Got Spanish Yet?

By: H. Bernard Wechsler
Submitted: 2007-01-17 10:58:54
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Americans hate to learn foreign languages; it is too much like work. The secret is to make it a game and your goal - internalizing just five-new-words daily.

If you set too high a goal – like learning 50 new words daily, your mind feels overwhelmed and refuses to play the learning game.

Are you motivation to begin learning? If you cannot visualize a purpose for starting, your mind just shuts-down. Write down at least one good reason to start this project.

Humans must have a reason to do something; even a really dumb reason works to engage our brain in playing the word game.

Would you go to work daily if there was no paycheck? A reward motivates us. Give yourself a specific payoff – learn to use 100 new Spanish words in thirty days, and win a $50 dinner at the best Mexican restaurant in town.

Reasons

You can have positive or negative purposes to invest your time and effort. Some folks produce an all-out effort because they have been warned they will be axed if they do now show improvement. What if winning your next promotion depended on increasing your Spanish fluency 10%?

What if your future Significant Other speaks Spanish, and your romantic success depends on making an effort to discover the rudiments of her language?

There are three ruling values in life: purpose, reason and self-esteem. We must find our purpose in life, isolate the reasons that motivate us, and finally produce personal growth in the form of self-esteem.

Why?

They produce meaning in our lives, which translates to happiness, effectiveness and fulfillment. Money is not enough to produce your consistent optimal effort over the next twenty-years of work.

The System

a) Convert the Spanish word into English words that are clear and easy to remember.

b) Break down the Spanish word into its distinct sounds, and

convert these syllables to English words.

c) Create a mental-image of the converted English syllables and the Spanish word you are learning, and link it to a new word memory.

d) Commit the mental picture to your long-term memory for for easy retrieval and access.

e) You do not have to use all the syllables in the new word to create a long-term memory to access the Spanish word later. Your memory of the first couple of English syllables will remind you of the Spanish word you are learning.

Examples

Cabeza is Spanish for – head.

Let us use three syllables – Cab-Bee-A. Convert them into the English words –

Cab (as in Taxi), Bees, and A (as in bale of Hay),

Now we need to place a picture on the mental-movie-screen of our minds-eye for long term memory.

Create a fleet of Cabs filled with Beehives, and a bale of hay. Out of the Sunroof sticks the head of a Gorilla. You remember the head of course, and the cab it is riding in, the beez and the hay.

The Spanish word for Head is - Cab-Bees-Hay. See this bizarre image in your minds eye three-times and you own it forever.

Another example

Here are three related Spanish words to convert to English, and to create a mental image for long-term memory retrieval.

a) Calle – is street in Spanish

b) Camino – is road

c) Carretera is highway

First, see Lassie, the Collie, running wild down the street. Second, how about a CamCorder videoing the road? The Mino syllable will attach itself to the Cam after a couple of repetitions.

A Carretera is a restaurant automobiles go to for lunch. See a Car going to a cafeteria.

Samples

Now is your turn to convert the days of the week. Do not focus on the perfect pronunciation, just the English words to remind you of the Spanish word. Remember – you do not have to recall all of the English words to access the Spanish word.

Monday is Lunes – reminds me of lunatic

Tuesday is Martes – pronounced Mart as is Wal-Mart

Wednesday is Miercoles – Mickey Coal?

Thursday is Jueves (pronounce it Wave)

Friday is Viernes – make one up.

Saturday is Sabado (Sabbath)

Sunday is Domingo (Dominic is playing Bingo)

Socrates

He lived about 470 to 399 B.C. in Athens, was an itinerate teacher, and was executed by his government for political reasons. None of his written works survive, and what we know is from the works of Plato and other philosophers of his age.

A scholar came to visit Socrates while he sat fishing.

- Teach me to how to acquire wisdom, - requested the student.

- A scholarly life is both poor and difficult; choose another career – responded Socrates -.

- I will endure the hardships – answered the scholar.

- Come into the water, and may I touch you to teach my lesson? -

The scholar agreed, and they both stood chest-high in the water.

Socrates push down on the head of the scholar and held him under the water.

The young man struggled for over one-minute and almost drowned before Socrates pulled him up for a breath of life-giving air.

- When your desire for wisdom is as great as your recent desire to breathe, then you will be properly motivated to discover-and-retain wisdom. –

We do not have to drown to overcome our own status quo and comfort zone, but we must have sufficient reasons that move us to persistently make our optimal effort.

copyright ©

Author of Speed Reading for Professionals, published by Barron's Educational, business partner of Evelyn Wood, creator of speed reading, graduating 2 million, including the White House staffs of four U.S. Presidents.

http://www.speedlearning.org
hbw@speedlearning.org

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