I genuinely appreciate Benny coming to this forum to express his views in such detail.
I plan to send a secret Esperanto speaking envoy to Geneva to initiate third party discussions via the auspices of UNESCO leading to an eventual burying of the hatchet.
In all seriousness, I have no doubt about Benny’s genuine interest in language learning and the pleasure he derives from encouraging others to learn languages. This enthusiasm and energy devoted towards a cause that I also espouse are certainly admirable qualities.
Perhaps Benny and I should have another skype interview/podcast to see if we can “reboot” the relationship. We would agree ahead of time to only talk about the positive aspects of language learning that we both agree on.
I would have armed body guards with me and would expect Benny to do the same, just in case.
This would definitely be something I’d be interested in! An end to the violence! An encouraging discussion for all!! No more needless pixelated bloodshed!
I haven’t deleted you from Skype - still see you pop in every now and again I’d be free next week, as this weekend is Queen’s day in Amsterdam.
Since our last talk you know that I have used LingQ and do promote it (including in my book). So you’d be surprised at how much we’d agree on.
Cool. I can confirm on Monday. This time (6pm here, 9am there I think?) is best as it leaves the evening open for me; which tend to be when I do most of my language practice
If you’d like to discuss the particulars of the discussion, let me know.
Friedemann, yes you may submit questions but remember that our intention here is to find common ground where we agree. Since you are at least as argumentative as I am, I am a little concerned about your questions. I will be setting up a censor board to deal with your questions.
You said Tuesday was better for you so that works for me. I meant that I can confirm 100% sure that I’ll be there on Monday. My main issue in learning Dutch (i.e. actually speaking it regularly) has been juggling with their strange devotion to schedules, and I have to pounce on an availability to hang out when I can get it, so I don’t like to make my own appointments too far in advance
Steve, like you said earlier, I think the main issue (at least for me) is not about the things that you and Benny disagree on. It is about some ‘claims’ he made which apparently many of us (including myself) have misinterpreted.
It would be a good idea for those who have ‘misinterpreted’ his claims to ask questions prior to your conversation, so that Benny can have time to prepare his answers (which hopefully just involves digging out some obvious statements from his blog).
Edwin, I’ve answered several of your claims, including a snappy blog comment or two, and I’m not interested in stirring up more controversy. I’m not preparing any answers to defend myself, I just want to encourage people to learn languages and I see this conversation with Steve as a good road to doing that.
If you want more controversy and tiresome discussions to clarify nitty gritty points about my blog that you really should have figured out by now, you’re not going to get them this way. I really really really am tired of explaining what the title of my blog means in ten thousand different ways and contexts.
Once again I’ll request that you quit. A few people are requesting that I comment regularly in this forum, but your nagging forum threads about every second blog post would be precisely the kind of things that would annoy me away from here again.
Steve, Benny, the one thing I’d like Benny to comment on is this (Steve, you know of course what follows now):
In my current language project, Chinese, comprehension is the one BIG issue and it is NOT output confidence. I have found no other way of improving my comprehension other than focused listening combined with reading the transcript. I find not understanding much more socially disabling than not being able to express myself eloquently. When we are in a social context, in most situations we listen more than we talk, so in my opinion comprehension is king.
For me focused listening is therefore NOT time spent in my academic ivory tower but rather preparing myself to comprehend better and therefore be able to actually be social. Improving comprehension just by talking (which I did BTW a lot from day one) would not work for me in Chinese, and I am pretty sure it wouldn’t work for Benny either. I have to say I always found Benny’s comments on the “unsocial readers and inputters” while I was working my tail off to understand more a bit condesceding.
As a final comment (no need to discuss this in your interview though): I have always disagreed strongly with Benny’s relativism regarding the difficulty grading of learning different languages. I have encountered them and big time so. Knowing that a task is hard is actually quite useful to know, otherwise you’d keep kicking yourself because of slow progress. I have made peace with my current progress in Chinese because I have come to realise how hard this language is for me.
Steve said: “Friedemann, yes you may submit questions but remember that our intention here is to find common ground where we agree. Since you are at least as argumentative as I am, I am a little concerned about your questions. I will be setting up a censor board to deal with your questions.”
Steve, I’m getting worried about you! You’re not going soft on us here, are you!? :-0
This guy is taking money off people with his false claims! He needs to be exposed for what he is - so go for the throat!
(If you no longer feel up to it, then IMO you should step right aside and let Friedemann do the talking instead…)
This guy is taking money off people with his false claims! He needs to be exposed for what he is - so go for the throat!
If people are so naive that they buy a random book on the internet or anything for that matter without critically thinking about it then they deserve what they get.
Not everything in a book is something you are going to agree with and there’s nothing saying it has to be right.
It is your job to look up reviews and think critically about what you’re reading when you do get it.
I’d be free next week, as this weekend is Queen’s day in Amsterdam.
