Nice breakdown. I stumbled across his channel last week. Normally, I would feel someone making such claims is lying, but after reviewing his videos and credentials, experience, I can see he is legit. As you said, it's not exactly conversational, but more like limited conversations on selected topics, in 30 days, but that is still very respectable to achieve in a month. So, yes, he is legit, but folks need to understand what is involved commitment wise and what he means by "conversational in 30 days"
@Evildea however, I wonder if he makes the same claims for Asian languages. Would you accept his "30 day to being conversational" for Mandarin? I doubt a person can say much, even devoting 5 hours a day, in Chinese.
That’s a good point and probably actually detrimental for a language like Chinese where you should delay speaking until you know you can at least do the tones correctly.
I stumbled across his channel recently myself. I am at 1,400 hours of Spanish comprehensible input and I am starting to speak now. I think his matrix format of picking a topic and creating questions and answers in different tenses is going to be helpful to improve my speaking.
Language Learning is such a hassle that 99% of youtubers have to lie about the time and effort requirments just so they can sell their programs 😂 not many would wanma hear that it will take 2+ year of consistancy. This is also the reality of fitness today. People hop in steroids after a short time in the gym because they cant wait for the long term results anymore. And i feel like polyglot are minicing this trend of promising fast results
Yeeeeeeap, luckily I don’t give a shit and will just call it out as I see it cause ain’t no body able to cancel me as I don’t work in the language space lol muahaha.
Well, after listening to all that stuff, I keep coming to conclusion that the most precious resource is time. Those, who work full-time, will probably progress more slowly, if ti comes to language learning. Military people, learning languages and using this method, have much more time, given exactly for this. Of course, they will do it quicker than a full-time employee, learning a language when he\she is off. I'm sure, anybody would have a linguistic progress, if they didn't have to spend time on work and other worries and other errands and chores.
Yeap, the military method just came down to raw hours. Just hit you with as many hours of constant practice. Anyone with absolutely nothing else to do but learn will make amazing progress.
Yeah, I found that I learned English, Spanish, and Japanese so much faster being in school as a kid than working full time now and trying to learn languages on the side. I am lucky if I have an hour a day for my target languages now with my jobs and being a parent.
That's a lot similar to a famous method in Spain, it's called the "Vaughan Systems". A lot of sentence structures or frames that are used to generate other sentences and then repetion to fix it in your mind.
This could have been a line... a circle... he chose a pyramid? I was in the US Navy. My command found out I spoke a few languages. I was then used more than the ones these guys trained for the job. Add in that these trained by our military to translate are used in certain niches and areas, but my command could have me talk to the civilian contractors fixing our A.C. unit in the shop. I was grabbed by a friend to translate breaking news to find out if their wives were on a derailed train, and that is how my command found out I spoke and read Japanese. (They were not on that train.) I had been in the military 6 months and stationed in Japan for just over a month. This guy's method is okay, but he explains it weird. I may have to watch again to make sure I understood how he does things. Honestly, I struggled following a bit.
Yeap, it was explained in a really odd way. For all I know, I completely misunderstood him lol. That’s also do you get extra pay for speaking those languages? When I was in if you could pass a language test you could get extra pay.
@Evildea We don't get paid for our jobs specifically. We get a base pay across the military depending on what rank we are. Then perks are added for being overseas or at war. So, nope. I did enjoy using a language I worked so hard at, though.
Very interesting as jobs in the Australian army are ranked into pay grades. So certain jobs start at certain pay grades then it goes up based on rank and everything else you described.
I'm curious how much the military deployment language model differs from the Mormon missionary deployment language learning model. Them lads find out where they're going with limited time, and have to learn the language of their destination
I’m also very curious. I’d love to do one of their courses just to see for myself. I get the feeling it would be similar but probably longer and more intense due to needing to converse about religion.
Yikes, he's a mason with that pyramid! Thanks for doing this review. I think the gent presents this info. in his way as either / both he enjoys it &/ or he's working with military personnel (?). Fwiw about govt. language teaching A1 is 'survival' , B2 ( lf I'm correct ?) Is 'workable', etc..until.C2 is' fluent ' but have an interpreter to a) don't let other side know you know; b) gives you more time to reply.
a lot of stuff in the beginning doesnt really matter. just learn basic grammar and words. intermediate is where things matter more and there are wrong methods
Saludon Evildea. From someone who has studied at the ADF School of languages, the way you described it is quite different to the experience I had there a few years ago. A bit too much to write here but hopefully we’ll meet up when you’re back in Sydney. With regards to this video, i watched it when it first came out. From the title I thought it might offer some value, but came to the conclusion that my life/language learning ability was not going to be enhanced in any way, and I stopped watching when he drew the sun above the pyramid 🤣. A bit too gimmicky for me. Yes there’s some concepts there, but like you said nothing to do with the pyramid 🤣
Michel Thomas Used as an introduction and for grammar structure. (cheat sheets or you need an instructor or an AI instructor) Personal computer generated new vocabulary I use Clozemaster, Kanshudo and other stuff. I don't think it's really generating new vocabulary that well. Military List Yes, No, Stop, Hands Up, Sit, Stand up, Food, Water etc. DLI Headstart (Computer animated) What in the WORLD is going on? Makes you wonder sometimes... Speaking structure Has merit If that was a thing but no one does it. (funny) Plenty of random sentences though.
If you create a video with a title like "Learning a language takes over 6 months", you'll get 10 views. In this day and age, people are abhorred with the idea of spending more than a few months of their precious lives to learn something that will allow them to get deeper insights into a new culture, be able to create stronger bonds, read literature in the original, watch movies, understand humor. Heck, some people think you can learn a language in 10 hours (having in mind the objective of finding a foreign partner) or 2 months (because they need it professionally, and they swear they can't spend more than 30 minutes daily). While my English is far from great, it's good enough for me to teach English to Brazilians (where about 90% of people speak no English). Once a girl asked to me how long would it take for her to achieve a level like mine. I said "It took me about 10 years". The deception in her face was palpable. Never will I say something like that to anyone, if I plan to continue teaching English.
This is true to a degree. A long time ago I did tutoring before becoming a programmer. This usually helped weed out those who were serious about learning from those who would give up in a few sessions. At that time I was teaching English to Chinese who had very poor English so had to use a lot of visual clues, images, and my limited Chinese to get the idea across.
The stories I heard from my army time wasn't great with the lanugage school. Very intense. Super high wash out rate and a high suicide rate, and this is with people who tested well in learning languages. Yikes. I'm a little surprised they have a Spanish teacher though. A big part of it is you learn what they need and Spanish-English is in comparatively high suppy. Anyway google says the language school is 36-64 weeks. I mean you "can" speak any language on day one, but what's that mean? I can teach someone "Saluton, kiel vi fartas?" in 15 seconds and you can walk through a kongreso like a champ. And not to critique the Army's language school, I watched a documentary about the US in Vietnam. There was an interpreter there. His VN was not good. It was like Peggy Hill level. Maybe in a military context, commands and such, it's enough to get the thought across, but it wasn't anything worth writing home to mama about. haha. Somewhat related there is a military "jump-start" program website program for learning languages, free online. I used it in the start of VN. It used at least the northern and southern accents. It wasn't terrible (especially for free), but a lot of vocab (bomb, sniper, enemy, etc) isn't likely to come up unless you are military or into playing Call of Duty or something. On the clickbait title. I saw one recently "I learned guitar in 30 days (as a pianist)" I mean it's interesting. You "learned" guitar or did you "spend 30 days learning guitar"? Please don't every use the term "reaction channel" but it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts on Scott Young's year without English. th-cam.com/video/-485Kdr2Ltc/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/6UFU_i5KWAQ/w-d-xo.html He seems pretty transparent on his successes and failures, but I often think of xiaomanyc and when he "learned" VN. Again, my VN is not good at all, and I could tell he was being over generous to himself with his subtitles. I always thought it would be funny to do a parody video "White guy speaks flawless Esperanto to shocked locals." Walk into McDonalds and order a milkshake with all the goofy noises and stuff. Anyway, enjoy China. I've heard China has expanded its rail system and you've travelled there before. It'd be interesting to note how it's changed.
Yes I've heard it said that Military language learning sucks...I also think US language ie FSI manuals are not that hot. The problem is properly speaking a language takes many years and that isnt really workable for most people esp in the Army.
Your idea for the Esperanto video is actually something I’ve already partially filmed but need some help to finish from some friends so it’s something you can expect to see after I’m back from China haha. That military jump start program sounds kind of interesting because I am actually into a lot of gaming. However I’ve probably learned the majority of those words it would teach already. But a very cool resource nonetheless!
I know the video is pretty old, but I’d still love to hear your thoughts on the language learning method the author uses. th-cam.com/video/hin1HGhbGdo/w-d-xo.html
Yeah this guy has some pretty whacky ideas, especially his video where he comes up with methods for verbs inside bubbles and always works in a boxing metaphor. I have to say I disagree with almost all of it. Please check out Will Hart. He speaks near native Chinese in supposedly just a year. While I think he is lying about that, his methods are also ones I agree with, tho so worth a check out.
I’ve seen a video of Will Hart ages ago. I remember the claim at the time he was a year and half. I’ll definitely do a proper dive on him in an upcoming video. His Chinese is legit but yes I want to investigate the claim.
@Evildea ah yeah youre right it was a year and a half, he has a few ones, one where he talks about his methods, which is just great advice. And one is an interview, which, call me cynical he is selling a course so...
His method does not work. That's my opinion. What you could achieve, of course, are some chunks in a language to prepare a visit in China for example to "break the ice", no question, "ni hao, wo de zhong guo pengyoumen dui bu qi wo de zhong wen bu tai hao wo men shuo ying yu, hao de", "xie xie zai jian". But for a real communication you need at least 1000 vocables, a simple one and for a decent communication you need 3000 vocables which is impossible with his method. I told him, if you have an advanced level of A2 minimum his method is applicable to achieve B1 .... C2, but not in 30 days. I do have a different opinion on the Hyperpolyglott method, that might work, but only if you do the work, and he asks for an extremely amount of work, which almost no one is able to do over three months. Reading 1000 sentences every day is a lot, an extrem amount of work. Anyway, I will try it. The Hyperpolyglott method, not the military cheat method which in any case will not work.
Feel free to drop back here after 30 days and give me your assessment. Or even send me an email (can be found in the info section of TH-cam). Would love to know how you go!
Nice breakdown.
I stumbled across his channel last week. Normally, I would feel someone making such claims is lying, but after reviewing his videos and credentials, experience, I can see he is legit. As you said, it's not exactly conversational, but more like limited conversations on selected topics, in 30 days, but that is still very respectable to achieve in a month.
So, yes, he is legit, but folks need to understand what is involved commitment wise and what he means by "conversational in 30 days"
I figured as much and good to know my assessment of him wasn’t off base.
@Evildea however, I wonder if he makes the same claims for Asian languages.
Would you accept his "30 day to being conversational" for Mandarin? I doubt a person can say much, even devoting 5 hours a day, in Chinese.
That’s a good point and probably actually detrimental for a language like Chinese where you should delay speaking until you know you can at least do the tones correctly.
I stumbled across his channel recently myself. I am at 1,400 hours of Spanish comprehensible input and I am starting to speak now. I think his matrix format of picking a topic and creating questions and answers in different tenses is going to be helpful to improve my speaking.
After 1,400 hours of CI in Spanish how would you rate your understanding of the language?
Language Learning is such a hassle that 99% of youtubers have to lie about the time and effort requirments just so they can sell their programs 😂 not many would wanma hear that it will take 2+ year of consistancy. This is also the reality of fitness today. People hop in steroids after a short time in the gym because they cant wait for the long term results anymore. And i feel like polyglot are minicing this trend of promising fast results
Yeeeeeeap, luckily I don’t give a shit and will just call it out as I see it cause ain’t no body able to cancel me as I don’t work in the language space lol muahaha.
@@Evildeawe need more people calling them out, thanks for your service 🫡
Well, after listening to all that stuff, I keep coming to conclusion that the most precious resource is time. Those, who work full-time, will probably progress more slowly, if ti comes to language learning. Military people, learning languages and using this method, have much more time, given exactly for this. Of course, they will do it quicker than a full-time employee, learning a language when he\she is off.
I'm sure, anybody would have a linguistic progress, if they didn't have to spend time on work and other worries and other errands and chores.
Yeap, the military method just came down to raw hours. Just hit you with as many hours of constant practice. Anyone with absolutely nothing else to do but learn will make amazing progress.
Yeah, I found that I learned English, Spanish, and Japanese so much faster being in school as a kid than working full time now and trying to learn languages on the side. I am lucky if I have an hour a day for my target languages now with my jobs and being a parent.
That's a lot similar to a famous method in Spain, it's called the "Vaughan Systems". A lot of sentence structures or frames that are used to generate other sentences and then repetion to fix it in your mind.
I’m going to need to look into this “Vaughan System” as I haven’t heard of it before.
Loving the amount of uploads! Hope the trip in China is going well so far
Going great so far!
This could have been a line... a circle... he chose a pyramid?
I was in the US Navy. My command found out I spoke a few languages. I was then used more than the ones these guys trained for the job. Add in that these trained by our military to translate are used in certain niches and areas, but my command could have me talk to the civilian contractors fixing our A.C. unit in the shop. I was grabbed by a friend to translate breaking news to find out if their wives were on a derailed train, and that is how my command found out I spoke and read Japanese. (They were not on that train.) I had been in the military 6 months and stationed in Japan for just over a month.
This guy's method is okay, but he explains it weird. I may have to watch again to make sure I understood how he does things. Honestly, I struggled following a bit.
Yeap, it was explained in a really odd way. For all I know, I completely misunderstood him lol.
That’s also do you get extra pay for speaking those languages? When I was in if you could pass a language test you could get extra pay.
@Evildea We don't get paid for our jobs specifically. We get a base pay across the military depending on what rank we are. Then perks are added for being overseas or at war. So, nope. I did enjoy using a language I worked so hard at, though.
Very interesting as jobs in the Australian army are ranked into pay grades. So certain jobs start at certain pay grades then it goes up based on rank and everything else you described.
Fairly disappointed that the military method isn't a bellicose drill sergeant shouting at you. "You call this grinding, maggot?!"
Haha almost spit my drink visualising that :D
The US military has a similar program where it's very intensive
Love your videos, keep on grinding!
Will do! Grind baby grind!
Reminds me of my college Spanish 101. The textbook was 3 pages in English and the rest of the textbook was all Spanish.
Hope you do more videos like this. Very entertaining and informative.
Got plenty more coming :)
I'm curious how much the military deployment language model differs from the Mormon missionary deployment language learning model.
Them lads find out where they're going with limited time, and have to learn the language of their destination
I’m also very curious. I’d love to do one of their courses just to see for myself. I get the feeling it would be similar but probably longer and more intense due to needing to converse about religion.
Thank you for an honest assessment
No problem mate
Yikes, he's a mason with that pyramid!
Thanks for doing this review.
I think the gent presents this info. in his way as either / both he enjoys it &/ or he's working with military personnel (?).
Fwiw about govt. language teaching A1 is 'survival' , B2 ( lf I'm correct ?) Is 'workable', etc..until.C2 is' fluent ' but have an interpreter to a) don't let other side know you know; b) gives you more time to reply.
Haha wouldn’t surprise me if he is a secret mason and he didn’t realise he was accidentally just letting it shine through his teaching :p
a lot of stuff in the beginning doesnt really matter. just learn basic grammar and words. intermediate is where things matter more and there are wrong methods
I’d say the exception is definitely learning correct pronunciation. The one thing people need to do yet many forget.
Saludon Evildea. From someone who has studied at the ADF School of languages, the way you described it is quite different to the experience I had there a few years ago. A bit too much to write here but hopefully we’ll meet up when you’re back in Sydney. With regards to this video, i watched it when it first came out. From the title I thought it might offer some value, but came to the conclusion that my life/language learning ability was not going to be enhanced in any way, and I stopped watching when he drew the sun above the pyramid 🤣. A bit too gimmicky for me. Yes there’s some concepts there, but like you said nothing to do with the pyramid 🤣
No problem on the dropping out early haha. It got kind of abstract after that point. Yeap, chat when I’m back!
Michel Thomas
Used as an introduction and for grammar structure. (cheat sheets or you need an instructor or an AI instructor)
Personal computer generated new vocabulary
I use Clozemaster, Kanshudo and other stuff.
I don't think it's really generating new vocabulary that well.
Military List
Yes, No, Stop, Hands Up, Sit, Stand up, Food, Water etc.
DLI Headstart (Computer animated) What in the WORLD is going on? Makes you wonder sometimes...
Speaking structure
Has merit
If that was a thing but no one does it. (funny)
Plenty of random sentences though.
Very interesting. I had head of the Michel Thomas method before but never really explored it.
If you create a video with a title like "Learning a language takes over 6 months", you'll get 10 views.
In this day and age, people are abhorred with the idea of spending more than a few months of their precious lives to learn something that will allow them to get deeper insights into a new culture, be able to create stronger bonds, read literature in the original, watch movies, understand humor. Heck, some people think you can learn a language in 10 hours (having in mind the objective of finding a foreign partner) or 2 months (because they need it professionally, and they swear they can't spend more than 30 minutes daily).
While my English is far from great, it's good enough for me to teach English to Brazilians (where about 90% of people speak no English). Once a girl asked to me how long would it take for her to achieve a level like mine. I said "It took me about 10 years". The deception in her face was palpable. Never will I say something like that to anyone, if I plan to continue teaching English.
This is true to a degree. A long time ago I did tutoring before becoming a programmer. This usually helped weed out those who were serious about learning from those who would give up in a few sessions. At that time I was teaching English to Chinese who had very poor English so had to use a lot of visual clues, images, and my limited Chinese to get the idea across.
....Almost all videos has click baity titles....it's the name of the game to get views
It is too a degree which is why in this case I don’t fault him too hard.
The stories I heard from my army time wasn't great with the lanugage school. Very intense. Super high wash out rate and a high suicide rate, and this is with people who tested well in learning languages. Yikes. I'm a little surprised they have a Spanish teacher though. A big part of it is you learn what they need and Spanish-English is in comparatively high suppy. Anyway google says the language school is 36-64 weeks. I mean you "can" speak any language on day one, but what's that mean? I can teach someone "Saluton, kiel vi fartas?" in 15 seconds and you can walk through a kongreso like a champ.
And not to critique the Army's language school, I watched a documentary about the US in Vietnam. There was an interpreter there. His VN was not good. It was like Peggy Hill level. Maybe in a military context, commands and such, it's enough to get the thought across, but it wasn't anything worth writing home to mama about. haha.
Somewhat related there is a military "jump-start" program website program for learning languages, free online. I used it in the start of VN. It used at least the northern and southern accents. It wasn't terrible (especially for free), but a lot of vocab (bomb, sniper, enemy, etc) isn't likely to come up unless you are military or into playing Call of Duty or something.
On the clickbait title. I saw one recently "I learned guitar in 30 days (as a pianist)" I mean it's interesting. You "learned" guitar or did you "spend 30 days learning guitar"?
Please don't every use the term "reaction channel" but it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts on Scott Young's year without English.
th-cam.com/video/-485Kdr2Ltc/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/6UFU_i5KWAQ/w-d-xo.html
He seems pretty transparent on his successes and failures, but I often think of xiaomanyc and when he "learned" VN. Again, my VN is not good at all, and I could tell he was being over generous to himself with his subtitles. I always thought it would be funny to do a parody video "White guy speaks flawless Esperanto to shocked locals." Walk into McDonalds and order a milkshake with all the goofy noises and stuff.
Anyway, enjoy China. I've heard China has expanded its rail system and you've travelled there before. It'd be interesting to note how it's changed.
Yes I've heard it said that Military language learning sucks...I also think US language ie FSI manuals are not that hot. The problem is properly speaking a language takes many years and that isnt really workable for most people esp in the Army.
Your idea for the Esperanto video is actually something I’ve already partially filmed but need some help to finish from some friends so it’s something you can expect to see after I’m back from China haha.
That military jump start program sounds kind of interesting because I am actually into a lot of gaming. However I’ve probably learned the majority of those words it would teach already. But a very cool resource nonetheless!
@@twodyport8080 I'd guess that US Army linguists are succesful in spite of their training, not because of it. My hat off to them.
Me and you are on the same algorithm if you seen that lol
I’ve heard that from a few commenters that they’re getting the same shares as me haha
@Evildea evildea army 🪖 lol
The grinders haha
I know the video is pretty old, but I’d still love to hear your thoughts on the language learning method the author uses. th-cam.com/video/hin1HGhbGdo/w-d-xo.html
Will check it out and if it turns out to be something I can provide some insight on then I’ll drop it on the channel sometime in the near future :)
Yeah this guy has some pretty whacky ideas, especially his video where he comes up with methods for verbs inside bubbles and always works in a boxing metaphor. I have to say I disagree with almost all of it.
Please check out Will Hart. He speaks near native Chinese in supposedly just a year. While I think he is lying about that, his methods are also ones I agree with, tho so worth a check out.
I’ve seen a video of Will Hart ages ago. I remember the claim at the time he was a year and half. I’ll definitely do a proper dive on him in an upcoming video. His Chinese is legit but yes I want to investigate the claim.
@Evildea ah yeah youre right it was a year and a half, he has a few ones, one where he talks about his methods, which is just great advice.
And one is an interview, which, call me cynical he is selling a course so...
I didn’t realise he was selling a course! Well, you had my curiosity but now you have my attention. I shall definitely check it out further.
Telling an English speaker to 'calm down' might get your stabbed😂. However, the equivalent in Spanish is very common and expected.
Edit for spelling 🙄
Random insight for when I do start on Spanish haha
In Portuguese.
- Calma! (calm)
- Eu tô calmo!!! 😡 (I am calm)
@RogerRamos1993 so it's ok to tell someone to calm down in Portuguese too? That's fabulous. Thank you!
His method does not work. That's my opinion. What you could achieve, of course, are some chunks in a language to prepare a visit in China for example to "break the ice", no question, "ni hao, wo de zhong guo pengyoumen dui bu qi wo de zhong wen bu tai hao wo men shuo ying yu, hao de", "xie xie zai jian". But for a real communication you need at least 1000 vocables, a simple one and for a decent communication you need 3000 vocables which is impossible with his method. I told him, if you have an advanced level of A2 minimum his method is applicable to achieve B1 .... C2, but not in 30 days. I do have a different opinion on the Hyperpolyglott method, that might work, but only if you do the work, and he asks for an extremely amount of work, which almost no one is able to do over three months. Reading 1000 sentences every day is a lot, an extrem amount of work. Anyway, I will try it. The Hyperpolyglott method, not the military cheat method which in any case will not work.
Feel free to drop back here after 30 days and give me your assessment. Or even send me an email (can be found in the info section of TH-cam). Would love to know how you go!