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Professor Arguelles’s Language Academy

 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery Post Reply
50 messages over 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 57  Next >>
Sprachgenie
Decaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5469 days ago

128 posts - 165 votes 
Speaks: German*, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, Flemish, Persian, Swiss-German
Studies: English, Belarusian

 
 Message 43 of 50
22 June 2012 at 10:47pm | IP Logged 
I also had a read through the track descriptions and was quite impressed. However, I'm not sure why Dr. Arguelles has chosen to place so much emphasis on French and German but has practically ignored other major languages (Spanish, Portuguese).

In any event, the ideal place to open the academy in my opinion would be a tax haven like the Bahamas or Andorra, or at least a country with a flat income tax rate like Belarus. Otherwise it may be difficult to attract top-caliber polyglots (such as Gregg Cox, for example).

Anyone have an idea how much money it would take to get this academy going?
1 person has voted this message useful



luke
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6965 days ago

3133 posts - 4351 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Esperanto, French

 
 Message 44 of 50
22 June 2012 at 11:40pm | IP Logged 
Sprachgenie wrote:
I also had a read through the track descriptions and was quite impressed. However, I'm not sure why Dr. Arguelles has chosen to place so much emphasis on French and German.


Reasons he mentioned was that the best methods were available in those languages. Assimil in French. I don't recall what the great German based courses are.

He also mentioned that good literary translations were abundant in those languages.

Quote:
French and German are given first because they are the most beneficial general scholarly languages for those who might ask or opt to leave the program at any time.


Edited by luke on 23 June 2012 at 9:33am

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Kugel
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6298 days ago

497 posts - 555 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 45 of 50
26 June 2012 at 9:05pm | IP Logged 
If Dr. Arguelles could actually pull this off, then it must mean that he is a
millionaire
or belongs to an elite circle of friends who could make this possible. The state
universities certainly wouldn't touch this institute. It takes an entire career being   
inside the university, getting tenure, publishing, and making chairmen to even
ask
for funding to build such an institute. With the exception of summer workshops/camps,
or
programs like French in Action, has anything ever been realized?

I hope that I didn't come off as a wet blanket.

Edit: Let's say that one does learn a language fairly well, enough to express thoughts
with no prep. Any university will allow the student to directly go into upper division
level classes, which is the same as skipping 2 years of coursework. "Polyglot
Academies" already exist, and if you live in a populated area, there is likely to be a
major university that is affordable and accessible.

Edited by Kugel on 27 June 2012 at 2:26am

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catullus_roar
Quadrilingual Octoglot
Groupie
Australia
Joined 4328 days ago

89 posts - 184 votes 
Speaks: Malay, Hokkien*, English*, Mandarin*, Cantonese*, French, German, Spanish
Studies: Italian, Latin, Armenian, Afrikaans, Russian

 
 Message 46 of 50
02 July 2012 at 1:47pm | IP Logged 
I think that even though it's nearly impossible that this will ever come true, it's a truly beautiful idea. If only we existed in a different time, with a different view on the world! :) I think that the idea of a first year to condition students is great, and just thinking about it makes me really sad that such an academy will probably never exist.

Teaching French is a good decision, but I think it would be good to teach Russian in the first year to all students, or Mandarin, as it's important to have a working knowledge of one Latin-alphabet language and one language with a different script so that students can pursue different languages in different categories with a better understanding of how to study languages with different scripts.
1 person has voted this message useful



A boldog eb
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 4142 days ago

7 posts - 9 votes
Speaks: Hungarian
Studies: Estonian, German, Russian

 
 Message 47 of 50
06 December 2012 at 11:20pm | IP Logged 
Hi all,
      a point on fees and funding. Students here in Britain are currently paying £9,000 in some cases for courses that have very little value, in any sense. It is sure that there would be a huge demand from savvy potential polyglots across the world to fill this Institute many times over. Also, there are many very rich people who are not solely interested in markets, profits and returns for investments; the sources of finance could be found, it needs to be sought in the right places.

1 person has voted this message useful



alang
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 6981 days ago

563 posts - 757 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish

 
 Message 48 of 50
14 December 2012 at 5:20am | IP Logged 

I can see the academy being realized, but maintenance is another matter. Politics would cause a lot of grief to an otherwise great idea. Hopefully, something like that will be avoided.

@ A boldog eb,

I agree with you, that there are some people who do things out of some deep seeded internal reason, instead of just monetary gain.
I actually read many years ago, that is how the Linguaphone Icelandic course came to be. A rich Icelandic man funded the course himself, so the language would go on. Linguaphone has not chosen to re- release the course, which is sad.


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