In this blogpost, you can learn about the importance of play by using your hands. The video in the blog talks about the research behind the play theory. 

 

 
 

Frank Wilson is a neurologist, Nate Johnson is a mechanic. He taught mechanics in a high school in Long Beach, and found that his students were no longer able to solve problems. And he tried to figure out why. And he came to the conclusion, quite on his own, that the students who could no longer solve problems, such as fixing cars, hadn’t worked with their hands.

 

Frank Wilson had written a book called “The Hand.” CLICK HERE to see the book. Now JPL, NASA and Boeing, before they will hire a research and development problem solver — even if they’re summa cum laude from Harvard or Cal Tech — if they haven’t fixed cars, haven’t done stuff with their hands early in life, played with their hands, they can’t problem-solve as well.

 

So play is practical, and it’s very important. Now one of the things about play is that it is born by curiosity and exploration.

 

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The program says that the opposite of play is not work, it’s depression. And I think if you think about life without play – no humor, no flirtation, no movies, no games, no fantasy and, and, and. Try and imagine a culture or a life, adult or otherwise without play.

 

And the thing that’s so unique about our species is that we’re really designed to play through our whole lifetime.

…

 

So what I would encourage on an individual level to do, is to explore backwards as far as you can go to the most clear, joyful, playful image that you have, whether it’s with a toy, on a birthday or on a vacation. And begin to build from the emotion of that into how that connects with your life now. And you’ll find, you may change jobs — which has happened to a number people when I’ve had them do this — in order to be more empowered through their play. Or you’ll be able to enrich your life by prioritizing it and paying attention to it. …

 

Learn more about THE HAND and the research presented in the book in this video:

 

 

 

Back to Basics – Language Acquisition @ Large!
 
Patricia Kuhl studies how we learn language as babies, looking at the ways our brains form around language acquisition.

 

Patricia Kuhl shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another — by listening to the humans around them and “taking statistics” on the sounds they need to know. Clever lab experiments (and brain scans) show how 6-month-old babies use sophisticated reasoning to understand their world.

 

 

 

In this blog post I share some tips on how to ‘think’ in a foreign language

 
 

 
 

I found this article that talks about 7 science-based methods to thinking in a foreign language. The article looked interesting so I read it.

 

Well, I agree with some of the suggestions, but I may not agree so much with others.

 

Here are the tips. You can read about them in detail at the Source

 

1. Focus on Fluency, Not Accuracy

2. Visualize

4. If It Does Not Work, Translate Your Thoughts

5. Write in a Journal

6. Read as Often as You Can

7. Describe Your Environment

 

1. As a teacher, in general, I don’t agree with the first tip.  I agree that we need to focus on fluency, meaning that we should take any opportunity to listen to living language and ‘repeat’ it until it ‘sticks’. But ignoring accuracy is a mistake, I think. I have met many people in the UK who learnt the language by ‘picking it up’. They made a lot of grammatical mistakes because they never checked out what they had heard or never studied the language formally at all. They speak a language that sounds great – or not – but that is full of mistakes. It also gives the impression that the speaker is uneducated or even illiterate.

 

2. I think it is a great idea. As you have probably heard, the brain cannot differentiate between ‘real’ or physical experiences and the images and feelings you generate by visualizing them. Spend some time visualizing that you already speak the language you are learning and what you are using it for. Go for the feelings rather than the images! Imagine doing things in and with the new language that you truly enjoy!

 

3. This is what the article say: ” Some experts say that, in order to learn a language, you need to think ONLY in that language. This is certainly not something you can achieve at the beginning phases of your language learning, but you should eventually start aiming toward such ‘direct thinking’.

 

When you translate everything you think, you may get stuck in between words, or lose the idea along the way. But, when you think directly in the target language, you can easily detect the gaps in your knowledge and wake those dormant vocabulary phrases and words you do not use when actually speaking the language.”

 

I call ‘direct thinking’ ‘thinking ‘inside’ a foreign language. Speaking ‘inside the language’ means to me that you not only speak by thinking in the language but you understand the culture, the history, and ‘the way of thinking ‘*of that nation whose language you speak. *Obviously, people do not think the same way, but in my observation, different nations and regions tend to show similarities in the way they use their language and express themselves. There is this great video on the topic. CLICK

 

I believe that  until you ‘move inside the language’, you don’t speak  the language fluently. How can you do that? I am going to discuss in detail it in another post.

 

5. Well, I don’t like writing when learning another language. I often find that learners can read and write in the target language well but not able to say one correct and meaningful sentence. I would rather suggest to record your diary in the target language. Then listen to the recording and see what you could have said differently and if you can, rerecord it. You can train yourself to think in the target language by making your ‘learning’ practical and personal.

 

6. I think that reading a book in a foreign language is quite hard. It took me a long time to be able to read a book in a way that I could enjoy it. To be able to understand someone else’s train of thoughts and enjoy the story and the messages require high command of the language. So, reading is important; it is a great way to gain a wide passive vocabulary. However, to me, listening is more useful.

 

7. It think it is a good idea to find something to ‘think about’. Also, this tip reminds me of a type of Mindfulness exercise, called something like being mindful of your environment. Read more about Mindfulness here, click.  Mindfulness can help you calm down, refocus and release tension or anxiety. Here are a few VIDEOs to introduce you to Mindfulness. 

 

DESCRIBE WHAT YOU ARE OBSERVING

*

MINDFUL GROUNDING TECHNIQUE

*

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?

If you want to ‘ lean’  English with me, get in touch by clicking on the pictures below.