1 00:00:05,342 --> 00:00:09,300 The polyglot gathering is brought to you by Italki. 2 00:00:09,300 --> 00:00:11,751 Become fluent in any language. 3 00:00:11,790 --> 00:00:13,714 Today, I'm going to be talking 4 00:00:13,714 --> 00:00:15,971 to you about a slightly different topic 5 00:00:16,228 --> 00:00:18,051 which is something to do with teaching 6 00:00:18,051 --> 00:00:19,471 something to do with learning 7 00:00:19,471 --> 00:00:21,542 definitely something to do with languages. 8 00:00:22,114 --> 00:00:26,114 And I would like to start by thanking you all, 9 00:00:26,485 --> 00:00:31,171 dear polyglots, because you helped me get over 10 00:00:31,171 --> 00:00:35,057 a huge feeling of frustration that I had had for many years. 11 00:00:35,457 --> 00:00:36,428 I'm serious now. 12 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:40,971 You know, I've taught English in many different settings. 13 00:00:41,285 --> 00:00:46,528 I started well since I was a little bit better than my classmates 14 00:00:46,528 --> 00:00:47,928 I started teaching them, 15 00:00:48,342 --> 00:00:51,085 then I taught in primary, secondary schools and 16 00:00:51,085 --> 00:00:54,485 language schools, companies, and now 17 00:00:54,485 --> 00:00:57,742 I teach at the University and I always 18 00:00:57,742 --> 00:01:00,428 felt really frustrated. Do you know why? 19 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:06,371 Because I always knew how I learn languages effectively and how it works 20 00:01:06,371 --> 00:01:08,457 and that it can actually be 21 00:01:08,457 --> 00:01:11,191 pretty fast, that it can work very well, but 22 00:01:11,191 --> 00:01:13,457 I could never transfer that "know-how" on 23 00:01:13,457 --> 00:01:15,714 to my students, I could never see the 24 00:01:15,714 --> 00:01:17,857 progress with my students whatever I did 25 00:01:17,857 --> 00:01:20,571 However, I tried. However many lessons 26 00:01:20,571 --> 00:01:22,342 I had with them. 27 00:01:22,514 --> 00:01:24,600 I felt really really frustrated with that. 28 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:26,742 It's like: "Okay how can I make them 29 00:01:26,742 --> 00:01:29,128 get what the language learning is about"? 30 00:01:29,428 --> 00:01:32,600 You basically helped me to figure it out, 31 00:01:32,828 --> 00:01:35,771 because, this is from last year some of you 32 00:01:35,771 --> 00:01:38,822 might recognize yourselves in the picture. 33 00:01:38,935 --> 00:01:41,285 This is where I came with for the first time 34 00:01:41,285 --> 00:01:43,485 into the Polyglot gathering and I was 35 00:01:43,485 --> 00:01:45,571 completely new to the polyglot community. 36 00:01:45,571 --> 00:01:46,914 I didn't know anyone. 37 00:01:46,954 --> 00:01:49,400 I actually remember sitting in one of these rows 38 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:52,228 talking to someone, one of the guys 39 00:01:52,228 --> 00:01:54,114 and he said: "Have you heard? 40 00:01:54,114 --> 00:01:56,085 Luca Lampariello is not going to come. 41 00:01:56,314 --> 00:01:59,820 He had to cancel." And I was like, Luca who? 42 00:01:59,828 --> 00:02:03,587 What? You haven't heard about Luca Lampariello? 43 00:02:03,742 --> 00:02:06,347 But you have heard about Richard Simcott, right? 44 00:02:06,542 --> 00:02:11,864 Well, sorry Richard, I hadn't up to the last year's Gathering. 45 00:02:11,864 --> 00:02:14,436 I didn't follow any blogs or anything else. 46 00:02:14,436 --> 00:02:17,806 I was just learning languages by myself, in my own ways. 47 00:02:17,971 --> 00:02:20,142 And then, it was really really 48 00:02:20,142 --> 00:02:21,714 inspiring to meet all of you, 49 00:02:21,714 --> 00:02:23,857 to talk to 300 polyglots 50 00:02:23,857 --> 00:02:25,681 who learn languages in different ways 51 00:02:25,685 --> 00:02:28,857 and to figure out how you learn languages. 52 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:31,738 And I found out, that there are so many methods 53 00:02:31,738 --> 00:02:33,847 and they seem to be all working! 54 00:02:34,142 --> 00:02:37,848 So for example, Benny speaks from day one. 55 00:02:37,857 --> 00:02:41,622 But Steve Kaufman says: "I better 56 00:02:41,622 --> 00:02:45,471 first build up my vocabulary, I read a lot and listen a lot 57 00:02:45,471 --> 00:02:47,090 and then I start speaking." 58 00:02:47,090 --> 00:02:49,497 Two different methods but they seem to be working. 59 00:02:49,497 --> 00:02:52,478 Not just for them, but for many people that are following them. 60 00:02:52,478 --> 00:02:53,637 That's just one example. 61 00:02:53,742 --> 00:02:56,971 Maria de Vera at the first Polyglot Gathering 62 00:02:56,971 --> 00:02:59,150 said: "I am a grammar nerd." 63 00:02:59,171 --> 00:03:01,857 I start learning a language by taking a grammar book 64 00:03:01,857 --> 00:03:03,485 just going through it all 65 00:03:03,485 --> 00:03:06,062 just to know what the grammar is about. 66 00:03:06,142 --> 00:03:09,971 And Emanuele Marini basically starts with a dictionary. 67 00:03:10,342 --> 00:03:13,257 He starts using the language using a dictionary 68 00:03:13,257 --> 00:03:15,422 so if he doesn't know a word, he looks it up, 69 00:03:15,422 --> 00:03:16,570 uses it in conversation. 70 00:03:16,770 --> 00:03:18,857 So that's a different approach again. 71 00:03:19,314 --> 00:03:21,800 Another example is Gabriel Wyner 72 00:03:22,057 --> 00:03:24,800 who really is a big fan of flashcards. 73 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:29,485 Maybe you heard about him. And Luca Lampariello, whom I now 74 00:03:29,485 --> 00:03:33,542 do know, says he couldn't care less about flashcards. 75 00:03:33,542 --> 00:03:38,285 So I realized by meeting you and by following 76 00:03:38,285 --> 00:03:40,971 all your blogs and videos after the conference 77 00:03:41,314 --> 00:03:45,168 that there are just so many ways how we can learn a language. 78 00:03:45,342 --> 00:03:49,342 And it's not limited to one particular method, 79 00:03:49,828 --> 00:03:51,542 and that got me thinking. 80 00:03:51,828 --> 00:03:55,771 I started thinking, what is the difference between how the polyglots 81 00:03:55,771 --> 00:03:59,800 learn languages and how people learn languages 82 00:03:59,942 --> 00:04:02,772 out there outside of the polyglot community? 83 00:04:02,772 --> 00:04:04,505 I'm talking mostly about people who 84 00:04:04,505 --> 00:04:07,180 take language courses and go to schools, etc... 85 00:04:07,180 --> 00:04:10,000 What is the difference there? 86 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,714 After studying all these polyglots and reading about them, 87 00:04:12,771 --> 00:04:16,857 talking to them, I think the secret is 88 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:20,600 that polyglotes do learn languages 89 00:04:20,857 --> 00:04:23,457 and they are not taught languages. 90 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:27,314 I think this is really the main difference. 91 00:04:27,514 --> 00:04:31,587 It's about the responsibility that you take for your own learning. 92 00:04:31,891 --> 00:04:34,800 Because we just don't go to a course. 93 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:37,288 I never met anyone here who would say: 94 00:04:37,288 --> 00:04:38,862 "You know what? I happen to speak 95 00:04:38,862 --> 00:04:40,800 five languages, because I had an amazing 96 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:42,371 teacher he taught me all that" 97 00:04:42,885 --> 00:04:45,342 We all have a lot of methods that we use, 98 00:04:45,371 --> 00:04:49,032 but it means a lot of work that we put in ourselves. 99 00:04:49,057 --> 00:04:51,485 To put it in more detail, 100 00:04:51,485 --> 00:04:56,057 for me personally learning a language is based 101 00:04:56,057 --> 00:04:58,657 on four main pillars and this is something 102 00:04:58,657 --> 00:05:00,628 that I realized after the gathering, 103 00:05:00,628 --> 00:05:04,428 and after looking at many different polyglots 104 00:05:04,428 --> 00:05:06,142 and how they learn languages. 105 00:05:06,542 --> 00:05:08,114 I think first of all, 106 00:05:08,114 --> 00:05:11,397 whatever we do must be fun. 107 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:14,017 Do you agree that learning languages is fun? 108 00:05:14,057 --> 00:05:16,371 Absolutely! We just love it! 109 00:05:16,371 --> 00:05:18,457 You know, five minutes a day you take out 110 00:05:18,457 --> 00:05:19,485 your AnkiDroid 111 00:05:19,485 --> 00:05:21,140 and you go through the vocabulary 112 00:05:21,140 --> 00:05:22,575 or you take a grammar book and 113 00:05:22,575 --> 00:05:24,110 you do some exercises, right? 114 00:05:24,110 --> 00:05:27,400 Well it can be fun, but it also means that you use materials 115 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:30,804 that are interesting to you, so you don't just take a book 116 00:05:30,804 --> 00:05:33,901 that someone told you, this is the best book ever for learning. 117 00:05:33,901 --> 00:05:36,690 French or whatever. You pick a book that you like, right? 118 00:05:36,690 --> 00:05:38,400 It has to be a book that smells good 119 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:40,400 that you like holding in your hands 120 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:42,542 that has a nice picture, etc... 121 00:05:42,542 --> 00:05:45,000 So, we need to have a positive attitude 122 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,428 towards learning languages and I think 123 00:05:47,428 --> 00:05:52,494 this is so important, because it all happens a lot in language courses 124 00:05:52,494 --> 00:05:56,714 and in language schools for example, that there's just one book and 125 00:05:56,714 --> 00:05:59,527 people work with just that one book. 126 00:05:59,857 --> 00:06:02,800 But, you know, sometimes I'm not interested in 127 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:05,645 reading about the history of Thanksgiving, for example. 128 00:06:05,657 --> 00:06:08,085 And yet, we're spending two lessons with that 129 00:06:08,085 --> 00:06:10,085 talking about it over and over again 130 00:06:10,085 --> 00:06:12,085 I'm just not interested, okay? 131 00:06:12,085 --> 00:06:14,085 I would rather watch an episode of Friends 132 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:16,857 where I see how Thanksgiving works in the U.S. 133 00:06:16,857 --> 00:06:19,057 in practice, and that's my way of learning 134 00:06:19,057 --> 00:06:21,197 that's how I prefer to learn, right? 135 00:06:21,197 --> 00:06:23,714 So, I think that it's extremely important 136 00:06:23,714 --> 00:06:26,828 that we do stuff that we like, that we enjoy, 137 00:06:26,828 --> 00:06:28,285 that we kind of... 138 00:06:28,285 --> 00:06:31,342 pick up our own methods how to learn 139 00:06:31,342 --> 00:06:32,771 and our own materials. 140 00:06:32,771 --> 00:06:36,644 Do you agree? Is that important? Definitely. 141 00:06:36,657 --> 00:06:39,085 Now the second thing, and I think this is 142 00:06:39,085 --> 00:06:41,542 probably the greatest difference between polyglots 143 00:06:41,542 --> 00:06:44,342 and unsuccessful language learners 144 00:06:44,342 --> 00:06:46,897 who are struggling with the language for a long time. 145 00:06:46,897 --> 00:06:49,057 That is quantity. 146 00:06:49,057 --> 00:06:51,971 It's the huge amount of hours that we put into 147 00:06:51,971 --> 00:06:54,228 our language learning and this is something 148 00:06:54,228 --> 00:06:56,857 you know, that people suppose that 149 00:06:56,857 --> 00:06:58,242 if you speak a few languages 150 00:06:58,242 --> 00:07:00,457 "Oh you're so talented you know. 151 00:07:00,457 --> 00:07:01,767 It's just so easy for you, 152 00:07:01,767 --> 00:07:04,200 you just learn another language just like that". 153 00:07:04,200 --> 00:07:07,114 I hate to hear that, because there's a lot 154 00:07:07,114 --> 00:07:08,742 of hours that I put into every one 155 00:07:08,742 --> 00:07:11,485 of my languages and it's fun hours, 156 00:07:11,485 --> 00:07:13,285 because I pick the materials and the 157 00:07:13,285 --> 00:07:16,371 methods myself, but it still is a lot of hours 158 00:07:16,371 --> 00:07:18,371 that we need to put into that learning, 159 00:07:18,371 --> 00:07:20,217 and we need to do it actively. 160 00:07:20,217 --> 00:07:22,102 This is the responsibility that we have 161 00:07:22,102 --> 00:07:23,098 for our learning. 162 00:07:23,098 --> 00:07:26,018 So I think, this is another huge difference. 163 00:07:26,228 --> 00:07:29,494 The third thing that I heard with many many polyglots 164 00:07:29,494 --> 00:07:31,524 is that you need to do something 165 00:07:31,524 --> 00:07:33,694 not just a lot of it, but also to do 166 00:07:33,694 --> 00:07:35,865 a little bit every day, right? 167 00:07:35,865 --> 00:07:37,785 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there. 168 00:07:37,785 --> 00:07:39,342 It's much more effective 169 00:07:39,342 --> 00:07:41,628 than learning for three or four hours 170 00:07:41,628 --> 00:07:43,742 on a Sunday for example, right? 171 00:07:43,885 --> 00:07:47,894 So, it's really really important to do it on a frequent basis. 172 00:07:48,215 --> 00:07:53,010 And finally, I think learning a language is really much easier 173 00:07:53,010 --> 00:07:55,428 If you have a system, if you have a plan 174 00:07:55,428 --> 00:07:57,514 how to start doing it, how to end, 175 00:07:57,514 --> 00:07:59,164 what do you want to achieve? 176 00:07:59,164 --> 00:08:01,049 How to set your goals? Etc... 177 00:08:01,770 --> 00:08:06,041 So this is basically my language learning philosophy 178 00:08:06,041 --> 00:08:09,041 that I figured out after the Polyglot gathering 179 00:08:09,041 --> 00:08:12,212 and as I told you, my great frustration 180 00:08:12,212 --> 00:08:15,161 was: How to put this in practise? 181 00:08:15,491 --> 00:08:18,597 How to make other people learn languages like that? 182 00:08:19,360 --> 00:08:22,314 And that's why 183 00:08:22,314 --> 00:08:24,971 I came up with an idea and I think 184 00:08:25,257 --> 00:08:27,800 it's best illustrated with this picture. 185 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:29,014 An island. 186 00:08:29,014 --> 00:08:32,294 and it's actually a metaphor, that Alex also used yesterday 187 00:08:32,294 --> 00:08:34,247 which is interesting. 188 00:08:34,247 --> 00:08:37,107 When you don't speak a language, you're basically 189 00:08:37,107 --> 00:08:40,352 on the island, on an isolated island right? 190 00:08:40,352 --> 00:08:42,437 And you have very limited possibilities, 191 00:08:42,437 --> 00:08:44,446 you cannot communicate with so many people, 192 00:08:44,446 --> 00:08:46,371 so you're kind of stuck there. 193 00:08:46,371 --> 00:08:49,485 Now when you want to get out to the beautiful ocean 194 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:55,600 which is full of possibilities, you need to get across the waves. 195 00:08:55,885 --> 00:08:58,605 But as you can see the waves are just around the island, 196 00:08:58,605 --> 00:09:00,950 They're not everywhere on the ocean, right? 197 00:09:00,950 --> 00:09:03,876 So what you need to do if you want to learn a language well? 198 00:09:03,876 --> 00:09:05,979 is to take your boat 199 00:09:05,979 --> 00:09:09,887 from the island and row your way through the waves. 200 00:09:10,314 --> 00:09:13,400 And I think this is something that people don't 201 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:17,942 normally do very well, because they row a little bit, you know 202 00:09:17,942 --> 00:09:20,400 like have a lesson on Monday in a language school 203 00:09:20,714 --> 00:09:22,550 and then row a little bit on the right 204 00:09:22,550 --> 00:09:24,600 have a lesson on Wednesday and then 205 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:27,057 they just wait. They don't learn every day 206 00:09:27,057 --> 00:09:29,112 they don't put in all the work that we do 207 00:09:29,257 --> 00:09:32,571 and so, the waves carry them back to the island a little bit. 208 00:09:32,571 --> 00:09:34,857 So they kind of move forward, but then 209 00:09:34,857 --> 00:09:37,771 they're dragged back towards the island. 210 00:09:38,057 --> 00:09:42,542 The thing is they never get across these last waves 211 00:09:42,542 --> 00:09:45,275 which are the biggest ones, the biggest struggles 212 00:09:45,275 --> 00:09:50,388 and I think personally, that's the B-2 level for me. 213 00:09:50,388 --> 00:09:53,188 I don't know about you, but when I managed to achieve 214 00:09:53,188 --> 00:09:54,816 a B2 level in a language 215 00:09:54,816 --> 00:09:56,572 when I don't have to think about it, 216 00:09:56,572 --> 00:09:59,616 I use it naturally and that's why I don't have to worry 217 00:09:59,616 --> 00:10:01,412 about the language learning so much. 218 00:10:01,412 --> 00:10:04,812 I just enjoy the beautiful ocean swimming in there 219 00:10:04,828 --> 00:10:08,341 and using the language in all possible situations. 220 00:10:08,341 --> 00:10:12,024 But I don't have to row so much every day. 221 00:10:12,024 --> 00:10:15,589 I think in order to get there I need to row quite a lot 222 00:10:15,589 --> 00:10:18,624 to get across the big waves. 223 00:10:18,750 --> 00:10:21,775 So this is just an explanation of how I see language learning 224 00:10:21,775 --> 00:10:24,573 and I'm telling you this, because I want to tell you now 225 00:10:24,573 --> 00:10:27,850 about a few experiments that I've done with my students 226 00:10:27,850 --> 00:10:31,087 where I was testing this idea in practise. 227 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:33,685 I wanted to see, if I tell people about this 228 00:10:33,685 --> 00:10:36,828 and if I make them realize that 229 00:10:36,828 --> 00:10:39,104 if they want to speak a language, 230 00:10:39,104 --> 00:10:40,971 if they want to know the language well, 231 00:10:40,971 --> 00:10:45,004 they need to start learning it and not just wait to be taught. 232 00:10:45,004 --> 00:10:50,051 I wanted to see what happens and the results were actually quite amazing. 233 00:10:50,051 --> 00:10:53,495 So this is something, that I decided to call Language Mentoring. 234 00:10:53,495 --> 00:10:57,320 I decided not to teach any lessons ever in my life again, 235 00:10:57,320 --> 00:11:01,737 because I am not sure, if it's really possible 236 00:11:01,737 --> 00:11:03,342 to teach someone a language. 237 00:11:03,342 --> 00:11:05,971 That's again something that Kirsten mentioned yesterday 238 00:11:05,971 --> 00:11:07,971 and we heard it in some other talks too. 239 00:11:07,971 --> 00:11:11,104 Is there such thing as teaching someone a language? 240 00:11:11,104 --> 00:11:12,946 Well I call it "Language Mentoring" 241 00:11:12,946 --> 00:11:15,532 and I'm going to explain to you what's the difference 242 00:11:15,532 --> 00:11:17,435 and how I go about doing it. 243 00:11:17,435 --> 00:11:22,215 So I did my first experiment at the Comenius University in Bratislava 244 00:11:22,215 --> 00:11:26,786 where I'm currently finishing my PhD, and as such I teach some classes. 245 00:11:26,786 --> 00:11:29,386 I normally teach interpreting classes, but sometimes 246 00:11:29,386 --> 00:11:32,821 they ask me to teach something like "the introduction to English studies" 247 00:11:32,821 --> 00:11:36,484 I had 100 students in four groups, 248 00:11:36,484 --> 00:11:39,411 and I was supposed to do two things with them in one semester. 249 00:11:39,411 --> 00:11:44,498 I was supposed to improve their presentation skills, so how to present 250 00:11:44,498 --> 00:11:48,571 in the public and to improve their practical English skills. 251 00:11:48,571 --> 00:11:51,628 There are students on a B-2, maybe C-1 level 252 00:11:51,628 --> 00:11:55,575 but mostly B-2 and they need to practice their English quite a lot 253 00:11:55,575 --> 00:11:58,983 and you know how difficult it is on the more advanced levels 254 00:11:58,983 --> 00:12:03,338 to actually practice in a systematic way, 255 00:12:03,338 --> 00:12:04,958 so I said: "okay, let's do it!" 256 00:12:04,958 --> 00:12:09,238 But I only had 45 minutes a week. 257 00:12:09,238 --> 00:12:14,638 Can you imagine a class of 25 students 45 minutes a week and you're supposed to 258 00:12:14,638 --> 00:12:19,572 make them learn or practice their presentation skills and also 259 00:12:19,572 --> 00:12:20,802 improve their English? 260 00:12:20,802 --> 00:12:22,332 How do you do that? 261 00:12:22,332 --> 00:12:25,637 And that's how. That's what I did. 262 00:12:25,637 --> 00:12:28,861 I tried the language mentoring in practice. 263 00:12:28,861 --> 00:12:30,691 So basically I told them: 264 00:12:30,691 --> 00:12:32,971 "Okay guys, I'm gonna tell you one thing. 265 00:12:32,971 --> 00:12:36,970 This university is not going to teach you English at all. 266 00:12:36,970 --> 00:12:40,120 You're not going to improve just by studying here. 267 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:42,427 They studied to be translators and interpreters. 268 00:12:42,427 --> 00:12:45,330 And I'm telling you that now, so that you save some time. 269 00:12:45,330 --> 00:12:48,559 So let's take the learning into our own hands 270 00:12:48,559 --> 00:12:50,290 and let's learn together actively. 271 00:12:50,290 --> 00:12:53,140 I want you to do something every day, 272 00:12:53,142 --> 00:12:54,285 That's the frequency. 273 00:12:54,285 --> 00:12:56,701 I want you to do a lot of it and it doesn't matter 274 00:12:56,701 --> 00:13:00,580 if it's watching series or reading books or working on your vocabulary or grammar 275 00:13:00,580 --> 00:13:01,844 or whatever you like. 276 00:13:01,844 --> 00:13:04,942 We also have a system about it, so we had a plan, 277 00:13:04,942 --> 00:13:07,299 we had an accountability sheet, etc... 278 00:13:07,299 --> 00:13:10,057 so we put some framework around it, 279 00:13:10,057 --> 00:13:13,664 so that is not just, okay I'm learning here, I'm learning there. 280 00:13:13,664 --> 00:13:17,668 So this was the project, the experiment 281 00:13:17,668 --> 00:13:19,371 and some of the students came up with 282 00:13:19,371 --> 00:13:23,425 amazing ideas how to note it down, how to monitor the progress. 283 00:13:23,425 --> 00:13:27,000 For example one of the students created a calendar like this 284 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:30,028 and every day she put in the information what she did 285 00:13:30,028 --> 00:13:34,900 like she watched some TED Talks, and BBC learning and YouTube videos, etc... 286 00:13:34,900 --> 00:13:37,244 and she put in the time and then she counted it 287 00:13:37,244 --> 00:13:40,914 how much time it was, which was quite an interesting way. 288 00:13:40,914 --> 00:13:44,818 She had it in front of her table, so that she always sees it every day. 289 00:13:44,818 --> 00:13:46,764 Now I'm gonna tell you 290 00:13:46,764 --> 00:13:49,592 I'm gonna show you what they actually weren't doing. 291 00:13:49,592 --> 00:13:52,768 Because I asked them at the end in a questionnaire all 100 of them 292 00:13:52,768 --> 00:13:55,946 and it was interesting to see that when you tell them: 293 00:13:55,946 --> 00:13:59,342 "Ok guys, you need to learn by yourselves, this is what happens." 294 00:13:59,342 --> 00:14:02,028 They started listening to podcasts quite a lot 295 00:14:02,028 --> 00:14:05,885 93% of all the students, they started watching TV series, 296 00:14:05,885 --> 00:14:09,091 but not just you know TV series with Slovak subtitles 297 00:14:09,091 --> 00:14:13,057 as they would normally, but English subtitles or no subtitles at all. 298 00:14:13,057 --> 00:14:15,171 Which I think is much more effective. 299 00:14:15,171 --> 00:14:17,621 They started using AnkiDroid for the vocabulary 300 00:14:17,621 --> 00:14:18,742 from other lessons, 301 00:14:18,742 --> 00:14:20,657 they read books and articles online 302 00:14:20,657 --> 00:14:22,942 or watched some other YouTube videos 303 00:14:22,942 --> 00:14:25,771 or other videos and they did grammar exercises. 304 00:14:25,771 --> 00:14:28,211 15% of them, isn't that amazing? 305 00:14:28,211 --> 00:14:32,177 I was quite happy with that result 306 00:14:32,177 --> 00:14:34,285 because I told them you can pick yourselves. 307 00:14:34,285 --> 00:14:37,988 We left it up to them, because I said it needs to be something you want. 308 00:14:37,988 --> 00:14:42,351 You know what you need to improve so, make sure that you do it in a way 309 00:14:42,351 --> 00:14:46,424 which is interesting to you and so this is what they did. 310 00:14:46,424 --> 00:14:49,210 and I asked them at the end: "How did you like it? 311 00:14:49,210 --> 00:14:51,400 "How was the learning program for you?" 312 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:55,474 Not the let's be taught, but let's learn. 313 00:14:55,474 --> 00:14:58,521 And I was so glad to see, that just seven percent of them said: 314 00:14:58,521 --> 00:15:00,942 "Oh well, not really my cup of tea, 315 00:15:00,942 --> 00:15:04,657 but the rest of them, you know, said it was great 316 00:15:04,657 --> 00:15:06,000 or it was quite interesting. 317 00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:08,714 So they were really enthusiastic about learning English. 318 00:15:08,714 --> 00:15:13,542 Finally! I asked them: "Has your English improved?" 319 00:15:13,542 --> 00:15:17,941 Because I didn't have any objective ways how to test it. 320 00:15:17,941 --> 00:15:20,978 I didn't test them at the beginning and at the end, I did it 321 00:15:20,978 --> 00:15:23,781 with my second experiment which I'm gonna to tell you about. 322 00:15:23,781 --> 00:15:27,200 But these guys just said by themselves like: 323 00:15:27,200 --> 00:15:29,130 Do you think your English has improved? 324 00:15:29,130 --> 00:15:31,931 And we are talking about two months here, okay? 325 00:15:31,931 --> 00:15:34,188 Not a very long period, just two months 326 00:15:34,188 --> 00:15:38,892 October, November and look at how many of them said: "yes" 327 00:15:38,892 --> 00:15:42,900 at least a little or even quite a lot in just two months. 328 00:15:42,900 --> 00:15:45,671 And again, this was a lesson of 45 minutes 329 00:15:45,671 --> 00:15:50,414 where I didn't spend any time actually teaching them. 330 00:15:50,414 --> 00:15:54,133 We just presented with, we just did presentations in the lesson, 331 00:15:54,133 --> 00:15:57,947 but no learning was actually done in the lesson itself. 332 00:15:57,947 --> 00:16:00,817 It was all about them spending time outside of the lessons 333 00:16:00,817 --> 00:16:03,191 with English in a way which they like. 334 00:16:03,202 --> 00:16:06,264 I asked them if they would like to continue in such a program 335 00:16:06,264 --> 00:16:07,294 in another subject, 336 00:16:07,294 --> 00:16:09,901 because, you know, the introduction to English studies 337 00:16:09,901 --> 00:16:12,485 actually had nothing to do with learning English 338 00:16:12,485 --> 00:16:16,000 or it was not the primary goal and almost all of them said 339 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:18,781 "Yes, absolutely, let's do it, it was good." 340 00:16:18,781 --> 00:16:20,490 So they were happy about it, 341 00:16:21,142 --> 00:16:22,315 they were satisfied. 342 00:16:22,342 --> 00:16:23,857 Now when you look at the time, 343 00:16:23,857 --> 00:16:27,457 how much time they spent, Veronika was the most active student 344 00:16:27,457 --> 00:16:31,314 and in two months she put in 81 hours of language learning 345 00:16:31,771 --> 00:16:34,628 and I can tell you these guys are extremely busy. 346 00:16:34,628 --> 00:16:38,257 I studied the program myself, they study two languages at the same time 347 00:16:38,257 --> 00:16:41,335 plus they have some subjects about translation and interpreting. 348 00:16:41,335 --> 00:16:46,652 They often have as many as 12 or 13 subjects every week, okay? 349 00:16:46,652 --> 00:16:49,912 And they need to prepare for all of them, so they're extremely busy. 350 00:16:49,912 --> 00:16:54,685 So when I saw that she could put in 81 hours of language learning, 351 00:16:54,685 --> 00:16:56,014 just because she wanted to, 352 00:16:56,014 --> 00:16:59,168 she wanted to improve, I was really really happy to see that. 353 00:16:59,171 --> 00:17:05,488 The other students were like 36-34 and on average it was 23 hours. 354 00:17:05,488 --> 00:17:09,631 When you actually compare it to what they would have 355 00:17:09,631 --> 00:17:11,591 if I was teaching them in the lesson, 356 00:17:11,591 --> 00:17:15,481 we would have spent six hours in two months all together, 357 00:17:15,481 --> 00:17:18,200 because it was just 8 times 45 minutes 358 00:17:18,570 --> 00:17:22,198 and now they've real learning time which they spent by themselves, 359 00:17:22,198 --> 00:17:25,958 not because they were taught, but because they were learning by themselves 360 00:17:25,958 --> 00:17:27,838 was 23 hours. 361 00:17:27,838 --> 00:17:33,795 So when you compare that, it's almost 400% of increase in learning time. 362 00:17:33,795 --> 00:17:36,795 Isn't that amazing? And it's much more effective 363 00:17:36,795 --> 00:17:41,439 and I think whatever I would do with 25 students in a class 364 00:17:41,439 --> 00:17:44,438 I could never find something that interests all of them, 365 00:17:44,438 --> 00:17:48,038 so whatever they were doing is something that they picked themselves 366 00:17:48,038 --> 00:17:50,452 and I think it was much more effective for them. 367 00:17:50,452 --> 00:17:52,642 Some of them worked on the grammar, the 15 %, 368 00:17:52,642 --> 00:17:54,971 some of them worked on other areas, 369 00:17:54,971 --> 00:17:57,914 that they needed and everybody was enjoying it. 370 00:17:57,914 --> 00:18:00,800 You know that fun, it was a really nice atmosphere. 371 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:05,515 We spent seriously just 5 minutes every week talking about the learning, 372 00:18:05,515 --> 00:18:09,068 I asked them if anyone had any problems, it was kind of motivational 373 00:18:09,068 --> 00:18:11,838 and it just worked amazingly. 374 00:18:11,838 --> 00:18:15,200 They often came to me and said "Wow, this was so good, 375 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:17,612 let's do it in other semesters too." 376 00:18:17,612 --> 00:18:19,845 And it's just one simple idea you tell them 377 00:18:19,845 --> 00:18:24,411 "Guys don't wait to be taught, start learning yourselves." 378 00:18:24,411 --> 00:18:28,185 So then I asked them, how the program has helped them 379 00:18:28,185 --> 00:18:30,648 and I was really happy to see their answers, because 380 00:18:30,648 --> 00:18:34,930 you know these are students who just learned English at school, 381 00:18:34,930 --> 00:18:38,725 they don't have any experience learning by themselves and now they said like: 382 00:18:38,725 --> 00:18:42,609 "Wow, I have never worked on my English as intensively as during this semester, 383 00:18:42,609 --> 00:18:43,470 thank you!" 384 00:18:43,470 --> 00:18:47,137 or then the last one: "I never liked listening exercises at school too much, 385 00:18:47,137 --> 00:18:48,929 but now I enjoy listening to English, 386 00:18:48,929 --> 00:18:51,425 maybe because I did it voluntarily in my free time. 387 00:18:51,425 --> 00:18:52,941 Maybe, yes, 388 00:18:52,941 --> 00:18:54,861 What a good idea. 389 00:18:54,861 --> 00:18:56,101 Really nice discovery. 390 00:18:56,101 --> 00:18:58,037 And it was beautiful that they discovered 391 00:18:58,037 --> 00:19:00,714 kinda for themselves, I told them like you need to learn 392 00:19:00,714 --> 00:19:03,085 and these are all the methods that you can use 393 00:19:03,085 --> 00:19:07,341 for learning a language, it was beautiful to see how they actually agreed with it. 394 00:19:07,341 --> 00:19:09,452 Like: "Yes, yes, this is much more fun, 395 00:19:09,452 --> 00:19:13,195 much more effective, I see results. Let's do it again." 396 00:19:13,890 --> 00:19:16,177 So, then I did my second experiment. 397 00:19:16,257 --> 00:19:19,742 I moved it a little bit higher even, it was again with a hundred students 398 00:19:19,742 --> 00:19:22,771 but different ones, different classes 399 00:19:23,057 --> 00:19:26,194 and the program was called "Semester with Language Mentoring". 400 00:19:26,285 --> 00:19:30,635 And we just finished it last week, so I'm still processing the results of that. 401 00:19:30,914 --> 00:19:35,428 And the amazing thing is that I work with a group of a hundred students 402 00:19:35,428 --> 00:19:38,992 with 13 different languages, not just English. 403 00:19:38,992 --> 00:19:42,372 And it's because that in our university you can study as many 404 00:19:42,372 --> 00:19:46,116 as probably 20 different languages to be a translator and interpreter 405 00:19:46,116 --> 00:19:48,054 and they are in different combinations. 406 00:19:48,054 --> 00:19:52,542 So we have students who study French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, 407 00:19:52,542 --> 00:19:57,571 Finnish, Croatian, you name it and students with 13 different languages 408 00:19:57,571 --> 00:20:01,142 came to that class. It was actually not a class 409 00:20:01,142 --> 00:20:02,365 because I just told them: 410 00:20:02,365 --> 00:20:07,514 "Let's do it as our free time activity, you're not going to get any ECTS points 411 00:20:07,514 --> 00:20:10,628 any credits for that." In fact they are, but I didn't tell them, 412 00:20:10,628 --> 00:20:13,432 because I wanted them to have a genuine motivation. 413 00:20:13,432 --> 00:20:17,534 It's a surprise, I'm going to tell them next week. 414 00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:22,400 Just those that persevered until the end. They didn't know that. 415 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:24,551 I told them learn, because you want to learn, 416 00:20:24,551 --> 00:20:26,228 you want to improve your languages 417 00:20:26,228 --> 00:20:28,080 and not because someone asks you to 418 00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:30,931 or because you're going to get credits for that, right? 419 00:20:30,931 --> 00:20:34,000 So basically what I did at the beginning is 420 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:36,270 I gave them a lecture where I explained to them 421 00:20:36,270 --> 00:20:38,257 what I just told you 422 00:20:38,257 --> 00:20:40,114 about my language learning philosophy. 423 00:20:40,514 --> 00:20:45,530 And I actually started by using all the languages that I speak 424 00:20:45,530 --> 00:20:47,844 so that they they see that it's possible, 425 00:20:47,844 --> 00:20:51,302 that they can learn languages too and they were really inspired by that. 426 00:20:51,302 --> 00:20:54,272 It was like: "Oh, wow this is cool! I want to learn that too! 427 00:20:54,272 --> 00:20:57,582 So, I told them: "Okay, now listen, you need to put in a lot of hours 428 00:20:57,582 --> 00:20:59,617 there is no shortcut in language learning, 429 00:20:59,617 --> 00:21:01,485 deal with it, okay?" And I told them: 430 00:21:01,485 --> 00:21:03,158 "You know, now I know 300 polyglots 431 00:21:03,158 --> 00:21:07,272 and they say the same, so they trusted me they took my word for it 432 00:21:07,885 --> 00:21:10,888 So,I explained to them what language learning is really about. 433 00:21:10,888 --> 00:21:13,950 And I told them: "Okay, let's create a plan 434 00:21:13,950 --> 00:21:16,187 and let's learn according to that plan" 435 00:21:16,187 --> 00:21:18,477 So, everybody created their individual plan 436 00:21:18,477 --> 00:21:21,145 and now we had regular weekly meetings 437 00:21:21,342 --> 00:21:23,314 where I put them into groups according to 438 00:21:23,314 --> 00:21:25,285 the language that they were learning 439 00:21:25,285 --> 00:21:28,971 and so this would be a Spanish group and the French and German, etc... 440 00:21:29,428 --> 00:21:32,288 And I told them to pick just one language to do this with, 441 00:21:32,342 --> 00:21:35,208 even though they study all of them two languages, 442 00:21:35,208 --> 00:21:37,000 because I think it's more effective 443 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:39,588 if you concentrate on one language at a certain time. 444 00:21:39,588 --> 00:21:43,777 So, we were meeting in three groups 445 00:21:43,777 --> 00:21:46,127 once a week and we were discussing the learning. 446 00:21:46,257 --> 00:21:49,510 And the amazing thing was that I was learning together with them. 447 00:21:49,510 --> 00:21:52,440 I was working on my Russian and we were all letting 448 00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:54,400 each other know how we're doing, and so 449 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:56,600 They could all see what I did on my Russian, 450 00:21:56,600 --> 00:21:59,000 so it was very motivating for me also. 451 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,742 Not to give up and not to be lazy, 452 00:22:01,742 --> 00:22:04,400 but to continue, because I was the example for them. 453 00:22:05,171 --> 00:22:07,542 So, that's how we met and we discussed 454 00:22:07,542 --> 00:22:11,057 all the learning problems and there was 455 00:22:11,057 --> 00:22:12,657 no learning done in the meetings 456 00:22:12,657 --> 00:22:15,914 it was all about learning outside of the lessons. 457 00:22:16,171 --> 00:22:17,914 And again it worked amazingly! 458 00:22:17,914 --> 00:22:21,857 They spent a lot of time for example watching TV series, 459 00:22:21,857 --> 00:22:26,807 reading books, reading newspapers, magazines, etc... 460 00:22:26,807 --> 00:22:29,680 ...working with their Anki vocabulary, 461 00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:31,428 writing the Goldlist method, etc... 462 00:22:31,428 --> 00:22:33,340 I told them about all possible methods 463 00:22:33,340 --> 00:22:35,204 and they picked whatever they liked. 464 00:22:35,204 --> 00:22:38,000 I think that's really amazing to see how people 465 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:39,942 can get excited about language learning 466 00:22:39,942 --> 00:22:42,657 when they realize that it's up to them 467 00:22:42,657 --> 00:22:47,228 and it's in no one's hands. And it was nice, 468 00:22:47,228 --> 00:22:50,732 because I could tell they believed that I knew what I was saying, 469 00:22:50,732 --> 00:22:53,171 because I studied the same program four years ago, 470 00:22:53,171 --> 00:22:55,057 I finished at the same University 471 00:22:55,057 --> 00:22:56,448 studying English and German 472 00:22:56,448 --> 00:22:59,742 and I told them, "Do you have the feeling like 473 00:22:59,742 --> 00:23:01,591 you're in your third or fourth year 474 00:23:01,591 --> 00:23:03,990 and you're studying, let's say, English and German 475 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:06,258 but you're in fact kind of ashamed 476 00:23:06,258 --> 00:23:08,358 to tell people that you're studying German, 477 00:23:08,358 --> 00:23:10,434 because your German is not fluent enough?" 478 00:23:10,434 --> 00:23:12,485 And they were like "Yes!". I had that too, 479 00:23:12,485 --> 00:23:15,331 and and I said "It's perfectly okay, 480 00:23:15,331 --> 00:23:17,511 it's because you're not doing anything about 481 00:23:17,511 --> 00:23:19,171 your language and this university is not 482 00:23:19,171 --> 00:23:21,914 going to make you a perfect German 483 00:23:21,914 --> 00:23:24,981 or English speaker. You need to put in the work yourselves." 484 00:23:25,057 --> 00:23:28,237 I think they understood that and now they're approaching 485 00:23:28,237 --> 00:23:30,608 language learning in a completely new way 486 00:23:30,608 --> 00:23:32,411 and they're writing emails like this: 487 00:23:32,411 --> 00:23:34,814 "This is so amazing, I'm doing it for my other 488 00:23:34,814 --> 00:23:38,094 languages too and I have a plan to work in the summer on my Spanish, 489 00:23:38,094 --> 00:23:41,462 which I want to take as a third language" So, they got really motivated 490 00:23:41,462 --> 00:23:42,947 about language learning. 491 00:23:43,285 --> 00:23:47,984 I did the group of this methodology, this language learning experiment 492 00:23:47,984 --> 00:23:49,080 also in small groups. 493 00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:51,688 These are five my friends 494 00:23:51,688 --> 00:23:57,402 who are learning English and Spanish on an A2-B1 level. 495 00:23:57,402 --> 00:24:00,945 And again, we met every week at my place, 496 00:24:00,945 --> 00:24:02,889 and and we had a nice talk about that. 497 00:24:02,889 --> 00:24:04,868 And I just wanted to see how that works 498 00:24:04,868 --> 00:24:06,822 and it seemed to be working really well, 499 00:24:06,822 --> 00:24:09,171 because they really are achieving great results. 500 00:24:09,171 --> 00:24:11,296 Or another group of people who are actually 501 00:24:11,296 --> 00:24:14,382 starting to learn a language so, I am kind of testing the idea 502 00:24:14,382 --> 00:24:17,171 on different groups of people 503 00:24:17,171 --> 00:24:21,993 and now I started to organize seminars even for the public 504 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:24,257 where I tell people it's all about the learning 505 00:24:24,257 --> 00:24:26,371 it's not about being taught and it's mostly 506 00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:30,200 you know, these people that go to the courses are people 507 00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:35,130 who would normally just take a lesson in a language school but that's all 508 00:24:35,130 --> 00:24:37,748 it takes for them to learn a language. 509 00:24:37,748 --> 00:24:41,171 You know actually, when I was here at the Polyglot Gathering, 510 00:24:41,170 --> 00:24:44,140 I bought Judith's book "Fluent Chinese" 511 00:24:44,140 --> 00:24:46,938 I think it's called and I probably put a lot of interest 512 00:24:46,938 --> 00:24:49,084 even though I'm not interested in Chinese 513 00:24:49,084 --> 00:24:53,534 and I really enjoy the book and then my friend from Serbia 514 00:24:53,571 --> 00:24:57,090 wrote to me and he said: "Lydia, I'm going to teach English in China". 515 00:24:57,090 --> 00:24:59,101 I said: "Yeah, that's cool, good for you. 516 00:24:59,101 --> 00:25:01,060 and he says: "And you know what's amazing? 517 00:25:01,060 --> 00:25:04,852 they're going to give me a private teacher so I'm even going to speak Chinese". 518 00:25:05,142 --> 00:25:08,400 And by the way how he said it he looked to me 519 00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:11,285 like he thinks: Okay, "tick" that's done. 520 00:25:11,428 --> 00:25:14,628 You know, Chinese is another benefit of the work for free. 521 00:25:14,628 --> 00:25:18,142 You know, that's okay, so I just sent him the book right away 522 00:25:18,142 --> 00:25:20,958 I was like "Read this. You better work on your Chinese 523 00:25:20,958 --> 00:25:23,842 as Judith says, because she knows what she's talking about." 524 00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:29,628 And you know I think this really is something that people believe in general. 525 00:25:29,885 --> 00:25:34,658 Like all you need is a good teacher and he will do the work for you. 526 00:25:34,658 --> 00:25:38,820 You know and then these people go and look for the best teacher who can give them 527 00:25:38,857 --> 00:25:44,171 the the best know-how or the best language knowledge 528 00:25:44,171 --> 00:25:47,400 or something, but I don't really think it exists. 529 00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:51,028 I'm thinking teachers were always to make the students learn 530 00:25:51,028 --> 00:25:54,114 and I think the teachers are very important 531 00:25:54,114 --> 00:25:56,999 but the teacher should always stress 532 00:25:57,085 --> 00:25:59,990 how important is that students work on their languages 533 00:25:59,990 --> 00:26:02,690 by themselves outside of the lessons. 534 00:26:02,831 --> 00:26:06,911 So these are the seminars that I'm organizing right now, testing the idea. 535 00:26:06,911 --> 00:26:12,707 I'm gonna see what it brings me. I took it as my private mission to tell 536 00:26:12,707 --> 00:26:15,142 all the world that this is what polyglots do. 537 00:26:15,142 --> 00:26:17,270 You know, they actually learn the language, 538 00:26:17,270 --> 00:26:21,458 they don't wait to just be taught. 539 00:26:21,485 --> 00:26:25,038 And as I said this is all based on the four things 540 00:26:25,038 --> 00:26:27,087 which I think are the most important thing 541 00:26:27,087 --> 00:26:30,611 in language learning and it'll be really interesting to hear your opinion 542 00:26:30,611 --> 00:26:34,058 whether you agree with it, whether maybe you would like to add something 543 00:26:34,058 --> 00:26:37,122 and now we actually have some time for the discussion 544 00:26:37,122 --> 00:26:40,942 so that would be that would be all Are there any questions? 545 00:26:50,942 --> 00:26:52,155 If you agree, 546 00:26:52,155 --> 00:26:56,085 I will ask my question sir then give it to you after 547 00:26:58,020 --> 00:27:04,485 Lydia I think it is not a teaching, but a learning revolution 548 00:27:04,485 --> 00:27:08,404 you are pointing out is really wonderful. 549 00:27:08,404 --> 00:27:14,327 And one thing, with the first group you showed to us 550 00:27:14,327 --> 00:27:18,485 there were three percent of people who 551 00:27:18,485 --> 00:27:22,542 we're not amused with this, 552 00:27:22,542 --> 00:27:25,628 I go to complain to the direction 553 00:27:25,628 --> 00:27:33,874 I mean you are not a director of your school, are you? 554 00:27:33,874 --> 00:27:38,207 So, how the direction reacted to that? 555 00:27:38,207 --> 00:27:41,371 Yes, this is one thing, I'm very glad you ask 556 00:27:41,371 --> 00:27:43,751 thanks for the question. And this is something that 557 00:27:43,751 --> 00:27:46,200 I was thinking a lot about how to actually do it, 558 00:27:46,200 --> 00:27:51,252 because it's a formal education, you know I need to actually assess them now. 559 00:27:51,252 --> 00:27:53,668 How do you assess learning in their free time? 560 00:27:53,668 --> 00:27:56,857 I asked them how much time, we actually had a chart 561 00:27:56,857 --> 00:28:00,521 and they filled in how much time they spent but if I had told them you know, 562 00:28:00,521 --> 00:28:03,657 those of you who will spend more than, I don't know, 20 hours 563 00:28:03,657 --> 00:28:07,485 altogether will get an A, then I wouldn't believe what they say, 564 00:28:07,485 --> 00:28:09,438 because they would just put in anything 565 00:28:09,438 --> 00:28:13,400 So I told them, look guys, officially I'm going to asses you 566 00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:16,640 just based on the presentations and we did a few more activities, 567 00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:18,338 like vocabulary tests, etc... 568 00:28:18,338 --> 00:28:22,281 but the most important thing in this subject is the learning part. 569 00:28:22,281 --> 00:28:25,228 it's the most important one, but I cannot assess it formally. 570 00:28:25,228 --> 00:28:27,700 So, let's just agree that we are going to do it. 571 00:28:27,700 --> 00:28:30,028 if you really don't want to, you don't have to. 572 00:28:30,028 --> 00:28:34,098 There is no way for me how to find that out 573 00:28:34,098 --> 00:28:35,594 and it's totally up to you. 574 00:28:35,594 --> 00:28:39,672 But I'm telling you, this is your once in a lifetime opportunity, you better use it, 575 00:28:39,672 --> 00:28:42,902 because no other teachers are probably going to tell you to do that, 576 00:28:42,902 --> 00:28:44,155 so let's do it together, 577 00:28:44,155 --> 00:28:46,517 so, I tried to motivate them in a positive way. 578 00:28:46,517 --> 00:28:49,605 And if they didn't, you know, if they didn't like it or something 579 00:28:49,605 --> 00:28:54,162 if they didn't put in all the hours it's like okay, that's your problem. 580 00:28:54,162 --> 00:28:57,228 When they were doing it, they came back to you for questions 581 00:28:57,228 --> 00:28:58,870 on particular points? 582 00:28:59,257 --> 00:29:03,810 Yes, during the last moments five minutes at the end, yes to discuss 583 00:29:03,810 --> 00:29:06,201 whatever they want to discuss about the learning. 584 00:29:06,201 --> 00:29:07,691 Thank you. You are welcome. 585 00:29:11,942 --> 00:29:15,885 Thanks, you use the term "Gold list", 586 00:29:16,371 --> 00:29:22,057 Can you briefly explain what that is for those who don't know? 587 00:29:22,057 --> 00:29:24,911 Oh no, I think I may not be the best person to explain that. 588 00:29:24,911 --> 00:29:27,627 David James, the author of the method is here among us... 589 00:29:27,627 --> 00:29:33,868 And the "Gold list" is a basically method of rewriting vocabulary lists 590 00:29:33,868 --> 00:29:37,957 at least two weeks after writing the first list, so you go 591 00:29:37,957 --> 00:29:42,763 you basically distill the vocabulary and you rewrite 70% of the words 592 00:29:42,763 --> 00:29:46,557 that were most difficult for you every two weeks or more. 593 00:29:46,557 --> 00:29:48,783 And it's learning into your long-term memory 594 00:29:48,783 --> 00:29:54,140 without actually wanting to learn, without forcing your brain to learn. 595 00:29:54,142 --> 00:29:56,815 I think you could talk to David James about the method. 596 00:29:56,815 --> 00:29:59,830 I think it's a really interesting one, I'm using it myself. 597 00:30:00,057 --> 00:30:03,771 How about senses learning tools 598 00:30:03,771 --> 00:30:06,714 that can teach a student in order to continue his studies 599 00:30:06,714 --> 00:30:10,057 to see one level after he finished his 600 00:30:10,057 --> 00:30:12,057 intermediate and beginner? 601 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,485 I will not now talk about all the methods 602 00:30:18,485 --> 00:30:21,000 I basically gave my students a two-hour lecture 603 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:25,228 about the possible methods I think it takes a lot of contact with the language 604 00:30:25,428 --> 00:30:28,485 and it depends on you know what level. 605 00:30:28,485 --> 00:30:31,228 If you'll be frosting about the upper 606 00:30:31,228 --> 00:30:34,142 intermediate advance then I suppose that 607 00:30:34,142 --> 00:30:36,142 people should work with native materials 608 00:30:36,140 --> 00:30:38,800 and work with the vocabulary a lot and just listen, 609 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:40,171 listen a lot and read. 610 00:30:40,171 --> 00:30:41,942 Because this is something that our students 611 00:30:41,942 --> 00:30:44,857 just don't do enough of listening to start one thing 612 00:30:44,850 --> 00:30:47,514 that at least in Slovakia is really underestimated. 613 00:30:47,514 --> 00:30:51,742 Can we give the microphone to exactly that person 614 00:30:51,742 --> 00:30:53,085 I thought you were the person. 615 00:30:53,085 --> 00:30:56,142 I don't think James is here. 616 00:31:00,542 --> 00:31:01,685 What a question? 617 00:31:01,914 --> 00:31:04,942 I fully believe in what you're doing, 618 00:31:05,114 --> 00:31:08,428 but how do you make it that we go out of our comfort zone? 619 00:31:08,857 --> 00:31:12,457 Because I mean personally, I like reading or writing 620 00:31:12,457 --> 00:31:14,428 this is where I'm going to do all the time 621 00:31:14,428 --> 00:31:18,857 when I kind of don't go to the oral part because it's my tougher part 622 00:31:18,857 --> 00:31:21,342 and I say okay I prefer taking a book that looking at a video, 623 00:31:21,771 --> 00:31:25,114 so how do you push your student to go out of the comfort zone. 624 00:31:25,114 --> 00:31:26,342 Very good question thank you 625 00:31:26,685 --> 00:31:28,714 and the first thing I did with them 626 00:31:28,714 --> 00:31:31,914 is for them to realize what are their three priorities 627 00:31:31,914 --> 00:31:33,285 that they need to concentrate on 628 00:31:33,628 --> 00:31:36,285 and I made them write it down before I continued. 629 00:31:36,285 --> 00:31:38,771 So I said okay now think about it what do you need 630 00:31:38,771 --> 00:31:40,400 to work on most? 631 00:31:40,742 --> 00:31:43,771 For 93% of them speaking is number one 632 00:31:44,057 --> 00:31:45,400 and vocabulary is number two 633 00:31:45,942 --> 00:31:48,228 and then you know listening, writing, 634 00:31:48,228 --> 00:31:49,428 whatever it is, whatever they chose 635 00:31:49,657 --> 00:31:51,628 and I said okay, let's spend these two months 636 00:31:51,628 --> 00:31:56,314 concentrating on your priorities and if you put in speaking 637 00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:58,600 now I want you to actually write down 638 00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:00,885 exactly how you're going to improve your speaking 639 00:32:01,114 --> 00:32:02,971 and I gave them a range of possibilities 640 00:32:02,971 --> 00:32:05,571 even including things like talking to yourself. 641 00:32:05,571 --> 00:32:08,600 Self-talk which is an amazing way for introverts for example, 642 00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:09,771 I think it's a good method, 643 00:32:09,771 --> 00:32:11,914 so I told them various possible ways like 644 00:32:11,914 --> 00:32:13,400 you can go to language cafes 645 00:32:13,714 --> 00:32:15,914 you know you can use several websites 646 00:32:15,914 --> 00:32:18,028 actually meet foreigners in Bratislava, 647 00:32:18,314 --> 00:32:20,400 you can use italkie for online teachers, 648 00:32:20,628 --> 00:32:21,971 you have a tandem we have Erasmus students 649 00:32:21,971 --> 00:32:25,114 in Bratislava, so there's best possibilities 650 00:32:25,114 --> 00:32:26,685 and I told them now pick one and 651 00:32:26,685 --> 00:32:28,342 write down what you're going to do 652 00:32:28,714 --> 00:32:30,885 and then we did a challenge and I told them 653 00:32:30,885 --> 00:32:33,914 okay guys some of you said your priority is speaking 654 00:32:34,171 --> 00:32:35,885 but I see in the chart that you still 655 00:32:35,885 --> 00:32:37,400 haven't been to any language cafe 656 00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:38,342 you haven't talked to anyone, 657 00:32:38,342 --> 00:32:40,342 so how are you going to improve your speaking 658 00:32:40,542 --> 00:32:42,714 and then I always tell them 659 00:32:43,028 --> 00:32:46,485 it's very comfortable to do the things that we like 660 00:32:46,485 --> 00:32:48,714 like you're reading and listening 661 00:32:48,714 --> 00:32:50,771 where we are not also outside of our comfort zone 662 00:32:51,028 --> 00:32:53,685 but you're speaking will never improve without speaking. 663 00:32:53,685 --> 00:32:58,114 So I said okay before next week I mean this week 664 00:32:58,285 --> 00:33:00,571 everybody needs to do something about 665 00:33:00,571 --> 00:33:02,600 the priority that they haven't still done 666 00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:05,257 anything about and you're going to report to me 667 00:33:05,628 --> 00:33:07,542 next week and then I would ask them in front of the other people 668 00:33:07,828 --> 00:33:09,571 so, what about your language cafe did you go? 669 00:33:09,571 --> 00:33:12,771 and they're like yeah you know um 670 00:33:12,771 --> 00:33:14,771 I already have an italkie session 671 00:33:14,914 --> 00:33:15,942 booked for tomorrow. 672 00:33:15,942 --> 00:33:16,657 It's like okay good, 673 00:33:16,657 --> 00:33:18,657 So this basically motivation like that 674 00:33:19,457 --> 00:33:21,200 I have for the mic back here 675 00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:24,257 send it up front after one more person. 676 00:33:24,257 --> 00:33:27,114 Here I normally don't plug things 677 00:33:27,114 --> 00:33:29,685 but I recently took a course from sensible Chinese 678 00:33:29,685 --> 00:33:33,400 for learning Chinese characters and I was extremely impressed 679 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:36,028 by the systematic approach that it's. 680 00:33:36,028 --> 00:33:39,057 It wasn't specifically to teach me Chinese characters themselves 681 00:33:39,057 --> 00:33:42,028 but how to go about doing that in a very regular 682 00:33:42,028 --> 00:33:45,600 easy-to-understand way if anyone's interested good 683 00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:51,571 Hi thank you so much for that presentation 684 00:33:51,971 --> 00:33:54,485 you sort of answered my question 685 00:33:54,485 --> 00:33:56,028 but I just want to know if there's anything else 686 00:33:56,028 --> 00:33:59,200 so to ask it directly you had the puzzle pieces 687 00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:01,714 there and one of them was system so you 688 00:34:01,714 --> 00:34:03,771 discovered about you know, they make the goals 689 00:34:03,771 --> 00:34:05,600 and then they work on their priorities and all of that 690 00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:08,428 was there anything else as part of that system 691 00:34:08,428 --> 00:34:09,628 that you haven't already mentioned? 692 00:34:09,828 --> 00:34:14,313 Yes it's also the accountability sheet or count account 693 00:34:14,456 --> 00:34:18,257 making sure that they are held accountable for their learning 694 00:34:18,571 --> 00:34:20,742 which is something that I took 695 00:34:20,742 --> 00:34:23,400 inspiration from the add1challenge you know the Google spreadsheet 696 00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:26,027 where people write what date. 697 00:34:26,027 --> 00:34:28,714 I think it's a really good way of making sure 698 00:34:28,714 --> 00:34:30,485 that it's public everybody sees it 699 00:34:30,485 --> 00:34:32,828 It's not just something they would report to me by email 700 00:34:32,828 --> 00:34:35,456 that would be a lot too much work anyway to process 701 00:34:35,456 --> 00:34:37,942 that so this is how I did it 702 00:34:37,942 --> 00:34:42,456 we basically also make sure the accountability was there 703 00:34:42,456 --> 00:34:44,571 I think that's an important part of the system. 704 00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:50,170 Well first of all well done 705 00:34:50,170 --> 00:34:53,828 guess what I agree, I said half of the things 706 00:34:53,828 --> 00:34:55,400 that you said yesterday in your presentation 707 00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:57,885 right yeah but better amazing work.. 708 00:34:57,885 --> 00:34:58,942 really really great. 709 00:34:58,942 --> 00:35:02,514 One thing I was wondering is your group are all busy 710 00:35:02,514 --> 00:35:04,942 taking and interpreting and translating degree 711 00:35:05,285 --> 00:35:06,914 they're all foreign language students 712 00:35:06,914 --> 00:35:10,914 you've got like a big self-selecting group of language nerds 713 00:35:10,914 --> 00:35:14,057 to a certain extent maybe not as nerdy as nerdfest. 714 00:35:17,228 --> 00:35:20,400 However you did then say that you know you were 715 00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:21,857 working on it with your friends you've worked on it 716 00:35:21,857 --> 00:35:23,371 with sort of even zero beginners 717 00:35:23,371 --> 00:35:24,600 I think that's really interesting 718 00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:25,857 because I'm looking at it's good 719 00:35:25,857 --> 00:35:27,857 I'll do this in my town this is great 720 00:35:27,914 --> 00:35:31,514 but I would never find you know like people 721 00:35:31,514 --> 00:35:34,028 who are self selected language people 722 00:35:34,028 --> 00:35:35,828 so I wonder if did you notice any differences? 723 00:35:36,885 --> 00:35:41,114 Yes, surprisingly the students who study languages are not 724 00:35:41,114 --> 00:35:43,885 such language enthusiasts you would probably expect 725 00:35:43,885 --> 00:35:46,085 right and they often choose that 726 00:35:46,085 --> 00:35:48,971 because they didn't get to medicine or whatever 727 00:35:51,371 --> 00:35:55,000 But in Slovakia we have five universities 728 00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,000 that prepare translators and interpreters 729 00:35:57,000 --> 00:35:59,000 we have like 20 languages in there 730 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:00,428 so it's just you know you're studying 731 00:36:00,428 --> 00:36:03,885 polish why well they open polish in m year 732 00:36:03,885 --> 00:36:06,800 so you have students and students there 733 00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:10,428 you know um however, I do work only with people 734 00:36:10,428 --> 00:36:13,771 who do have a little bit of internal intrinsic motivation 735 00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:16,514 I don't need to persuade anyone like if someone 736 00:36:16,514 --> 00:36:21,657 wants to be taught and they are willing to pay a lot of money to be taught 737 00:36:21,857 --> 00:36:23,742 I let them figure it out for themselves 738 00:36:23,742 --> 00:36:25,514 because it's like I tell them about this 739 00:36:25,771 --> 00:36:27,600 and it doesn't resonate with them 740 00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:29,914 then too bad you know I decided to just work 741 00:36:29,914 --> 00:36:31,400 with people who want to work because 742 00:36:31,485 --> 00:36:34,085 I don't promise any miraculous methods 743 00:36:34,085 --> 00:36:34,885 you know this is like 744 00:36:34,885 --> 00:36:37,000 hey guys I'm going to help you learn a language 745 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:38,057 but you need to do the work 746 00:36:38,457 --> 00:36:39,657 I'm just going to be the guide 747 00:36:39,657 --> 00:36:41,371 I'm not going to give you the perfect method 748 00:36:41,371 --> 00:36:43,114 which will teach you English in two weeks 749 00:36:43,114 --> 00:36:47,428 So I guess this is this is the natural selection. 750 00:36:47,628 --> 00:36:49,885 I tell people about it some people say like 751 00:36:49,885 --> 00:36:51,885 well sounds like a lot of work 752 00:36:52,057 --> 00:36:54,142 I'd better go to my to my language course 753 00:36:54,142 --> 00:37:01,771 if others like the idea and we work together in the voluntary group. 754 00:37:01,771 --> 00:37:05,571 Did you have anyone drop out like yes this went quiet on you? 755 00:37:05,571 --> 00:37:07,371 Yes actually counted it yesterday 756 00:37:07,371 --> 00:37:13,942 I think 76 people ended the course and were regularly going and doing this. 757 00:37:14,114 --> 00:37:17,285 This is the things some of them broken you know like yeah you know... 758 00:37:17,285 --> 00:37:21,571 I'm really busy this semester and one day I will do the amazing things that 759 00:37:21,571 --> 00:37:25,657 you told us about and that's what for example Brian Tracy calls the one day. 760 00:37:25,771 --> 00:37:28,485 You know people never get out of that. Thanks, 761 00:37:34,571 --> 00:37:36,571 So I am a classical guitarist 762 00:37:36,885 --> 00:37:39,285 and I completely agree with every single 763 00:37:39,285 --> 00:37:41,857 point and when I'm hearing a lot from people here 764 00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:46,971 is that people want to play an instrument but not practice 765 00:37:46,971 --> 00:37:49,885 people want to speak something but not speak 766 00:37:50,285 --> 00:37:58,314 and so that's so as a musician to language learner everything you said 767 00:37:58,314 --> 00:38:03,285 is 100% true so if you have that comfort zone problem 768 00:38:03,428 --> 00:38:05,457 to one day I'll whatever you want to call it 769 00:38:05,457 --> 00:38:08,571 maybe both if you're an introvert can't do this because 770 00:38:08,571 --> 00:38:10,285 you're setting up your own boundaries 771 00:38:10,628 --> 00:38:12,200 and that is why you cannot advance 772 00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:13,857 she cannot help you no matter how good 773 00:38:13,857 --> 00:38:15,342 of a teacher she is if you are 774 00:38:15,342 --> 00:38:17,942 not willing to step out so you get it. 775 00:38:18,428 --> 00:38:21,800 I use this metaphor quite a lot 776 00:38:21,914 --> 00:38:23,257 in my in my lectures on my students 777 00:38:23,257 --> 00:38:25,657 I use the guitar and I show them a picture 778 00:38:25,657 --> 00:38:27,800 of the guitar and I said if you like 779 00:38:27,800 --> 00:38:29,571 to play the guitar.. how do you think you 780 00:38:29,571 --> 00:38:30,542 will achieve that? 781 00:38:31,942 --> 00:38:32,914 Do you think you could 782 00:38:32,914 --> 00:38:35,228 watch some YouTube videos and practice 783 00:38:35,228 --> 00:38:37,771 with on the imaginary guitar and then 784 00:38:37,771 --> 00:38:40,428 once you know how to do it you take a 785 00:38:40,428 --> 00:38:43,200 guitar and go and do a concert that's that word?. 786 00:38:43,628 --> 00:38:45,228 I go like no, of course not... 787 00:38:45,228 --> 00:38:46,542 You need to pick this along with the guitar 788 00:38:46,542 --> 00:38:49,314 it's like okay what about speaking you 789 00:38:49,314 --> 00:38:50,142 know you want to practice speaking and 790 00:38:50,142 --> 00:38:52,142 you're accepting and somehow 791 00:38:52,142 --> 00:38:53,028 by just reading something and listening to 792 00:38:53,028 --> 00:38:55,085 something you suddenly start speaking in 793 00:38:55,085 --> 00:38:57,342 a fluent way doesn't work 794 00:38:57,657 --> 00:39:00,000 and it helps a lot when I tell them 795 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:02,000 if you know I've gone through this 796 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,000 process several times right now 797 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:05,428 I'm learning Russian and 798 00:39:05,428 --> 00:39:09,200 I'm somewhere still in the wave zone you know still 799 00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:10,628 struggling and still putting a lot of work 800 00:39:11,028 --> 00:39:14,857 But you know even though I it's my eighth language right now 801 00:39:15,114 --> 00:39:18,142 I still felt really frustrated at 802 00:39:18,142 --> 00:39:21,400 the beginning it's like it is a painful process deal with it 803 00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:23,342 okay you want to say something 804 00:39:23,342 --> 00:39:25,457 you're talking to someone you could express it 805 00:39:25,457 --> 00:39:26,485 in fact on the language ease 806 00:39:26,742 --> 00:39:28,571 what you want to do it in Russian it's like 807 00:39:28,771 --> 00:39:32,371 how do I say that you know it's really a painful process 808 00:39:32,371 --> 00:39:34,457 but I tell them just keep growing 809 00:39:34,457 --> 00:39:36,028 and it's going to pay off right 810 00:39:36,028 --> 00:39:38,228 Going on with that it's like you want 811 00:39:38,228 --> 00:39:39,600 to have a concert but you only want 812 00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:40,828 to play the first piece in your program 813 00:39:40,971 --> 00:39:42,314 you want to play a concert but 814 00:39:42,314 --> 00:39:43,457 you're only going to practice scales 815 00:39:43,457 --> 00:39:44,314 when you have other pieces 816 00:39:44,314 --> 00:39:46,485 if you play scales cause I mean you can play arpeggios 817 00:39:46,485 --> 00:39:47,514 if you play arpeggios 818 00:39:47,514 --> 00:39:48,942 I mean you can play scales etc 819 00:39:48,942 --> 00:39:51,057 so listen to her, excellent work. 820 00:40:00,885 --> 00:40:07,228 ah I would have interest in your Google sheets that you set up 821 00:40:07,228 --> 00:40:10,228 and I don't know it's like because I did that too 822 00:40:10,228 --> 00:40:14,657 do they have to do it every day 823 00:40:14,650 --> 00:40:17,171 or every week and what what do they enter 824 00:40:17,171 --> 00:40:20,057 because it can be too much it can be too less, 825 00:40:20,057 --> 00:40:21,428 I don't know your balance 826 00:40:22,057 --> 00:40:24,371 I'm experimenting with this again 827 00:40:24,371 --> 00:40:25,742 I'm trying to work out the best way 828 00:40:25,828 --> 00:40:28,200 with the first group we did it with colors 829 00:40:28,314 --> 00:40:30,800 so we had a we had a sheet which was the 830 00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:37,571 rows were this run from s 60 and the columns were individual students 831 00:40:37,657 --> 00:40:40,771 in several sheets and they were basically 832 00:40:40,771 --> 00:40:44,085 supposed to color the given cell for the day green 833 00:40:44,085 --> 00:40:47,428 if they did well, yellow if it was like half the time 834 00:40:47,428 --> 00:40:49,428 they were starting to they were planning 835 00:40:49,428 --> 00:40:51,457 red if they failed that day. 836 00:40:51,657 --> 00:40:56,057 and it was style of violet if it was a day off. 837 00:40:56,200 --> 00:40:57,942 because I told them you don't need to study every single day 838 00:40:58,342 --> 00:41:01,114 and so then you looked at the chart and you saw 839 00:41:01,114 --> 00:41:04,000 exactly like a there's quite a lot of red cells in here 840 00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:07,114 you know what's going on and then you could discuss it 841 00:41:07,114 --> 00:41:09,085 with that student so that was my color method 842 00:41:09,085 --> 00:41:12,571 and I even rewarded them like if you if you put it twice as much work 843 00:41:12,571 --> 00:41:14,800 because you know students get really motivated at the beginning 844 00:41:15,057 --> 00:41:16,514 and they start learning a lot 845 00:41:16,514 --> 00:41:19,542 so I told them if it's a really active day 846 00:41:19,542 --> 00:41:22,257 then make it a green cell and put in a smiley face 847 00:41:22,571 --> 00:41:25,142 you know and then you can see like I have so many smiles 848 00:41:25,142 --> 00:41:27,000 this week you know, they were very proud 849 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,057 to show the others, so that's my first method, right now 850 00:41:30,457 --> 00:41:33,571 for making them actually write into the cells what exactly they're doing 851 00:41:33,771 --> 00:41:35,371 how much time they're spending. 852 00:41:35,371 --> 00:41:36,285 we're counting the minutes 853 00:41:36,285 --> 00:41:38,971 and they're giving notes like what exact day 854 00:41:38,971 --> 00:41:41,628 they were doing like 15 minutes of that 20 minutes of that 855 00:41:41,914 --> 00:41:43,600 and then we count it together that's how 856 00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:46,257 I could find out how much time did she spend doing 857 00:41:46,485 --> 00:41:48,485 so it's even with numbers or with colors. 858 00:41:48,714 --> 00:41:51,942 Actually I lectured two English teachers 859 00:41:51,942 --> 00:41:53,942 in Slovakia about this and some of the 860 00:41:53,942 --> 00:41:56,057 teachers were to be like I'm actually coming to try 861 00:41:56,057 --> 00:41:58,600 these with my students and one of the teachers 862 00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:01,285 worked with kids which are more like 10 years old 863 00:42:01,628 --> 00:42:03,142 and she says it works perfectly 864 00:42:03,142 --> 00:42:05,028 you know the kids are watching YouTube videos 865 00:42:05,028 --> 00:42:06,714 and they're learning English 866 00:42:06,714 --> 00:42:08,285 and it works well and she works 867 00:42:08,285 --> 00:42:09,914 with the colors because they want 868 00:42:09,914 --> 00:42:11,914 to have the green cells you know 869 00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:14,314 and they even have a chart 870 00:42:14,314 --> 00:42:17,285 in the classroom or color the things themselves 871 00:42:17,285 --> 00:42:19,228 so seems to be working even for children. 872 00:42:22,857 --> 00:42:25,285 Hi thank you very much back to my seat 873 00:42:25,285 --> 00:42:27,828 thank you very much for your presentation. 874 00:42:27,828 --> 00:42:32,000 My name is Johanna I created a kind of teach yourself method 875 00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:35,742 language learning method some of my clients get private sessions with me 876 00:42:36,114 --> 00:42:39,314 I'm thinking of one in particular he's a very busy businessman 877 00:42:39,628 --> 00:42:43,028 I'm supposed to teach him or he's supposed to learn English 878 00:42:43,342 --> 00:42:47,571 and I try to explain kind of the same thing you're saying 879 00:42:47,571 --> 00:42:50,142 I give him a lot of resources with video he could watch 880 00:42:51,257 --> 00:42:54,200 but I never tried the accountability option 881 00:42:54,457 --> 00:42:56,914 what would you recommend for one-on-one sessions? 882 00:42:56,914 --> 00:43:00,542 Because he has nobody else to to prove to 883 00:43:00,542 --> 00:43:02,628 he cannot do a Google sheet with anybody else, 884 00:43:02,628 --> 00:43:03,685 so what could you recommend? 885 00:43:03,885 --> 00:43:05,685 Okay there's another thing that I tried 886 00:43:05,685 --> 00:43:09,828 a mentor like that a friend of mine 887 00:43:10,142 --> 00:43:14,028 with whom I said okay people are really 888 00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:15,685 motivated by money you know people 889 00:43:15,685 --> 00:43:18,000 want to have money and when they lose money 890 00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:18,657 they feel bad about it. 891 00:43:18,657 --> 00:43:20,800 So I think that's a good motivation too 892 00:43:21,085 --> 00:43:23,685 so I told her okay you give me 50 euros 893 00:43:24,057 --> 00:43:26,400 and you learning German, so I'm going to test you 894 00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:30,428 in one month in 50 most frequent irregular verbs in German 895 00:43:30,542 --> 00:43:33,600 If you fail the test, I'm keeping the money 896 00:43:35,085 --> 00:43:38,000 I didn't see them but with my friends the two groups that I showed you 897 00:43:38,257 --> 00:43:40,600 they gave me 100 euros and I told them 898 00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:42,485 you need to stick it out till the under three months 899 00:43:42,914 --> 00:43:45,714 otherwise I'm going to have a really good weekend 900 00:43:47,857 --> 00:43:50,857 and so this or something like that seemed to work 901 00:43:50,857 --> 00:43:52,314 for them too you know they don't want to 902 00:43:52,314 --> 00:43:54,857 people are really really afraid to lose money 903 00:43:54,857 --> 00:43:58,428 So I didn't want to take any money from them 904 00:43:58,428 --> 00:43:59,428 because they're my friends 905 00:43:59,428 --> 00:44:01,800 I was just testing the idea in this way 906 00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:05,200 they were like you know I want to actually earn money by learning 907 00:44:05,657 --> 00:44:07,800 look at that you know what an amazing approach 908 00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:09,828 like if I learn a little bit more 909 00:44:09,828 --> 00:44:12,200 I get a 100 euros the psychology of that 910 00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:13,857 it seems to be working pretty well 911 00:44:13,857 --> 00:44:15,857 if you haven't tried that. 912 00:44:18,457 --> 00:44:21,228 Thank you so much that's really inspiring 913 00:44:21,228 --> 00:44:23,085 because I would love to do some 914 00:44:23,080 --> 00:44:24,342 of the thinking of mentoring methods 915 00:44:24,428 --> 00:44:26,342 that you do and I was wondering 916 00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:28,742 how you found different group sizes from 917 00:44:28,742 --> 00:44:32,085 1 on 1 to 100 what have been the differences 918 00:44:32,085 --> 00:44:34,200 pluses and minuses benefits of each one 919 00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:35,885 and is there a size you would say 920 00:44:36,314 --> 00:44:37,771 you would recommend not going past 921 00:44:39,314 --> 00:44:41,714 I think this can be done with as many people as possible 922 00:44:41,714 --> 00:44:44,628 and it also doesn't depend on the languages you know. 923 00:44:44,628 --> 00:44:46,428 I help people improve their finish 924 00:44:46,800 --> 00:44:48,314 I don't speak a word in Finnish 925 00:44:48,342 --> 00:44:52,685 so it doesn't matter what languages there are even what level 926 00:44:52,685 --> 00:44:55,057 I think it could be done with people on different levels as far 927 00:44:55,057 --> 00:44:58,228 as everybody's learning on their own level 928 00:44:58,657 --> 00:45:01,142 and there are some pluses and minuses 929 00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:03,542 like I would say with this group of 100 students 930 00:45:03,542 --> 00:45:06,800 it was extremely motivating that they met in person 931 00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:08,771 that they actually weren't there together 932 00:45:09,142 --> 00:45:11,771 and even when I did the lecture you know I'd propose 933 00:45:11,771 --> 00:45:13,114 this all around the university 934 00:45:13,114 --> 00:45:15,971 I said we're starting a new learning revolution here at the Faculty 935 00:45:15,971 --> 00:45:18,885 make sure you kind of learn how pointless learn languages 936 00:45:18,885 --> 00:45:21,542 and I had a whole roomful of people you know 937 00:45:21,542 --> 00:45:24,171 and they were like it was amazing to see that this room 938 00:45:24,171 --> 00:45:26,371 is actually full in one of the lectures you know 939 00:45:26,685 --> 00:45:28,257 and that there are so many other people 940 00:45:28,257 --> 00:45:30,685 who want to learn that was very inspiring for them 941 00:45:30,685 --> 00:45:33,000 to see that their classmates are also doing it 942 00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:35,742 and then I also put them into Facebook groups 943 00:45:35,742 --> 00:45:39,714 where they could share resources for their individual languages 944 00:45:39,714 --> 00:45:42,571 so we had a Russian group English German etc 945 00:45:42,971 --> 00:45:49,857 and I kind of motivated them and I boosted the activity in the groups at the beginning 946 00:45:50,085 --> 00:45:51,857 I even had assistants who actually 947 00:45:51,857 --> 00:45:56,428 helped me with that and you know that they were motivated by other classmates 948 00:45:56,428 --> 00:46:02,200 mentioning you know what they were doing for example with a will but 949 00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:04,485 this thing the goal based method 950 00:46:04,742 --> 00:46:07,771 I told them it's important to have a notebook 951 00:46:07,771 --> 00:46:11,485 that you love you know you need to take a really beautiful notebook 952 00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:14,200 and so one of one of the students in the Italian group 953 00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:16,771 actually posted a picture of her notebook 954 00:46:16,771 --> 00:46:19,342 as she said has anyone got a prettier 955 00:46:21,514 --> 00:46:23,685 they were motivating themselves it's amazing 956 00:46:23,685 --> 00:46:26,228 you just need to basically kindle the spark 957 00:46:26,228 --> 00:46:28,485 and it seems to be working by itself 958 00:46:28,485 --> 00:46:31,028 so I would say that's the greatest benefit of working with a group 959 00:46:31,171 --> 00:46:36,685 and working with one on one it can be more adapted to the needs of the person 960 00:46:36,885 --> 00:46:42,571 so for example I mentor a few people where I discuss their language learning 961 00:46:42,657 --> 00:46:44,400 in the language so it is considered English 962 00:46:44,400 --> 00:46:46,828 for example which for them is an additional practice 963 00:46:47,257 --> 00:46:49,771 which they like I couldn't do it with the group 964 00:46:49,771 --> 00:46:51,771 of a lot of students with different languages. 965 00:46:55,314 --> 00:46:57,342 This is exactly what 966 00:46:57,342 --> 00:47:00,714 I do in the finals 967 00:47:00,971 --> 00:47:06,142 I said I'm a lazy polyglot and this is exactly, thank you 968 00:47:06,228 --> 00:47:12,914 what I do I used all my time that I couldn't normally 969 00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:17,800 use when I was at university queuing for the university restaurant 970 00:47:18,171 --> 00:47:23,228 on eating with friends or washing dishes whatever 971 00:47:23,485 --> 00:47:29,342 and I always have either YouTube or some friends to practice languages 972 00:47:30,028 --> 00:47:32,200 with I think this is the secret, isn't it? 973 00:47:32,314 --> 00:47:34,057 isn't it like people? people think like: oh you spent 974 00:47:34,057 --> 00:47:35,257 two hours a day or three hours a day learning 975 00:47:35,457 --> 00:47:37,000 and I was like no really no. 976 00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:39,000 I mean I don't have that extra time 977 00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:44,342 I'm quite easy so I just use I make sure I use the time when I need to. 978 00:47:44,828 --> 00:47:47,000 Exactly those things, okay guys so just one more thing 979 00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:48,285 if you if you want to find out more 980 00:47:48,485 --> 00:47:50,714 I know the website right now in Slovakia 981 00:47:52,257 --> 00:47:53,857 you'll probably not understand 982 00:47:54,057 --> 00:47:56,200 You also have languagementoring.com 983 00:47:56,200 --> 00:47:58,314 which I'm just starting right now so there is not much 984 00:47:58,571 --> 00:48:02,771 but you can contact me there if you have any other questions or ideas. 985 00:48:03,028 --> 00:48:05,485 Thank you very much.