Comments on: Learning a language the easy way

By: Leo

Leo — Mon, 27 May 2013 10:18:21 +0000

I agree with Chris: It’s possible to learn a foreign language in a couple of week only in a survival way, and obviously the better the more you are hardly pressed by circumstances. Learn a language is another story, and it requires a lot more time and practice, and sometimes is a never-ending effort, as happens for chinese, by the way, where a slight error in the pronounciation of a wovel changes the meaning of a whole sentence.

By: The Testee

The Testee — Thu, 09 May 2013 00:25:03 +0000

Great post Vahid.

It’s amazing that they got to fluency in such a short period of time. I’m learning Korean. I notice a progression, but I think I have to amp things up to get to fluency.

I think that “need” that they had caused them to study Spanish intensely. People that want fluency need that “need”.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 04 May 2013 18:51:43 +0000

Interesting read, but I feel like these brother might have been stretching the truth. Sure, they did have a great need to learn Spanish and were constantly being exposed to it, but it would take a much longer time to be entirely fluent in a language. While it is a great dream, to learn a language in two weeks, I’m going to say that they just learned enough to get them what they needed in the country.

By: akbar

akbar — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:16:55 +0000

I think in this context his claim is not exaggeration. In this context they did not expect much from their proficiency.

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:06:08 +0000

In reply to salam. All content on Language on the Move is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. That means that you are free to share (to copy, distribute and transmit our work) and to remix (to adapt our work) under the following condidtions: Under the following conditions:

Attribution — You must attribute our work to the author and to Language on the Move. Noncommercial — You may not use our work for commercial purposes. Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon our work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

So, please do use this post in your teaching and we'll be looking forward to your students' comments!

By: salam

salam — Wed, 01 May 2013 08:18:22 +0000

I am an instructor at payam e noor university. I really enjoyed the topic. I was wondering if I could use this post in my teaching syllabus?

By: Li Jia

Li Jia — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:08:05 +0000

Yes, considering the “need” of survival in financing their trip, we would not find it hard understanding how the two Omidvar brothers could achieve such language feats in a short period of time. In fact, there is also a similar story during the Second World War when a group of American soldiers were exclusively trained to acquire German language in only three months and the requirement on their command of German was exceptionally high as there was not a slight of American accent allowed in order to conceal themselves successfully in German without being sensed. Otherwise, they would be killed immediately by the German Nazi. In this sense, when language learning becomes a matter of life and death, the learning outcome is likely to be outstanding as well (298 out of the 300 American soldiers successfully acquired the German language at the end of the training).
As an English educator, I completely agree that we have to be very clear about what we truly need in learning a language, and then figure out how to tackle with that kind of “need” in a more pragmatic way.

By: Golnaz

Golnaz — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:48:15 +0000

Thanks for sharing such a nice but complicated issue. The feeling that those brothers have referred to as fluency in language learning is a mere exaggeration. Of course they may have enjoyed the period of fluency in language learning, but as I mentioned that can be categorized as a period only which will be vanished if they again stop the journey. As a personal experience and matter of curiosity, I bought one of those so called great CDs to learn Italian and compare and contrast my experience of learning and teaching English to that of the CD. It was just a good tempting advertisement. No one can deny the importance of English classes and good teachers. The idea of fluency which was referred is subjective in its wording. The level of ability that I call it fluency may not be fluency for the next learner. What does fluency really mean? What does the ability to communicate really mean?

By: neda

neda — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:56:28 +0000

very nice experience of language learning indeed.. and undoubtedlly a mere exaggeration.. as a teacher so many students and learners come to me asking for the easiest and most effective language learning strategies and interestinglly most of them are looking for the shortest path.. most of them ask me about KHALE NOSRAT..or GHASEDAK , some sort of language learning package, and I just do not know what they are talking about..I mean how is it ever possible to learn a language by means of a CD? actually it’s been a long time I am looking for the best way to convince these guys that learning a language is not that easy .. sure it is not that scary ..but definitely it is not an easy A..maybe language teachers should do something to change the attitudes of this bounch of people , although changing peoples’ attitudes and idea would be more difficult than breaking an atom ….

By: behzad

behzad — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 05:00:29 +0000

Insightful observations. I think as language educators we must stay away from such exaggerations. Thank you

By: Thmn

Thmn — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:28:37 +0000

Good points! I reckon that the brothers did exaggerate about their level of proficiency.
In a community where you are perceived as a foreigner, the community will also kindly help you to satisfy your need! That should not lead you on to believe that you are bilingual only because you could survive in a foreign country!

By: Anna Mirzaiyan

Anna Mirzaiyan — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 08:22:13 +0000

Generally speaking, we all know that language by itself it not a single entity to be learnt in a short period of time! As a matter of fact, it is a complicated system of ever-changing units of meaning and structures with intriguing principles and also exceptions . All language practitioners and teachers all around the world claim that they just teach some limited aspects of the language they are teaching ,and the learners also feel the insufficiency of formal instructions in a language class.

When it goes to learning another language in the external context of the classroom and among the speakers of that very language, the force to satisfy the basic needs of the learner may result in imitating and using some fixed structures, away from the so-called obligatory force to learn the language academically. However, I think it would be a brave claim that “one learns a language” with all its complexities in so short a time due to whatever reason such as dire need or youth of the learner. Though these are crucial requirements, I suppose what the person learns this way is not really LANGUAGE!

As a language learner and teacher, the more I read and teach, the more my linguistic needs are evoked and I feel that I really know nothing of English! BUT, I’d like to volunteer to replicate the brothers’ experience and go somewhere and try learning another language to save the rest of my life and catalyse my langauge learning process! It’s worth trying after all!

By: Nicole

Nicole — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 22:00:18 +0000

I get very frustrated by all those people who say you can learn a language quickly and easily. For example I saw a Teach Yourself textbook recently for Japanese. It says on the front cover 45 minutes a day, 6 weeks, you’ll speak Japanese. What exactly does You’ll speak Japanese mean? Probably that you can say a few very basic sentences. But really it takes many years to learn to speak Japanese and then you have to learn to write it. People want their children to learn Chinese. But most children who learn a language at school for example are totally unable to use that language professionally. They might be able to use the language as a tourist to ask where the station is, but they don’t become bilingual.

You mention the Fluent in 3 months website. Benny recommends to learn Esperanto, an easy language first. That certainly helps learning further languages a bit faster. But I am often asked how long does it take to learn Esperanto? What should I answer? It certainly takes much less time than other languages as you don’t have to learn irregular verbs, hard spelling, etc. And most people do manage to reach fluency in a reasonable amount of time. But it varies a lot between people. Learning to express anything you want takes quite a long time even if the language itself is easy. And when the language is not easy like French, most people will never reach fluency.

There is a big myth about people becoming bilingual when they start studying a language. Very few will be bilingual.