Speaking topic: LANGUAGE - How to learn any language in six months

NOTE TAKING ABOUT ‘ HOW TO LEARN ANY LANGUAGE IN SIX MONTHS ‘

Summary:

5 principles

1. Focus on language content that is relevant to you
2. Use your new language as a tool to communicate from day 1.
3. When you first understand the message you will unconsciously acquire the language
4. Physiological training
5. Psychological state matters

7 actions

1. Listen a lot
2. Focus on getting the meaning first (before the words)
3. Start mixing
4. Focus on the core
5. Get a language parent
6. Copy the face
7. “Direct connect” to mental images

Beginning:

• hynopedia = sleep learning
• In a world that’s becoming more diverse, we need to learn each other’s languages
• Thought: any adult can lean any language in 6 months
• human progress = expanding our limits
• in the past, people put a cap on their learning capabilities — don’t do that!
• Thought 2: anyone can learn to draw in 5 days (Chris L applied curtained principles he learned and intensely applied them in 5 days)
• TWO MYTHS:
• Talent = you need talent
• Immersion = even if you move to HKG that doesn’t mean you’re going to learn the language
• 5 principles  of Rapid Language

First 4 words: Attention – Meaning – Relevance – Memory, and these interconnect in very important ways.

• E.g. walk through a forest – see a tree, then see a bear track mark… later you actually see a bear — then you really pay ATTENTION
• related to survival and related to your goals

5 principles

• Principle 1: Focus on language content that is relevant to you
• Ex. using tools that are relevant to us. (E.g. building a birdhouse – you need a hammer and nails to do it. You have to have it.)
• Principle 2: Use your new language as a tool to communicate from day 1
• Principle 3: When you first UNDERSTAND the MESSAGE, you will begin to understand the language UNCONSCIOUSLY
• comprehension works
• language is not about accumulating a lot of knowledge
• Principle 4: Language is about physiological training
• we have filters on our ears that take in
• Speaking takes muscle. Co-ordinate these muscles to create sounds that other people understand
• Principle 5: Physiological state maters
• You must learn to be tolerant of ambiguity.
• E.g. Don’t worry about how it sounds all the time

7 Actions for Rapid Language Acquisition

• Action 1: Listen a lot = brain soaking
• put yourself in a context where you are exposed to this, and it    doesn’t    matter    if    you    understand    it    or    not
• listen to the rhythms, things    that    repeat, things    that    stand    out.
• Action 2: Get the meaning first before you learn the words
• Use body language to understand the conversation.
• use patterns you already know
• Action3: start mixing
• 10 verbs x 10 adverbs x 10 nouns = 1000 words
• language is a creative process! think about babies. They create a bunch of sounds and words.
• Action 4: focus on the core
• 3000 words will give you enough words to have daily conversation
• [Week 1]: (of learning a new language) – use The Tool Box
• Ask questions – what is this? How do you say? I don’t understand… – All in the TARGET LANGUAGE!
• Use the target language as a tool to help you
• [Week 2]: nouns, pronouns, verb, adjective
• [Week 3-4]: glue words = words that combine words that give your words meaning : but, and, although
• Action 5: Get a language parent
• have a safe environment where you can learn the language
• surrounded by people who know the language
• someone who will communicate with you as an equal
• Rules of a  language parent:
• works to understand what you are saying
• does not correct your mistakes
• confirms understanding by using correct language
• uses words the learner knows
• Action 6: copy the face
• feedback loop in your face: hear how it feels or feel how it sounds
• look at a native speaker to see how they “use” their face
• let your unconscious mind absorb the rules
• Action 7: Direct Connect to Mental images
• common study approach = repeating the word, rote learning — this doesn’t work?!
• same box-different path
• become so good at pairing these words with existing images until you become unconscious at it