same thing is being "childish".

Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander...

Long live free speech.

LOL @ sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander, must be a British thing. We call it whats good for the goose is good for the gander in Canada. Its when someone is sort of being a hypocrite. I personally don't think this post is really about the Irish Polyglot as its about some guy ruffling some feathers on this site as to what can and can't be done. If any of the well know polyglots said they would be able to do the same thing they would get the same heat, I think. One thing I do notice is the well know polyglots aren't saying much of a peep about our Irish friends missions and whether there are do able or not. Of all of them, Steve seems to stand out and has no problem saying whats on his mind. I doubt you would get a direct honest answer from the other guys on the subject. I for one would like Benny to accomplish as much as possible and succeed. I always like to root for people and am happy for them when they accomplish there goals.