Module 2a - Learning Principles

Hey friends and welcome to a new module.  

In 2008, after making my first YouTube video, I had the good fortune of meeting an incredible polyglot by the name of Richard Simcott.

Two things struck me about Richard:  first, his legendary language skills, and second, the fact that his language learning methods were (and still are) completely different from mine.

This puzzled me at first, because over my years of acquiring new languages I grew to assume that all successful polyglots learned in the same way.

A few years later,  I stumbled upon a quote by Harrington Emerson that made it all clear to me. Emerson wrote:

 “As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”  

That explained it. Richard and I may have had completely different methods, but beneath those methods could be found the same core principles.

While I will use this course to illustrate a method that I’ve seen work many, many times for me and others, it is important that you understand the underlying principles that make this method so strong and efficient. Once you do that, you can tweak the method itself in any way you want, and customize it to your own needs.

Here is a brief overview of these principles, which we will soon examine in much greater depth:

Through the first principle - “Learn Every Day” - you will learn how frequency of learning is much more important than intensity of learning, and how you can and should learn every single day, over the long term.

Through the second principle - “Learn Holistically” - you will learn how and why to learn any language organically. You will do this through developing the subskills of language with surgical precision,  and then cultivating these sub skills so they work together in unison.

Through the third principle - “Interleave Your Activities” - you will learn how and why you should rotate through and vary your language learning activities to learn with maximal efficiency.

Through the fourth principle — “Space Out Your Learning” you will learn to maximize your capacity to commit new language knowledge to long term memory.

And last but not least, through the fifth principle, — “Acquire Skills, and Not Just Knowledge” — you will learn how anyone can unlock your innate language learning capabilities, so long as they learn in a brain-friendly way.

Let’s delve into the principles!