Cool and Useful Fact #447: People make things complicated.

In our brief history, the more people studied how to learn another language, the more complicated they made the whole thing. Remember the language you took in high school? Not really, right? That’s because there was so little actual language being spoken. With all the vocabulary, verb conjugation, and rote memorization, there was hardly any time left to just speak!

Dr. Pimsleur discovered that learning only takes place when there is a meaningful “input/output” system of interaction between learners and speakers of the language, in which students receive genuine information and then are asked to retrieve and use it in meaningful exchanges between individuals involved in real-life or simulated spoken communication.

By prompting you to answer questions, you are encouraged to transfer information from your short-term memory to your working memory. This process of transference ensures that this information is ultimately stored into your long-term memory.

Case study: Chris Maddock/Native English Speaker/Male/32

“I don’t ever remember trying to learn anything before I was, say, 10 or 12. It just happened. I’d pay attention, have fun, and magically, I knew stuff. All I can say is that the Pimsleur Approach to learning Spanish did what 7 hellishly boring years of middle and high school Spanish never did. It got me speaking and understanding Spanish in a little more than a month. I guess the best thing I can say is that I felt a lot like a little kid learning the Pimsleur way. You pay attention, have fun, and sort of magically you’ll know how to say things and understand people.”

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