How many people do you know that have learned a new language by themself and can speak it fluently?
How many people do you know who tried to learn a language, gave up, and never reached fluency?
I believe that the ratio is about 1 to 10. For every person that had a breakthrough, there are usually 9 others that dabbled in Duolingo (or its relatives), or even went abroad, but never got further than those repetitive sentence structures and basic conversations.
Today speaking a foreign language is a useful, impressive, and even sexy skill. We all dream of traveling to a new place, while "shocking the natives" with amazing accents and speaking abilities. We understand that a country's language is a bridge to its culture and people. Also, mastering a new language can be our path to relocation, a raise at work, or even just having the option to communicate with a family member or friend.
Now, why do so many people fail to learn a new language? We all learned at least one (our native tongue). Why after all the knowledge that we have acquired about the world and ourselves, we still can't achieve something that should come somewhat naturally?
There are a lot of reasons, but I believe that almost everything can be narrowed down to one sentence.
Languages can't be taught, they can only be learned
In other words, learning a language is not something that can be achieved by passive learning. One must hunt for information, meaning, and interaction. People are failing because their learning process is based on receiving "easy" input with very little retrieval.
So how can we do things differently?
Learning (re)Evolution
Education systems all over the world are starting to understand that the role of the teacher is changing and that the days of passive lectures are over. Instead, the teachers should start to become some sort of guides, instructors, coaches, and
mentors.
This paradigm shift also comes from the understanding that knowledge is out there and that students learn best with an engaging and active environment yet challenging, and project-based.
The teacher's goal then becomes to help students find the right learning resources, to build them the right learning roadmap, to encourage and support them, and to share from their experiences when needed.
The same goes for language learning. NO ONE can teach you a foreign language, you must do the work yourself. You only need the right mentoring and coaching.
This is why I've created Lingo Franca. It came from the understanding that people fail to learn a language not because they don't have the capacity to do it, but rather because they don't know how to learn. They don't know which learning resources to follow, what learning methods to use, how to build a learning journey, and even how to stay consistent and form a habit. The right advice, at the right moment, from an experienced coach, can be a game changer.
So instead of teaching you Spanish, I'm going to teach you how to learn any language in the world. Together we will pin point the things that you need to work on and create a tailor-made learning process. I will teach you meta-cognitive skills, how to use learning strategies, how to create a successful learning process, how to use your human nature to learn languages, all while supporting helping you to adapt and iterate along the way.
Each learner is different and every target and learning route require different focus and feedback. Each learning process will deconstruct and challenge fundamental assumptions, beliefs, and biases while leading the student to practice and improve aspects and patterns that go far beyond the realm of language learning.
Ready to take your learning to the next level? Contact us and let's go to work.
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