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Eight thousand words of editing. The good news is that it's done. The other side of the coin is that I've got another three days like that coming up, and one of them is likely going to be tomorrow.
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I'm revisiting a book titled Aprende un idioma en 7 dias, by Ramón Campayo, wherein he lays out his principles for learning a foreign language in seven days. While this claim may seem outlandish, it's not unique, as the folks from Pimsleur advertise an ability to teach you a language in 10 days.
Whatever the impossibly short number of days, I figure I have nothing to lose by considering what is written in support of such seemingly outlandish claims, as a nugget or two may be hidden therein.
I find that reading the book is slow going, as it is written in Spanish, and while I can stumble readily enough through Spanish newspaper copy—where context does everything but reach out from the page and bop you on the head to aid in comprehension—the same is not true for a book of the "self-help" genre, and anyway, it's not as if I don't already have a day job translating.
What grabbed me about the book initially was the introduction, written by Campayo's wife, which relates the story of Ramón's first trip to Germany, where he was to give a lecture, and how it was Campayo's intention, to learn German during the flight from Spain to Munich. From scratch, no less, with time left over to eat an airline meal and drink a cup of coffee in peace.
From the book's introduction:
Campayo's method, if I understand it correctly, attempts to reduce to a minimum those words that one must know in order to possess that "core" of words that can then be drawn upon to usefully express oneself and comprehend what one hears, and then to provide techniques to commit those words to memory.
It's certainly a different approach from what the Michel Thomas method proposes, that's for sure.
Cheers...
I'm revisiting a book titled Aprende un idioma en 7 dias, by Ramón Campayo, wherein he lays out his principles for learning a foreign language in seven days. While this claim may seem outlandish, it's not unique, as the folks from Pimsleur advertise an ability to teach you a language in 10 days.
Whatever the impossibly short number of days, I figure I have nothing to lose by considering what is written in support of such seemingly outlandish claims, as a nugget or two may be hidden therein.
I find that reading the book is slow going, as it is written in Spanish, and while I can stumble readily enough through Spanish newspaper copy—where context does everything but reach out from the page and bop you on the head to aid in comprehension—the same is not true for a book of the "self-help" genre, and anyway, it's not as if I don't already have a day job translating.
What grabbed me about the book initially was the introduction, written by Campayo's wife, which relates the story of Ramón's first trip to Germany, where he was to give a lecture, and how it was Campayo's intention, to learn German during the flight from Spain to Munich. From scratch, no less, with time left over to eat an airline meal and drink a cup of coffee in peace.
From the book's introduction:
Ramón entendía todas las preguntas que le decían, o a decir verdad, y para ser más precisa, casi todas, pues en un par de ocasiones tuvo que decirles cómo debían estructurar gramaticalmente las preguntas para que él las pudiese entender, lo cual cumplieron perfectamente a juzgar por cómo se desarrollaban los diálogos posteriormente.This text suggests that Campayo's ability to express himself in German was far from perfect, and further, that his ability to comprehend German depended on his interlocutors using words as they appear in the dictionary, instead of how they are actually used in conversation. (This curious point is worth a post or two on its own, but not right now. :^)
Cuando terminó su conferencia, un asistente se puso en pie y le dijo a Ramón que le había gustado mucho lo que había escuchado, pero añadió: «Tienes que mejorar tu alemán», a lo cual Ramón le contestó: «Desde luego, pero dame algo más de tiempo». Esta persona del público, cayendo en la trampa que le había tendido Ramón con su respuesta anterior, le preguntó de nuevo: «¿ Cuánto tiempo llevas estudiando esta lengua», a lo cual Ramón añadió: «Una hora y 45 minutos exactamente», lo que, como podéis figuraros, ocasionó una carcajada general, y por supuesto dejó con la boca abierta al chico que le acababa de preguntar eso.
Ramón understood all the questions he was asked, or to tell the truth and to be more precise, almost all, for on a couple of occasions, he had to explain how to grammatically structure the questions so that he could understand them, which they did perfectly, to judge from the way the ensuing dialog developed.
When his lecture ended, an attendee rose and told Ramón that he liked what he had heard very much, but added, "You need to improve your German," to which Ramón replied, "Of course! But give me some more time!" This member of the public then fell into the trap that Ramón had set with his response by asking "How long have you been studying this language?" Ramón replied, "One hour and 45 minutes, exactly!" This, as you may expect, was the occasion for general laughter, and naturally left the young man who had just asked the question with his mouth hanging open. (Translation mine.)
Campayo's method, if I understand it correctly, attempts to reduce to a minimum those words that one must know in order to possess that "core" of words that can then be drawn upon to usefully express oneself and comprehend what one hears, and then to provide techniques to commit those words to memory.
It's certainly a different approach from what the Michel Thomas method proposes, that's for sure.
Cheers...
