New Prof Argüelles Youtube Series

[jeff_lindqvist]

How to learn 10 languages in 5 years:


Duration: 36:29

[galaxyrocker]

I know in the comments he talks about it taking a super dedicated student to do this, but I still think he overestimates how possible this would be. Can anyone summarize the interview? I didn't watch it but it would be interesting to hear his arguments and how he'd go about it.

[Cainntear]

Really don't like that thumbnail. In many ways it's the only component of his recent YouTube vids that dates later than 2010...

[ryanheise]

I know in the comments he talks about it taking a super dedicated student to do this, but I still think he overestimates how possible this would be. Can anyone summarize the interview? I didn't watch it but it would be interesting to hear his arguments and how he'd go about it.

I haven't watched it, but I used a text summariser on the YouTube transcript to tell me the main themes:

• You can logically sequence and pair up languages 2 by 2. E.g. Greek and Latin simultaneously in the first year (which were his highest priority languages), French and German in the 2nd year (which are strategically selected next as "resource languages"), then say Russian (difficult) and Middle English (to balance that with something easier) in the 3rd year. Start at 2 hours a day, and gradually increase that by 1 extra hour year on year, topping out at 5 hours a day.
• He describes French and German as "resource languages" which give you access to reference works, dictionaries, and methods for learning other languages.
• He says that language learning is a transferable skill, and so after learning several languages the process becomes more manageable.
• He acknowledges the plan as being potentially daunting. Adapt the plan to your personal interests and commitments. Extend the timeline if needed.

It's a bit hard for me to relate to this type of goal since I am the sort of person who can only have one interest at a time and I spend all my time on that one thing. If it were me sitting there in that video, we would be talking about doing 2 languages in 10 years

[sirgregory]

This reminds me of the prior discussion "Six languages an educated person should know." Six is a very ambitious ideal. Ten is even more ambitious, and five years is a greatly accelerated timeline, seemingly for a young adult who is trying to make up for lost time.

A more realistic path I think would be to have an educational curriculum designed to teach three languages from ages 6-18. For example, start French in childhood. Then layer on German and Latin over several years with the goal of getting decent in those three by 18 (university age). That would be for a traditional Western-centric path. In retrospect, that is what I wish I had had. From that base, you could then go any number of directions.

If you are of a scholarly bent, I suspect you will get much further if you let your research and scholarship drive your language studies. If you really need to access certain sources that aren't available otherwise, that's strong motivation to learn the languages.

[Axon]

Really don't like that thumbnail. In many ways it's the only component of his recent YouTube vids that dates later than 2010...

It's as if someone from 2010 YouTube was told about the phenomenon of YouTube thumbnails in 2024 but not shown any examples. Refreshingly earnest!

Very few of us on this forum would say that we know ten languages. I have ten listed on my profile, and though I could stumble through easy literature in Polish given enough time, the only things I can stumble through in Vietnamese are hotels and restaurants.

The fellow in the interview mentions, in rough order of interest: Ancient Greek, Latin, Biblical Hebrew, Russian, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Danish, Portuguese, Middle English. Now, I'm not that good at reading literature, but I've had a go at a lot of these, and the first four are really, really hard! If Arguelles is accurately assessing the guy's progress in Latin and Greek, plus accurately projecting what he's capable of, then he must have an excellent teaching system and a very dedicated student, and I wish him the best for his future language learning. That's not even very tongue-in-cheek either. I know that Arguelles has many years of language teaching experience beyond what he's done himself, and he certainly knows how students tick. I'm inclined to trust him in this case, at least with this particular student.

[lingohot]

I think the study plan he proposes is very/too ambitious, given that many other obligations will probably await in the next ten years the young language learner he is counseling in the video. I mean he's 22. Finding a job/career/building relationships... (depending on the person, mind you).
I also wonder what he actually means by "having learnt a language" when he says something like "in year two study French and German and when you have learnt these you can use them as a source language for studying further languages".

[lichtrausch]

I think the study plan he proposes is very/too ambitious, given that many other obligations will probably await in the next ten years the young language learner he is counseling in the video. I mean he's 22. Finding a job/career/building relationships... (depending on the person, mind you).

Then the young man will just have to move to rural Korea and live a monastic life for a decade.

[dml130]

I imagine that some of what the professor says is realistic, in the sense that it is achievable if one wants and is able to dedicate the majority of his/her time to languages. The problem is, like others have alluded to, most people aren't in a situation that enables this (due to family/relationships, jobs, other responsibilities), with the exception of maybe some who are retired or work part time with few outside responsibilities...or those who have incorporated languages into their livelihoods (like the professor).

[leosmith]

The problem is, like others have alluded to, most people aren't in a situation that enables this

Going off Axon's list (Ancient Greek, Latin, Biblical Hebrew, Russian, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Danish, Portuguese, Middle English) the selection is also a problem, at least for me. I wouldn't touch the dead/religious languages (Ancient Greek, Latin, Biblical Hebrew, Middle English), so that leaves me with only 6.