Speak in Mandarin 10 days!

Just a quick word on any product that says they will teach you a language 10 days! ...or 5 days or 15 days. Bullshit. Learning a new language takes a really long time. There are no short cuts. Sorry. I imagine there are some freaks out there who can do it quickly, but I’ve never met one. Our Arabic project lead, Jeff, learned Arabic at the famous Department of Defense Language School in Monterey California. He became semi-fluent after 18 months. 18 months of intensive language training with one on one tutoring from the best teachers in the world. He studied for a minimum of 9 hours a day.

Now...lets think about what you can do in 10 days. You could probably teach yourself how to say Hello How are you Where’s the bathroom...and a few more phrases. You won’t really understand the new language, you’ll just be able to bark out memorized utterances. And you certainly won’t understand what is said back to you. You would recognize the answer, but it would have no real meaning for you.

It will put you off language learning. You’ have your dream of speaking Spanish or French and you are shown just enough of the language to convince you that you have no chance.