Product Description
There are many reasons why you might need to learn a foreign language quickly. The author, a U.S. Army Green Beret, often travels to foreign countries on short notice and needs to be able to communicate with military and government officials, many of who do not speak English. He tried all types of schools, classes, books and tapes, but none delivered what he needed when he needed it. So he developed his own method for learning foreign languages. It proved so effective for him and his fellow Green Berets that he decided to share his method with others who need to learn a language quickly. The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast is designed for people who have no interest in learning complicated rules of grammar. The author promises that his method will help anyone become functional in any language in seven days and proficient in 30. He’s trimmed the fat, freeing your time for what’s truly useful. Includes a day-by-day schedule, a handy workbook format and secret tips to help you master key elements quickly and easily.

– Book Reviews —

Tricks and techniques that can fast-track our learning and help us to cut corners. Many of these techniques are employed in language courses, with flash cards, mnemonics, games and visual aids all being incorporated alongside traditional lessons and exercises to help us to stay motivated and feel like we are making progress at a steady rate.

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast outlines the method used by the author, A G Hawke, who often had to learn languages on short notice during his career as a Green Beret in the US Military. Being able to communicate clearly and quickly with foreign officials was essential, and many other courses failed to deliver the amount of fluency he required in the short time he had available. This book explains the method that Hawke devised in order to learn languages… fast! In fact, the author boasts that students who stick to the program should be conversational in seven days, and proficient in just thirty. It’s a tempting promise.

The book provides a daily schedule, clearly instructing you on what must be done each day, and the workbook format lets you track your progress and make sure that you stick to the routine. You simply fill in the workbook for the language that you want to learn.

The key to Hawke’s program is to skip any unnecessary vocabulary or information. Most courses use contextual examples to illustrate how a word, verb or grammar element is used, and these examples are often full of vocabulary that you will never need to use. Hawke emphasizes efficiency above all so that you only ever learn what you will truly use. The book guides you through identifying what you really need to know in the language that you are learning, and offers tips on how to retain and use that vocabulary.

The book is not a magic wand, and you will still need to put in the effort to see results, but if you stick to the method you should at least shave some time off of your learning curve. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to gain a strong grasp of the Spanish language in a short space of time, this book is ideal for the impatient, the dedicated and those with a short attention span.

The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast is a book designed to deliver the basics to anyone who needs to learn to communicate in a foreign language in a short period of time. The author, A.G. Hawke, is a former Green Beret who brings plenty of experience in this area due to his various short notice deployments to other countries. He promises that his book will allow students to become functional in any language in seven days and fluent in thirty.

Hawke sticks to the KISS theory of leaning. In other words, “Keep it Simple Stupid.” His book organizes and prioritizes the most important information into charts, then breaks down lessons into a daily schedule. He also includes a workbook and some tips on how to approach your learning.

For the most part, The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast is a book about simplification and organization, and is a great starting point for helping foreign language students streamline their learning. I recommend it to anyone who is going to be traveling to a country in which a foreign language is spoken.

Also a very important part of this book is that once you reach a working vocabulary You Know WHAT Other things you need to learn

I wish I’d had this little book. One of the good things about this book is that it has, in English, useful word lists that you can reproduce, although the one deficit is that the pages are small, and trying to write in a non-Latin alphabet or phonetically is difficult, given the space alotted. Better to reproduce the word lists and personalize them on Word.
The word lists do increase your vocabulary acquistion quite quickly, and the applications are endless. This book, of course is not meant to be a study guide in any particular language, but it will get you started in a logical, rapid fashion.

This is for the people who need to know enough to get by in a short period of time. If you are in the military or travel alot it is a must. It also works for any language.

Here’s the skinny: If you really need to learn a new language fast, because you will travel somewhere in the next few days, then this is probably a good book to get. Otherwise, you may get it if you can spare the money, and it may teach you something. But don’t expect any silver bullet.

The method is very simple and most of the pages are filled with word tables. These are simple tables that you have to fill with translated versions of some essential words in the target language. It’s a waste of paper; the book could show the model for the tables, and put the essential words into lists. It’s easy to build the tables if you have the lists. Nonetheless, the selection of essential words is a good guide for what to learn first.

The method gives you a direction for a quick start in a language, and is supposed to work for any language. However, some parts of the method may be difficult or impossible to apply if the target language is too different from English. The author admits this is so, and the student may need to adapt the techniques.

There’s one sound piece of advice for any language learners, regardless of method: you must immerse yourself in the language and culture you want to learn. Read children’s books, newspapers, magazines; watch movies; listen to music; eat the food; all of this connected with the culture associated with the language.

Otherwise, I found it mildly interesting, but don’t plan on using the method as I’m not in such a hurry, and becoming merely functional in a language is not my goal at this point. But I think I can incorporate some of the tips and ideas into my own language learning habits.

I’m impressed with this book. Some of the tips are a bit inane. If you’ve learned a language before, they might be suggestions you’ve already figured out. That being said, for the first time language learner, this book points out things that many of us had to learn the hard way.

I give it five stars for the list of words alone. Previous reviewers criticized the book for these word lists, but I disagree. The list is filled with items that will allow you to hit the ground running, if you elect to memorize them as instructed. These frequently used words are worth the price of the book. Each one is a golden nugget.

As a language teacher, I don’t agree with all of Hawke’s observations on language. But if you’re faced with the practical reality of needing to communicate in a week or two, proper language learning has to take a backseat to picking up what is humanly possible. For this purpose, his advice is worthwhile.

If you’re looking for a language-learning silver-bullet, bad news – none exists. But if you’re looking for a way to organize your self-study of an unusual language, this book is worth looking at.

Although this may leaves many feeling confident in a new language, it most certainly is not enough to get around with.

It’s quite annoying to read this book, almost like watching people trying to use sticks as wheels. The author seems to think that knowing small bits of vocabulary in a language is fluency enough to carry on diplomatic conversations with natives.

I’ve been studying Spanish on my own nearly every day for almost two years. Of all the how-to-learn-a-language books that I’ve found in that time, I think that Barry Farber’s “How to Learn Any Language” outlines the best long term strategy. But I think that A.G. Hawke may have the best short-term/quick-start method.

In his introduction, the author talks about principles. He says that his method is based on the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principle. I don’t think he gives himself enough credit. I can see three much more tangible principles at work here:

1) Prioritize
Learn the most useful and important things first. The book’s charts are prefilled with suggested concepts that the author considers most important.

2) Divide and conquer
The material to be learned is broken into manageable chunks. You concentrate on one chunk at a time. Every day you have a goal.

3) Be consistent
The method suggests a daily pattern of review and learning.

While these principles may not be earth shattering news, the book does provide plenty of details. From those details, you are expected to craft a program of your own. This allows you to take charge of your own learning and to progress with the least amount of wasted time and effort (At least in the early stages).

After reading this book, I can’t help but wonder how much of a head start it would have given me. Having no guidance at all, I floundered for quite a while before I started making any real progress. If I’d had this book, I might have shaved several months off my initial learning. (Even just a one month head start is worth more than the price of the book.)

Other reviewers point out that this slim book has very few pages of real text. I’ll admit that was my initial reaction too. It’s barely longer than a magazine feature article if you don’t count the charts. But the author wastes no words.

Short as it is, I’m glad this did end up in book form rather than in a magazine. Otherwise, it would be lost in the abyss of back-issues.

The book is called the quick and dirty guide to language learning because that is what is is. It is designed to help you become functional quickly and it does accomplish this if you make the commitment and follow the schedule.
If you want to learn a new language I highly recommend this book. Hawke presents a 7 day process to help you become functional in a new language quickly. He gives you the schedule for each day that includes reviewing what you have learned before you go to bed and as soon as you get up in the morning. If you are traveling to another country on business or for a vacation this book will help you get the essential vocabulary you will need. If you are learning a language in depth this will give you a good foundation. Hawke largely focuses on building vocabulary and learning useful phrases. He also provides information on the most useful grammatical concepts for a new user to master. Grammar books often focus on complicated grammar concepts that new learners really don’t need early on. This book actually covers important information that Barry Farber left out in “How to Learn Any Language” such as common word lists. I suggest you buy both, complete Hawke’s book and then move onto Farber’s.