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You’ve collected 200 Polish audiobooks before even starting? Gulp!
(You should BE Tim Doner! :-D)
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@ JayB: (…) “You’re crazy - they all speak English in the Czech Republic! The clever choice has to be Russky Yizik!” (…)
Whenever I hear the “everybody speaks English” argument I’m reminded of this:
"If you speak to a man in a language he understands, you speak to his head. If you speak to a man in his own language, you speak to his heart.” Nelson Mandela.
No matter how much I love foreign languages, I always very much appreciate any foreigner trying to speak to me in my mother tongue. I would like to study Czech as well, but for now I’m shying a bit away because it is said to be even more difficult than Russian (in particular as for its pronunciation). Some day I might have a go at it though. My grandma originally came from Brno. So, her mother tongue was Czech. After WWII she had to leave her home (her father was German, her Mother Czech) and she spent her youth in Hungary (so she spoke Hungarian as well) before she came to Austria where she used to speak German with that wonderful Bohemian accent 
For various (mostly personal) reasons she had made it a rule not to speak to us in Czech and/or Hungarian (which I very much regret), but when her brothers and sisters who had gone to Germany after WWII came to Austria for a visit, they would start chatting away in both languages once they had sampled a few glasses of wine 
Oh, how I miss those slightly melancholic songs she used to sing when she was preparing her “Powidltascherl” and other culinary delights…she was a fantastic cook and a hell of a woman, my babička
ad Robert: “…No matter how much I love foreign languages, I always very much appreciate any foreigner trying to speak to me in my mother tongue.”
You appreciate it because you are a friendly kind of guy. But not everyone is like that, unfortunately. There is often a kind of unspoken rule in “smaller” European countries that foreigners will be spoken to in English only. (Once or twice in the past I have actually been quite badly snubbed for making modest attempts to speak a local language - believe it or not!)
ad Robert: “…Oh, how I miss those slightly melancholic songs she used to sing when she was preparing her “Powidltascherl” and other culinary delights…she was a fantastic cook and a hell of a woman, my babička ;-)”
Vielleicht wirst du sie doch im Himmel widersehen?
BTW
I see that you’ve lost your “ad” - so I started using it instead! 
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JayB
You’re crazy - they all speak English in the Czech Republic!
Hahaha. Are you kidding? That is not true. We do not speak English. Do not forget that we were communistic country. We are not well educated like Germans for example.
Then that Balkan one with many names…
-) I’ve voted for that one on http://www.facebook.com/questions/10150249705278786/ too)
Well okay, maybe it’s wrong to make sweeping statements about these things.
But still, there’s no doubt that SOME of you guys can speak pretty well in English!
JayB
Yes, there are some Czechs who can speak English quite well. However do not worry, you would not find a lot of them. Just try to avoid centre of Prague. :))
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@Imyirtseshem “Can’t believe I didn’t notice this before… watch where his eyes repeatedly go back to in his videos…”
err… old news?
<<lovelanguagesII: “As a matter of fact, in some of his vids it appears to be quite clear to me that he is looking at some notes - I may be wrong but that’s the impression I got. Nevertheless, I don’t think that makes his vids less interesting or inspiring.”>> (pg 7)
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ad lmyritseshem: (…) But, that means he is practising his dialogues beforehand. (…)
Why shouldn’t he? He is still a learner in all his languages. Practice makes perfect
I have repeatedly said in my vids for example that I have taken notes to remember what I want to say. I don’t think that makes me a fake though. I don’t write out the texts in full sentences but I do make notes. I don’t rehearse my videos because I mostly try to record them late at night after work and I just don’t have the time to do three or four videos in a row. Since I lack the necessary technical skill I can’t cut out parts of the vids either and this is also why you’ll see me get stuck from time to time.
(…) I don’t find fakes inspiring. (…)
If he were to say he is perfect in all these languages, I’d agree with you. However, he has always said he is still learning and if you watch his vids you’ll see that he makes mistakes and he obviously isn’t shying away from posting these vids. If he were as vain as some people here think he certainly would have asked a Russian native speaker to go through his script first and help him with his pronunciation. The fact that he did not tells me that he is very honest about what he knows and what he doesn’t. Of course, he has no control over the conclusions other people draw from what they see.
True, I would categorize my own knowledge of languages differently. It is alway difficult to answer the question “How many languages do you speak?”. I use 5 professionally and I can get by in another 5 and just started studying two more. Now, does this mean I speak 5, 10 or 12 languages? More importantly, does the number matter? If my life depended on answering that question “correctly”, I’d probably play it safe and say I speak 5 languages. If people were to give me some slack on a few more languages I have studied, I’d say I speak 10 languages but not all of them at the same level. Personally, I would not count any language that I cannot converse in (I am not talking about being “fluent” but about being able to keep a conversation alive, while making quite a few mistakes, and these are two different pairs of shoes).
For me the bottom line, however, is why anybody would feel his own achievements to be diminished or his own learning process to be less efficient, less worthwhile by ANY claim ANYBODY else makes. It is my life and I know what I want to do with it. Unless I’m forced to follow people’s advice I don’t see how their claims should have any effect on what I do. Everybody will have to put their actions where their mouth is at some point of life. I don’t worry about how others will fare, I want to make sure I hold up to my own expectations.
As for Tim, I will continue to watch his videos because I do find them inspiring. As long as you know what to make of what you see, there is very little chance you’ll get deceived.
ad JayB (thanks for giving back the “ad” to me ;-): (Once or twice in the past I have actually been quite badly snubbed for making modest attempts to speak a local language - believe it or not!)
Oh, I do believe you. This world is not made up of friendly and nice people only. I’m pretty sure we all have met our share of ignorant individuals but I am also convinced there are many wonderful people out there who will be more than pleased to talk to you in their native tongue. Just don’t give up on us native speakers of German yet (or on any other native speakers for that matter)
(…) Vielleicht wirst du sie doch im Himmel widersehen?
Well, you know my stance on that one. But as long as I live I will keep her in my heart and that is a very safe place for her to be
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@Imyirtseshem How can you know?
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(…)
I call that deceptive. (…)
Now, does this conclusion of yours (which I do not share) make you feel better about your own learning process and the progress you make? I’m not trying to be sarcastic, this is an honest question since his “achievements” seemed to have made you feel really bad. At least that is what I understood based on your comments in this thread when you wrote you were getting “sick and tired” of people doing things within months while it seems to take you years to do the same (again, your own words).
I won’t go into any further details as to your suggestion that Tim is deceiving people. I have made it quite clear in this and in other forums that I do not share this opinion and there comes a point where we’ll just have to accept that we disagree and move on for the sake of constructive discussions.
P.S. Honestly, I never thought that the 3-minute videos we see on Tim’s site perfectly reflect his “real level”. They are just his introduction to the community of language learners. I have never been deceived by any of this statements. I do understand that you probably refer to his ability of speaking freely without any kind of preparation. I am sure he would find it more difficult to do so in quite a few of his languages than it appears in some of his vids. But again, he never stated anything to the contrary.
lovelanguagesII,
ad JayB (thanks for giving back the “ad” to me ;-): (Once or twice in the past I have actually been quite badly snubbed for making modest attempts to speak a local language - believe it or not!)
Where’s you locality? I’d like to visit. I thought “ad” was from Latin. . . . Oh, you concatenated a JayB comment on to your thanks. Ah, well.