Monthly Archives for February 2023

In Many Countries, Some Schools And Universities Still Follow A 200-Year-Old Lecture Model.

• They preserve rigid standards that discourage participation and comprehension.
• Making language learning excessively long, uninteresting, and unproductive.
• By encouraging too much competition, instead of stimulating curiosity and participation, some teachers complicate matters still further.

Language Learning Is Not A Logical Process.

Contrary to what many language teachers say, rules constrain more than stimulate advancement.

When you learned to speak, you were not required to follow rules.

If You’re Passionate About A Language,

Follow Your Passion,

And Let your curiosity Show You The Way.

 

See this article that I published recently:

The Amazing Power Of Music To Boost Language Learning.

Throughout my long and rewarding career in Brazil, the USA, and Germany, I have often been called by clients and friends who were looking for a more effective way to reach fluency in a foreign tongue. So, I decided to share the first steps of The Intensive Language Practice for free.

You’re invited to A Voyage Of Unlimited Discoveries And Personal Growth

Bring your most important companion: your Inner Child.

This creature who’s too often forgotten. And who has unlimited curiosity.

A lot of enthusiasm and desire to know what the World has to offer.

 

 

 

At 14, I received my first English lessons from my dear Father.

Soon, I began to spend most of my time doing just what I liked most:

listening to American pop songs, and writing all the lyrics from my favorite singers, like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, among others.

Fully energized and constantly motivated, I used to go to the movies at least once a week to watch American films.

• Whenever I could, I sat in the first row on the balcony.
• And positioned myself so that the subtitles were blocked from my view.
• I was determined to advance my English comprehension. 
• So, blocking the subtitles was the way to watch films!

By following my own intuition and adopting my own way of learning, I felt much more stimulated to go on.

Although I didn’t know it then, I was naturally building the foundation for my Approach for studying and practicing foreign languages, The Intensive Language Practice.

The Escape From Phonetics Fanatics 

To this day, the simple mention of phonetics instantly teleports me to the world of My Fair Lady, based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.

I see myself as a male reincarnation of Eliza Doolittle ( Audrey Hepburn ), being submitted to endless sessions of English phonetics by the most relentless perfectionist in the world.

That’s how I remember the indefatigable and unwavering Professor Henry Higgins. Masterfully interpreted by Sir Rex Harrison.

 

As a communication Professional with a life dedicated to the study and research of languages, I have received a few diplomas in my long career.

A Certificate of Proficiency in English from the University of Michigan, English Language Institute. Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, and a few other diplomas and certificates from the USA, Brazil, and Germany.

• But, a diploma alone is just a promise. 
• You don’t need promises. You need a Solution.
• An effective approach to becoming fluent in English.

Let’s Move On

I began to work before I was 12 years old.

At 14, I received my first English lessons from my dear Father.

A passionate and accomplished Teacher of languages.

He devoted his life to perfect the half dozen languages that he mastered like few and lectured like none.

Under his guidance, and mostly on my own, I always worked very hard on English Grammar exercises. And that was pure hard work.

But the Grammar routine was a ride in the park compared to the lessons of English phonetics given by my Father.

In some sessions, I’d try to reproduce the sound of a semivowel 55 times.

And it was never right.

It was around that time that I decided to continue to learn English on my own.

Immensely motivated,

I used to go to the movies

at least once a week to watch American films.

Whenever possible, I’d go to the balcony, and position myself in a way that the

subtitles were blocked from view.

Used to follow my intuition.

And created my own means to study and practice English,

while having a lot of fun.

Although unaware of it, then, I was naturally creating

my own Approach for

studying and practicing English through Deliberate Practice.

See

The Intensive English Practice in action.

 

 

 

 

And it’s going to be a lot easier and much more pleasant, if you forget a few myths, while you enjoy your ride to the World of Bilingualism.

One of the greatest examples of rare talent in the world is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He wrote his first opera at age 12.

He’s considered the greatest prodigy of classical music, to this day.

In this article published by theguardian.com in January 2006, you can discover a new angle about this story.

A Musical Genius? No, Mozart Was Just A Hard-Working Boy.

Now, as the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth approaches this month, one film-maker is setting out to prove that such astounding achievements were a product more of hard graft than genius, as has often been assumed.”

The Guardian also showed that Mozart was the son of music teachers.

And his talent was not simply a gift from God, it was the result of tremendously difficult work.

I recently received this book “The Talent Code” from the author, Daniel Coyle.

It’s quite enlightening.

In The Preface, Daniel Coyle Says: “Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How.”

A truly extraordinary work by an engaged researcher and scholar who traveled the world to discover how the greatest masters reach the highest level in each of the skills that they perform.

See this review by GoodReads:

The Talent Code: Unlocking the Secret of Skill in Sports, Art, Music, Math, and Just About Everything Else:

A New York Times bestselling author explores cutting-edge brain science to learn where talent comes from, how it grows—and how we can make ourselves smarter.

• How does a penniless Russian tennis club with one indoor court create more top 20 women players than the entire United States?
• How did a small town in rural Italy produce dozens of painters and sculptors who ignited the Italian Renaissance?
• Why are so many great soccer players from Brazil? 

Curiosity Leads To All Inventions. And The Most Important Discoveries

 

Many people believe that speaking foreign languages is for geniuses.

Or for little children, because they have a special talent for learning languages fast.

Children have a lot of curiosity. And they’re not worried about making mistakes.

If they don’t get it right the first time, they just repeat it as many times as necessary. They never give up.

Some articles describe bilingual people as gifted creatures.

• This may be flattering to those who achieve some success in a foreign language.
• But it’s a discouragement to many other people who are struggling with learning a language.
• Anywhere in the world, people feel lost when they try to speak the first words in another language.
• This is a natural feeling of insecurity. It’s not incompetence.

We often read: “Talent is overrated”.

I Say This Is The Understatement Of The Century

• It’s scientifically proved that innate talent is a myth.
• Some myths are extremely appealing to most of us.
• So, they become untouchable, almost sacred.

This question of innate talent is the focus of the new book Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Florida State University psychologist Anders Ericsson and science writer Robert Pool, The Myth of Talent

Ericsson and Pool argue that, with the exception of height and body size, the idea that we are limited by genetic factors—innate talent—is a pernicious myth. 

“The belief that one’s abilities are limited by one’s genetically prescribed characteristics….manifests itself in all sorts of ‘I can’t’ or ‘I’m not’ statements,” Ericsson and Pool write.

I don’t mean to raise controversy, just want to demonstrate that you can become fluent in English, or in any other language that you choose, by adopting The Intensive Language Practice.