Random 4: Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose on Y-Combinator, Language Learning and More

@Tim @Traian http://www.favicon.co.uk. Upload your source file. Hit the ‘generate favicon’. Done.

Hey Tim,

Great post!

Just wanted to let you know that I’m getting error when loading some of your older posts. The background does not load and I get the greates color scheme ever… black background and dark grey letters…

This is happening on Firefox (3.5.2).

However it loads great on Internet Explorer (8.0) and Chrome (2.0).

It’s on Vista H.P. all of them.

It’s been hapening for a few days.

It only happens to a few of the posts, here are the ones I’ve found:

Pavel: 80/20 Powerlifting and How to Add 110+ Pounds to Your Lifts

Total Immersion: How I Learned to Swim Effortlessly in 10 Days and You Can Too

The Prescription for Self-Doubt: Watch This Video

Hope I’ve helped ya!

All the best.

Is this you Tim?

http://imgur.com/gallery/K4VS

It looks like something you’d laugh at.

@Trevor

bro. i was eating. but BWAHAHAH. Tim looks like he’s enjoying the experience a little too much though.

Hey Trevor… if that was Tim in that picture he would probably be wearing his Vibram shoes. 🙂 By the way Tim, I bought those shoes because of you and I really love them. My calves were killing after my first run with them but I love the feel of them. I wonder if Vibram shoes have reached a ‘Tipping Point’ thanks to the 4HWW?

I find ‘Random’ to be a unimpressive name for this segment but I’m not complaining; you guys are doing a great job. Thanks and keep up the good work. Found the comments about the ‘hot girl’ quite funny.

Thanks for the review of our Complete Chinese course. You had great feedback, and very fair criticisms. I’d love to hear more if you have the time; we revise based on thoughtful feedback. (I also left a comment on Dirt Salad, but then realized that this was your blog… sorry.)

Tim,

At one point you threw out “read in other words by ????”. I’m really interested in the cognitive aspects of language learning and would love to track down that resource. Can you elaborate?

Hi Tim,

I realize I’m a big late to the game for this post originally made back in August, but I have a specific question about something you said in the Chinese language book review portion (around the 25/26-minute mark). You talk about wanting to train recognition and not necessarily comprehension and that you believe the English word/phrase should come before the language you are learning.

I am a Thai language learner and would someday soon like to publish a book on Thai language. I’m very interested in getting more information on the research – or just your expanded opinion – on why you think the English should come first. I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you at all, but the information would be most helpful.

Thanks!

Josh

Just a very good recomendation of where to get Chinese movies for free. You only have to downlaod the application http://www.pps.tv from the Internet. There are millions of Chinese, Japanes and Korean movies for free and you can watch them online (streaming). For me the best way to learn Chinese by “only” watching movies.

Again the little gadget is called: pps.tv

Just wanted to say that watching movies is a great way to improve foreign language skills. You learn about culture and the language in a very distilled form very quickly. I have always been very weak when it comes to grammar but listening to Germany movies and to people in Bavaria I have been able to increase a mental understanding of German and teach myself Bavarian. I speak it every day now and understand Bavarian better than native Germans. I feel like the 13th warrior. The mind is a very powerful tool. challenge it!

I do have to say that I haven’t known about Tim Ferris too long but becoming a big fan of him quickly. Keep up the great work.

As a native Mandarin speaker, who learnt to speak English quite well, I’d like to say these things:

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_9c98fb880100xkvz.html

In a conversation with Kevin Rose, Ferriss was critiquing a textbook for mandarin. He disapproves the book’s approach because ‘it places too much focus on comprehension’. His ideal text, instead, would be all about utterance – to speak it (in order to carry out daily functions).

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/08/12/random-4-tim-ferriss-and-kevin-rose-on-y-combinator-language-learning-and-more/

By the way, one must laud his serious effort in getting the pronunciation and the tones right – few can do it well and naturally.

But his phrasebook approach is definite not learning a language. It’s like this machine that you can carry around, that can produce certain sounds to help satisfy your needs. Flip to page 18, line 35: “Where can I find the toilet?” flip to page 23, line 20: “Two beers, please.” This is Ferriss’s ideal: to traverse through another culture/society without any immersion, saturation or understanding of it. Colonial imperialist! His approach is but internalizing this device into his brain, so as to conveniently carry it around.

In contrast, I highly recommend the learner start from comprehension. Language, this phenomenon of language, universal throughout all human societies, itself, is marvellous. [Insert citation] evidence suggests that a few children, within one generation, can invent a language of their own, complete with phonology, morphology and syntax. It is a wonder of the human brain.

The beauty of a language is in its richness, its expressiveness – its ability to elucidate ideas – and have other humans understand them. Language necessarily involves ‘theory of mind’. The most important thing about usage, is how it would be perceived and understood by the recipient. When I say something, what does the audience think I’m saying? It requires the ability to model the thinking of other, inside our own mind.

A language has richness in its freedom, you can make up your own sentences – and it can still be understood – it does not have to come from a set phrasebook. And poetry, metaphors, stories, indeed a large part of human culture, derives from this free association and creative process. You can say something complete new, that no-one on this planet has every uttered before, yet, it can be understood. This is the source of the beauty of literature. Each creation is unique, yet universal.

This relies on the capacity for ‘theory of mind’ – one must be able to understand – then to make some expression understood by others. It is exactly this capacity for empathy (You misanthrope, Ferriss!) that propels language and its dynamic growth (as being learned, used and enjoyed by the learners). That ideas can be ‘grasped’ by one mind – then conveyed to another – this is the most magical phenomenon.

For this very reason, comprehension is essential. Without comprehension, there is no language! You might as well press a button with the image of two beers on it. Yet, of all the poetic or heroic things sprung from, or said about, two beers, can never come from set images, or from buttons.

Hello! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect

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worked hard on. Any recommendations?