New Prof Argüelles Youtube Series

[Axon]

How much stock does he have of these particular out-of-print courses?

If there's one person I would assume has plenty of copies of out-of-print language courses...

[Cainntear]

How much stock does he have of these particular out-of-print courses?

If there's one person I would assume has plenty of copies of out-of-print language courses...

Well he certainly has plenty of out-of-print courses, but does he have multiple copies of each?

I have met plenty of teachers who wild justify piracy with claims of "I would buy copies, but it's out of print" or "but it's not available in country Z" and I've heard many people justify piracy of educational materials by claiming "it's for educational purposes, so it's fair use."

Is like to clarify that I am not accusing Arguelles of anything here. This is the sort of question I would raise on *any* similar offer abs they're the sort of things that can and should be pre-empted in the marketing material.

Speaking of which, he says "a number" a few times without being specific about limits. He talks early on in the video about getting people "to come" but later starts talking about zoom. He talks about being outside his house and keeps referring to the "academy", suggesting a physical location.

I'm personally inclined tiara thinking that what we have here is a proper teacher who has been motivated to compete with the untrained, self-defined "gurus" who're making money off the back of their own self-importance mòr than anything.

I'm not sure it's a great look for a professional.

[dylan413]

My guess is that he probably just has a PDF or some other digital copy that can be easily disseminated considering it's going to meet online.

[Cainntear]

Oh yes, and...

Meet with me on Zoom each Monday morning [10-11 AM, Chicago Time] for demonstration of techniques and detailed instructions as to what you are to do that week.

Referred elsewhere to as "a lecture", so limited interaction.

Meet with me on Zoom each Saturday afternoon [2-3 PM, Chicago Time] to discuss language specific issues and go over general progress.

Is the first a group tutorial? It seems to be, as he's specified a full hour without saying anything else. So what did he mean by "[going over] general progress"? It seems to me that he's just talking about uni tutorial habits, which I doubt customers will be happy with.

Meet with me on Zoom each Thursday at noon [12-1 PM, Chicago Time] to consult with me 1-on-1, as needed, during short individual office hour slots.

His "officer hours" are actually an office hour -- singular.
If he has ten students, they'll get five minutes with him each, being generous (a one minute turnover between calls is optimistic, in my view).

If he's capping the numbers, he should say the limit. Lower numbers justify the higher price. If he limits it to 5, that's $125 he takes in per hour of availability, before accounting for prep time. I'd say that's fair, and possibly even undervaluing himself. It also makes it more likely that he's managed to pick up enough copies of the books (but then again he doesn't mention posting anything out to learners in the blurb, so I'm dubious).

If he takes on 50, that's $1250 per hour, or $15k in 3 months for about a day's work a week. His tutorials would be unworkable because Zoom can't even handle two people talking at once, and his office hour more breaks down to a little of a minute per student... and as I said above, scheduling turnovers at a minute each seems optimistic, so his office hour probably would mean different students getting the chance to speak to him for five to ten minutes twice during the whole time.

He says he had an "overwhelming" response, but we know that Internet enthusiasm doesn't always convert to sales.

However, I really think that he should have takes numbers. He should have talked up exclusivity and instilled FOMO in his audience. He's got a modest subscribership of ~65k. If he was talking about 6 students only, I reckon people would jump. The hype would probably lead to the same again being for access and he could easily increase the lecture capacity and start a second tutorial group and add a second office hour. If the hype train gathered momentum, he could increase again, and again, and again.

[Cainntear]

My guess is that he probably just has a PDF or some other digital copy that can be easily disseminated considering it's going to meet online.

That seems a reasonable default assumption, particularly given the lack of any published limit to student numbers.

Edit: my criticism of Arguelles is that it can be interpreted that way, not that I personally interpret it that way.

[Raconteur]

Beginning more than one language at a time is a bad idea imo, even more so if the languages are similar. I'll be interested in seeing how people do.

There's an old video of his where he goes over this approach in some detail. https://youtu.be/WbVdrw43QZU

I think the approach is definitely not for everyone, far from it. However, I do understand the logic (and the appeal) for a select few. Will be curious to see how well the students can reproduce his technique/method.

[luke]

There's an old video of his where he goes over this approach in some detail. https://youtu.be/WbVdrw43QZU

I do understand the logic (and the appeal) for a select few. Will be curious to see how well the students can reproduce his technique/method.

Piecing together that original video and the description of his bootcamp, I wonder if there will be follow-up with the other courses he recommended in that Spanish French Italian German video. For the talented and motivated student, perhaps they might get a good foothold in those 4 languages in about a year using his proposed methodology, coursework, and time commitment.

[lowsocks]

It is a bit odd. In the older video (from 2009), he suggests studying the four languages consecutively, rather than simultaneously. That is, first spend about two hours per day on Spanish until you have reached some proficiency in it. (I'm not sure what level he thinks you should aim for.) Then begin studying French, but reserve half an hour or so each day for Spanish maintenance. Then later, begin Italian, while maintaining Spanish and French, and so on. He even recommends keeping Spanish and Italian clearly separated, as the first and third languages studied (with French coming between the two), because otherwise some students tend to confuse them.

But now, he recommends studying up to four languages simultaneously, every day. One hour per day for each language, for a total of four hours per day. The only separation he suggests is to spread out the study hours during the day, e.g., some languages in the morning and others in the afternoon.

Of course, he is entitled to change his mind about these things. After all, it has been over 14 years since he made the first video. But I would be curious to know what caused him to change his views.

(I should say, I don't completely disagree with him. Students have been studying both French and German at school for generations, and the two don't seem to interfere seriously with each other. But I am less sure about Spanish and Italian.)

[zjfict]

Did he really say it was summer? I wonder where he lives. It's a month away in the US.

Intensive Polyglot Bootcamp Challenge: Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Polyglot?

Reading the application, it's $900 to learn French, Spanish, Italian, and German. 4 hours/day for 3 months, using the Berlitz Conversational series.

Beginning more than one language at a time is a bad idea imo, even more so if the languages are similar. I'll be interested in seeing how people do.

The price, ambitions and so on will serve to select a few students from *relatively* large pool. I’m guessing he probably already had some committed before the announcement. More power to him in this endeavor.

[Kraut]

That said, I never studied very similar levels. I started French first, and Italian was catching up. Similarly, I started Spanish first, and then learned Gaelic on a very different path shortly after. If I was doing the same units of practically identical courses, I think I'd have got very, very confused.

No, no, you will save a lot of time, you will learn only one meaning for 4 forms:

¿Qué vamos a desayunar hoy?
Qu'est-ce qu'on a pour le petit déjeuner aujourd'hui ?
Cosa mangiamo oggi a colazione?
Was haben wir heute zum Frühstück?