Good vid, it's a pretty accurate description of the program - complete immersion, student teachers, etc etc. I also very much appreciate that he touches on some of the potential downsides of the...
Good vid, it's a pretty accurate description of the program - complete immersion, student teachers, etc etc. I also very much appreciate that he touches on some of the potential downsides of the MTC. The companion aspect of the program is very much used to encourage participants to hold each other accountable, even when they don't want to. I will point out though, the MTC system can encourage deeply unhealthy practices and expectations. Wouldn't recommend it, neither the program nor the church.
I also appreciate that he then focuses on how the good bits can be isolated from the rest of it. Immediate immersion, daily practice, and the glimpses of mastery or whatever he called it, all very effective techniques that don't have to coupled with a religious program. Currently using similar yet secular methods for studying Spanish to decent success.
I thought the hyper-focus on a specific area a language use sounds useful too, and I guess that partly sets up the Glimpses of Mastery concept. As someone who has been “learning” Spanish for years...
I thought the hyper-focus on a specific area a language use sounds useful too, and I guess that partly sets up the Glimpses of Mastery concept. As someone who has been “learning” Spanish for years and years (now mainly via 5 minutes of Duolingo a day) I can relate. The times when I’ve really felt fast progress have not been the broad, unfocused periods but when I needed to scramble and be very prepared to enter conversations on a specific subject.
I lived in Hungary for a few years, and I'm not fluent, but I speak it fairly well, understand it better. I was also friends with a few Mormon missionaries there. If their Hungarian proficiency...
I lived in Hungary for a few years, and I'm not fluent, but I speak it fairly well, understand it better.
I was also friends with a few Mormon missionaries there. If their Hungarian proficiency level was typical, I promise this learning method is nothing special. Despite living there for over a year each, plus some immersion training before-hand, their Hungarian was still quite rudimentary.
ETA: I recall the method of language learning in the French Foreign Legion impressed me a lot. Like most things military, it was just crazy-intense immersive.
Makes sense that immersion and intensive study in a short period of time would be highly effective. In the Netherlands, there is the Language Institute Regina Coeli run by nuns. They offer total...
Makes sense that immersion and intensive study in a short period of time would be highly effective. In the Netherlands, there is the Language Institute Regina Coeli run by nuns. They offer total immersion:
You live, sleep, and eat at the institute for the duration of the course (usually a week or something)
Spend 10 hours a day studying along with private lessons
No/minimal English. Everyone will speak to you in the target language.
Your brain is forced to adapt and build pathways in order to adapt to the new environment, not being allowed to repeatedly fall back on English as a crutch. This is the biggest issue, I think — that the brain will always seek to take the path of least resistance when language learning demands resistance.
In my past language learning experiences, traditional language classes are extremely inefficient. Parts of language must be bridged together through context in order to be meaningful and memorable. The practice of studying different parts of a language in isolation and spaced across long time spans fails to build dense connections between those parts in time before your brain tosses them out, so there's a lot of re-learning and repetition.
On that note, I think that all my high school and university foreign language classes were a giant waste of time. I could've accomplished all those years of work by being held hostage by a French grandma for a week or two.
Furthermore, I think the way we're teaching foreign language in public schools at least (which was my experience) is a colossal waste of time and money. Everyone I know had to get foreign language...
On that note, I think that all my high school and university foreign language classes were a giant waste of time. I could've accomplished all those years of work by being held hostage by a French grandma for a week or two.
Furthermore, I think the way we're teaching foreign language in public schools at least (which was my experience) is a colossal waste of time and money. Everyone I know had to get foreign language credits in high school and university to meet their graduation requirements — yet almost none of them has achieved any sort of meaningful proficiency in their chosen foreign language.
It's a very pennywise, pound-foolish approach. It'd be cheaper to take all that money spent over multiple years and instead buy monthlong immersion courses for students and be done with it for the rest of their education career (unless they choose to specialize).
Good vid, it's a pretty accurate description of the program - complete immersion, student teachers, etc etc. I also very much appreciate that he touches on some of the potential downsides of the MTC. The companion aspect of the program is very much used to encourage participants to hold each other accountable, even when they don't want to. I will point out though, the MTC system can encourage deeply unhealthy practices and expectations. Wouldn't recommend it, neither the program nor the church.
I also appreciate that he then focuses on how the good bits can be isolated from the rest of it. Immediate immersion, daily practice, and the glimpses of mastery or whatever he called it, all very effective techniques that don't have to coupled with a religious program. Currently using similar yet secular methods for studying Spanish to decent success.
I thought the hyper-focus on a specific area a language use sounds useful too, and I guess that partly sets up the Glimpses of Mastery concept. As someone who has been “learning” Spanish for years and years (now mainly via 5 minutes of Duolingo a day) I can relate. The times when I’ve really felt fast progress have not been the broad, unfocused periods but when I needed to scramble and be very prepared to enter conversations on a specific subject.
I lived in Hungary for a few years, and I'm not fluent, but I speak it fairly well, understand it better.
I was also friends with a few Mormon missionaries there. If their Hungarian proficiency level was typical, I promise this learning method is nothing special. Despite living there for over a year each, plus some immersion training before-hand, their Hungarian was still quite rudimentary.
ETA: I recall the method of language learning in the French Foreign Legion impressed me a lot. Like most things military, it was just crazy-intense immersive.
Makes sense that immersion and intensive study in a short period of time would be highly effective. In the Netherlands, there is the Language Institute Regina Coeli run by nuns. They offer total immersion:
In my past language learning experiences, traditional language classes are extremely inefficient. Parts of language must be bridged together through context in order to be meaningful and memorable. The practice of studying different parts of a language in isolation and spaced across long time spans fails to build dense connections between those parts in time before your brain tosses them out, so there's a lot of re-learning and repetition.
On that note, I think that all my high school and university foreign language classes were a giant waste of time. I could've accomplished all those years of work by being held hostage by a French grandma for a week or two.
Furthermore, I think the way we're teaching foreign language in public schools at least (which was my experience) is a colossal waste of time and money. Everyone I know had to get foreign language credits in high school and university to meet their graduation requirements — yet almost none of them has achieved any sort of meaningful proficiency in their chosen foreign language.
It's a very pennywise, pound-foolish approach. It'd be cheaper to take all that money spent over multiple years and instead buy monthlong immersion courses for students and be done with it for the rest of their education career (unless they choose to specialize).