

Tim Ferriss on his approach to learning [video] - derwiki
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/tim_ferriss_smash_fear_learn_anything.html

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dbul
First of all, his Japanese accent would probably be accepted as native which
is impressive.

I wish he had discussed his point about learning languages more, because it
seemed that he spent more time showing off than getting points across.

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basugasubaku
Unless he started speaking it at the end, he spoke way too little Japanese to
be able to judge (I stopped watching after the language part).

He does have more info about language acquisition on his blog, FWIW.

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dbul
Accent? You can't fake an accent easily. You either have it or you don't, and
I'm pretty sure he had it even if he spoke 5 sentences. Who knows about the
rest of his knowledge about the languages he claims to know -- he talked about
Kanji then proceeded to use words written in katakana as examples.

Good to know about his blog.

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basugasubaku
I heard only 2 very short sentences (8時に起こしてください and 8時に犯してください）. Even if it's
just accent we are considering, you need longer utterances to be able to
accurately assess whether it is passable as native. If you listen to a
language learner speaking for a significant amount of time in their target
language, you will usually notice certain phrases are (hopefully) dead-on
native-sounding, but others can of course use improvement.

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dbul
That's not true: I've spoken single sentences and Japanese people would tell
me, "when you spoke just now I thought you were Japanese."

And for what's it's worth, he spoke more than the above (e.g. when he was
imitating the instructor).

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basugasubaku
That doesn't contradict my assertion that generally some things will sound
natural and others won't.

When we was imitating the instructor he was speaking English in a Japanese
accent right? I am talking about whether his Japanese is native-sounding.

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dbul
That's the funny thing: he was speaking Japanese but two of the 3 words he
used were borrowed from English.

I guess in the end not having been to Japan and knowing few, if any, people
who have gone there and seriously studied the language, it simply sounded
impressive to me.

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peregrine
Geez this guy should write a self promotion book, I've never seen a guy so
good at it.

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jonmc12
He will, sooner or later. I've been enjoying Tim Ferriss lately - I think some
of his claims are a little exaggerated or over-promoted, and I did not take
the time to read '4-hour work week'. However, the guy has a natural curiosity,
a thirst for knowledge and the ability to promote his own ideas through
entertainment. You've got to appreciate that.

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jamesbritt
4-hour work week is interesting in that it has the annoying too-cocksure
attitude Ferriss exudes, but also has lots of interesting and useful nuggets
of practical ideas.

A friend showed me the book and I was initially dismissive, but in flipping
though it I started seeing enough valuable things I ended up buying it.

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afronautica
I question his ability to build strong long-term personal relationships - it
seems his obsession with the self & improvement would likely impede the
development of meaningful friendships.

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ramit
Really? From watching a few videos and some blog posts?

Tim is a friend of mine. It's hilarious how many people take public blog
posts, video presentations, etc and assign all these deep meanings to them
(i.e., he can't "build strong long-term personal relationships").

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discojesus
I don't know if there's a "deep meaning" to Tim Ferriss, but on the surface he
certainly seems like a douche geyser.

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zackattack
I'm actually on his slow-carb diet right now. I'm eating lentils, mostly.
Today is day 4 out of 30. It's an exercise in mental fortitude.

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jobu
My wife and I are on our second week of the slow-carb diet, and it's going
pretty well. It takes some experimentation, but you can find foods that taste
better and still work with the diet (lentils are nasty). Our favorites are
edamame, asparagus, mexican black beans (with lime juice!), bean soups, and
lots of vinaigrette salads.

