Making Your Learning Personal

Photo by Ian Schneider (Unsplash)

I watched this TED Talk by Lýdia Machová and it brought me some ideas about learning. What is behind the apparent brilliance of mind of those who learn many languages? How could we take over such mastery and apply it to our own learning?

Speaking 9 languages and being fluent in 7, the young language coach has worked her way to it without having ever lived abroad or in a multilingual environment. Her individual drive and generosity amount to the following advice: we need perseverance to find our own way of learning, pursuing the route that is best for us, and to insist on that path until we feel we have mastered a language or any other area. Today, Lýdia is also a public speaker, entrepreneur, and organises the largest polyglot gathering in Bratislava, Slovakia.

I could not hold myself from thinking how much it can be applied to learning practically anything. The secret of making the learning be a personal quest, upon which we dwell with our difficulties and fears, is indeed, universal.

Our brains work to our advantage when we are aware of the reason why we want to learn something and when we repeatedly practice the skill. Our long term memory eventually kicks in to automate and make the information easy to access, making it as instantaneous as riding a bike.

Repetition, relevance and persistence are the three keys to learning and keeping it in our long term memory. Keep it fun, lighthearted, or intense, whenever you deem necessary. But, in any case, keep it going!

#learninglanguages #howwelearn #brainscience #aulasdeingles #englishlessons #englishtutoring