16 hour study of English. Polyglot

Polyglot English language Basic course is a simulator for teaching English, created based on the TV show “Polyglot. Learn English in 16 hours”, shown on the Culture TV channel.

The course “Polyglot English” consists of 16 lessons. Exercises require no more than 10-15 minutes a day.

The main thing is not the amount of time, but the regularity. With regular classes, after the first week of training you will be able to communicate easily in simple phrases in English. Even if you started training from scratch.

In a programme Polyglot English language special learning algorithms are laid down, which, through repeated repetition, literally imprint knowledge of the language into the consciousness.

Training takes place in game form and quietly fuels the desire to learn further.

How it works

The program offers you simple expressions in Russian with verbs in one of three tenses (present, past, future) and in one of three forms (affirmative, negative, interrogative).

From the words on the screen you need to make English translation. If you answered correctly, the program will praise you. If you suddenly make a mistake, it will tell you the correct answer.

As you compose your answer, the selected words are spoken out. Then the correct answer is announced.

To move on to the next lesson you need to score 4.5 points in the previous lesson. Until points are earned, lessons remain locked.

List of lessons

The program contains 16 lessons and an exam.

POLYGLOT
(video material)

English in 16 hours online with Dmitry Petrov





All languages

"Polyglot. English course"– the first season of an intellectual reality show on TV channel "Russia - Culture" broadcast from January 16 to February 9, 2012. Dmitry Petrov's program, broadcast on one of the country's main television channels, teaches all viewers and participants to quickly master the language, which can be used immediately after the first lesson.
Dmitry Petrov- an expert in more than 30 languages of the world, an excellent psycholinguist, simultaneous translator, and methodologist for quickly introducing language into students’ heads. His book “The Magic of the Word” has long broken circulation records for educational books. His technique really gives excellent result in short time. Comfortable learning a new language for Dmitry Petrov is the main priority in the presentation of material. He teaches common expressions and words, and then reinforces them complex revolutions speech of a foreign language.
There are 8 students in the group. All students either do not know the target language at all, or, in best case scenario, they have vague memories of school curriculum. Already in the first lesson they begin to communicate in the language. With mistakes, with long pauses, with tension, but progress is noticeable immediately. Anyone can watch lessons and learn - like a child who goes to primary classes, and a pensioner sitting at home.
Your main task for yourself Dmitry Petrov considers not only machine learning, but also memorization for many years.
The program consists of 16 episodes, each episode lasts about 45 minutes - that’s quite long time for the lesson, so it is necessary to pay very close attention to every minute of this precious and intelligent show. TV viewers notice progress literally from the second or third program. Each subsequent lesson consolidates the material covered and gradually moves on to new grammar and lexical material.
Program “Polyglot. Learn English in 16 hours!" very useful in our difficult time when are the lessons foreign languages are quite expensive for ordinary person, and not everyone is able to study independently correctly.
Dmitry Petrov about the success of his students: “During intensive course, which I offer, I try to create in students a fireproof stock of knowledge, which, at a maximum, can serve as a good basis for continuing their studies, and at a minimum will ensure that the language will never again be perceived as foreign, will cause positive emotions and, if you return to it even after some time, you won’t have to start learning it again from scratch. But, of course, to use it effectively, additional regular training will be required.”
Watch and learn at home and for free.

In 2012, the first season of the reality show was released on the Culture channel - Polyglot - English in 16 hours. Ambitious goal announced immediately in the program title.

8 participants with different levels knowledge: from elementary to zero.

16 lessons with an experienced teacher, during which you had to:

draw up basic dictionary;
master the basics of grammar;
and ultimately speaking.

The purpose of the program “Polyglot - English in 16 hours”

– to help students enjoy their classes and make it clear that achieving tangible progress in learning a foreign language is not a fairy tale, but a reality.

Not to be intimidated by deliberate complexity, but to open up new spaces: so as not to suffer over the next exercise or stack of words, but to live the language, take the most desired, necessary for:

communication with foreigners: in in social networks, on forums, while traveling abroad;
viewing films and TV series in the original;
access to information sources.

In 16 hours it is possible:

A person who has a more or less decent command of his native language is, by definition, capable of speaking another language. At least for basic level. The only limiting factor can be a lack of motivation. Dmitry Petrov

Dmitry Petrov

- the person who took on the task:

Linguist and part-time polyglot. IN varying degrees familiar with more than 30 languages.
Simultaneous interpreter. Works with basic European languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish and German. And, not so revered by the masses, Czech, Greek and Hindi.
Lecturer at Moscow State Linguistic University.
Author of the book “The Magic of Words”.

But Petrov’s main merit is not in his titles, but in the methodology voiced in the program “Polyglot - English in 16 hours.”

Many simply do not need to delve very deeply into all the richness of the language. They want faster, more practical results. Actually, for this reason I tried to formulate the basic principles of the methodology.

Its essence boils down to the following: there are a number of basic algorithms, a certain matrix, a “multiplication table” of the language, which must be brought to automation as quickly as possible. Dmitry Petrov

Personally, I identified two main advantages of Petrov’s lessons, which are 100% consistent with the main theses of the program itself:

increased motivation;
presenting the basics in a concise, concise form.

Let's consider these points in more detail.

Polyglot - English in 16 hours - reality!

Many people need language for travel, study or work. But how many people actually acquire the skills?

Most people perceive any foreign language as a sealed secret. Something so complex that only a select few, gifted from birth (with excellent memory, a special way of thinking), can master it.

Memories of school hardships do not help progress either. Memories:

about the mess in the head after classes;
about the thick fog that obscures the vision when trying to cope with homework.

So is it possible to overcome disbelief and change the perception of English as a kind of Holy Grail that everyone has heard about, but few have seen?

Polyglot comes to the rescue, promising the impossible - to teach a language in 16 hours? It turns out that it’s time to pack your bags and prepare for the tour according to the scheme - Suitcase → Moscow → London, New York, Sydney?

No!

This is impossible, despite the promises of pseudo-linguists, neither in a week nor in 3 months. In such a short period of time, the only thing you can really master is the alphabet.

And Dmitry notes that he did not intend to teach everything in less than a day (two full working days):

Nobody ever set out to teach a language in 16 hours. It's about overcoming psychological barrier, help students experience the comfort of learning a language and understand that it is real. Dmitry Petrov

It helps a lot when a person with many years of experience in studying and teaching languages (he knows more than one) assures that you are able to understand, master and speak a foreign language. This is why the cherished 16 hours are needed - to open your eyes.

And before we move on to the second point, firmly remember one simple, but important idea – Each of us has already mastered one language.

In my case, it is Russian.

An integrated (volumetric) approach to studying

What does this mean?

Let's formulate the question differently: How do they teach at school, and what is Dmitry Petrov's approach?

School program

Familiar to most and looks something like this:

first we teach Present Simple And long list nouns;
next lesson Future Simple and a little bit irregular verbs;
a week later - Past Simple and try to read;
at the end - a test on Simple tenses.

And so in a circle: Simple → Continuous → Perfect → Perfect Continuous, flavoring the tenses with interrogative and negative variations, stacks of words and reading texts, most of the meaning of which remains a mystery.

And the problem is not only the complexity of the subject or the incorrectness of the methods.

Speed of material absorption

Each person has an individual speed of mastering the material. This applies not only to English: to all disciplines. Students gather in one class:

capable of getting ahead syllabus;
coping with the load;
who are hopelessly behind and, ultimately (years later), simply “give up” on the subject.

This situation in education was revealed at the panel Sal Khan, offering to teach not for the sake of passing tests, but for gaining knowledge and developing skills.

English subtitles are available in the video.

Sal Khan. “Learn for improvement, not for passing tests.”

English difference

What's special? That:

half of any textbook is written in an unknown language?
Parents who studied German at school are not able to help with the analysis of the next rule?
despite deep penetration English language into our lives, has a learning culture not been formed in Russia (in comparison, for example, with the Scandinavian countries)?
Our fellow citizens do not have the opportunity to travel around the world (to places where knowledge of foreign languages is required)?
Is society inert and we need to be patient?

Who knows. Perhaps a little bit of everything.

But what does Polyglot offer as an answer to the silent question?

What does the course “Polyglot – English in 16 hours” include?

First, let's look at the time tables:

Times Present

One table contains the basis of all Simple time. For comparison, in the tutorial that I used, this time is scattered across three chapters 6, 11 and 12.

Negative and interrogative form– the same story – chapters 8 and 9.

So you either have to invent your own general table times, or shovel the entire textbook every time.

Continuous tenses

A similar scheme applies to extended (long) time.

Certainly, English Times cannot be reduced to two tablets. There is the universally hated Perfect, the terrible Perfect Continuous, and then the completely incomprehensible one. But:

Firstly, these two tables present most used tenses.

Secondly, these times are the basis that will take the weight of other knowledge.

Course vocabulary

The next thing you should pay attention to is vocabulary.

The average English speaker is able to actively use 20,000 words. 8,000-9,000 is required for free communication and reading non-specialized literature in the original.

90% of human speech consists of 300-350 words, regardless of a person’s age, his level of education and the language he speaks. Dmitry Petrov

Below I will leave lists of words that were used in the course “Polyglot - English in 16 hours”. Total 300 lexical units:

I did not include some expressions that were mentioned in the lessons. They were not given as frequency or importance, but simply came up in conversation or were part of the topic. For example: surrealist (surrealist), whim (whim), cuisine (kitchen: about cooking).

Nouns, adjectives, adverbs

Pronouns

Time indication

Traveler's Concise Dictionary

This selection can be compared with two others:

The main difference between Dmitry Petrov’s program and the school course

– minimum (basic) volumes grammar and vocabulary are given immediately, in the first hours of class. And the main work is carried out in bringing their use to automatism (the level of freedom of proficiency in the native language).

Your speech will not become refined and varied. The sentences will be of the same type and bland in sound. But there will be:

ease and fluency of pronunciation;
ability to convey a message.

Believe me, understanding what is written in a book or newspaper, heard in a film or video on YouTube is much easier than starting to write and speak yourself.

Perhaps that is why the program participants immediately begin to construct proposals.

Use of acquired knowledge

How long does it take before a student can (should) speak English?

According to Dmitry Petrov, less than an hour. Without putting it aside, in the very first lesson, students (even those who have never studied the language) begin to construct simple sentences. Just subject + predicate:

I'm open.
I will open.
I opened.

An elementary thing, but like the first step on the surface of the Moon, it is a huge leap for that part of humanity that wants to master the English language.

Practice colloquial speech not only develops the most difficult skill, but adds confidence from the first steps. You realize that you are able to speak. And this is a huge plus for motivation - the only critical parameter for the development of any skills.

In conclusion

I advise you to immediately start practicing those grammatical structures and the words that go through:

Do this every day. Find an hour, half an hour, ten minutes, but don’t stop making progress. As the author of the course advises, find a couple of free minutes several times a day:

lunch break;
travel by bus;
going to the store.

The minutes that make up the hours on which your success or failure depends.

There are always exceptions

But don't be afraid to say what's for you school years were not in vain. That after graduation they could easily go to Britain and talk to a passerby without tension or a shadow of doubt. I believe that such people exist and for them the program “Polyglot - English in 16 hours” is a long-ago step.

But from personal experience training in Russian school and looking around right now, I also understand that you are an exception. Most people (in terms of foreign languages) are still wandering in the dark.

Everyone can dispel this darkness. You just need to start stepping into in the right direction- the one that Dmitry Petrov already suggested with his “Polyglot”.

An intellectual reality show on the TV channel “Culture”, an intensive educational video course “Polyglot” consists of 16 lessons - English lessons, the goal of which is to learn to speak English. The developer of this unique system, as well as the teacher during all classes, is Dmitry Petrov, a well-known Russian linguist, translator, polyglot, who speaks thirty languages.

Polyglot. English in 16 hours.

The classes are attended by eight students (who are media persons - TV presenters, directors, actors) who practically do not know English, except at the level of first-graders high school. But by the end of the course, they will already be able to communicate in English using complex and correct expressions.

Here's what Petrov himself says about this interactive course:

To master the English language perfectly, even a lifetime is not enough. To learn to speak professionally, you also need to spend a lot of time, effort and energy. But in order to simply learn to understand people, to be understood, and most importantly to get rid of the fear that many people have that inhibits any desire and opportunity to express themselves in language, this requires no more than a few days. What I offer you, I have experienced myself and enough large quantities of people. I am a professional translator, linguist, I do professional translation in a number of languages, and I teach it to others. And, gradually, a certain approach and mechanism was developed. It must be said that such a progression is observed - each next language requires less effort and time. A week is enough for any language. What is language? - Language is A New Look on the world, the surrounding reality. It's the ability to switch, to make a click. And just like in a receiver, we change one program to another, tune in to a different wave. What is required on your part is motivation (the desire to travel, something related to the profession, learning and communication, it could be friendship or love)

Watch all Polyglot lessons. Learn English in 16 hours for free on the Fascinating English website:

It’s probably now difficult to find a person who is interested in the topic of learning foreign languages and has not at least briefly heard about the sensational “Polyglot” program. literally blew up the TV and Internet space several years ago.

In this article we will try to figure out whether it is so effective this technique, proposed by Dmitry Petrov and what pitfalls it hides.

First of all, let's start with the fact that the purpose of this article is not to belittle or insult the wonderful teacher and researcher (and we sincerely believe so) Dmitry Petrov, or, God forbid, to try to shine at the expense of his authority.

Let's immediately agree on our position - Dmitry Petrov is a truly talented linguist who has made a certain breakthrough in the field of teaching English grammar (primarily English, although issues dedicated to other languages are already available) and has managed to help many people get off the ground in learning a foreign language

For those who, for some reason, are not familiar with the Polyglot program, we recommend that you briefly familiarize yourself with it at this link.

So what do we then want to say with such a slogan as “Dmitry Petrov’s system does not work!”

First, let's look at the Polyglot course's approach to learning grammar. In a nutshell, as a show experiment they took 6-8 people with almost zero or very weak level of English proficiency and, over the course of several episodes, the structure of sentence construction in English was explained to the participants in a schematic, extremely adequate and down-to-earth form, a system for changing endings in verbs depending on tense, etc.

What was the success of this TV show? After all, almost every good teacher practices similar approaches to one degree or another. The secret of popularity was precisely in its apparent simplicity, quick presentation and assimilation of information. The participants, in whom we recognized ourselves, literally grasped on the fly grammatical structures that had seemed unusually complex since school.

The system itself, in general, is brilliant in its simplicity. Indeed, everything is laid out on the shelves, understandable, intelligible, convenient and recommended for familiarization to any person who has started learning English from scratch.

However, what pitfalls does this approach hide? Often, when talking on the phone or conducting an interview with another potential student from our school, we are faced with the following questions: “What do you think of Dmitry Petrov’s method?”, “Does your school offer training in the Polyglot program?”, “Petrov teaches English in 16 hours, do you have the same accelerated courses,” etc. Perhaps some of our readers will find such questions strange, but at our school we hear them all the time.

Frankly speaking, such questions always baffle our team. And that's why. At its core, Dmitry Petrov’s system is a schematic, maximally simplified format (by the way, this does not mean at all that it is bad) of presentation basic information on the structure of the English language for beginners. And everything wouldn’t be bad, it would seem, what’s wrong with conveying information to a beginner more clearly and legibly? But here one problem comes up - the slogan of the "Polyglot" program is "English in 16 hours."

Perhaps it is this slogan, and not the filling, that primarily fuels the audience’s interest in this format of training. Well, you must agree, if you need to get from point A to point B and the distance between them is 1000 km, then what format of travel will you choose - a bicycle, a car, a reserved seat on Russian Railways or an airplane? I think that if we're talking about about making the most efficient use of your time, then you will take a plane and cover this distance in just over an hour.

The same situation occurs with the perception of the format of the Polyglot program. A person who has decided to learn English and is studying the situation at the suggestion of different schools, I look at private teachers or tutors - here the "Elementary" course offers me to complete 4-5 months. And with Dmitry Petrov it is done in 16 hours. This results in a certain logical inconsistency. It seems like, why take 5 months to do something that can be done in 16 hours of work, roughly speaking 1 week?

This leads to the search for some kind of “magic pills” for not knowing English, which you can drink over the course of a week and become a “Polyglot”. Alas, the reality is that a competent and healthy message is to schematically understand the apparent complex grammar English times, has become a distorted understanding of the original idea.

The "Polyglot" program with the slogan "English in 16 hours" gave hope for quick and painless results, the achievement of which, let's be honest, requires at least 1-2 years of concentrated work.

Such a slogan stands on par with phrases like “Pump up your bicep for summer”, “Pugacheva’s secret diet. -30 kg in 1 week”, “Getting rid of hypertension with the help of our miracle powder”, etc.

And this is not the direct fault of Dmitry Petrov (although from a marketing point of view it is obvious that the program was created precisely with the aim of attracting as many audiences as possible through such a slogan). Here lies the mental trap of our mind, which wants to get everything quickly, painlessly and with minimal investment.

Here I would like to go into more detail and note 2 key points that people who decide to learn English in 16 hours are unaware of:

1. Any grammatical structure, be it a change in verb forms, a scheme for constructing sentences, a scheme of statements/negations, requires development and implementation in the format mechanical memory at the level of automation.

Dmitry actually talks about this in the very first issue. However, this information is usually not perceived consciously. What is the use of the fact that you have figured out how to construct a sentence in a diagram. Will you be able to speak more or less freely now? Well, with the right degree of intelligence and quick thinking, you can. Only very slowly, with a notebook and with “ekanyas” and “akanyas”.

You must understand that any scheme, even if it is presented as clearly as possible, requires systematic repetition in speech, practice in dialogues, reading aloud, memorizing some fragments and listening. This is what all the remaining months of training are spent on. Elementary level, in addition to the proposed 16 hours. Such skills cannot be consolidated in a day or two. this takes several weeks, and the final formation of the skill takes about 3-4 months. And we're just talking about the basic level! What is 16 o'clock?

Most people don't think about this. thinking of language as a skill, like riding a bike or playing solitaire. It’s like you took it, learned it and that’s it - you won’t forget it.

If you are also tempted by the desire to learn English in 16 hours, then understand that there are things that will not happen ahead of time, even if you crash into a cake. A woman cannot give birth to a healthy child before 8-9 months. It's the same here.

By the way, the same 16 hours of study in the “Polyglot” format with a lesson duration of 1 hour and 2 times a week gives a minimum of 2 months of classes. So 16 hours here should first of all be understood as a publicity stunt.

2. Vocabulary.

Many people also don’t think about the fact that language is not only about grammar, but also about an insane amount of information in terms of memory load and volume of information.

Let's even assume that in 16 hours you have perfectly mastered the basic grammar of 4-6 basic English tenses and can even construct sentences in your speech relatively freely (although practice shows that 9 out of 10 people are not capable of this in such a period of time).

What words will you use? :) An initial, basic set of words with which you can communicate on basic topics and understand the answers is at least 500-1000 words.

I repeat, 500-1000 words. To imagine the volume of such information, try learning 30 words a day for a week. At the end, after 7 days, all other things being equal, if you are not doing only this, you will most likely have a mess in your head.

It takes most people from 3-6 months to a year to develop such a volume of vocabulary (depending on the level of diligence and perseverance of the student). Therefore, again, no “English in 16 hours” will save you from having to learn this basic vocabulary.

And if we are talking about confident command of English at least intermediate level, then this is already 1500-3000 words. This level is achieved in 1-2 years.

To summarize the main essence of the idea, I did not want to say that Dmitry Petrov’s system is bad, ineffective, or complete quackery. The problem is its perception by many people who are looking for freebies in the format of putting on a bracelet and being healed, drinking magic powder and building muscles.

We must understand that learning English, no matter how much we wish otherwise, is a long and system process, which occupies different people from 1 to 5 years of permanent work. And even having reached a certain level of language, it is required to keep it alive active form and constant practice.

And the "Polyglot" format systems are just excellent and modern help on this path, designed to facilitate the process of language acquisition and remove certain psychological complexes about learning English, which many have had since the days of poor quality language education At school.

But this system cannot serve as a panacea and the only source of education. If you really seriously want to learn English, then it’s better to start by finding a good, proven school or find a teacher and start learning. Yes, it may not be so fun and easy. Or maybe the process will go smoothly for you. No one knows. But one thing is certain - there are no magic pills and only you, with your diligence and perseverance, can achieve the goals that you have set for yourself.