Last night my wife DRAGGED me to parent’s night at Kentucky Country Day School, where my youngest daughter is a sophomore. Don’t get me wrong, I take a great interest in my children’s education, but generally I don’t get a whole lot of “meat” from parent’s night. However, last night I was very happy I went.
Why? Well, my daughter’s French teacher handed out a document that she gave to the class at the beginning of the year titled, “What you must know about acquiring a language”. I was very impressed with this document because it applies to learning ANYTHING. I thought it was such a great road map, that I’m going to modify it a bit and use it with my company but I wanted to share it with all of you right away. As you read it… and read the whole thing, it is short… you’ll find the principals are a great road map to learning ANYTHING.
Here it is verbatim:
What you must know about acquiring a language
1. There is no such thing as a person who isn’t good at learning languages.
2. The trick to acquiring French is ridiculously simple:
a. You must hear a lot of French and you must completely, entirely, totally 100% understand what is being said.
b. If you are doing it right, it feels effortless. It feels involuntary.
3. You must be relaxed and not feel pressured to speak or perform as an individual in front of the class.
4. Turn off the part of your brain that wants to turn this into work… wants to memorize… wants to study… wants to analyze… wants to cram information into the short term memory instead of long-term memory.
TO DO THAT YOU MUST:
· Have fun. Commit to making everything that happens here an absolute blast.
· Listen. Be aware of when our attention wanders and contribute something to the story or the class conversation.
· Tell me every single time you don’t understand by signaling me.
· Tell me if I am talking too fast. If you think it’s a little fast, someone else does also. Consider it a community service.
· Make sure that you support everyone else here in being able to effortlessly and involuntarily acquire French.
· LAUGH. According to brain research, you remember more when you laugh. Collectively, you are much funnier than me, so I really need your help.
· READ. According to the research, the best way to improve your vocabulary, spelling and grammar is to READ.
OK, time to go learn something!
Thanx for finally recognizing me, your youngest daughter, but you still failed to mention my name. In case you forgot it it is Samantha!
None the less i am going to email this to my french teacher i think she would enjoy seeing this.
Love You,
Samantha