Book Review a Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast

I read Michael D Janich's Phenomenal book on language learning Speak Like a Native and looked for other books on languages written by military types.

According to the text, Alexander Hawke has been rated in seven languages by the Defence Language Tests using this method. He has served more than a dozen years in the U.S. Army with the cavalry, rangers and special forces, and has six military occupational skills, three of which are in special forces.

This was exactly what I was looking for.

Negative points - 

• Written before age of the internet. It is very outdated. I know this isn't the author's fault.
• Too many tables for words which anyone could write themselves. One review on Amazon reads "This book is a waste of money , it merely describes how to organize a note books for language learning and offers little practical advice on learning a language."
• Speaks about universals but speaks only about prepositions and not adpositions and circumpositions
• Seems to only focus on Romance languages

Good Points

• "learning only what you need to know, based on your individual needs, and simple rules that apply most of the time" is very honest - this isn't a book about mastering languages but learning the basics.

• He makes a very good point about swear words which I will quote in full:

Using obscenity does not serve you well as a foreigner,  and it does not represent your homeland well. Yes, a few folks 
might get a kick out of it initially, but later they will view you 
moment while traveling. So never be rude to anyone. You just 
as a bit primitive and low class. You might need these people's 
help later. Strange things can happen to anyone at any 
be related! Instead, learn words and phrases that can serve you well. A good example is to say what a shame instead of 
don't know who the people might be or to whom they might 

damn . You can use this phrase anytime and never offend — and 
not to offend is your objective. In some countries, an offense 
might very well lead to imprisonment or worse. Think before 
you speak. This rule will help you in all things. 

• He makes a good point that past tense is the most used tense after present tense
• Makes good point about three main verbs to be, to go, to do
• On page 138 learn i will and put this with with the infinitive to solve most of your problems. I think he means je vais alller and mi ni iku
• He states that case is probably the toughest aspect of learning a foreign language, probably because case really does not play that much of a role in English.
• One thing that I like is that he stresses the importance of vocabulary learning
• A point which Michael D Janich stresses is cheat sheets.  Hawke stresses it too.
• I like he stresses cognates
• He hints at circumlocution in a similar way to Eugene Nida
• He makes a very good point that some words are more useful than other words. This is a point which isn't often made on books on language learning!

To conclude this book is worth buying and reading, but is nowhere near as good as Janich's book!