Just wondering whether anyone has read Benny the Irish Polyglot’s eBook he just put out called the “Language Hacking Guide”. I purchased it mainly for the interviews he has over Skype with a number of well-known polyglots like Alexander Arguelles, Khatzumoto and Moses McCormick. There’s about 3 hours of interview, plus his 200-page eBook on learning languages. I actually haven’t read the actual eBook yet, but it looks quite thorough. He lists a number of resources for languages at the end (and even mentions LingQ).
Benny showed himself unwilliing to back up any of the dubious claims he makes about language learning in this forum and on thelinguist.com blog. The only thing he hacks is language learner’s wallets. No thank you.
The video’s pretty interesting, because he adlibs a little bit in all his languages (except Czech or Thai). Do you know if it’s a new video?
I’m sure that there are shortcuts, I just don’t know how to go about them without living in the country. When I first started learning French, I tried speaking lots at the French Meetups and with whoever I could find, but I think it reduced my confidence more than increased it. I found after six months of Spanish with LingQ (from scratch, minus French) I felt quite comfortably babbling on even though I had only had about 2 hours worth of speaking practice (and probably 150 listening!). No previous memories of failure to compare to! hehe
好恶心。
you know I’m not opposed to people making money by selling their wares on the internet, but when those wares are so tainted by the stink of a huckster like Benny…
The video was uploaded on the 16th of May, so just a couple of weeks ago.
As for him charging ~$40 for the ebook, audio interviews etc. well… I’m pretty sure he didn’t just stuff a lot of links in the book. If he has actually written something (people may or may not like what he says), I don’t see what’s the problem. He has also done interviews. It’s funny that there are complaints here, at LingQ (which isn’t totally free either - it would probably be more of a hassle learning/maintaining a language “for free” as you have to delete saved LingQ and lessons all the time in order not to exceed the limit…).
This being said, I’m (still) a paying member here, and hasn’t got his book (yet).
I just typed a wonderful contribution to this thread and lost it somewhere in the ether. So, should you come across it, please return it to me. My point was that the book might very well be of interest to some people who are not yet independent learners.
I shan’t buy it because of my financial situation, but would be curious to see it. Are there lending libraries in the internet?
I am glad to see that Doo seems to have overcome his grudge towards Benny …
There’s also another LingQ member, Grokker, who has just published a book. Its title is “A Mindful Guide to Online Living” - perhaps that’s more up the LingQ street?
Benny is not a language learner, he is unsuccessful businessman. I never seen successful people who lack of common sense. I did not read his lengthy posts here and won’t read his books even for free because I just can do such things.
By the way, I didn’t mean the eBook wasn’t worth $40, I meant the interviews alone probably aren’t to most people (which is the main reason I bought it).
Benny is a successful polyglot. I say this despite whatever shortcomings people might believe his method to have. I do much prefer Steve’s approach to language learning and it was the approach that revolutionized language learning in general for me. But that doesn’t mean Benny doesn’t have some useful ideas.
I think that Benny is a successful language learner. I think he studies and reads and listens and works on vocabulary. That is how he achieved the commendable level he appears to have in Spanish, Portuguese, and even German. I cannot speak for Irish and Esperanto, nor for French and Italian.
I do not believe that he learns the way he tells other people to learn. I do not believe that he just grabs a phrase book and flies off somewhere and starts talking to people. There is no evidence that this has worked for him.
I believe that is a promoter. He promotes language learning. He promotes himself. He promotes his book. Some like him and some don’t.
I agree with Victor that he uses a lot of words to say relatively little, and a lot of what he says is not believable,or simply not true. He is very quick to attack anyone who criticizes him. These latter qualities detract from other more endearing qualities like enthusiasm and an interest in languages.
Victor: Your 2:34am post caused me to chuckle:)
You have a good sense of humor.
Have you ever read Dilbert cartoons by Scott Adams?
Dilbert’s an engineer who works in an office and doesn’t enjoy it much.
He has a dog called Dogbert.
One time Dogbert set himself up as a “guru”.
He gave some people a few pieces of bad advice. For fun.
Then he said to himself: “Beware the advice of successful people. They do not seek company.”
:))
Re: Benny, I’ve not read anything about him, I’m not saying anything for or against him.
This thread just reminded me of the gag.
Thank you for kind words, Dan. Alas, I never heard about Scott Adams, actually I placed here behind that rusty Iron Curtain so it’s not my fault. But if you agree to educate me a little, you can drop some links here or mail cartoons or something to vict2200@gmail.com, although I don’t know how many days (or hours) this box will live.