Is everyday language complicated? - idioms - colloquialisms

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luke
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Is everyday language complicated? - idioms - colloquialisms

Postby luke » Thu Sep 09, 2021 1:55 am

Some very common words have many meanings. Dictionary.com gives 63 meanings for "get", 50 for "give".

It seems in less formal language, these super useful, swiss army chainsaw words get a lot of air play.

Is colloquial speech actually a lot more difficult than it would appear to be based on "word frequency" and other simple metrics?
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Re: Is everyday language complicated? - idioms - colloquialisms

Postby Iversen » Thu Sep 09, 2021 2:48 pm

Yes
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luke
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Re: Is everyday language complicated? - idioms - colloquialisms

Postby luke » Fri Sep 10, 2021 1:33 am

I was drawn into this hour and 20 minute long advertisement on YouTube this morning. The algo apparently found something more interesting than the video I was going to watch.

It was a guy advertising 8belts.com. It was in Spanish and selling a language learning program for people who are either native Spanish speakers or who know Spanish as well as a native and want to learn English, Russian, Chinese and about 6 other languages.

Rather expensive, but interesting concept. That concept happens to fit in with the thread here.

So their approach is thinking of "how much mileage do I get out of learning this"? For instance, prepositions and connector words are important, although he didn't use dull language like I just did in his sales pitch. More words that are reminiscent of "positive thinking" and "giant within". Apparently his name is on the cover of a Tony Robbins book. Perhaps one of the translations into Spanish. (not as the translator, but as a self-help guru).

He does have a couple books / audiobooks on audible where he's both the author and the narrator. I usually go for that sort of thing, but have resisted, as I'm one of those with whom Tony Robbins never clicked.

But, my summary of their approach in a technical way:
Learn prepositions and connector words.
Learn greetings and "feel good" speech.
Learn lots of "wow, this is great, fantastic, amazing" type things to say.
Don't worry about learning all the rest. (at least until you've achieved the 8 belts - 8 months - 8 levels - you focus on the "core" stuff instead and get good at that).
Have a good accent.
You get a trainer and a personal coach. (2 individuals).
They not only weed out anyone who can't cough up the 1683 (or so) euros, but also anyone they don't think is "success material". You know, committed and all that.

Independent of the video, I've heard that positive things are easier to learn and remember than negative things.

I was reminded a bit of the AJATT fellow, who I think immersed himself in a lot of "postitive thinking" type books as native content. This made me wonder who the Spanish speaking positive thinking gurus are. (apparently the 8belts guy is one of them).

He's Anxo Pérez Rodríguez and the two books I found on audible were:
Los 88 Peldaños de la Gente Feliz
Los 88 peldaños del éxito

Another part of the technical side. 8belts is using AI to help know what you know and know what you need to know. Of course they're very confident in their product and money back guarantee and all.

But, the "everyday language" part of the thread did remind me of how one can get a lot of mileage out of words like "amazing", "fantastic", "great", etc.

You know, the sort of language where you're really just communicating a feeling and emotion, rather than anything specific at all. The kind of language "leaders" often use.

Also reminded me of this great video, which I capped in my log but will cap it again, in case anyone missed. It's funny because the 8belts guy reminded me of the 70s show fellow with the voice over parody of Steve Jobs.


I did a search on the forum for 8belts and this may be the first mention of it.

I'm resisting saying "500 words" and "30 minutes a day for 8 months" para ser exitoso, but that was something I overheard in the spiel. :mrgreen:
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