Language Transfer

All about language programs, courses, websites and other learning resources
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Random Review » Sat Dec 03, 2016 9:57 am

Apparently Complete French is easily clocking up the most votes per month and could be the next language after Intro to French. :cry:

Well, it is certainly not for me to criticise how other people choose to spend their money and the fact that I find it inexplicable that so many people are voting for a language which already has so many amazing resources available does not mean that it isn't logical. Clearly a lot of people love learning with Mihali and many of them want to learn French.

However if any of you out there are waiting for one of the non-FIGS languages next (especially Arabic or Turkish), I would get voting if I were you.
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Spanish study 200 hours by 30-06: 0 / 200
Spanish conversation 100 hours by 30-06: 0 / 100

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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Cavesa » Sat Dec 03, 2016 6:04 pm

Random Review wrote:Well, it is certainly not for me to criticise how other people choose to spend their money and the fact that I find it inexplicable that so many people are voting for a language which already has so many amazing resources available does not mean that it isn't logical. Clearly a lot of people love learning with Mihali and many of them want to learn French.


A different explanation: FIGS are the languages with the largest masses of learners. And large part of the mass simply believes that trying a million new and modern tools can substitute hard work and time spent with the already existing ones.

It may be just my subjective impression, but it looks like Arabic is no longer growing on the graphics, or at least not much. I'd be interested to know how many votes it gets monthly. I wouldn't be surprised if part of the Complete Arabic waiters unsubscibed from their Patreon support to the project.
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Brun Ugle » Sat Dec 03, 2016 6:54 pm

Cavesa wrote:
Random Review wrote:Well, it is certainly not for me to criticise how other people choose to spend their money and the fact that I find it inexplicable that so many people are voting for a language which already has so many amazing resources available does not mean that it isn't logical. Clearly a lot of people love learning with Mihali and many of them want to learn French.


A different explanation: FIGS are the languages with the largest masses of learners. And large part of the mass simply believes that trying a million new and modern tools can substitute hard work and time spent with the already existing ones.

It may be just my subjective impression, but it looks like Arabic is no longer growing on the graphics, or at least not much. I'd be interested to know how many votes it gets monthly. I wouldn't be surprised if part of the Complete Arabic waiters unsubscibed from their Patreon support to the project.


Maybe they're waiting until the FIGS are done. It could be a good tactical move to wait and then subscribe later. Then Arabic would be one of the more popular languages still left and more likely to make it to the top quickly.
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Random Review » Sat Dec 03, 2016 6:59 pm

Brun Ugle wrote:Maybe they're waiting until the FIGS are done. It could be a good tactical move to wait and then subscribe later. Then Arabic would be one of the more popular languages still left and more likely to make it to the top quickly.

I don't think so, mate. Previous votes all get rolled over to the next round of voting.

Cavesa wrote:It may be just my subjective impression, but it looks like Arabic is no longer growing on the graphics, or at least not much. I'd be interested to know how many votes it gets monthly. I wouldn't be surprised if part of the Complete Arabic waiters unsubscibed from their Patreon support to the project.

Sad if true. :cry:

It would be understandable, though. I can imagine that the way it lost out to Intro to French might leave a bad taste in the mouth if you had been subscribing for months and voting for Arabic and then one person with a bit of spare cash having a pretty disproportionate influence on the last day and buying exactly enough votes to tie it changes everything. Especially given that (I think) a lot of the sustainers buy/bought into the whole philosophy behind LT.

I have no right to complain about that person, because I wasn't a sustainer; if I had been, I would have definitely had a strong opinion on what that person did.
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Cainntear » Sun Dec 04, 2016 12:44 am

I think he's made a rod for his own back with the voting system.

If the Arabic crowd are abandoning it due to the disappointment of someone playing the system, that means the system's already unsustainable, and it will only get worse. On the commissioning page he says it costs €8000-15000 per course, and the subscriptions are pulling in $742 a month. Let's round that to €10k per course and imagine he gets the subscriber base up to €1000. It'll still take 10 months to get the money for each course. There's 20 languages on his voting map -- to do one course for each would take 16 years and 8 months, so if the voting patterns never changed, we'd expect to see Serbian in autumn of 2033.

OK, as he says, he'll get quicker with practice, but then again we have multiple courses per language, so any time gained in speeding up is still going to be time lost to other courses. Plus in the interim, there may well also be other commissions that interfere with his timetable.

And those pre-existing votes are going to be turning people off. When you look at the length of the Mandarin and Arabic bars, you kind of know there's no point nominating Pitkern, as it's never going to happen. But he's stuck with them, because he's said he's sold them for life, and if he wants to disregard them, some people might ask for their money back. What was supposed to inspire loyalty and continued contact might well end up limiting his income quite badly.
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Cavesa » Sun Dec 04, 2016 1:25 am

I don't know whether any subscribers are abandonning, I wouldn't want to start a rumour, I just wouldn't be surprised and would be curious about the numbers. I am considering donating too, I already was just one step from it once or twice (before the online paying mechanism had some problem with me, no idea why). I would be willing do give up a cappucino a month (I am still a student, so I would be one of the tiny unimportant donators) to a useful project. Even to a langauge course I am not gonna use. But not to FIGS courses, that somehow takes all the magic away.
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Expugnator » Mon Dec 05, 2016 7:37 pm

Language Transfer took the old Greek course from Soundcloud. Now I don't know where to resume. I was at Chapter 3, lesson 4, but how and where does it relate to the new, just released course? That's quite disrespectful to learners. One thing is not promoting it anymore, another thing is simply deleting it, with no regards for who may be studying from it.
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Brun Ugle » Mon Dec 05, 2016 7:45 pm

Expugnator wrote:Language Transfer took the old Greek course from Soundcloud. Now I don't know where to resume. I was at Chapter 3, lesson 4, but how and where does it relate to the new, just released course? That's quite disrespectful to learners. One thing is not promoting it anymore, another thing is simply deleting it, with no regards for who may be studying from it.


Maybe there is someone here who's downloaded it. I downloaded the Spanish course to listen to offline a long time ago, but I don't have the Greek one. There's probably someone who does though.
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Cavesa » Mon Dec 05, 2016 9:37 pm

Expugnator wrote:Language Transfer took the old Greek course from Soundcloud. Now I don't know where to resume. I was at Chapter 3, lesson 4, but how and where does it relate to the new, just released course? That's quite disrespectful to learners. One thing is not promoting it anymore, another thing is simply deleting it, with no regards for who may be studying from it.


Aes, that is very disrespectful to just get rid of it. Perhaps he kept it on youtube? His newer courses are both on soundcloud and youtube. Nope, I can't find it on youtube either.

I remember reading somewhere on his site or hearing in the course that learners having used the previous course should all start from the beginning, as the new one is very different. But, of course, I haven't got the first hand experience.
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Random Review » Fri Dec 09, 2016 4:49 pm

I think it is a little unfair to characterise this as disrespectful, guys. This guy is motivated by seeing the benefit people get from his courses, he is not in this for personal gain. Even on the Unlikely assumption that all he knows how to do is teach languages, a person of his talents could definitely be earning considerably more as a teacher.

I have been following LT since the days of the original Greek course and Mihalis made this course on his own time, as a labour of love before the Patreon campaign and put it out there for public benefit. Where that first course is concerned, he doesn't owe anything to anyone. He is no longer content with it and is producing a better one but left it up there as a courtesy to the people using it, due to the delay in completing the new one.

Now that new audios are being released almost every day for the new (and much better course) and it will very soon be complete, he has decided to take the old one down in the sincere belief that this will benefit Greek learners. There is absolutely no disrespect implied here. He recommends that people start the new course from the beginning, no matter where they are on the old one, since the new one is structured very differently.

@Expugnator: I recommend you contact Mihali. I have emailed or FB messaged him several times over the years and he has always answered and never been anything other than friendly, courteous and very helpful. I will be very surprised if he doesn't provide you with access to the files once you explain why you need them.
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German input 100 hours by 30-06: 4 / 100
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