Learn japanese from some guy pdf download

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Now to learn Japanese… Loading Adrian on February 7, at pm. Keeton on February 8, at am. Submit a Comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Search for:. Check out our partner, E-Win Gaming Chairs! Popular Content. What is a JRPG? And Does It Matter? Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Just please no more brain-as-a-globe models, something that I feel seriously insults the intelligence of the reader!

View all 3 comments. Feb 02, David rated it it was ok Shelves: words-and-language , read-in , disappointing. Learning foreign languages is a topic that interests me greatly -- since retiring from my career in statistics I've made a concerted effort to achieve mastery of Spanish and French, and hope eventually to add Italian and Portuguese to that list.

Over the last few years I've given a fair amount of thought to efficient strategies for language acquisition, as well as to the challenges of switching among languages. I don't have any simple answers. Neither does Michael Erard, which is probably a point Learning foreign languages is a topic that interests me greatly -- since retiring from my career in statistics I've made a concerted effort to achieve mastery of Spanish and French, and hope eventually to add Italian and Portuguese to that list.

Neither does Michael Erard, which is probably a point in his favor. In researching this book he set out to investigate the phenomenon that he refers to excruciatingly, in my view as "hyperpolyglottery". Acknowledging the difficulties inherent in judging such concepts as "fluency" or "mastery" particularly in the case of historical figures , Erard adopts a working definition of a "hyperpolyglot" as someone who exhibits mastery of at least six distinct languages.

By studying a number of hyperpolyglots, he hopes to gain insight into the process of language acquisition. The results of his research are frankly disappointing. The book introduces us to a number of reasonably entertaining characters, though one of its primary conclusions seems to be that claims of "hyperpolyglottery" it hurts me to type that "word", it's so ugly are invariably exaggerated.

The tribe of those claiming extraordinary linguistic capacities is rife with impostors and self-promoters. And the evidence provided by the small number of people whose linguistic abilities seem genuinely exceptional amounts to little more than a series of case studies.

There are many anecdotes, but little in the way of firm conclusions. One suspects that Doctor Erard must have been a little disappointed by the results of his investigation.

I certainly was, though I give him credit for trying. View 1 comment. Jan 01, William Mego rated it liked it Recommends it for: lauguage learners and lovers. This book quickly began at 5 stars for me, but dropped to three by the end.

I did enjoy it, and I do recommend it, however. The author sets the book essentially as an epic quest to find, as the title suggests, the most extraordinary language learners. Really, we're speaking less of people who learn well, so much as people who learn many languages, followed by argument about how well these "Hyperpolyglots" learn, how deeply they learn, and to what end.

As a person who enjoys language and the learn This book quickly began at 5 stars for me, but dropped to three by the end. As a person who enjoys language and the learning of new language, I was deeply interested in this book. Beginning with a case study of one historic polyglot, for what to me felt a little long, we eventually make our way to some other historic cases, then at last to some living examples.

However, as the author comes into contact with brain researchers, and IMO hampered by his own admitted "positivism", here expressed by a need to use numerical data to squeeze meaning out of case study, we digress into a number of speculations about the functioning of the brain, accompanied by in case the author is reading, I apologize quite sincerely, but it must be said possibly the most awkward descriptive model of locations within the human brain, ever. I'm sure some people will be quite happy with it, but trying to picture hands upon a tilted inflatable globe of the world in order to picture where a discrete tissue structure isn't doing it for me.

I ended up thinking about the scene in Chaplin's The Great Dictator where the Adenoid Hynkel character dances around with a globe-balloon. The book is at it's absolute strongest in the middle, where having finally moved on from the first figure, we find other stories, and then meet some living people. At this point, you're going to be hooked. At this point, the book has earned 5 stars from me. One star was lost simply through endless re-explanations of possible causality, accompanied by "cliff-hanger" style breaks in the text implying some amazing discovery or unbelievable event.

I'm still not totally sure what jaw-dropping thing we were being lead to about Krebs' brain. Increased white matter someplace around Omaha, Nebraska or a pinkie around Gibraltar, I'll guess.

But where the book bogs down, and thus losing the other star comes nearer the end, where contradictions begin to arise. While saying there's no connection between this and that, he suggests there are. While more or less suggesting non-polyglots have a dimwitted obsession with methodology, he continually returns to breathless descriptions of it for every case study, and even closes the book with a number of suggestion sections complete with italics.

The book spends so much energy building it's own vocabulary of power words that by the end, you'll be reading sentences about neural tribes of hyperpolyglottery should that be hyperpolyglotteracy though? Yes, I spent some time just now giving it and the author a hard time.

A little less reliance on hard numbers or MORE, proving something , and a few less literary "devices" like the recapitulation-coda ending, cliffhangers, emotionally charged language where events don't warrant and this would have easily been a 5 star book.

It just gave two away by the end is all. Nov 08, Ruchira Datta rated it really liked it. Erard writes on pp. In one case recorded by British psychiatrist Felicity de Zulueta, her psychotic patient, a native English speaker, switched into Spanish because he knew that Zulueta also spoke the language.

Both were then surprised that his Erard writes on pp. Both were then surprised that his hallucinations and disordered thoughts disappeared. In three other cases, Zulueta's patients had disordered thoughts or heard voices in the language they had learned first and used most. Using a language that they spoke less frequently overall and learned later dismissed their delusions. In another case, a patient was equally psychotic in Italian and English, but heard voices only in Italian, her mother tongue.

Not only that--in English she denied that she heard voices at all, whereas in Italian, she readily admitted hearing them. Other patients hear friendly voices in their native languages, hostile ones in their second languages. A subsequent researcher quipped that the more competent an insane person was in a language, the higher their degree of psychosis. Some scientists have suggested that the extra effort of using a second language jolts people out of a deluded state into reality. Others suggest that the deeper relationship to your first language makes you less inhibited, and so more likely to express what's troubling you.

In a language learned later, you can hide from your true self. Aug 07, Louise rated it it was ok Shelves: language-studies. The author has notes, interviews, research, studies and contacts to help him study the fascinating group of people he calls hyperpolyglots - those who have mastered 7 languages or more.

If you are looking for definitive information, you won't find it here. While there is information interspersed throughout the rambling text not much of it is useful or enlightening. The book is a hodge-podge. For the few hyperpolyglots he meets, the portraits are sketchy, showing the time commitment that learning The author has notes, interviews, research, studies and contacts to help him study the fascinating group of people he calls hyperpolyglots - those who have mastered 7 languages or more.

For the few hyperpolyglots he meets, the portraits are sketchy, showing the time commitment that learning and maintaining languages takes, but little else. There is a trip to India which merely raises awareness that it is a multi-lingual country. The author's research is a compilation of internet surveys which would have little merit if there were to be a peer review.

One example of the disorganization is the issue of shadowing, which could have, if well presented, provide a clue as to how languages can be acquired. Is this tongue in cheek? It isn't until p.

Points are introduced, but just not developed. For instance, does Ziad Fazah deserve the recognition he gets, or is he a fraud? The content of this document isn't shared, but there is a quote from someone who calls it a "striking example of outward-lookingness The info is scattered such that I lost track of it all but I have the understanding that none of it is valid While there are some interesting anecdotes, this book is a missed opportunity to report on these unique language learners.

Jun 11, Daniel Clausen rated it really liked it. Is there a magic method for language acquisition? Is the ability to learn a language more hereditary or is it driven by motivation? In his book, Babel No More, Michael Erard takes us on a fascinating journey -- one that is both personal and intellectual -- to discover the secrets of polyglots.

This journey starts with the myth of Giuseppe Mezzofanti, an Italian cardinal and university professor who is said to have known over seventy languages. From here, he travels to meet modern day polyglots, interviews researchers of multilingualism, explores the neuroscience of language acquisition, collects data on polyglots through surveys, and performs statistical analysis. As a work of scientific exploration, this book is a breath of fresh air.

Instead of working from an established thesis and then presenting evidence, this book functions as part intellectual exploration, part detective story. However, perhaps the best way to describe the kind of research Erard undertakes is to use his own terminology. In order to answer his questions on the nature of polyglots, he has to borrow something from different traditions of research. Thus, the book uses a little bit of neuroscience, a little bit of investigative journalism, a little bit of history, a little bit of anthropological field research, and more than a little gumption to uncover its answers.

The book is also brightened by personal insights into his own rationale for seeking out the best language learners. One of these moments comes when Erard meets Alexander Arguelles.

Rather than a bright social butterfly with divine talents, we instead find a down-on-his-luck hermit who spends his days in a cramped study room. The author is cognizant of this -- our minds are wired to look for reductionist answers. But what if there are no reductionist answers?

What if our questions lead to many stories with diverging conclusions? If the book stands as a formal challenge to a social science that is too rigid in method, perhaps it also presents a similar challenge to language teaching. However, from the book we can glean some partial answers to this question. The book does come up with some answers to the questions of how advanced language learners are able to acquire their abilities.

Instead he borrows liberally from his many different kinds of intellectual journeys. Without giving away too much of the ending, one of the conclusions is that there is no miracle method for studying languages. There is no substitute for hard work and motivation. Another conclusion is that there are limits to what can be learned. That is to say, polyglots tend to have advanced capabilities in their first two to six languages; after that, their abilities tend to drop off significantly.

Some readers may find this journey too long and bizarre for such basic, common sense conclusions. As a detective story, many will find the ending a disappointment. But as a work of research on a complex social and linguistic phenomenon, this book is quite an accomplishment.

Apr 25, Wendy rated it it was ok. Diminishing returns on this book. I started out being very interested, but as the book wore on, the sloppy editing started to get to me multiple instances of what would strictly be called bad grammar or broadly be called "extremely casual writing style"; occasionally something was referenced that must have been taken out during the editing process, without removing the reference as well ; the author seemed to lose focus; and it got increasingly repetitious.

A better editor or more thorough edi Diminishing returns on this book. A better editor or more thorough editing would have made this half the length would have made this a better book. Maybe the strangest part was a lengthy description of the brain's structure that instructed the reader to picture the brain as a globe with the axis at Greenwich, facing you, and one hand on the Middle East and one hand on the northeast coast of Brazil, in order to tell us where Broca's and Wernicke's areas are A simple diagram would have sufficed, instead of an entire page of directions involving globes, continents, countries, axises, and fingers?

Feb 21, Christian Allen rated it it was ok Recommends it for: linguists,. The author was way too verbose and essentially asked, then repeated, all the questions the reader had in his or her mind anyway. In the end he comes to no definitive conclusion as to why some people acquire languages faster than others, stating simply that it's partially genetics, partially personal characteristics like determination and focus and partially the language environment of your locality.

The author also poorly attempts to describe the human brain as a projection on a world map with s The author was way too verbose and essentially asked, then repeated, all the questions the reader had in his or her mind anyway. The author also poorly attempts to describe the human brain as a projection on a world map with statements like "If your fingers are holding American and Asia then where your thumb is resting on Mexico is the frontal lobe," and such. Only a worthwhile read if you want to an insiders view of the hyper polyglot community and the idiosyncrasies of it's members.

It won't, however, tell you much about how to acquire new languages. Oct 06, Simona rated it liked it Shelves: linguistics. May 30, Jess rated it it was amazing. The book takes you on an exploration of languages and the people who have mastered them. Erard travels from Italy to India in search of hyperpolyglots and the answer to the question: How many languages can one person learn? This book is full of interesting interviews with academics and ordinary individuals who have studied dozens of languages.

And yet, these individuals have remai "Babel No More" will make every reader want to learn a new language just to enter into the world of language lovers. And yet, these individuals have remained hidden from the world.

Now, Erard has found them and shared their secrets with us. The writing provides insight into why some struggle to learn a second language and why others can speak several. Whether you are a polyglot or a monolingual, you will feel appreciation and excitement in that humans have been gifted with the art of languages. Aug 13, Sophia rated it it was amazing Shelves: science-pop-or-about , , linguistics. I really enjoyed reading this! I had never thought of my ability or drive to learn languages as special because its always been normal to me.

And because I'm in one of the best linguistics programs in the world in a country that famously speaks multiple languages well Everyone I know speaks 2 languages, and most people in my school program speak 3 or more although there are exceptions and some people are more interested in the theory than the language acquisition.

I grew up teaching myse wow! I grew up teaching myself languages, I started when I was about 7 and I never stopped. I grew up in a neighborhood where everyone spoke Spanish. I self studied Italian. Took Spanish in middle school. Excelled at Latin in high school; preforming better than most of the students on the mandatory national tests and earning awards for it without even studying I carried my Latin books with me everywhere.

I just loved starting at the foreign words and it was so helpful for breaking down the big english terms I would read in science books. Latin made me realize that I oloved language. I worked to translate JPOP songs and listened to them nonstop on the bus to school. I started watching anime pretty hardcore just to listen to the language. I started formally taking Japanese classes in college. Took 3 years of classes and studied abroad there.

While I was learning Japanese I started taking Italian classes, it was not difficult since I had studied it as a kid and because I took a two week spring break trip there. But I dropped italian because it interfered with my Japanese. I then wanted to take Korean so I did a single semester of that and learned the writing system although it took more study than I was willing to put in which was any because at the time i was still a very lazy language learner that didnt understand what effort was.

Had a brush with gaelic and Dutch where I learned some basic phrases and pronunciation but put them back down, having dismissed them as not useful. Then I moved to Amsterdam and learned to speak Dutch at a B2 level in a year, which I considered very slow learning but went at the speed of my classes because I didnt want to put in too much extra energy. I effectively only speak 2 languages: Dutch and English. Which I dont find impressive. I use my Latin all the time to help me translate Romance languages when I'm traveling or skimming websites that dont have English translations because I dont trust google translate.

My Japanese is on ice, I never use it anymore but when I hear it on the street or in food places, I can usually pick up most of what is being said depending on the conversational topic. Conversations usually are easy because people dont use big words or difficult sentence structures usually.

And theres context in the environmental cues and gesticulations. I do intend to expand on my Romance langauges though. I've always found language learning fun and easy so I've taken this attitude of "yeah sure i'll study that language! Yeah ill start learning Finnish! Not because I wanted to become fluent in Irish but because I wanted to have a feel for the sounds and understand how their grammar system works This never once struck me as something that normal people DONT do.

Up until I read this book, I considered language learning a fun hobby that I picked up and put down because I've never put that much "effort" into it. But this book made me realize that its kind of an addiction for me.

I, too, crave the sound of foreign words in my mouth and adore listening to people speak even when I dont know whats being said. I love the systematicity and arbitrariness of language. I havent stopped studying languages Sometimes I take a week off and call my everyday activites "studying" because I reason that speaking and listening to Dutch is a type of study or listening to KPOP all day is increasing my understanding of the phonemes, correct pronunciation, stress patterns etc.

My everyday life and routine includes foreign languages so its hard NOT to pick them up I've always loved basking in the glow of eavesdrooping on foreign conversations. Cuneiform is cumbersome to work with. Apparently printing a beast like this was totally like really expensive back in ye olde day. Now a days, if the Europeans would figure out how computers work, you can download it online in 10 seconds with a good connection, then make a machine-readable table of contents in Excel in a half hour.

I have my own expensive printer but if I had enough to print, I can bop on down to Staples and have them run it off in a half hour for not so much. Life just sucked back then, in some unimportant, superficial ways, like dentistry.

It's no wonder I can study all the languages of the world at once. That no one else does means everyone's stuck in the past. Their loss. Uploading stuff takes forever.

The real key to working with languages is finding good transliterations and translations. In their absense, machine-searchable lists of words gets you only so far. Scholarship is retarded today by people learning the languages in question, but it speeds up the process, at least in these hard times before everything gets interlinearly translated in the future.

Cuneiform requires shape-based sign lists. If I had the time, I'd make rough interlinear translations of books like Layard's ICC and this CIWA, but it's really work for a specialist, none of whom have much of a clue what actually needs to be done, wasting theirs skills on careerism and minutiae that opens up the existing and published texts extremely little. But that's why Rawlinson was not some stuffy professor, nor was the Linear B guy.