How To Learn Any Language: Amazon.ca: Barry Farber: Books

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Book Description

Barry Farber has been a true adventurer in languages for forty-six years and can speak in 25 tongues. The techniques he presents here will have readers speaking, reading, and writing and enjoying any foreign language in a surprisingly short time.

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Customer Reviews

50 Reviews

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (50 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother, Jan 13 2004

By

"trag252" (North Little rock, AR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How To Learn Any Language (Paperback)

This is a book about some guys exploits at learning languages. But don't blame the author, this book is written in that unmistakable "ghost writer" style. It includes such awe-inspiring topics as flash cards, talk with the natives, and word associations, rudimentary steps every language learner already knows. Maybe, before the internet, this was a useful book but in this day and age my own poor Japanese Language learning skills are leaps beyond his.

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars A better title for this book would be "Me" by Barry Farber!, Jan 19 2004

By

Ultimate Reviewer - See all my reviews

This review is from: How To Learn Any Language (Paperback)

I honestly don't know what people see in this book, or why it is rated so highly! This book is bad, take it from me, and unlike the reviewer before me, I think it is the author who makes it bad, really bad! Rarely do I encounter a writing style that oozes so much arrogance and conceit that I almost feel like vomiting and throttling someone, but Farber's purple prose does all that for me! This book contains page after page of egocentric waffle and blatant approval seeking that it makes my stomach churn!
I do agree with the author in certain respects (goodness knows how I managed to get through the whole book!) He does say that language learning is a difficult and time consuming process, and does not play down the part grammar has to play in language aquisition, which is something modern methods do with disasterous results for the learners. I can only assume that people are getting motivation from this book, but I don't know why there are so many 5 star ratings for it! You could whittle all the verbal garbage and self-adulation down to about 10 pages of useful information, well some of it is useful, and some of it is rather suspect. I don't think that Barry Farber is a very good linguist either. He makes a lot of mistakes in this book. A really good linguist would not feel the need to show-off as much as Farber does. I do not recommend this book at all, but it is better than the one written by Hawke, even so! At least there is some substance in it, even if only a little. The thing is, are you willing to wade through all that superflous verbiage to get to it? It would seem that a lot of reviewers are. The mind boggles!
So if you want to read it, I suggest buying a rather strong vomit bag to keep at your side, just in case you get as sick as I did of an author puffing out his chest and trying to show you how much better than everyone else he is! Many people find Americans arrogant, and most Americans think that New Yorkers are arrogant, and I believe Mr Farber is a New Yorker par excellence! Put that unfounded arrogance into a book, and what have you got? "How to learn a foreign language".

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5.0 out of 5 stars This book is fun!, April 18 2004

By

Brent Edwards (Martinez, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: How To Learn Any Language (Paperback)

If you're interested in learning a foreign language or foreign languages, this book can be very enjoyable and helpful. The first part is autobiographical about the author learning several foreign languages and his experiences over a lifetime. The second part provides his instructions of his best way of learning on your own and the mistakes that he made. The book provides great motivation for learning foreign languages. Regardless of your learning a foreign language, the book is very fun and interesting.

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun and Motivating to Read, but Nothing Earth-Shattering
This book is a lot like a diet book -- everyone knows that to lose weight you have to eat better and exercise more. Read more

Published on Jan 29 2004 by gahuskerfan

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!
I picked this book up because I have recently started to study Japanese, and I didn't know where to begin. Read more

Published on Dec 4 2003