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Benny’s Language Hacking Guide Review

Posted on March 15, 2012 by ハヴネス

I put this is in my recommended products page quite some time ago and have been meaning to a proper review of it for a while now. Benny the Irish Polyglot is a champion of the output method of language learning, and whilst I don’t learn exactly the way he does, there’s a lot of merit in his Language Hacking Guide, which has grown in size and scope and is now hosted on its own page. So, before I go into a full-blown review of this product, let me introduce you to Benny and recap what the output method is.

Benny the Irish Polyglot is an Irish guy (no, he doesn’t drink for those of you who like to stereotype) who travels around the world learning languages in short amounts of time. Typically, he aims to be functional in a language after a mere 3 months, and he’s very successful at what he does. Now, his level of the language, while being remarkable in a short time period, would probably not land him a job in whatever country he happens to be in, and he definitely couldn’t attend a university there, but he still functions better than most foreigners do! With that said, allow me to recap the output method.

If the input method is learning through primarily reading and listening, then the output method is learning through speaking. It is Benny’s belief that you should start speaking from day one, and learn how to speak and understand a language by speaking, writing, etc. He’s learned quite a few languages this way, including Kingon, and is currently well on his way towards his goal in Mandarin Chinese.

So, why did I buy this ebook? For starters, I do like to include some output in my own method. My method is a combination that consists mostly of input and academic with a dose of output in there as well. However, when I’m tutoring students (I tutor in economics and psychology) who don’t speak English very well, I do like to be able to use some of their language. Basically, when rephrasing doesn’t work, I often switch to whatever language it is they speak and meet them in the middle.

Because of this, I have to be able to speak at least some of the language quickly, and hopefully be capable in the language just a few months into our studying lessons. For this purpose alone I bought The Language Hacking Guide, and I credit it to much of the success I’ve had in this venture.

First of all, the guide dispels a lot of myths regarding language learning and focuses on your mentality. It’s not about specific tools (I suppose this would be difficult to do because the focus of this guide is on learning in general, not geared toward a specific language), but about a philosophy on learning and how to implement learning by speaking on day one. As such, if you’re looking for lesson plans, etc., then this book simply isn’t for you.

If I had to compare it something, I’d say it’s kind of like The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast, except with the focus on output.

Anyway, this is a book I highly recommend, especially if you travel a lot. If you want to learn a new language well enough to communicate with natives, but not necessarily hold down a job, or need a way to learn quickly, then this is an excellent book for you.

Categories: Products | Tags: Guide, hacking, language

Japanese – The Good and the Bad

Posted on December 9, 2011 by ハヴネス

2 Comments

Today was supposed to be a Friday review, but that’s taking a while to get finished, probably due to my penchant for developing writer’s block, and also because I’m just a dirty procrastinator. So, today I’m actually going to write about what I like about the Japanese language and what I dislike about it. Maybe I can generate some conversation in the comments, because I’d love to hear about what my readers like and dislike about Japanese.

I should add a disclaimer in here: I’m not trying to be negative with anything I say. Not loving absolutely everything about a language and/or culture isn’t a bad thing. I’m an American, and I don’t love everything about English or America.

What I Like:

1. Politeness levels is something that a lot of learners dislike. At the very least, the ones I’ve met dislike that the Japanese language makes it seem like not everyone is equal, and we here in the west strive for equality among everyone. True, you must treat your superiors in a more respectful way than, say, your peers, children, etc. However, this also allows you to express yourself more fully, I think.

Think about it this way. If I refer to myself as “ore” that says a lot for my personality, as opposed to referring to myself as “watakushi” – the total opposite. Just the way you refer to yourself tells a lot about you, all the way from your age (in some cases) to gender, and even towards your general attitude. In some situations you can be much more humble just by what you say.

2. Knowing Japanese really opens you up to all sorts of media like anime, video games, books, manga, movies, and TV shows that just don’t make it to America or any other English speaking nation. Unlike some people who have to wait for fansubs or an English walkthrough of certain shows or games, you have access to it right away. You don’t have to wait for it!

This is actually one of the reasons why I started learning in the first place. I’m a Tenchi Muyo fan and really wanted to read the “True Tenchi Novels” and get all the information that the Japanese fans could get. Despite the show’s success in the west, we never got translations of any of the books or games. Sure, we got some manga, but they don’t compare to the novels. The novels were written by the creator himself, and they’re kind of like The Lord of the Rings’ book, The Silmarillion.

3. Knowing the language gives one great insight into the culture, as any language will give you greater insight into the culture in which it’s spoken. Now, you can know a language without having a full grasp in the culture surrounding it, but I don’t think you have have a full grasp on a culture without knowing the language, or at least understanding how it works.

4. Knowing a second language has proven to help build problem solving skills and flexible thinking, and what language could do that for the English speaker better than Japanese? Well, maybe Chinese, or Korean, or any other eastern language, but that’s beside the point. Knowing a second language does wonders for one’s brain because it forces you to think about things differently than you normally do.

What I Dislike:

1. Breaking into casual Japanese! In my own method for Japanese (it changes depending on the language), I did a little traditional study first – just enough to get the fundamentals of grammar down and find some good reference books – so I would feel more prepared when I started learning primarily through immersion. Needless to say, when I first came face-to-face with casual, spoken Japanese, it was a hair yanking experience.

Now, casual Japanese is great once you make its acquaintance, but it can be a real pain beforehand. This might just be because I’m a grammar nazi (I know, linguistically speaking there’s no such thing as grammar, but…) and when participating in casual conversation, the Japanese seem to just throw all their rules right out the window. Let me use this analogy: it’s like someone learning English and then logging into a chat room. Making heads and tails of it is an extraordinary feat at first.

2. Too vague, or too detailed? That is the question. Japanese can be kind of vague sometimes, but all language have that potential. However, when the Japanese aren’t beating around the bush, they’re being way too detailed. Sometimes the way they talk can seem backwards to us English speakers.

3. Nihonjinron, or what makes Japan special, isn’t primarily about language, but it insists the the Japanese language can only be fully grasped by those who are ethnically Japanese. It’s a bit racist, and there are a surprising number of Japanese who buy into this garbage. It’s kind of like American exceptionalism, except for Japan. There’s a number of weird things this philosophy promotes, but to say that one’s ethnicity plays a role in how well someone learns Japanese (as well as providing a convenient excuse for why the Japanese can’t learn other languages) is just bizarre. I mean, it has even less credibility than saying that adults can’t learn language. There’s enough evidence now to prove both these things wrong, yet people still cling to them.

4. Learning Japanese somehow makes one a weebo, or wapanese. Sometimes, when someone’s reasons for learning Japanese began with manga, anime, or some other thing normally associated almost exclusively with “otaku” culture, people assume that you want to be Japanese. I never quite understood this one. I suppose that wanting to learn Finnish in order to read Kalevala then means that one wants to be Finnish, too! Wait, I am part Finnish…

Seriously, as I’ve said many times, there’s no wrong reason to learn a language. Maybe there are some people out there who are unhappy with their ethnicity and want to be Japanese, or maybe they just want to seem like they know Japanese, but undertaking the language for real is something to be proud of and it doesn’t mean that you’re not happy with your ethnicity, whatever it may be.

In Conclusion

So there we go. Japanese is a great language to learn, yet it can be a pain. I’d be very interested to hear what you like or don’t like about the language. You can include cultural points as well.

Categories: Insight, Uncategorized | Tags: Japanese, language, Nihonjinron, otaku, weebo

Method Bashing

Posted on October 27, 2011 by ハヴネス

No Comments

When starting off on your language-learning journey, and even long after it’s ended, it’s easy to get caught up in methods and what methods work the best. Now, on this site I endorse every method, whether you’re a university student or a self-learner; whether you eat, drink, and sleep textbooks, immerse yourself into the language, or speak your way to fluency. I don’t care because I know that everyone learns differently.

That’s why I hate it when people out there try and make it sound like there’s only one good way to learn. I’ve come across people who look at input methods and say, “Whatever happened to hard work! Is this some new age cult of language learning!” and I’ve come across people who bash on the output method saying, “You know you’re still not good at it!” These people are ignorant, and I don’t use that word often or take it lightly.

You see, there’s a lot of ways to learn a language, and I myself use different methods depending on what my language goals are. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to feel like you’re working harder than anyone else by using textbooks and taking classes, but there’s also nothing wrong by feeling like you’re learning naturally. It’s not a weird cult, and it’s not a fad that will pass, for people are getting results.

Learning is a process that’s different for everyone. Some people are hands off, some are hands on. Some people need visual cues, others audio. Are any of these wrong?

Sorry for the short post, but I just had to get this one out there because too many people right now are hating on other methods of learning.

Categories: Insight | Tags: Japanese, language, learning, method

Success is a Mindset

Posted on October 11, 2011 by ハヴネス

2 Comments

When most people think of success, they tend to think of the past and present tense; what they have accomplished and what benefits are they reaping right now. For me, success isn’t something tangible, nor is an accomplishment I’ve already made or a reward I’m enjoying at this very moment. For me, success is a mindset, and it’s taken a lot of hard failures for me to realize this. Success in a language, or in anything for that matter, starts with your mind. You can’t get anything accomplished if you don’t put your all into it, and you won’t put your all into it if you don’t think it’ll be worth it. It’s more important than your method you use (as you can see, on this site I advocate them all, so long as they work for you), and it’s more important than what book you use, what blog you read, or what website you’re engrossed in.

Growing up, the people around me and my own experiences taught me the greatest false lesson ever: never get your hopes up. I’ve always been a staunch pessimist, and I my infrequent ventures into optimism typically resulted in sorrow. Looking back, this was probably the result of that little downer voice inside telling me not to get my hopes too high. Well, I think now that we should, because nothing will get accomplished if we don’t.

Your mindset has a huge impact on everything in your life, from your health to your wealth, and if you want to learn a language, you have to first believe you can. Everything else comes second, regardless of what those pesky linguists think. You see, they think that language success is dependent on a certain age, and more and more research is showing that it isn’t. Your first language is largely influenced by age, but second language acquisition isn’t. The only way you won’t learn is if you don’t think you will, kind of like my mom.

You know those people who are millionaires or billionaires and they insist that it’s possible for anyone to do that kind of thing if they want? Yeah, most of us just roll our eyes. If someone came to me today and told me that he was going to go make $1 million, I’d probably laugh at him, and maybe even tell him he’s crazy, just like how sometimes people tell me that Japanese is impossible to learn for such and such bogus reasons. Still, people do go out and make that kind of money. How? Well, they get that kind of mindset, and before you know it, you can’t deter them from that path. They really want it, they research what they need to know, avoid the scams (probably only after being scammed a lot), and rise triumphant, having never let failure stop them. Some of them even pretend they have that kind of money before they do, which leads me to a post by Khatzumoto about pretending to be Japanese even though you aren’t. It’s the same thing, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, to borrow his words exactly.

Now, I wouldn’t know what to do with that kind of money, but I’m a language learner, and I can say that the same thing applies to us. If you want to learn a language, avoid the nay-sayers and set out to do it. You might fall down flat, get scammed by bogus software, and hit that intermediate stage where you think to yourself, “When will I get good?” but if you keep at it, I promise you won’t fail.

Japanese isn’t hard, if you don’t let yourself think it is. Really, it’s just different, and thinking that different = hard will make sure you don’t ever achieve success. You won’t ever put that kind of effort into something that you feel is too hard for you, and some people, like me, run from those kinds of challenges. I like different things, but difficult things?

For example, when I was in fifth grade, my teacher required us to spend a week on foreign language. I’m not sure what this was supposed to accomplish, but that was idea. We had to speak an hour a week sitting in front of Rosetta Stone (ugh!) and learn either French or Spanish. Now, my teacher, though well-meaning, decided to let us know that French is much harder than Spanish. I immediately got it in my head that French is hard, and since I don’t like hard, I should stick to Spanish. Guess what? I still can’t learn French. I’m 25 and French seems difficult to me, and it’s all because of that teacher. I enjoyed that teacher, but for any teachers out there, do not tell your students that something is hard, because the ones who think like me will never get it.

Getting your mindset to think successfully isn’t a recipee for disaster. In fact, it’s the only reason anyone has ever accomplished anything in this world. If we all thought, “I shouldn’t get my hopes up,” or, “That’ll never happen,” then it won’t. Granted, there are plenty of times when I thought like that and good things still managed to come of it, but so many more things didn’t happen because I wouldn’t allow myself to consider being successful.

Don’t let bogus research, teachers, or nay-sayers get you down. If you want to learn Japanese, you can and you will. You just have to believe you will. I know this was a sappy post, but this is seriously the very best piece of advice I can give you before I go continue on my way of reviewing different language learning tools.

Good luck!

Categories: Insight | Tags: Japanese, language, learn, mindset, success

Rocket Japanese Reviews?

Posted on October 10, 2011 by ハヴネス

3 Comments

I’ll be doing my Friday review at some point, since I was too busy last Friday talking about the poopcycle. Anyway, today I wanted to make a brief point about language-learning software, specifically, products like Rocket Japanese that have affiliate marketers clinging to them and putting up false “reviews”. I’d been considering trying this software and reviewing it myself, but I decided to Google “Rocket Japanese review” first, as I like to get a gist of what the software does before delving in, and the company’s website, while looking promising, yet overpriced and hyped up, isn’t exactly unbiased. Unfortunately, every single review I clicked on was basically the same thing!

Here’s my problem with language-learning software: it’s so easy to get scammed. Most of the good reviews that come from an independent website are made by people who either didn’t use the software themselves or who are relatively not knowledgeable about language learning. Every single site I visited had affiliate links to the software after a “review” that was basically just more crap from the official page.

BEWARE OF HONEST JOHNS!!!

There’s nothing wrong with affiliate links. I use them myself occasionally, and it’s a great way to support your website; and I don’t want it to sound like you can’t trust anyone’s review ever, but spewing crap that you don’t understand just because you want to make a buck is just plain wrong and dishonest, and it makes it easy to scam people. Most of these sites I visited also touted Rosetta Stone as being the best thing since sliced bread. Why? Because they get a big commission from getting people to buy expensive products that shouldn’t cost half as much.

Here’s my beef with language learning software. Most of it is very basic and can be learned elsewhere in a more effective way and for a cheaper price. If you’re an inputter or immersion person, then occasionally these products look good, but you can’t get immersion from a piece of software. You have to modify your surroundings yourself, otherwise the only “immersion” you get is when you sit at your computer, and that doesn’t count. It also get boring very quickly.

It also sounds good, such as being able to watch videos of the hiragana/katakana/kanji being drawn, but you can find such videos for free on youtube, and Remembering the Kanji and Remembering the Kana are much, much better than anything you’ll find in software. In fact, you can learn the kana for free on the Internet, and it’s easy to teach it to yourself. I used Power Japanese, which is a language learning software, but the kana was the only thing it did right, so I actually recommended people torrent it.

Why am I ranting like this? I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking to yourself, “What an incoherent blog post! What’s the point?” Yes, it’s incoherent, but the point is that you should always think twice before accepting someone’s advice to buy software, especially if you’re not sure the person is the real deal. Seriously, I doubt most of these people actually speak the language, and I’m tempted to leave comments in Japanese on their websites and blogs just to see if they can read it and respond.

So, how can you pick out if a review is genuine?

1. Does the review sound biased? This is always your first tell-tale sign. Some reviews just sound terribly biased, and they usually back up their claims with either regurgitated information from the official site, or by “facts” that have no real source or are common knowledge and have no bearing on how well the products performs in relation to these “facts”. Some products are good enough that people praising them sound biased (I’m guilty of this), but when it comes from a blog with only one post, or a tiny little website that does nothing but offer a few reviews, then you can bet someone is just trying to get money.

2. Are there any other product reviews? This is an easy one to spot. Check out the whole site and see what else is being reviewed. If the site is dedicated solely to Rocket Japanese, Rosetta Stone, etc., then that person only has one thing in mind: to make money off you. If all they review are various expensive products (even inexpensive ones, so long as it costs money), and then give out a few “tips” and nothing else, then that person probably doesn’t even speak the language well and just wants to get your money. When you have people recommending both JapanesePod101.com and Rosetta Stone, you know something’s fishy. People who want you to succeed and who are passionate about the language will probably have a whole site dedicated to it, such as this site or AJATT or Tofugu, and not just try and sell you stuff.

3. Does the person reviewing the software tell you a tale that’s hard to believe? I found a blogger blog while looking for a review, actually, and it told a bizarre tale of how Rocket Japanese worked for him. First off, he goes on and on about how amazing the product is, followed by a statement to back up his claims in which he basically says he knows what he’s talking about because he once almost hired a private tutor to teach him Japanese. It was horribly expensive and she (the tutor) said it would take (gasp) 4 months to learn!

Firstly, you shouldn’t come to the conclusion that private tutors, classes, schools, etc. are the only way to learn Japanese! And secondly, what was supposed to be accomplished in 4 months? Conversational fluency? Total fluency? If you want conversational fluency in under 4 months, check out Benny the Irish Polyglot’s site first, then check out everything else. Otherwise, this guy is pulling our legs.

Now, that’s not to say that I dismiss all software. As I said, I slowly get around to checking it out, and I will eventually get to check out Rocket Japanese and give a review of it, but most websites make me not want to. You really have to be careful of some of these “reviews” because they aren’t honest. Please, please, please be careful!

If you want an idea of what these kinds of websites look like, click here. Or here’s that blog “review” that didn’t make much sense. I’m not trying to pick on these people, but I want people to see what sticks out in my mind as a biased review. Heck, I saw one website where the reviewer, after allegedly learning Japanese with Rocket Japanese, thought fortune cookies were Japanese, not Chinese. FAIL!

Fluent in 4 months through a few hours a week with a private tutor? Give me a break! That doesn’t even come close to making sense, even from a conversational standpoint! And Rocket Japanese made him totally fluent in under that time? Is that what I’m supposed to believe?

Beware of Honest John, because he’ll sell you to a creepy place like Pleasure Island and ruin your life if it means he’ll get some cash out of it. Now, most affiliate marketers aren’t like this, as I’ve already said, and I doubt those reviewers I linked to are intentionally trying to hurt anyone. It’s just that when it comes to learning a language, you can’t just expect one book, one software, or one website to take you the whole way. Trying to convince people that they’ll get fluent (what a vague word) solely through their program is wrong.

I know I have a lot of links on this site, but I don’t make much money through affiliate sales off of them, and if this website is any indication, I’m only trying to share what I’ve found to have worked. I’m an active language learner myself, and I love Japan. I just want people to be careful and watch out for products that may or may not work because someone put up a site to promote it.

Categories: Insight, Products, Websites | Tags: affiliate, dishonest, fluency, Japanese, language, rocket, Rosetta, scam, software, Stone

Why Are YOU Learning Japanese?

Posted on January 28, 2011 by ハヴネス

1 Comment

I was debating whether to stick this in a blog post or not since I’m writing an ebook regarding languages (I’m not giving anything away yet), and I was going to cover this early on in the book. Regardless, I’m tired of hearing academics, fellow language enthusiasts, and pseudo intellectuals going on and on about how you have to have a “good” reason to learn a language or fail. They go on and on about their superior motivations ranging from “I’m learning X language because of my heritage!” or “I’m moving to X country and need to speak the language.” They’ll usually carry attitudes of, “You can’t learn X language because of music, movies, TV, or books! That’s not a good reason!” “Bullcrap!” is how I respond to that. You just need a reason to keep you learning, whatever that reason is.

Sure, a lot of people who are learning Japanese because of anime tend to not do so good in class. In psychology it was emphasized that correlation does not equal causation. Perhaps they just aren’t suited to academicizing languages. At any rate, I’ve also known people who took up learning a language for heritage reasons, or to connect with relatives who may still live in the “old country” only to find that they, too, lost the motivation to continue.

The biggest reason people fail is not because of the reason they have for learning a language, but because they haven’t yet found the way that they learn the very best. If you have a “shallow” reason for learning a language, I encourage you to learn. If you have a “deep” and “profound” reason, then I also encourage you! Just learn. That’s all there is to it.

Let me share with you some of my reasons for learning languages, just to give those with their noses stuck in the direction of the sky something to think about.

Italian = This was my first real language undertaking. The reason? I could tell you that I started Italian because my mother’s side of the family has a rich background in Italy, but that would be a lie. The actual reason was because I enjoy listening to Andrea Bocelli and wanted to understand the language.

Japanese = Anime… Yeah, I did eventually come to appreciate Japan for all that it is – good, bad, and ugly – but I initially was just another anime enthusiast.

Finnish = Because a certain author was strongly influenced by said language when creating a certain Elvish language. Another I could easily attribute to heritage reasons, but that really had little bearing on my desire to learn this language.

Old Norse and Norwegian = These are the only languages I’m learning for heritage reasons and an initial and deep fascination with the history of this country, and it isn’t quite as fun, let me be the first to say.

So there. No wrong reason to learn a language, just as there’s no wrong way to eat a certain candy. The whole idea is to learn your target language, not get into elitist debates about whose desire is more genuine. So please, stop the nonsense.

By the way, I revised my LingQ review. Please check it out if you haven’t done so.

Categories: Insight | Tags: language, languages, reason, way, wrong

Review for LingQ – Redone!

Posted on March 11, 2010 by ハヴネス

7 Comments

I really wanted to do a review for LingQ, and I wound up doing a long and crazy post about things that didn’t have much to do with LingQ. As such, I am redoing this post in hopes of better clarifying what LingQ is and how well it works.

For starters, anyone even remotely familiar with Steve Kauffman will know that he’s a huge supporter of what is normally called the input method. That basically means that you learn a language simply through exposure to it. No grammar drills, just listening, reading, and anything else you can think of that will expose you to the language. As such, that is exactly what LingQ strives to do.

The most frustrating thing about learning an Asian language through the input method, in my opinion, is that if you’re reading a book or a non-editable pdf, if you come across a kanji you’re not sure how to read, you can’t just type it into a dictionary. That frustrates me a lot! That’s why LingQ is so good about that. You just hover your mouse over a word and read the hiragana and romajii for it, not to mention get the definition of the word.

Unfortunately, as this thumbnail shows here, LingQ does make some mistakes. In this image “sai” is mistranslated. 89Sai actually means 89-years-old. The other big problem, and this exists solely in Asian languages, is that some words may be split apart into two words, in which case you typically won’t get a definition for either of them.

For example, 勉強します may be split into 勉強します. To remedy this, just highlight the whole word and LingQ will give you the definition for it instead of trying to define two seperate words. It’s a pain, and this trick doesn’t necessarily work 100% of the time, but it’s better than nothing at all.

Here’s an image of an Italian lesson, and while my Italian is not as good as it should be, I do know enough to say that in this very beginner’s reading there aren’t any mistakes like you find in Japanese. It’s perfect, actually.

I wouldn’t let the mistakes get to you, though. Since it’s free to register, you can always go ahead and become a member and quit if you decide you don’t like it without being out of anything. I personally use LingQ on occassion. I really wish that Finnish and Norwegian were offered on it (maybe someday), but for now there’s a good selection of languages, and Japanese and Chinese will probably be worked on so that the mistakes are eliminated or at least diminished.

What does LingQ offer right now?

English
French
Russian
Spanish
German
Italian
Chinese
Japanese
Korean
Portuguese
Swedish

And that’s a pretty good list!

There’s also a forum with the free membership, and if you’re willing to pay there’s a few other features, such as having your writing corrected or conversation practice, but that’s all stuff you can get for free elsewhere. Just head over to Lang-8 and type some posts to be corrected, make friends with native speakers, and video chat with them. Yes, you can work around LingQ to keep it free.

So head on over and support the site. Like I said, there’s a few gripes I have with it, but all in all I endorse it, especially if you’re learning a non-Asian language.

Categories: Products, Websites | Tags: language, languages, lingq, review

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