Intro
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| Chigusa: Welcome to a special Inner Circle Audio Lesson! I'm Chigusa and I'll be your host. My co-host today is the founder of InnovativeLanguage.com... Peter Galante! |
| Peter: Hi everyone! Peter here. |
| Chigusa: In this Inner Circle, we’re talking about... |
| Peter: How to Ramp Up Your Language Progress for the 2nd Half of the Year |
| Chigusa: And you’ll learn... |
| Peter: One: How to Ramp Up Your Progress by Ramping Up Your Output |
| Chigusa: Two: How to Apply This to Our Language Learning System |
| Peter: All so you can master your target language and reach your goals! |
| Chigusa: Listeners, welcome back to the Inner Circle. |
| Peter: Last time, you learned about the 2-minute rule for cracking through the hard parts of a language… |
| Chigusa: And last time, Peter, you hit your 4-minute goal, and… promised us 6 minutes this time. |
| Peter: I did. |
| Chigusa: And did you hit it? |
| Peter: Yes, sometimes when you get into a good routine, the progress comes actually quicker than you think. Rarely, but sometimes it does happen. |
| Chigusa: That’s great! And by the way, I don’t know if you noticed, Peter, but we’re halfway through the year, aren’t we? |
| Peter: You’re right, it’s the end of June… just 6 more months to go. |
| Chigusa: Yeah. So, do you think your Hindi has improved a lot since January? |
| Peter: According to my paid teacher, yes. According to my best friends, no. So, still a lot of work to do. I think one of the most important things about learning a language and putting in the effort is that there are so many things that come along with it. And I say no with my friends, but again… what they’ve told me is that they’re really impressed that I’m taking the effort, and that really helps when you have a deeper understanding of the language, culture, food, etc. So, lots of rewards… even though I haven't hit my original goal I started out for, there have been many, many rewards along the way. |
| Chigusa: And what about these next 6 months? Do you have any plans? |
| Peter: Good question. Remember, I originally promised 30 minutes by the end of the year, and…I scaled that down to 15… I’m kind of on pace for that. Listeners, if you’re interested in why I scaled down my goal… and what you should do if you’re struggling, you can relisten to some of the previous lessons. But, Chigusa, I think I’m on track with the adjusted goal. But also, Hindi has been a bit harder than other languages I’ve taken on… so my progress is slower here. |
| Chigusa: Yeah, with some of the other languages, you’d be at 10 or 12 minutes at this time of year. |
| Peter: That is true. And to be honest, I do want to ramp up my progress and maybe go a bit above the 15-minute goal by the end of the year. |
| Chigusa: Ooh, that’s ambitious. But how will you ramp up your progress? Do you mean, like speaking more? |
| Peter: Let’s get into part 1 of today’s Inner Circle. |
| Chigusa: Part 1: How to Ramp Up Your Progress by Ramping Up Your Output |
| Peter: So, to answer the question, yes, the goal is to speak more Hindi. But… as you might know, it’s kind of hard to control results sometimes, right? |
| Chigusa: Right, sometimes you hit a goal, sometimes you miss a goal…. |
| Peter: Exactly. And you could set all the goals you want, but reaching them isn’t always simple. We like to think of progress as a line graph that goes straight up diagonally. But it’s never really a straight line… is it? |
| Chigusa: No, It’s more so up and down. |
| Peter: And sometimes it tanks down to zero… when life gets in the way. So, because it’s hard to control the results, instead of just focusing on results, there’s something else I can control and ramp up… which should impact my Hindi progress. |
| Chigusa: You can control your effort. |
| Peter: Exactly. The effort and time I put in. I can’t always control my results, but I can control my effort. |
| Chigusa: And how will you ramp things up? Just spend more time? |
| Peter: Well, that’s definitely one way to do it…. And I think that’s the idea that most language learners have - just throw more time at it. |
| Chigusa: Yeah. |
| Peter: It’s a fine approach, but I don’t think I’ll add hours for the sake of adding hours. What I want to do is… increase the frequency of my language output and practice sessions. And by output, meaning speaking and producing the language, so, speaking or writing. |
| Chigusa: So, something like 5 or 10 minutes… a few times in a day? |
| Peter: Exactly. Instead of just doing it once a day or once a week. So, there’s actually an interesting story I heard… about students in a ceramics class….that shows how doing more output, more sessions… how it helps you progress faster. Interested? |
| Chigusa: Oh, I want to hear it. |
| Peter: So the way the story goes is… There was a ceramics class, and as an experiment, the teacher split the class into 2 groups where… Now, one group was graded on quality - meaning they had to create just one perfect pot to get a perfect grade. And the other group was graded on quantity. So, they had to make 50 pots to get a perfect grade. |
| Chigusa: So 1 group had to make 1 perfect pot, and 1 group had to make 50 pots. Got it. |
| Peter: Chigusa, listeners, can you guess who made the best pots? |
| Chigusa: Hmm, I want to say the group that made 1 pot … because they had all the time to focus on perfecting it… and maybe the other group rushed through all 50 without making good ones… But I feel like this is a trick question, Peter. |
| Peter: Well, your intuition is right, Chigusa. The group that made 50 pots… Wait, which one was your intuition? In the end, The group that made 50 pots ended up creating higher quality pots. |
| Chigusa: But, I really wonder why. Because they learned from the experience and the repetition…? |
| Peter: Exactly. Maybe we can think of it in a different way. It’s kind of like… making an egg for breakfast in the morning. If you read about how to make it, and then think about how to make it, and strategize about how to make it, and get a whiteboard on how to make the egg… and just make one. That might be inferior to just doing it 50 days in a row, and by the time day 50 comes, you kind of know how long to cook it or things like this. So, maybe it’s kind of like having multiple sessions and practicing more, right? You could cram for 1 hour today, and that’s it for the week… or you could study for 15 minutes a day every day for 4 days — each is an hour, but you’ll get better results from those extra sessions. So, that’s what I’m aiming for. |
| Chigusa: Yeah, and you tend to remember things better when you repeat them. Also, I remember from our lesson on habits… that if you want to create strong habits, it’s more so about the frequency - the number of times you’ve done it - more so than the hours you put in. |
| Peter: That’s a great point. It’s all about the frequency. |
| Chigusa: So, what’s your plan for Hindi then? |
| Peter: I plan to do more speaking output. So, for the past languages, I used to send recordings to my Premium PLUS teacher every day - 3x a day. One in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. Just saying my daily routine. So in the morning: I wake up, I brush my teeth, I eat breakfast… things like that. I’ve not been doing this as much, but I plan on doing it more with Hindi. |
| Chigusa: Does this take a lot of time? |
| Peter: Maybe 2 to 5 minutes maximum, once you get the hang of it. If there’s something I don’t know how to say, I’ll look it up… and that’s where most of the time would go. And this would be daily. |
| Chigusa: And then the teacher reviews your recordings and gives you feedback? |
| Peter: Exactly. The next day, I get feedback. I apply the feedback and re-record the corrected version… and send new recordings for the day as well. So, this is one quick way I get to practice speaking throughout the day. And when you get used to it, speaking becomes much more natural… with all the sessions you’re doing. I don’t have to think about how to say, “I’m brushing my teeth…” or how to use the present continuous tense because I’ve been practicing so much. |
| Chigusa: Right, because you said it so many times… it becomes automatic. I think that’s probably the best way to master grammar too. Just sheer practice - until you get used to it. |
| Peter: “Getting used to it” is a great way to put it. And also, on top of this, I’ll be doing more of our hand-graded assessments. |
| Chigusa: Listeners, by the way, these are a Premium PLUS feature that tests your speaking and writing skills… and you get graded by a teacher. |
| Peter: And like our multiple choice assessments, they test you on what you’ve learned in the last few lessons - but the difference is, I get to practice speaking and writing — productive. And I get it reviewed by a teacher. |
| Chigusa: How do you plan on doing multiple sessions there? Just take more assessments? |
| Peter: Well, you can actually retake the assessments, Chigusa. So, usually, I’d take it and leave it alone after. But, after I get it graded by a teacher, I’ll do it again and adjust with the feedback. |
| Chigusa: Peter, what about your in-person teacher? I think if you up the number of times you see them… that would also improve your Hindi, right? |
| Peter: That’s a great point, Chigusa. However, for every minute you’re with a teacher, you kind of need 3 minutes of prep time to make the most of it. Maybe you can relate. Have you ever studied a language or some type of life skill and you go to class on Thursday… or for example, on a Thursday, and you’re like, I’m going to do some practice before next Thursday. What happens before next Thursday? |
| Chigusa: You don’t do anything. |
| Peter: Yes, exactly. So this is the danger. You want to be very careful with this in-person thing because a lot of the time, you really need that prep work to get the most out of it. But besides that, I will try to do that at a bit of a later date, but I need to get that routine of talking to my Premium PlUS teacher. Then, I plan on shadowing the dialogues from the HindiPod101 lessons… 3x a day. And once I get to that milestone, then I will, I think, try to add more. But that's again, on top of my current routine. |
| Chigusa: Great. Now, what can our listeners take away from this? |
| Peter: So, let’s jump into part 2. |
| Chigusa: Two: How to Apply This to Our Language Learning System |
| Peter: So, listeners, if you want to ramp up your language progress for the 2nd half of the year… and speak more… |
| Chigusa: …one way to do it would be to put in more time. |
| Peter: Remember, while it’s not easy to control your results… |
| Chigusa: You can always control the effort that you put in. |
| Peter: But putting in more time for the sake of doing it may not always be the best approach. |
| Chigusa: Right, it really depends on what you do with that time. Because otherwise, you may as well be going 100 miles an hour in the wrong direction. |
| Peter: So, if you want to ramp up your speaking progress… here’s how you ramp up your output. |
| Chigusa: One. Increase the frequency of your output… or practice sessions. |
| Peter: And this is the main takeaway from this lesson. |
| Chigusa: However you choose to practice your language, you’ll get better results from practicing several times a day… or several times a week… |
| Peter: ….instead of once a day or once a week. |
| Chigusa: And here’s how: |
| Peter: Two. Practice your speaking skills by sending recordings to your Premium PLUS teacher. |
| Chigusa: The easiest thing you can do here is to send 3 recordings a day. |
| Peter: One in the morning. One during the day. And one at night… Detailing what you’ve done. Like, I wake up. I brush my teeth. I have breakfast. And I go to work. Just send 3 or 4 lines like that. Nothing complicated. |
| Chigusa: And they will review your recordings and respond with corrections |
| Peter: Three. Take our hand-graded assessments to practice and assess your speaking and writing skills. |
| Chigusa: You’ll find these in the recommended pathway. |
| Peter: And remember, you can always retake them after, if you want to improve your score or apply the teacher’s feedback. |
| Chigusa: If you’re a Premium member, you can take our multiple choice assessments instead. |
| Peter: Four: Practice shadowing the lesson conversation 3x in 1 day. |
| For example, after taking the lesson - shadow it once. If it’s in the morning, then do it a 2nd time at noon and a 3rd time in the evening or before you go to bed. |
| Chigusa: The point of spacing it out throughout the day is so that you remember it better… instead of doing it once and forgetting it. |
| Peter. Five. Practice reading the lesson dialogue out loud. |
| Chigusa: If you can’t easily shadow a conversation just yet, then reading is the next best thing. |
| Peter: And you can read along with the Dialogue Tool, Lesson Notes or Lesson Transcript. |
| Chigusa: Six: You can also practice writing out the dialogue. |
| Peter: Our lesson dialogues are conversations that you can use in real life with native speakers... |
| Chigusa: And by writing it out a few times, you’ll remember it better that way. |
| Peter: Seven. Use the voice recorder to record and compare yourself with native speakers. |
| Chigusa: You’ll find the voice recorder inside the DIalogue tool in all of our lessons. |
| Peter: Just look for the microphone icon next to each line. |
| Chigusa: By the way, all of these suggestions shouldn’t take more than 10 or 15 minutes. |
| Peter: And all of these shouldn’t be done just once a week. |
| Chigusa: Just pick one or two from this list of suggestions and try them out. |
| Peter: The goal here is to increase the frequency of sessions… or output... throughout the day… or week. |
| Chigusa: Remember, even though putting in more time can be a way to ramp up your progress… you still have to apply that time wisely. |
| Peter: You could spend 15 minutes practicing speaking or do just 5 minutes 3 times throughout the day… |
| Chigusa: Which is also 15 minutes… |
| Peter: …but you’d remember things better with the extra repetition. |
| Chigusa: Alright, Peter, so, if you can stick to this plan… What kind of goal do you want to reach by next month? |
| Peter: Let’s go for 8 minutes. |
| Chigusa: 8 minutes by July 31st? |
| Peter: July 31st. |
| Chigusa: Sounds good. And listeners, let us know what your small, measurable, monthly goal is… email us at inner dot circle at innovative language dot com, and stay tuned for the next Inner Circle. |
Outro
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| Chigusa: Well, that’s going to do it for this special Inner Circle lesson for this month! |
| Peter: Bye, everyone! |
| Chigusa: Thank you for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
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