... << MORE >>

The fastest and most effective way to learn and speak foreign languages is to use language programs that:

* take the guesswork out of language by providing English equivalents for all exercises.  
* use ‘high frequency’ material which is the most practical, common, and easy to learn.  
* allow students to create their own language rather than canned or parroted.  
* employ an English speaking language guide along with ... << MORE >>

Why Multilingual Advantage®  

Benefit:  You give yourself a competitive advantage over those who only speak one language

How?: Enjoy the prestige and promotional opportunities that come from being the only person on the staff who speaks other languages.

Multilingual Advantage® will teach you to speak a second language more quickly and easily than any other approach.

... << MORE >>

PHOTO TAKEN BY ME  © 1974 MARK A. FROBOSE

PHOTO OF PAUL McCARTNEY'S HOUSE AT 7 CAVENDISH AVENUE IN ST. JOHN'S WOOD © DECEMBER 1974 BY ME WHILE I WAS PLAYING THE FOLK CLUBS GRANNY'S AND THE CRYPT IN LONDON.  I HAPPENED TO BE STAYING NEXT
DOOR IN A FLAT OCCUPIED BY A PH.D CANDIDATE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE WHO WAS DOUBLING AS A GARDNER FOR PAUL'S NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS.  I WAS ON CHRISTMAS BREAK FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF GRENOBLE IN
FRANCE AND WAS BUSKING, PLAYING GIGS AND VISITING FRIENDS FOR THREE WEEKS WHILE IN LONDON ON HOLIDAY. ... << MORE >>

MONOLINGUAL IN THE HEARTLAND PAGE 2

© 2007, 2008, 2009 Mark Frobose








Dad

   My father jumped in Normandy on DDay with the 82nd Airborne at age 19.  The men and women

of that age were truly the ‘Greatest Generation’.  When he returned home, he married my lovely

mother and both have remained married to this day.  The GIs learned to speak basic words in French

and German and returned home with a ... << MORE >>

HOW I WILL TEACH YOU A LANGUAGE - ANALOGY OF A MUSIC LESSON

Copyright  © 2007, 2008,2009 Mark A. Frobose 



A Guide Who Knows What You Need
   I play the guitar. I became interested in that wonderful instrument when I was a young
teen. That was four decades ago. I practiced regularly. I practiced diligently. I practiced passionately.
By the time I was out of high school I was pretty proficient. I didn’t know it at the time, but all those
hours with my favorite instrument were about to pay off.

My skill with the guitar and my ability to sing in different languages helped pay my way through
college in several foreign counties, including graduate school. I played in bars, clubs, and pizza
parlors in the US, France, and England. I gave guitar lessons from time to time. I’ve written many,
many songs, both the music and the lyrics. I have met a lot of interesting people as a result of my
guitar playing ability. Some of them became good friends. My guitar has been an important part of
my life.
   I can honestly say that I am a good guitar player. I’ve worked as a ‘professional’ in the sense that
I’ve been paid. But I will readily admit that I am not a professional ‘musician’ in the traditional, clas-
sical sense of the term. I am not a music theorist. I am not a musicologist. A musicologist is someone
who engages in the historical and scientific study of music; note and tone analysis, and all that. I
can’t even read music. (I’m proud to say that my eleven year old daughter can.) I’ve just never taken
the time or the trouble to learn. So while I am an accomplished recreational guitarist I would never
claim to be a world class, professional, orchestral style, classical musician or music theoretician.
   Nevertheless, I play the guitar ‘fluently.’
   If you said to me, “Teach me to play the guitar!” I would respond, “Great! But why do you want to
learn? What do you hope to accomplish?”
   If you are like most people your response would be, “I want to be able to play some songs for re-
laxation and enjoyment” or “I want to play for my church youth group” or “I just want to play along
with my friends.”
   Those are all good reason. So I’ll tell you what I would do. First,  though, I’ll tell you what I
wouldn’t do:

I wouldn’t throw you a three-inches thick textbook on tone theory and chord structure.
I wouldn’t make you memorize all the major and minor scales.
I wouldn’t insist that you learn how to transpose music from one key to another.
I wouldn’t drill you on the difference between tonic, dominant and subdominant harmonic functions.
We wouldn’t study the music measure by measure and count and identify the notes in every interval.
I wouldn’t insist that you learn to read, identify, and play dozens of different chords and identify all
their fifth, seventh, and ninth equivalents.
I wouldn’t ask you to trace the structural components of Western music through the Baroque,
Renaissance, Classical, and Romantic periods.
I wouldn’t even insist that you learn to read music.

Now, there is nothing wrong with learning all of that. To anyone who desires to take it to that level
I say, “Fantastic! Go for it! Good luck along your journey deep inside the complex and technical
world of music!” I applaud those who are interested enough and motivated enough to take that chal-
lenging plunge. I wish them the best.
   But most people just want to sit down at the piano or pick up the flute or the harmonica or the
guitar for personal pleasure and fulfillment; for the enjoyment of themselves and of their significant
others. That goal can be achieved without enrolling in Julliard or buying a $6000 musical instrument.
Here’s what I would do:

I would teach you about a dozen common chords.
I would teach you some simple strumming patterns.
I would teach you some basic finger picking techniques.
I would coach you in beat and rhythm.
I would give you some helpful tips about singing while you’re playing.

   The knowledge you would acquire with such instruction would not get you an audition with the
New York Philharmonic. You wouldn’t be accompanying Beverly Sills at the Met anytime soon. You
probably wouldn’t be asked to join an accomplished Latin combo, blue grass group, or experienced
rock band.
   But with some time and practice you would become ‘fluent’ in your guitar playing. Your newly
acquired skill would give you a lifetime of enjoyment. And if you someday decided to take it to a
deeper level…Well, send me an autographed copy when your first CD or music DVD comes out!
   I think – I hope – that the comparison between music and linguistics, between guitar playing and
language learning, is obvious: It is no more necessary to learn all the technical rules of grammar and
syntax to become functionally fluent in a foreign language than it is to learn all the technical and
theoretical aspects of music in order to become ‘functionally fluent’ on the piano or the accordion or
the guitar or the ‘whatever.’
   Like music, you can take language learning to a highly technical level if you wish to. There’s noth-
ing wrong with that. But that is not necessary in order to achieve fluency; fluency that will give you a
lifetime of enjoyment and a deep sense of personal satisfaction.

Language Guide as a Role Model
   It is not easy to identify with someone who has not experienced what you are experiencing.  You
need someone who has ‘been there and done that’. You need to find a role model who has suffered as
you have suffered, guessed as you have guessed, tried and failed as you have tried and failed.
   But above all, you need a language guide who, despite all the odds to the contrary, has risen above
the difficulties and become fluent in not just one but in a number of different languages; a guide that
will magically appear before you each and every time you use your digitally produced language
course.  You need a guide who will teach you a foreign language in your own language, showing you
the way, giving you tips, guiding you past the danger points, and finding the easy shortcuts that will
make your language journey a breeze instead of a torment. 
   For most of us, our language journey begins not in the jungles of Brazil, but in a ‘concrete jungle’;
in traffic, behind the wheel in our cars.

Chapter 2
Monolingual in the Heartland:
The Personal Story of the Language Guy®
© 2007, 2008, 2009  Mark A. Frobose

It’s not the years of your life that count ....  
                                                                    It’s the life in your years.
                                                                                           Abraham Lincoln
                                                           



The Midwest
   I was born in 1954 in what people in Hollywood would call ‘the fly-over country’.  This is the
same area of the United States that produced such figures as Abraham Lincoln, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Ernest Hemingway, Tom Brokaw, George Will,  Dick Van Dyke, and Gene Hackman.
   It is the region where you have to be at least 10 times as good at something as someone from New
York, Los Angeles or Washington to get one third the attention.  In the 50’s it was and in many ways
remains a place of stability, unlocked doors, Little League Baseball games, homemade pie and jam,
church and Jesus.  It was a place where the little Boomers could run and play ball and Monopoly all
day, ride bikes, fish, camp in the back yard, and scream to their hearts’ content.   
   I was born in a place and time of no bike helmets, no curfews, and little crime.  
   Small town Middle America in the late 50’s and 60’s was a joy to grow up in.  Imagine riding a
bike that weighed at least 70 pounds with balloon tires.  When you fell down and busted one side of
your body, you got up, dug the gravel out of your skin and continued to ride.  The neighbor ladies
would give you home-made cookies.
   You would spend your summer nights sleeping out in the backyard with your buddies, waiting for
your chance to steal cherries out of Mrs. Stucky’s cherry tree or apples from  Mrs. McCosh’s
backyard.  If you were really lucky, someone would even bring a can of beer from Dad’s stash in the
refrigerator and you would choke on it with your friends while pretending to enjoy it.  
   The one piece of good fortune that I would not trade for anything in the world, is that I was born
and  raised in the Midwest.  It was and remains a source of stability in the midst of chaos, a place
that changes little when everything else changes much.  It is an island of America’s ideals which
have been preserved through the ravages of time, anachronistic, lovely, and until recently, English
only.

Chapter 1
Let Your Language Journey Begin!
Learning to Do the Thing You Cannot Do
You gain strength, experience, and confidence by every experience where you really
stop to look fear in the face. ….. You must do the thing you cannot do.            
                                                                                        Eleanor Roosevelt
 
 
So What’s a Poor Learner to Do?
   In the following chapters, we will talk about everything language.  Our topics will range from
Mutlilingual Advantage®, to my personal story as the Language Guy®  In the following pages,  
I will demystify and simplify the ...<< MORE >>

“There may be people more genuinely enthusiastic about languages than Mark but they haven’t been reported by reliable witnesses. Mark has everyone looking slack-jawed in amazement at a wholly new way of speaking another language. He’s a sort of linguistic Robin Hood in that he robs from dull experts and uninteresting professors and gives the dynamic of language back to those thirsty to learn. If his methods didn’t work, he wouldn’t be able to converse with half the planet in the way that he does.” Simon Kerruish M.A. (Cantab) Cambridge Investment Banker “I realized to my everlasting relief that language learning was actually meant to be a non-mechanical, natural human process rather than a rigid academic experience. I then understood that anyone, even myself, could make a positive difference in the world by learning to speak more than one language, and that any language could be learned ‘naturally’. Mark Frobose / The Language Guy® Introduction Most Americans find learning to speak a foreign language a difficult and often intimidating task. Facing overwhelming odds to the contrary, Mark Frobose, the Language Guy®, explains his journey from speaking no language other than English to speaking many foreign languages with total fluency in five! The result of Mark’s journey into language competence is a simple and easy-to-follow linguistic and belief system called 'Multilingual Advantage® which totally demystifies and speeds up the language learning process for anyone, regardless of age, nationality or background. This book is more than an ideal with a mission. It is a mission with an ideal. That ideal is to connect the world by its natural bonds of human language to make it a bet- ter place in which to live. The goal is to demystify the language learning process to the extent that it once again becomes a natural rather than contrived, a human rather than an academic experience. The world is now shrinking. Foreign cultures are now more readily accessible than ever via the internet and modern travel. We in the melting pot, once intent on merely ‘assimilating’ language groups, increasingly see value in learning the languages of the world, for business opportunity, self-enrichment, academic growth, or simply for the pleasure of communicating in a foreign tongue. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, the natural human phenomenon of language learning has become corrupt and virtually inaccessible to millions. Despite the fact that virtually everyone on the planet speaks at least one language, myths and falsehoods abound that limit the average individual’s ‘access to fluency’ in a second or even a third language. Simple language which is known by children throughout the world in any language is typically ignored by most modern language teaching approaches. Furthermore, until now, a truly versatile and effective language learning technology and philosophy have been lacking. The fact remains that all humans have the natural capacity to speak more than one lan- guage, just as we have the ability to play more than one musical instrument or partici- pate in more than one sport. What is lacking is not the innate human ability, but rather a simple methodology and belief system that will allow anyone to access our natural language learning abilities, faster and easier than previously thought possible. This Blog The Language Guy™ reveals in a personal and easy-to-understand writing style, how anyone can learn to speak and understand any foreign language quickly and easily. It is much more than just another foreign language book. It is a linguistic adventure, a motivational and philosophical journey as well as a rock solid practical guide to learning to speak a foreign language. This book tells the true-life language story of me, Mark Frobose ‘The Language Guy’® It is a chronicle of my linguistic journey, from my childhood foreign language challenges – and failures – growing up in America’s heartland, through my myriad adventures abroad and eventual achievement of total fluency in five languages not my own. And what a journey it has been! I want to share some of it with you. The reader will be introduced to a technique called Multilingual Advantage®. More than a technique, Multilingual Advantage® is an approach - a process - that uses every person’s natural ability to do what he or she was born to do – COMMUNICATE. But beyond merely describing the Multilingual Advantage® approach itself, this blog reveals the psychology of the language learning process. The pages that follow will expose the common foreign language fears and insecurities that grow into psychological barriers which make second-language acquisition such a struggle – such a frustration - for most people. Foreign language ‘strugglers’ will finally understand the reasons behind the lack of confidence that always hold them back. And – they’ll know what to do to change it. Most importantly, in addition to an effective learning methodology Language Dynamics fosters the acquisition and development of a new attitude – a healthy psychological mindset – that crashes through the mental and emotional barriers that stand between language learners and their heretofore ‘unachievable’ goal; that is, to communicate easily and proficiently in a language not their own. There is a reason that some people achieve a goal and other people don’t. And that includes the goal of speaking and understanding a foreign language. With Language Dynamics I have created a blueprint for language learning success by comparing the attitudes and beliefs of single-language speakers with the attitudes and beliefs of people who have learned to communicate effectively in one or more languages not their own. At Last! A Blueprint for Language Learning Success What you have before is a one-stop language learner’s blueprint. It is the first, one of a kind, eclectic (derived from a variety of sources) language learner’s manual which will teach you how to actually achieve massive success in learning to speak one or more for- eign languages quickly and easily, while enjoying the process! It will further teach you how to avoid pain and failure and how to best enjoy learning to speak a foreign language without the anxiety and frustration usually associated with language learning. It is the only tried and true blueprint for language learning success available anywhere, and now it is in your hands! In the following pages, you will learn how to learn languages, both directly from the personal life experiences and adventures of the ‘Language Guy® as well as through exposure to the Language Dynamics Method® and a vast array of other approaches. This marvelous and easy-to-use book is replete with humorous anecdotes, solid linguistic research and data,, and down-to-earth practical and inspirational advice and psychology which will take you from language hell to language heaven in one easy read. Does it stop there? Of course not. This blog is all about motivating you and teaching you how to think about language learning, what to believe about language learning, and finally, how to actually learn to speak one or more foreign languages quickly and easily. This indispensable language guide will be your constant companion for all things language related. When you get discouraged, five minutes with this book will have you ‘up and running’ again in your new language. Its wisdom, guidance, advice and expertise will direct and instruct you for a lifetime of language learning happiness and success. A Successful Personal Language Learning Blueprint Before constructing a house, the architect must first draw the vision of the house. This vision is called ‘the blueprint’. Since you are now the ‘architect’ of your ‘language destiny’, you must draw your own personal language blueprint before you build fluency in your new language. A successful Personal Language Blueprint must include the following elements: 1. A clear and definite goal. 2. Strong and compelling positive reasons why the goal must be reached. 3. Consequences for what will happen if the goal is not reached. 4. A clear deadline for achieving the goal. 5. A means of measuring the goal in order to ascertain whether it has been reached. 6. A support system of friends and acquaintances who will keep you on track until the goal is achieved. 7. A variety of possible means of achieving the goal. 8. A definite, clear, and inspirational plan for the achievement of the goal. Clear and Definite Goals Now let’s learn how you may write out your language learning goals. And write you must. Just stat- ing a goal isn’t good enough. Something almost magical occurs when you put your goals in writing and you review them daily. It’s as if you were taking thought impulses from the spiritual realm and transferring them over to the physical realm. The connecting link between your desire to speak a foreign language and its physical manifestation occurs when it is put in writing. Following is an example of a well written language learning goal: Goal: I will learn to speak and understand basic Spanish by (deadline date). Positive Reasons: I need Spanish for personal enrichment, professional advancement, and for increased enjoyment of travel. I wish to make friends and enjoy conversing in Spanish with native speakers! Negative Consequences: If I don’t achieve this goal, I will be disappointed, I will suffer a lower salary at work, I will have deprived myself of the joy and satisfaction of having learned a new lan- guage, and I will enjoy my travel in Mexico less. Measurement: I will know that I have achieved my goal of speaking and understanding basic Spanish when I can respond to all questions in my Behind the Wheel Spanish Program, when native speakers understand me and I them, and when my Spanish tutor says that I have a basic conversa- tional ability in Spanish. My final test for having succeeded will be my ability to successfully com- municate with non-English speaking natives both here and in Mexico. Means of Achieving the Goal: Daily use of my Language Dynamics Behind the Wheel Spanish Course. Conversing with natives at the local Spanish grocery store. Watching Spanish television. Listening to Spanish radio. Listening to Spanish music. Reading Spanish magazines and newspapers. Enrolling in a conversation course at my local Community College. Making friends with both native and non-native speakers of Spanish. Your Personal Guide Your language blueprint, along with your copy of The Language Guy™ will become your permanent personal guide to speaking a new language. Why is it personal? It is personal because as human be- ings, we have our own unique goals, objectives, learning styles, and preferences. You need to tailor- make your language plan or blueprint to fit what is uniquely YOU.<< MORE >>

 Prologue:
                            The Linguistic Robin Hood
‘Latin is a language, as dead as dead can be. It killed the ancient Romans, and now
it’s killing me’.
English Schoolboy Refrain
You hold in your hands the key to a new world.  The key to this world is
communication.  Communication is language.  Learning languages before Mark Fro-
bose was difficult, confusing, and inaccessible to most.  With Mark, speaking a new
language is now within anyone’s reach.  Here is my story of how I first met Mark, how
he has impacted me and my family’s life, and why you must share this book with
everyone you know who wishes to communicate in another language.
It’s Sunday 6 A.M.. It’s still dark and I’m very cold.  I’m standing outside the
railway station in Grenoble, France having spent all night on the train from London.
Unfortunately, nobody told me the buses to the University campus don’t run on
Sundays. The girls I try to chat up in French make fun of my accent and that’s no help.
What’s more, I’ve been put on leave from boarding school in England at just 17 years
of age and it’s the month of January, 1975.  To make matters even worse, I haven’t any
money and I don’t know a soul.
To this day I don’t remember how I made it to the campus with my suitcase, backpack
and sleeping bag,  It must have been by cab which would have eaten up my budget for
a month at that ‘starving student’ time in my life. Hello darkness my old friend.
By sheer luck, I stumbled across Mark Frobose who introduced me to the concept - to
me hitherto unknown - of the Welcoming American Who Is Pleased to Meet People.  
And by golly I needed it as the person whom I’d been told to contact hadn’t even
appeared. This lost contact did finally arrive a day or so later, but by then I’d enjoyed
Mark’s hospitality, and a friendship had started that I had no inkling would last 32
years (and counting). It has endured for reasons neither of us could possibly have en-
visaged at that time.
We can all learn from Mark never ever missing an opportunity to speak with someone
affably in their own language.  His French was better than mine and his Spanish
superb (mine pitiful). I took on the role of a sort of Jolly Bagman passing the hat for
him as he played guitar and sang in in true 70’s style in a student hangout in downtown
Grenoble called ‘La Cheminée’.  He would come forth by singing songs in all
languages, and from  Maxime Le Forestier to the French audience in French.
There may be people more genuinely enthusiastic about languages than Mark but they
haven’t been reported by reliable witnesses. Mark has everyone looking slack-jawed
in amazement at a wholly new way of speaking another language. In ‘The Language
Guy™ ‘ you will learn that Mark is a sort of linguistic Robin Hood that robs from dull
experts and uninteresting professors and gives the dynamic of language back to those
thirsty to learn. If his methods didn’t work, he wouldn’t be able to converse with half
the planet in the way that he does.  After reading his book, you will soon be able to do
the same.
I’m more than happy to say that Mark’s inspiration led me in due course to be able to
burble at people in 8 different languages.  I’m now tackling Italian, and I and my three
daughters are using Mark’s unique Language Dynamics® Behind the Wheel™ cours-
es to successfully attack  French, Spanish and Japanese. Also thanks to Mark, my girls
now understand that language learning is not a chore, but an opportunity.  It is a tool,
and it’s a challenge which pays immediate dividends.  
I’ve experienced the antithesis of Mark – it’s called learning Latin and Greek by rote
in a musty classroom in an English boarding school in the 1960’s. ‘Now, gentlemen,
we’ll begin the first lesson by parsing the sentence and declining the verb in the
passive gerundive, and if you don’t do it correctly you’ll be in detention for the
afternoon and stay there until you do’. 
Putting pen to paper this evening I read in the Financial Times that Richard Levin, the
President of Yale University has opined that the country’s top universities need a more
international focus. This chap studied at Stanford, Yale and Oxford (sorry about the
latter but someone has to keep losing to Cambridge in the Boat Race and the Varsity
Rugby match). He does however go on to say that he ‘believes that for
personal success in life, in a much more interdependent world, the capacity to
understand another culture has to become one of the prerequisites of an educated
person’. Absolutely correct in my not terribly humble view.   And how can one truly
understand another culture without speaking the language?
Why does Mark’s Language Dynamics® method described in this book work?
Because it’s aimed squarely at you and me. Because we want to learn quickly, to
speak, to read and write in whatever other language takes our fancy. We want to be
able to say something to someone, and to understand the response. Grammar comes
later! And his method is designed by himself, a fellow who lives, eats and breathes
languages.  He cares deeply and passionately about them. Short of being born into a
foreign language, you simply can’t do better than immerse yourself in Mark’s courses,
method and philosophy.
Mark’s recorded language lessons are a joy to use.  Play them on the exercise bike, in
the car, play them to yourself to sleep at night (that’s a serious suggestion by the way),
above all, just do it, somehow. And the next time you summon an uppity French wait-
er to tell him your steak is underdone, you can do so in French and I promise you a far
better result than if you try to lecture him in your own language.
Investing in languages also pays dividends in genuinely unexpected quarters. I’m Eng-
lish, but also a Swedish speaker, and I find the shock effect on my clients or
prospects on hearing me speak in their tongue often outweighs the immediate content
of what I am saying.   When I first walk into the room I am just another of the utterly
endless series of mind-numbingly boring investment bankers to be tolerated during a
meeting that is clearly destined to be a waste of time for them. Trotting out using their
own language, however, transforms the meeting instantly.  Suddenly, they actually
take an interest in me and want to hear what I have to say!
So why is Mark so phenomenally successful that people want to buy his approach? In
short, Mark is the foreign language guy who reveals his source code to all and sun-
dry. Like many exceptionally bright people, Mark speaks and delivers in very simple
and highly effective ways. And that’s precisely how he wants you to learn a language. 
First with small but powerful steps in communicating what we want to say, and then
building on those steps to create a confidence that takes us to the next level. Before we
know it, we’re speaking a foreign language at even higher levels without measuring
our progress, until of course, we look back in astonishment at what we’ve achieved so
quickly and easily.
Now thanks to this book and method, we can improve upon the English schoolboy
refrain.  We no longer have to let a language kill us. With Mark’s help, and by Mark’s
example, we transcend all of that.
And I challenge anyone to say that they won’t have fun with Mark’s new book.
I know I will. 
Simon Kerruish/Investment Banker
M.A. (Cantab) Cambridge
Former Chief Investment Advisor, HSBC Private Bank
Founder, Hardy Advisors LLC (www.hardyadvisors.com)