Andrei Mihin: I have tried to complete trial training; my problem is that I get slowed down by the pronunciation. I am ready to invest in some sort of pronunciation training guidebook. Can you assist me with this issue?

Pronunciation develops through slang-training. Since you have my book, make sure to exercise by doing focused "speed reading".

Make sure to take a look at the "icy slope" illustration that follows this text.

Specialty pronunciation books can be hindering to the process since they dissect language into sounds and movements. It is similar to an idea of speaking while constantly repeating grammar rules in your head and constructing sentences that way. This process suffocates organic development of the language.

The simplest, quickest and cheapest way to find out that there is another way towards correct pronunciation is to complete trial training, only this time with a specific focus.This is a very simple and result-producing way. The result does depend on you training this way, not looking for a new information source or engaging in discussions.

By the way, do you keep track of your training statistics? There is a special table in the book that serves this purpose. Statistics play a very important role in slang-sport! You must keep track of your activities. If it is more convenient for you to keep track on a computer, you can download an Excel table. You can find tracking instructions in the cell J.

How much time does it take to master a language using Slang-sport method?

This question is frequently asked in many different variations, for example:

- when will I master the language? or
- what is the possible level of mastery? or
- what is the optimal training period, 2-3 months or more? or
- how much time should I spend training to speak a language well? or
- how much time will it take to master a language if I train 3 times a week? or
- how many hours are necessary to train to pass an official exam?

And so on. These are many takes on the same meaningless question I usually answer with a rhetorical question, "How much training time do you think it will take me to be able to run 5000 meters in 10 minutes?"

There is an ancient tale regarding this. Apparently, people have been asking similar questions for ages. Here it is:

A traveler was walking down a road. He noticed another man, stopped and asked him, "Please, tell me how long it will take me to reach point B?"- "Walk." - "But I am asking how much time it is going to take to get there!" - "Walk." - "Are you deaf or something?"- "Well, while you are standing still, I cannot tell how fast you walk. When you will start walking, I will be able to answer your question."

Still, it is possible to do some calculations. For example, a seven year old child by that time in his life has spent 10,000 hours speaking in his native language and about 20,000 hours listening to others' talk. At this point he is usually barely capable of reading and writing. A foreign language course graduate has approximately 1,500 hours of each activity. Let us use a 2,000 hour mark, meaning that an individual will master a foreign language after talking for 2,000 hours.

Slang-sport is potentially about 10 times more effective than traditional educational technologies. In practice that amounts to at least twice the result of traditional methods. Therefore the actual time spent talking can be reduced to 1000 hours. As a result, it can be approximated that you will need 100 days if you can spend 10 hours a day practicing talking. Consequently, if you can spend 2 hours a day, then the figure changes to 500 days etc.

It is understood that "foreign language course graduate" level is a vague measure, nonetheless, these approximations supply some sense of a scale. This makes it easier to imagine the relationship between the time available and a potential result.

Here is an illustration as a food for thought, about running up an icy slope.

	Lang-training is an ice-hill.
	Íŕ ýňó ë˙ä˙íóţ ăîđęó ěîćíî âçîáđŕňüń˙ ń đŕçáĺăó! Ďîňîě ěîćíî áóäĺň óćĺ ďî íĺé čäňč ďđîńňî řŕăîě.

Anton Hripko wrote a book titled "How to Study a Strange Language?" which contained a curious survey of different language learning systems with their respective approximate language mastering times. The time ranged from 28 to 1200 hours. This figure would remain around 500-600 in respectable schools.

What does an online training course under trainer's guidance consist of? What is the schedule?

To start, a trainer determines "basic information" about a slang-athlete.

- which languages do you know and what is your level in these languages;
- your age;
- what country do you reside in;
- your occupation;
- how much time a day and a week can you invest into training;
- what issues are you planning to work on using a foreign language;
- which languages do you plan on training.

Based on this information trainer emails a slang-athlete a description of an appropriate beginning set of trainings.

Only instructions, not any actual language materials will be sent to a slang-athlete. All of the materials are to be selected by a slang-athlete. Trainer is there to explain where and how to look for appropriate materials, which ones would be the most suitable for each individual. This is a key principle. (see here for more details).

A slang-athlete receives an Excel table which is to be used for everyday training statistics recording. There is also room for other necessary notes, such as personal impressions and questions to the trainer. This table should be emailed to the trainer once a week, usually during the weekend. The trainer will carefully read the table and answer slang-athlete's questions.

The trainer will gradually introduce new types of exercises, there are over 20 different kinds, and will also regulate a slang-athlete's training load depending on the actual progress.

In this sense, it is very similar to regular sports.

Is it possible to be mastering , either simultaneously or intermittently, a few languages? I have read somewhere that there should be an approximately year long pause between studying of languages?

This can be answered only based on the experiences of slang-athletes who have been training two, three and five languages at once. None of them had exhibited any concerns or complained of difficulties. On the opposite, they all have stated that it enlivened their educational experience, made it more fun! There is a well-known opinion that one language aids in a mastering of another. It is also widely known that this process becomes much easier after mastering three languages. Try this method out and you will quickly get your own impressions; the simplest and the most reliable method to find out the truth is to test it out for yourself.

I am a reader of your book and I am wondering if there are any specialty trainings of written English? My goal is to learn to write articles in English.

Such a goal has never been presented to me.
Well, the request itself, writing articles in English, is a vague condition.

I know a few scientists who document their academic work writing articles in English language scientific journals. They write articles in English while barely knowing the language, and their quality is assesed by the editors of these magazines. I know the specific technology that they use.

Your question stipulates very vague limits of what level of quality you are looking for, which is the reason I have difficulty answering the question. Do you want to think in English? That's one level of quality. Do you want to mimic the results of the previously mentioned individuals? That's a very different level of quality.

Still, I will attempt to answer your question directly.

The strongest training method for your goal is "blind typing". It is described in the book, so you should be familiar with it. An additional method which isn't really a training in its' true meaning is Ilya Frank's method. It is also presented in the book.

Life, as it is presented by my slang-athletes' practice, is always presenting me with new diverse training ideas, sometimes even with almost finished training exercises.

Slang-sport technology is fully equipped with methods to solve your issue, butthe process of fulfilling your language goals comes back to the same one aspect, absolutely necessary time investment. There is nothing else required. Simply reading the book will not solve it, unfortunately. Good luck!