Some of what Benny does is based on Boris Shektman's teaching at the US Foreign Services Language Institute. It's extremely pragmatic (borderline cheating) At t

Some of what Benny does is based on Boris Shektman's teaching at the US Foreign Services Language Institute. It's extremely pragmatic (borderline cheating) At time, really steamrolls the conversation with a set of trick and tactics. It's not really knowing the language in any sense, but it does massively facilitate learning in immersive environments. It's language learning for people without time to take classes and it works. It takes a certain personality to steamroll someone and control the conversation, so hence its use in US diplomatic language training :) Benny & Tim make some claims and use words like "learn" and "know" differently than you or me. I agree with you and don't agree with much of their preamble copy, but what they're doing is long held in aggressive training scenarios (foreign service postings, for instance) and a solid hack.. well, for type-A extroverts willing to dominate a foreigner socially.