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Title: How to Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and on Your Own by Barry M. Farber ISBN: 0-8065-1271-7 Publisher: Citadel Trade Pub. Date: December, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.35 (48 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great way to gain knowledge on how to learn any language
Comment: I have been taking French for years and in my fourth year of college French I was not feeling like I really had any working knowledge of the language. Plus, I was feeling very discouraged that this language was so difficult to tackle and was tired of learning grammar when my knowledge of literal English grammar is minimal.
Berry Farber's book is fantastic as his personal experiences with learning languages is very motivating as his approach towards learning any language.
I would recommend this book if you have a desire to learn any language. Farber lays out a learning plan and offers suggestions where to start, what materials you will need, and how to actually communicate in any given language, and does so in a satisfying and suprisingly quick way. Farber even clarifies grammatical terms, so if your like me and public schools completely overlooked this topic, this book will help this transition in learning a foreign language.
Rating: 3
Summary: Very good, but with some glaring flaws
Comment: This little text is a wonderful inspiration to aspiring polyglots like myself. The book is full of the author's own experiences in falling in love with language and mastering some of the world's most difficult. He also presents his multi-track approach to starting a new language, mnemonics tips for memorization, and an overview of major world languages.
Farber's multi-track learning system is the highlight of the book. I haven't had a chance to put it to use yet, but it seems to be the most efficient and guaranteed way of learning a new language. This simple system is itself worth the cover price.
Farber also delves deeply into the scheme he uses for memorizing vocabulary. His method is based on mnemonics - associating foreign words with English phrases and amusing pictures. Unfortunately, some people (like me) simply don't find this method useful; for those with difficulty learning thousands of new words, however, it may be indispensable.
Where Farber really goes wrong is where pronunciation is involved. He completely glosses over the subject, making ridiculous claims like "there are only one or two sounds English doesn't have" and advises students to pronounce words in a way that is natural to the English tongue. What terrible advice! I don't know how Farber ever learned Chinese if he followed his own counsel. Having learned some myself, I can tell you that Chinese (for example) shares almost no common sounds with English, and that until one learns its phonology, one will not be understood. Even for a western language like French, very few phonemes are pronounced as in English. In this regard, I feel Farber is asking language students to build a house with straw instead of bricks. Once bad habits are ingrained, the whole structure will have to be torn down and rebuilt.
All in all, this book is a great tool for the language learner; but it is not without its flaws. Take it with a few grains of salt, and find out what works for you!
Rating: 3
Summary: Fun and Motivating to Read, but Nothing Earth-Shattering
Comment: This book is a lot like a diet book -- everyone knows that to lose weight you have to eat better and exercise more. It takes hard work and there are no shortcuts to a healthier body.
In the same way, there are no true shortcuts to learning a language -- you must be exposed to the language as much as possible, you must learn grammar, and you have to make plenty of mistakes. Farber acknowledges the need for all of these, and gives a handy "cheat sheet" for grammar terms you'll need to know.
Outside of that, anyone who is truly committed to learning a language is probably already doing most of what Farber recommends, so there are no earth-shattering secrets in this book. Yet, it is a fun read. If you're thinking about learning a language, or are already trying to do so, Farber's anecdotes help remind you that it CAN be done. I loved reading about how he learned Chinese to spite his Latin teacher, and how he learned Hungarian out of necessity.
In short, buy this book for a quick, fun read, but don't expect miracles.
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Title: THE QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDE TO LEARNING LANGUAGES FAST: by A.G. Hawke, A. G. HAWKE ISBN: 1581600968 Publisher: Paladin Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish by Joseph J. Keenan ISBN: 029274322X Publisher: Univ of Texas Press Pub. Date: 1994 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: 1001 Most Useful Spanish Words by Seymour Resnick ISBN: 0486291138 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 07 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $1.95 |
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Title: First Spanish Reader (Dual-Language) by Angel Flores ISBN: 0486258106 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 December, 1988 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: Worldwide Multilingual Phrase Book: Survival Skills for Over 40 Languages by Eric R. Dondero ISBN: 0971853312 Publisher: Portside Language Services Pub. Date: February, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.50 |
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