Hello! The reality show "Polyglot", which was launched by the TV channel "Culture", caused a great resonance in society. What caused the increased public interest in this project? Already by the name you can guess that we will talk about a foreign language, or rather about English. But first things first.
What is the value of the Polyglot project?
The format of this show provides an opportunity for viewers not only to observe the success of the participants, but also to actively learn English for the same 16 lectures. That is, you can also watch the video, read additional materials, complete tasks and start speaking English in a few weeks.
The developer of the Polyglot system and the teacher of 16 English classes is a well-known linguist, polyglot (30 languages!) - Dmitry Petrov. The goal of the project is to teach English in 16 hours. Petrov's method is to get into English, to feel comfortable in this language environment.
The intellectual show is attended by a group of 8 students, mostly famous people. All participants of the "Polyglot" either do not know English at all, or have a vague idea of it from the school curriculum. 
In any case, they will have to learn English from scratch in 16 lessons. Already in the 1st lesson, students begin to learn new words and try to communicate in English. With tension, long pauses, with mistakes, but progress is immediately noticeable.
16 killer hours of English
In all 16 lessons, which last no more than an hour, participants remember and consolidate what they have learned, then learn new group words and phrases. New lexical and grammatical material is introduced. By the end of the Polyglot course, students in 16 hours will master the basic grammar patterns, are easily explained in English, use complex phrases correctly.
We will provide you with 16 video lessons of the intellectual show "Polyglot", as well as auxiliary test materials that will help you consolidate the material faster and more efficiently, as well as tips for correct pronunciation.
Each lesson is discussed in detail in a separate article.
Watch a series of 16 Polyglot English lessons
Have you already completed the Polyglot training? Have you managed to learn English from scratch? What was the hardest part of those 16 hours?
The project participants proved by their example that this system is effective, that you can learn English from scratch in just 16 lessons! The main thing is desire, perseverance and a lot of work. But is the result worth it?
Download Additional materials to the lessons at the link below.
Please share your opinions and feedback in the comments.
Polyglot English language Basic course is a simulator for learning 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. Classes 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 can easily communicate in simple phrases in English. Even if you started from scratch.
In a programme Polyglot English special learning algorithms are laid down, which, by the method of repeated repetition, literally imprint knowledge of the language into the mind.
Learning takes place in game form and subtly fuels the desire to learn more.
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 compose English translation. If you answered correctly, the program will praise you. If you make a mistake, you will be prompted for the correct answer.
As you compose the answer, the selected words are voiced. Then the correct answer is given.
To move on to the next lesson, you need to score 4.5 points in the previous lesson. Until the points are scored, the lessons remain blocked.
List of lessons
The program contains 16 lessons and an exam.
In 2012, the first season of the reality show was released on the Culture channel - Polyglot - English in 16 hours. The ambitious goal was announced immediately, in the title of the program.
8 participants with different levels of knowledge: from elementary to zero.
16 lessons with an experienced teacher, during which it was necessary to:
- create a basic dictionary;
- master the basics of grammar;
- and, ultimately, to speak.
The purpose of the program "Polyglot - English in 16 hours"
- to help students enjoy the lessons and make it clear that achieving tangible progress in learning a foreign language is not a fairy tale, but a true story.
Do not intimidate with deliberate complexity, but open up new spaces: in order not to suffer over the next exercise or a stack of words, but to live the language, take the most desirable, necessary for:
- communication with foreigners in social networks, on forums, on trips abroad;
- views of movies and series in the original;
- access to information sources.
For 16 hours it is possible:
A person who more or less decently speaks his native language, by definition, is able to speak another. At least for basic level. Only a lack of motivation can serve as a limiter. 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 translator. Works with major European languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish and German. And, not so revered by the masses, Czech, Greek and Hindi.
- Lecturer at the Moscow State Linguistic University.
- Author of the book "Magic of the Word".
But not in the ranks is Petrov's main merit, 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 and more practical results. Actually, for the sake of this, 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 automatism as soon as possible. Dmitry Petrov
For myself, I singled out two main advantages of Petrov's lessons, which are 100% consistent with the main theses of the program itself:
- increased motivation;
- presentation of the basics in a concise, concise manner.
Let's consider these points in more detail.
Polyglot - English in 16 hours - a reality!
Many people need the language for travel, study or work. But how many people actually acquire skills?
Most perceive any foreign language as a secret with seven seals. Something so complex that it is subject only to the elect, gifted from birth (with an excellent memory, a special way of thinking).
Do not help promotion and memories of school hardships. Memories:
- about porridge in the head after school;
- about the thick fog that obscures the eye while 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 of, but few have seen?
Polyglot comes to the rescue, promising the impossible - to teach the 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 pseudolinguists, not in a week, not in 3 months. In such a short time, only the alphabet can be firmly mastered.
And Dmitry notes that he did not intend to teach everything in less than a day (two full working days):
No one has ever set as their goal to teach a language in 16 hours. It is about overcoming the psychological barrier, helping students to 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 learning and teaching languages (who knows more than one himself) assures that you are able to understand, master and speak a foreign language. For this, the treasured 16 hours are needed - to open your eyes.
And until we move on to the second point, firmly remember one simple but important thought - each of us has already mastered one language.
In my case, it is Russian.
Integrated (volumetric) approach to the study
What is meant by this?
Let's formulate the question differently: How do they teach at school, and what approach does Dmitry Petrov have?
School program
Familiar to most and looks something like this:
- first we learn Present Simple and a long list of nouns;
- in the next Future Simple lesson and a little irregular verbs;
- a week later - Past Simple and trying to read;
- at the end - a test for times Simple.
And so in a circle: Simple → Continuous → Perfect → Perfect Continuous, flavoring tenses with interrogative and negative variations, bundles of words and reading texts, most of whose meaning remains a mystery.
And the problem is not only the complexity of the subject or the incorrectness of the methods.
The rate of assimilation of the material
Each person has an individual speed of mastering the material. This applies not only to the English language: all disciplines. Students in one class:
- able to get ahead of the curriculum;
- coping with the load;
- which hopelessly lag behind and, in the long run (years later), simply "chuck" on the subject.
This situation in education was revealed on the panel Sal Khan, offering to teach not for the sake of passing tests, but for gaining knowledge, developing skills.
The video has English subtitles.
Salkhan. "Learning for improvement, not for passing tests."
English difference
What is the feature? In that:
- half of any textbook is written in an unfamiliar language?
- parents who studied German at school are not able to help with the analysis of the next rule?
- despite the deep penetration of the English language into our lives, has a culture of learning 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 wide world (to places where knowledge is required foreign languages)?
- society is inert and you need to be patient?
Who knows. Perhaps just a little bit.
But what, as an answer to a dumb question, does the Polyglot offer?
What does the course "Polyglot - English in 16 hours" include
First, let's look at the time tables:
Tenses Present
In one table, the basis of all Simple time is collected. For comparison, in the tutorial I used, this time is scattered across three chapters 6, 11 and 12.
Negative and interrogative forms - same story - chapters 8 and 9.
So you have to either invent your own general table times, or each time to shovel the entire textbook.
Continuous times
A similar scheme with extended (long) time.
Certainly, English Times are not reduced to two plates. There is the hated Perfect, the terrible Perfect Continuous and, after all, completely incomprehensible. But:
First, 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 to 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 is 300-350 words, regardless of the age of the person, 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 items:
I did not include here some expressions that were mentioned in the lessons. They were given not as frequent or important, but simply popped up in a conversation or fell into a topic. For example: surrealist (surrealist), whim (whim), cuisine (kitchen: about cooking).
Nouns, adjectives, adverbs
Pronouns
Time indication
Traveler's Concise Dictionary
This collection 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 classes. And the main work is being done 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 proposals will be of the same type and insipid in sound. But there will be:
- ease and fluency of pronunciation;
- the ability to convey a message.
Believe me, understanding what is written in a book or a newspaper, heard in a movie or a YouTube video is much easier than starting to write and speak on your own.
Perhaps that is why program participants immediately begin to build proposals.
Using the 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, at the very first lesson, students (even those who have never studied the language) begin to build the simplest sentences. Just subject + verb:
- I 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 from the first steps adds confidence. You realize that you are able to speak. And this is a huge plus for motivation - the only critical parameter development of any skill.
At the end
I advise you to immediately start practicing those grammatical constructions and words that you are going through:
Do it every day. Find an hour, half an hour, ten minutes, but do not stop in progress. As the author of the course advises, find a couple of free minutes several times a day:
- lunch break;
- bus trip;
- trip to the store.
Minutes forming hours on which your success or failure depends.
There are always exceptions
But do not be afraid to say that your school years were not in vain. That after graduation, they could easily go to Britain and talk to a passerby without tension and a shadow of a doubt. I believe that such people exist and for them the program "Polyglot - English in 16 hours" is a long-gone stage.
But from personal experience studying in a Russian school and looking around right now, I also understand that you are an exception. Most people (in terms of foreign languages) wander in the dark.
Everyone can dispel this darkness. You just need to start stepping in the right direction - the one that Dmitry Petrov already suggested with his "Polyglot".
The intellectual reality show of the Kultura TV channel, the intensive training video course "Polyglot" consists of 16 lessons - English lessons, the purpose 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 word formations.
Here is what Petrov himself says about this interactive course:
To master the English language perfectly, not even a lifetime is enough. To learn how 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 fear, which for many hinders any desire and ability to explain in the language, this requires no more than a few days. What I offer you, I have experienced on myself and enough in large numbers of people. I am a professional translator, linguist, I am engaged in professional translation in a number of languages, I teach this to others. And, gradually, a certain approach, a mechanism was developed. I must say 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 view of the world, the surrounding reality. It is the ability to switch, to make a click. And as in the receiver, we change one program for another, tune in to a different wave. What is required on your part is motivation (desire to travel, something related to the profession, with training and communication, it can be friendship or love)
See all Polyglot lessons. English in 16 hours for free on the site Fascinating English:
This section contains episodes of the video course "Polyglot English in 16 hours from scratch". These English courses for beginners are provided by the TV channel Culture and the popular polyglot Dmitry Petrov.
The video course consists of 16 video lessons of 40 minutes each ( full version) and 15 minutes (abbreviated version), each of which is accompanied by explanations and exercises for each session. This bundle is ideal for those who are looking for good English lessons for beginners from scratch.
Lesson #1
Verb schemeIN primary lesson Dmitry Petrov gets acquainted with the participants of the project and explains on what exactly, his methodology is built, and also gives advice to beginners to learn languages. In the first lesson, the main basic scheme of three simple tenses is shown, and on its basis, students begin to build phrases. The first lesson is the most important, as it provides the basics and the basic table of verbs for the entire English course in 16 hours.
Lesson #2
adjectivesIn lesson 2, we will expand on the phrases from the first lesson and begin to build more complex sentences combining them with possessive adjectives. In the second lesson, the same verb scheme is used, but here, we use pronouns in the 2nd form, as well as interrogative words and prepositions of direction.
Lesson #3
Verb To BeThe third lesson from Petrov's method is devoted to the verb to be. Lesson 3 highlights the features of the verb to be and its use in English. For this lesson, the author of the polyglot course draws up his own table, which has some differences from the basic scheme, but the basic principles of tenses and sentence forms remain the same.
Lesson #4
talk about yourselfIn the fourth lesson, there is a repetition of the basic structures for constructing sentences that were applied in previous lessons. In addition, it is about correct use English articles and prepositions, as well as students begin to talk about themselves.
How Petrov's video lessons are built
These 16 video lessons are perfect for beginners to learn English. The lessons are structured in such a way that already in the first lesson you will begin to compose simple phrases in English using the verb table.
Petrov's video lessons are built in such a way that they do not cause difficulties and are clear from the first minutes of viewing. If you are just starting to learn English, then you will hardly find more understandable and well-structured classes online.
