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Sprachgenie Decaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5719 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?
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7215 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. |
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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. |
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Edited by luke on 23 June 2012 at 9:33am
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| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6548 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 4578 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.
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| A boldog eb Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4392 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.
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| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7231 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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