I find it interesting seeing many of the negative comments about Benny. Let me start by saying I'm not sure what level Benny has in many languages but as an American it is impressive that he at least attempts to learn languages. The whole reason I started studying Spanish a little over two years ago is because I came across a Benny vid that inspired me to do so. I am in no way fluent but I have an intermediate speaking level now and also now know quite a bit in Mandarin and only basics in Arabic. My point being is I feel it is important to build people up than tear them down. Best of luck to everyone with your language learning.
Thanks for sharing guys - great audience! I was so pleased to give a talk to a majority audience of engineers, coming from that background myself. Love Google!!
You should drop some few cool/funny foreign words/saying now and then in your talks, spice up the english language a bit.. That would be fun, and gives you the chance to show off some language skills!
I don't like showing off though. I'll use my language only if it's for genuine communication, not to say some stuff to people who won't understand it. You can find videos on my channel in various languages to see demonstrations, almost always when speaking to a native in an unscripted way. I think that's a way more effective demonstration ;) Thanks for watching!
Hi Benny. A few months ago I bought the remarkable book, Language hacking conversation course for beginners - French. However I have lost the audio cd. Where can I buy it? Thank you.
What really surprised me in this video was that this man's accent was very similar to the English accent I have adopted as a non-native speaker. I always tried to avoid the extremes of British or American accent and I ended up speaking with an Irish accent, without realizing it!
Oi Benny! Sua experiencia na Policia Federal eh um otimo exemplo de como o Brasi funciona! No seu caso a experiencia ruim virou uma estoria boa! Abracos, Marcio Silveira - Arlington, Virginia
No puedes cambiar tu altura y a nadie le importa pero si puedes cambiar tus gestos y postura corporal, muchas veces lo que importa es comunicación corporal
I am learning two languages at the same time with no worries. But I am learning them both for the long haul, no three month dead lines. BTW I started my second language ( of Esperanto) thanks to your influence!
Para mucha gente es importante hablar, por eso la idea de hablar desde el día 1, solo hablar, nada de lectura, escritura a un nivel Básico, con eso tienes ventaja sobre otros que hacen solo escritura y lectura desde el día 1
Como aumentar tu comprensión en un idioma que solo escuchas hebrkflrlejebs Probabilidad de lo que van a decir, puedo entender una palabra y sacar el contenido, puedes decirlo otra vez con otras palabras
There's no such thing as a "language hack", obviously. There are common sense tips that any decent teacher, book, or resource will teach you. Immersing yourself in another language is obviously the best way.
The Q&A should be a very juicy part of those Talks at Google. Especially if one realizes that there are very intelligent and avid-to-learn people in the audience. However, the quality of those parts in several of the videos are so low that make it quite useless. So, Google people, please try something. Subtitling those questions(less effective) or let the organizer(host) restate the questions(maybe more effective). I'm sure you guys can come up with something better.
I think that liar's and fakes should always be called out regardless of how many people they influence. A liar is a liar no matter which way you look at him or her. (He's not a Polyglot).
Some decent advice for language learning, however, I find the presenter blows smoke into our faces with his stories full of fanciful half-truths and hyperbole - Also, I checked out some of his other videos and It seems apparent that this presenter is not a polyglot - his Spanish is decent but far from comfortable. What I like about him is the confidence he gives a new language learner to not hold back. He also made a great point about learning a language you're most passionate about but if one is serious about learning a language to a high level I would absolutely not follow his methodology. If you care to learn a language to a basic/intermediate level then this may suffice but that would be the limit. Personally I prefer to learn several languages very well rather than a bit of everything and never truly command another tongue.
The point in this talk and Benny's materials is that there is a toxic idea that learning a language to a low level is somehow inherently worse than learning a language well. Unintuitive, right? It is not true. The only 'failure' is not setting a goal, and/or not achieving that goal according to one's own criteria. If the goal is to communicate essentials, crack jokes and build friendships with others, B1 or B2 is fine. Hell, there are people in my country who probably speak A2 and run small businesses. You will find there are many people who scarcely 'command' their own 'tongue'. That does not mean they cannot provide wisdom, experience, stories, richness.
@@enormousmaggotWould you mind expanding on the ‘many’ people who do not have a ‘command’ of their own mother tongue. Just curious how you judge that criteria. You missed the point of my comment; I agreed that the presenter is encouraging and there are elements to his philosophy that a language learner can utilize. The issue I see is he portrays learning a new language as easy. He contradicts himself by saying he did all this studying and couldn’t understand a word of Spanish but when he changed his strategy and just went out and talked to people everything changed and he was able to communicate confidently albeit poorly. He was able to do this as a consequence of the hard work he had previously put in. If we can respect the term ‘fluent’ and agree that fluency is a solid level of comprehension and verbal/written skills then that takes time, hard work and time. Being able to pass on wisdom has nothing to do with it - I can spend a day working with my friend from the farm and learn much wisdom without any talking at all! Benny is selling a ‘Get fluent Quick’ method that just doesn’t cut it in the real world.
