jonm wrote:Yeah, I think it's really cool that he's sharing the journey. I've read his account of how he learned his languages (here and on the old forum), but I've never gotten to see him in the early stages with a new language. I wonder if he'll be using his usual methods such as shadowing Assimil or only the activities in the language village. Also curious at what point he'll start reading and working up to classic literature. In any case, it's cool seeing his commitment to Finnish only and the attitude he brings to learning a new language, very "beginner's mind."
I think he'll refrain from using outside sources for a couple reasons: 1) to truly assess the villages he presides over and, perhaps more cynically 2) to have these videos serve as an advertisement for Concordia: like "world famous polyglot learns his 46th language at our Finnish village!"
The 2nd video of the series, of which I've only watched half, begins with him showing some preliminary findings regarding the language, and he says he chose not to consult a grammar/dictionary at this stage. Considering he narrates the video in English, it's clear that there is no specific pledge a la Middlebury, and he shows that one of the phrases he is using is "how do you say x in Finnish?"