That’s it. That’s decided I am learning German this year. That’s right it was never on the list but the situation of the moment makes it logical, and I enjoy the logic of the moment.
Step 1: finding a language course. Often in public transportation I opt for a small mobile app and an online language class provided by my employer.
Step 2: action! Thanks to mobile technology, I am every morning doing at least 20 minutes of German. I can recognize some sentences, I can hear quite a few and note them down but the spontaneous speaking and the pronunciation are slow to come.
Step 3: bring on the conversation, baby! Oups… sorry… could you repeat that step 3… bring on what? the cognitive thinking torture… the thinking versus the being… the thinking versus the spontaneity…
Oh boy… Are we good at making things complicated, aren’t we? Even for something as simple as learning a language, we make it hell and hard work. Two sure things: we all speak one language; we all learned that language before we could even comprehend what was a written word. Imagine for a moment, that our parents had used the current language methodologies in the market… a disaster, big style! Yeah, yeah I know what you’re going to say: “but we are adults; adults learn differently; adults are cognitive.” Could that be a pile of rubbish, a big one? It has been proven and tested, whatever the age we learn better when we are having fun and are engaged. It’s not because we have developed cognitive capacities that everything has to be made cognitive. I want to learn a new language as a child does. I simply want to repeat common sentences with the right pronunciation, as many time as possible and as many sentences as possible. This will give me the basic vocabulary, a mapping between sentences and results, etc. and more important it will give me very quickly the capability of short conversation. Then, having already some fun communicating, time to bring on the cognitive aspect.
Simple. Right! But no… like everything we do in our society, we like it complicated. We like it highly cognitive!
Add to the situation, that each time I mention I am learning German, the next thing I hear is: “Oh poor you that’s a very difficult language” Is it? Maybe it is but who cares? A few questions quickly crept into my mind. Is it truly difficult? or do we make it difficult? Are the kids in Germany finding it harder to learn their mother tongue, than the English kids theirs? And how on earth would we measure that?
No, no, no! That simple… like everything we do in our society, we like it complicated. We like it highly cognitive! Me, I like it efficient, the right amount of thinking for the task. I love horses, and there is one thing I learn from them every time, economy: knowing how to use the right amount of effort for the task at hand. I use this every day I am coaching for sport activities, the famous min-max concept: minimum effort for maximum results. Time to do the same with cognitive skills: minimum thinking for maximum learning and fun! In addition we will gain something amazing, authenticity and spontaneity.
So for you today, I give you the conscious word COGNITIVE:
Clear Oasis Gaffe Not Timing Incomplete Version Imperfect and Escape
In whatever you do remember, escape the thinking; bring openness to keep it simple and horizon to keep it stretching. Forget the thinking, enjoy the being.
talking4good.com 