Re: Tim Ferris method
Posted: Sun May 28, 2017 6:24 pm
Summary of the Tim Ferriss method
I watched an old interview with Ferriss and Ben Lewis yesterday and today you bumped this thread so I might as well take a minute and try to summarise his recommendations.
The first people should know is that there's no Tim Ferriss method. He doesn't claim to be a language teacher, he isn't selling language books, language courses or offer a unique language learning method. In his book - The 4-Hour Chef - he talks about skill acquisition while learning to cook and gives examples on how you can apply this to other areas such as learning to swim. There's nothing unique to this as he talks about methods such as the Pareto principle. Personally I'm a user of /r/productivity and truly hate that people write a new post on the Pomodoro Technique every week but I'm reminded of the xkcd comic titled Ten Thousand. His book is a summary of known skill acquisition methods, filled with examples. With this said, I believe he wrote his thesis on acquisition of Japanese by native English speakers.
As a result, you can't claim that he's doing one thing and saying another. There's no method so you can only learn from watching what he does. Read his blog posts, watch interviews and his previously mentioned episode on the language challenge. Speaking of his TV show, he wasn't satisfied with it. He planned on having 8-12 hours each day for learning but only had 2-4 hours due to all the extra work a TV show takes.
Generic skill acquisition
He mentions skill acquisition with DiSSS and CaFE.
DiSSS process:
Deconstruction - which Lego blocks should I start with?
Selection - which 20% gives 80% of results?
Sequencing - in what order should I learn?
Stakes - how do I create real consequences?
CaFE principle:
Compression - can I put the 20% on one page?
Frequency - cramming vs acceptable pain?
Encoding - how do I anchor new material to old?
Notes on language learning
He talks a lot about the famed hyperpolyglot Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti who (supposedly) learned 30+ languages languages by translating the Lord's Prayer. By doing so, he were able to deconstruct new languages and learn basic grammar. Tim Ferriss uses a similar technique with 12 + 1 sentences. This isn't a replacement of grammar learning, it's only a way to learn the basics to understand the language and summarise it on one page.
The apple is red
It is John's apple
I give John the apple
We give him the apple
He gives it to John
She gives it to him
Is the apple red?
The apples are red
I must give it to him
I want to give it to him
I'm going to know tomorrow
I can't eat the apple
(I have eaten the apple)
Combine this with a phrasebook such as Lonely Planet to get another 20-40 set phrases and learn how to pronounce the letters. Use hyphens as bridge between words when translating to understand word order, just as Assimil does.
He recommends Michel Thomas. One of his methods was to avoid learning conjunctions for every word and instead use infinitive and helping words (auxiliary verbs) such as I must eat, I want to eat, I'm going to eat tomorrow and I can't eat. Note that he doesn't say that you should do this forever, just in the beginning so you can use the language instead of drilling conjunctions.
Once you grasp the basic structure, you can combine this with a high frequency list. In one video he mentions that 1000-1200 word families should be enough to express most ideas. These are learned by using flashcards with spaced repetition and mnemonics.
One of the best ways to improve your pronunciation is to use a skilled language teacher. He believes that Princeton had one of the best Chinese 101 classes because they drilled pronunciation in class which sort of reminded me of FSI. For people learning themselves, he recommends writing a bio (because that's 90% in every new conversation when meeting people) and then record yourself talking about it. This can be expanded so you replace the bio example with the situation you're planning for. Ask a language teacher for help improving the bio, highlight your problem areas and then drill the correct pronunciation with the teacher. Note that native speakers aren't automatically good teachers. Rinse and repeat.
Besides movies and books for native material, he mentions comic books because they are filled with informal dialog. Try to live with a host family and fully immerse yourself in the language. Speaking of comic books, he mentions One Piece as a favorite and recommends that you try the same material in multiple languages to better learn the differences. Sort of like people here are using Harry Potter when learning a new language.
On a related note, he recommends that you use your new language to learn a new one instead of using English as a reference language. He also mentions using language learning books intended for native speakers - i.e. Assimil L'Anglais when learning French. By doing so, you can be fairly sure that the target language is correct.
I've probably forgotten something and I apologise if that's the case. I thought this summary was necessary because the thread is filled with misconceptions about what the "Tim Ferriss method" really is.
I watched an old interview with Ferriss and Ben Lewis yesterday and today you bumped this thread so I might as well take a minute and try to summarise his recommendations.
The first people should know is that there's no Tim Ferriss method. He doesn't claim to be a language teacher, he isn't selling language books, language courses or offer a unique language learning method. In his book - The 4-Hour Chef - he talks about skill acquisition while learning to cook and gives examples on how you can apply this to other areas such as learning to swim. There's nothing unique to this as he talks about methods such as the Pareto principle. Personally I'm a user of /r/productivity and truly hate that people write a new post on the Pomodoro Technique every week but I'm reminded of the xkcd comic titled Ten Thousand. His book is a summary of known skill acquisition methods, filled with examples. With this said, I believe he wrote his thesis on acquisition of Japanese by native English speakers.
As a result, you can't claim that he's doing one thing and saying another. There's no method so you can only learn from watching what he does. Read his blog posts, watch interviews and his previously mentioned episode on the language challenge. Speaking of his TV show, he wasn't satisfied with it. He planned on having 8-12 hours each day for learning but only had 2-4 hours due to all the extra work a TV show takes.
Generic skill acquisition
He mentions skill acquisition with DiSSS and CaFE.
DiSSS process:
Deconstruction - which Lego blocks should I start with?
Selection - which 20% gives 80% of results?
Sequencing - in what order should I learn?
Stakes - how do I create real consequences?
CaFE principle:
Compression - can I put the 20% on one page?
Frequency - cramming vs acceptable pain?
Encoding - how do I anchor new material to old?
Notes on language learning
He talks a lot about the famed hyperpolyglot Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti who (supposedly) learned 30+ languages languages by translating the Lord's Prayer. By doing so, he were able to deconstruct new languages and learn basic grammar. Tim Ferriss uses a similar technique with 12 + 1 sentences. This isn't a replacement of grammar learning, it's only a way to learn the basics to understand the language and summarise it on one page.
The apple is red
It is John's apple
I give John the apple
We give him the apple
He gives it to John
She gives it to him
Is the apple red?
The apples are red
I must give it to him
I want to give it to him
I'm going to know tomorrow
I can't eat the apple
(I have eaten the apple)
Combine this with a phrasebook such as Lonely Planet to get another 20-40 set phrases and learn how to pronounce the letters. Use hyphens as bridge between words when translating to understand word order, just as Assimil does.
He recommends Michel Thomas. One of his methods was to avoid learning conjunctions for every word and instead use infinitive and helping words (auxiliary verbs) such as I must eat, I want to eat, I'm going to eat tomorrow and I can't eat. Note that he doesn't say that you should do this forever, just in the beginning so you can use the language instead of drilling conjunctions.
Once you grasp the basic structure, you can combine this with a high frequency list. In one video he mentions that 1000-1200 word families should be enough to express most ideas. These are learned by using flashcards with spaced repetition and mnemonics.
One of the best ways to improve your pronunciation is to use a skilled language teacher. He believes that Princeton had one of the best Chinese 101 classes because they drilled pronunciation in class which sort of reminded me of FSI. For people learning themselves, he recommends writing a bio (because that's 90% in every new conversation when meeting people) and then record yourself talking about it. This can be expanded so you replace the bio example with the situation you're planning for. Ask a language teacher for help improving the bio, highlight your problem areas and then drill the correct pronunciation with the teacher. Note that native speakers aren't automatically good teachers. Rinse and repeat.
Besides movies and books for native material, he mentions comic books because they are filled with informal dialog. Try to live with a host family and fully immerse yourself in the language. Speaking of comic books, he mentions One Piece as a favorite and recommends that you try the same material in multiple languages to better learn the differences. Sort of like people here are using Harry Potter when learning a new language.
On a related note, he recommends that you use your new language to learn a new one instead of using English as a reference language. He also mentions using language learning books intended for native speakers - i.e. Assimil L'Anglais when learning French. By doing so, you can be fairly sure that the target language is correct.
I've probably forgotten something and I apologise if that's the case. I thought this summary was necessary because the thread is filled with misconceptions about what the "Tim Ferriss method" really is.