First of all, his Japanese accent would probably be accepted as native which is impressive.

I wish he had discussed his point about learning languages more, because it seemed that he spent more time showing off than getting points across.

Agreed.

For a presentation he didn't present very much. I kept listening for him to wrap up his points and drive home a message, but in the end all I got was 16 minutes of how cool it is to be him and a generic platitude about fear and learning. Not very helpful

Unless he started speaking it at the end, he spoke way too little Japanese to be able to judge (I stopped watching after the language part).

He does have more info about language acquisition on his blog, FWIW.

Accent? You can't fake an accent easily. You either have it or you don't, and I'm pretty sure he had it even if he spoke 5 sentences. Who knows about the rest of his knowledge about the languages he claims to know -- he talked about Kanji then proceeded to use words written in katakana as examples.

Good to know about his blog.

I heard only 2 very short sentences (8時に起こしてください and 8時に犯してください）. Even if it's just accent we are considering, you need longer utterances to be able to accurately assess whether it is passable as native. If you listen to a language learner speaking for a significant amount of time in their target language, you will usually notice certain phrases are (hopefully) dead-on native-sounding, but others can of course use improvement.

That's not true: I've spoken single sentences and Japanese people would tell me, "when you spoke just now I thought you were Japanese."

And for what's it's worth, he spoke more than the above (e.g. when he was imitating the instructor).

That doesn't contradict my assertion that generally some things will sound natural and others won't.

When we was imitating the instructor he was speaking English in a Japanese accent right? I am talking about whether his Japanese is native-sounding.

That's the funny thing: he was speaking Japanese but two of the 3 words he used were borrowed from English.

I guess in the end not having been to Japan and knowing few, if any, people who have gone there and seriously studied the language, it simply sounded impressive to me.

Geez this guy should write a self promotion book, I've never seen a guy so good at it.

He will, sooner or later. I've been enjoying Tim Ferriss lately - I think some of his claims are a little exaggerated or over-promoted, and I did not take the time to read '4-hour work week'. However, the guy has a natural curiosity, a thirst for knowledge and the ability to promote his own ideas through entertainment. You've got to appreciate that.

4-hour work week is interesting in that it has the annoying too-cocksure attitude Ferriss exudes, but also has lots of interesting and useful nuggets of practical ideas.

A friend showed me the book and I was initially dismissive, but in flipping though it I started seeing enough valuable things I ended up buying it.

I question his ability to build strong long-term personal relationships - it seems his obsession with the self & improvement would likely impede the development of meaningful friendships.

Really? From watching a few videos and some blog posts?

Tim is a friend of mine. It's hilarious how many people take public blog posts, video presentations, etc and assign all these deep meanings to them (i.e., he can't "build strong long-term personal relationships").

I don't know if there's a "deep meaning" to Tim Ferriss, but on the surface he certainly seems like a douche geyser.

Quite possibly. However he does seem to have a good friendship with Kevin Rose - albeit, one that is possibly centered around his interest rather than Rose's.

From their recent "podcast demo" (http://vimeo.com/3934635) they did appear to be close.

I understand that I am responding to a sockpuppet troll, but if anyone else would like to explain how you come to that conclusion, I'd like to hear it.

Well, I know a number of people like Tim in real life, and while they are great people, they can't hold long term relationships or be "close friends", because they are so focused on self-improvement/fulfillment that they just don't have the time for other people. They end up being more "James is in town - we should definitely head to the pub" friends more so than "James - I'm having a really tough time and I just need someone to talk too" friend.

I'm sorry you guys think this is trolling - but seriously, how does one dedicate their life to learning a new skill for three months straight when they have a family or close friends who depend on them? Its honestly something I struggle with when looking for guidance from guys like Tim.

I think you're making an interesting point. I wonder how many individuals that have achieved a high level of success in their careers (CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies, entrepreneurs of fast growth companies, etc.) have balanced that career success with a high level of achievement in their personal life (family and friendships). Can you manage to devote enough energy/time to work and life to achieve a high level of success in both? Is anyone aware of any role models?

Your premise seems to be that you cannot focus on yourself as well as on relationships at the same time or something like that. I don't find that to be the case. Some of the most interesting people I know are ones who have extremely busy lives and who are quite focused on personal development, among other things.

FYI, having the first and only comment on your account be an ad hominem looks like trolling. This post does not. Keep it up.

I'm actually on his slow-carb diet right now. I'm eating lentils, mostly. Today is day 4 out of 30. It's an exercise in mental fortitude.

My wife and I are on our second week of the slow-carb diet, and it's going pretty well. It takes some experimentation, but you can find foods that taste better and still work with the diet (lentils are nasty). Our favorites are edamame, asparagus, mexican black beans (with lime juice!), bean soups, and lots of vinaigrette salads.