February is usually the month that I dedicate to my self and my personal growth (and to my family as well;-). And this is the time when I read about subjects that I don’t usually read about. This time I read the book Unfair advantage by Robert Kyiosaki.
Who’s Robert Kyiosaki? He’s a businessman and writer about interesting books about financial intelligence (Rich Dad, Poor dad among others). He tells what he learned about after attending a conference by dr. Buckminster Fuller (Who’s he?) There he heard him saying: I don’t work for money. I dedicated all my life to serve others. […] The more people I serve , the more effective I become”. This is loosely translated from the Italian edition of the book that I own, where it’s written: “Io non lavoro per il denaro. Ho dedicato la mia vita al servizio degli altri. […] Più persone servo, più efficace divento”. Robert Kyiosaky also writes about what he calls the laws of compensation / le leggi del compenso (I’d have translated it compensazione, but I am not the translator of the book;-):
Reciprocity: give and you’ll receive / Reciprocità: dai e riceverai.
Learn to give more. / Impara a dare di più.
Have a leverage effect on the power of the financial instruction that increases in geometrical proportion / Abbi un effetto di leva sul potere dell’istruzione finanziaria in proporzione geometrica. In an interesting article posted on the Success Magazine website (unfortunately not available anymore), Kyiosaki himself writes that: “Returns are minimal in spite of massive effort at the start, yet returns can be massive with minimal effort over time. How can you learn something useful for your Italian learning from this book? Is that even possible to learn something related to Italian learning in this book?;-) Let me tell you about another important point that Kyiosaki writes about.
I actually hadn’t read about this, so for me it was a great thing to read about. By looking at it, you can notice that: The more passive you are, the less you learn. The more active you are the more you learn. And you’ll learn a lot more when you do these things: Doing a dramatic presentation. Simulating the real experience Doing the real thing. MMMM….How can I correlate this with language learning? I already know that some authors talk about what is called silent period…(google Marvin Brown and Vera F. Birkenbihl)…and they do affirm that if you want to really acquire a language and especially the proper pronunciation even if you are more than 6 years old, you need to do a lot of passive listening of comprehensible input (or listening in a relaxed way as I let you do in Speak Italian Magically and Awaken your Italian). I also agree on what is said on the cone of learning…. So what is my conclusion? That after doing a lot of passive (or relaxed) listening of comprehensible input (i.e. : Italian that you really comprehend), you really need to be active and SPEAK!!! How can you speak? You can come to Italy or you can talk to any Italian through Skype…Or you can make some role play (like the ones that you usually do in a school that uses the communicative approach). Or you can also do some shadowing (google Prof. Arguelles). But what’s more important…HAVE FUN WHILE LEARNING AND SPEAKING ITALIAN!!! And you, what do you think about all this?
(Originally published 16/02/2012. I lost the date)
Would you like to stop the negative messages that sometimes pop in your mind? And what about the possibility to overcome a bad habit as you improve your Italian? Would you like it?
I hope so, because you will be able to find out some very interesting things just by reading this page till the end;-)
It may have occurred also to you to learn Italian and reach a point when, despite your efforts in reading, practicing and listening to the language, it looks like you “have reached a dead spot”. To say that, experts use the expression:” to hit plateau”…
And perhaps despite the fact that you have lately kept on doing something for your Italian, you may start telling yourself: “I’m really not improving at all”, or “Today I don’t feel like doing anything with Italian, I am not improving at all anyway…”
If this has happened to you, know that the negative sentences that may pop in your mind are normal and Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz has named them “deceptive brain messages”….
Let me give you some background about this doctor and how his research may help you improve your Italian today…
Dr. Schwartz has created a protocol without medicines that can be helpful to people suffering from OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder)… It’s those people compulsively repeating an action… perhaps they want to wash their hands every two minutes, or – nowadays – compulsively check their email or Facebook account…
I don’t know if you have watched the movie titled “The Aviator”: in that movie Leonardo Di Caprio plays a character with that “discomfort”… Dr. Schwartz was Di Caprio’s coach during the movie shootings. In my web browsing I was attracted by this video where dr. Schwartz talks about it in English (unfortunately without Italian subtitles):
If you aren’t able to watch or understand it well, I would like to point out an interesting piece of information: the mind can change the brain so that Leonardo di Caprio has immersed himself so much in the role that three months after shooting the movie he still behaved like an OCD sufferer. It took him several months to recover. This implies that the mind can have a powerful effect on the brain and tha any good actor enters so much in the role to change his brain!
This information also has some very positive implication, as Dr. Schwartz fully demonstrates.
As I am not a medical doctor, I’ll leave you with the task, if you wish so, to deepen your knowledge on the subject, perhaps by reading the book “You’re not your Brain“, by Dr. Schwartz, that of course (ironic:-) hasn’t been translated into Italian yet.
If you are a trainer and you are keen on knowing how to teach better and at a deep level, then you could also read this other book, titled “Keeping the brain in Mind“, by Melissa Tiers and Shawn Carson that I’ve just finished reading and that, among many other things, summarizes Dr. Schwartz’s protocol.
In any case, what I’d like to point out to you is that bad thoughts that may pop in your mind when you can’t see you are getting near the goal, the “deceptive brain messages” are ““any false . . . thought or unhelpful impulse . . . that takes you away from your true goals . . . i.e., your true self.” (quoting the book Keeping the brain in mind).
Now, despite the fact that you may (or not) get these false thoughts, you have to know that probably if there would be a way to verify if – by doing the right things – your brain is progressing – and there is a way to do that! – you may realize that in reality your brain is doing it even if it apparently looks like nothing happens (and forgive my twisted sentence;-)!
In fact, people who followed Dr. Schwartz protocol didn’t realize they were improving, but their brain scans showed they were doing it and, by keeping on applying the protocol, at the end of the 12-week period their brain structure had changed and so had their “problem”….
But this is a blog to Speak Italian Magically, so here you have any deceptive messages you could get in your path toward Italian mastery:
I’m not good enough. Non sono bravo abbastanza.There’s something wrong with me. C’è qualcosa di storto in me. I don’t deserve to be happy and speak Italian very well. Non mi merito di essere felice e parlare l’italiano molto bene.My wishes or goals are unrealistic or unattainable. I miei desideri od obiettivi sono irrealistici e inottenibili… I always do the same mistakes! Faccio sempre gli stessi errori!
What can you do to interrupt the pattern and focus on something more productive, getting nearer and nearer your goal of speaking Italian better and better?
What follows are the 4 steps of Dr. Schwartz’s Protocol adapted to the specific case of learning the Italian language:
1) Relabel (Rietichetta).
When you have these negative thoughts, simply stop and mentally acknowledge that you are having them… You can tell yourself: “I am having those negative thoughts again…”
2) Reframe (Reincornicia)
At this point you can continue the sentence by telling yourself “… but it’s not me… it’s just my brain!” By telling something like that you are just dissociating from those sentences. It’s not you who’s not good at learning and speaking Italian very well, but it’s your brain that is sending you false messages:-)
3) Refocus (Redirigi la tua attenzione)
After the first two phases, the piece of advice is to do something useful and productive. What can you do that may get you nearer your goal of speaking Italian very well? Perhaps you could listen to an audio from Speak Italian Magically or Awaken your Italian, or anything else in Italian, why not? I’d suggest you listen to the episode titled “When you are at your best!” Or you can watch a TV show in Italian (your favorite one)… or even carefully listen to an Italian song! The choice is infinite, as long as you do something that makes you feel good while absorbing and improving your Italian! (Because if you associate pleasure with Italian learning then you’ll learn it much faster!)
4) Revalue (Rivaluta)
If you have followed this protocol for a while, then you could revalue what you have done so far… And you could verify something like: ” That false message wasn’t doing anything for me, but look at all the beautiful things I have learned and how good I am becoming with Italian day after day!;-)”
“You know, my dear, that I already as a young man, in those days when we lived with the penitents in the forest, started to distrust teachers and teachings and to turn my back to them. I have stuck with this. Nevertheless, I have had many teachers since then. A beautiful courtesan has been my teacher for a long time, and a rich merchant was my teacher, and some gamblers with dice. Once, even a follower of Buddha, travelling on foot, has been my teacher (…)”
Which in Italian has been translated as follows:
“Tu sai, amico, che già da giovane, allora, quando vivevamo tra gli asceti del bosco, io ero pervenuto a diffidare delle dottrine e dei maestri e ad allontanarmi da loro. Sono rimasto allo stesso punto. Tuttavia ho avuto dopo d’allora molti maestri. Una bella cortigiana è stata per lungo tempo mia maestra, e un ricco mercante fu mio maestro, nonché alcuni giocatori d’azzardo. Una volta anche un discepolo del Buddha in pellegrinaggio fu mio maestro (…)”
Hermann Hesse
A little time ago I finished reading aloud the book (the page from the previous excerpt was taken) to a special person… Yes, I admit it: I read books aloud to my special people! I consider it, along all other things I do with them, something pleasant that I share with the person I care for, and besides – depending on the books we read – it makes us grow and improve.
Exactly this excerpt inspired me write what follows and you can read it till the end to find out what Siddhartha and the Italian language may have in common. Do you know the Siddhartha’s story? If so, good; if not, relax, by reading till the end you’ll manage to understand where I want to get at!;-)
As you may know, if you follow this blog, sometimes I get passionate about something and I want to learn it, many times on my own, some other times (less, actually) with a live course. And I try and learn from the best (or at least the ones I believe are the best!), just like I suggest you do in the book Risveglia il tuo italiano! Sometimes I manage to single the best teachers out, sometimes I don’t, but even when I am wrong (and it happens!) the question I ask myself is: what’s there that, despite everything, can be useful for me to learn from this person and situation?
You should know that – perhaps it depends on the mind maps that I love doing – I love seeing things from different perspectives and get my own conclusions, keeping in mind one of the values that for me are fundamental.
My goal – in my small way and with due proportion – has always been to empower people, to make them self reliant… After all we know that it’s better teach someone to fish, instead of giving him a fish. It’s better that you learn how to learn on your own, instead of depending on someone else, isn’t it? What do you think about what I’ve just written? (Let me know on my Facebook Page if you want and it’s a pleasure for you!)
I’ve already written and in all possible ways that you can acquire Italian on your own, also by keeping in consideration the social side of all this: language is a means to communicate with other people! So, after learning it, after training yourself mentally to use it, just… use italian and enjoy!
When I find someone sharing this same value (that of empowering people!) I am happy, especially if this person is up to date with the latest research in neuroscience (the person you are about to read below is also author, along with Shawn Carson, of the book “Keeping the brain in mind”).
Lately this thing has happened a few times…
It happened once with Melissa Tiers, as I am attending the course “Coaching the Unconscious Mind” and, to integrate/absorb/remember the content of it, I am using Tony Buzan’s Mind Maps. The course is in English and this allows me to keep my English in shape, as well as to improve it, while attending something that’s really interesting for me!
The same thing happened with another wonderful course (also in English!) where two great university professors (Dr. Barbara Oakley e Dr. Terrence Sejnowski) taught me again to learn how to learn (the title of the course was right “learning how to learn“). The course was free, but it was really worth a lot, because it taught how to… fish;-), uhm… to become self-reliant while studying an learning and everything was sparkled with humor and a pinch of neuroscience.
I love saying “knowledge is power and can also be fun if you know how to learn” (“la conoscenza è potere e può essere anche divertente se sai come imparare“), but I have to admit that acting upon what you learn is much better! So, I advise you, who are reading this page, what follows: learn and act!
Now, there’s a very simple technique that Melissa Tiers teaches and suggests that you use it also as a pattern interrupt, when you have bad habits you want to change, cravings, or even in the case of anxiety (she’s the author of the booklet “The Anti-anxiety Toolkit) and she calls this technique bilateral stimulation… A very simple action that allows you to activate both your brain hemispheres – and you can see her with your own eyes as she shows you how you can practice it, unfortunately in English and not in Italian!
The youtube link is: http://youtu.be/3Sy9YGeNjCI
From the big picture I have on several subjects, it seems to me bilateral stimulation is based – more or less – on the same principles other exercises are based: such as Brain Gym (More here: http://goo.gl/vYIeTR ) , or another ancient exercise called Super Brain Yoga (http://goo.gl/9C8Srl). The main difference is that bilateral stimulation is used by Melissa as a way to stop an urge, Brain Gym and Super brain Yoga may be used in a generative way (I mean: content free and toward your real potential).
When I find something interesting and useful, even if a bit weird, I love experimenting it on my own! I did it, so perhaps you can do it too and notice the differences between times when you practice these exercises before speaking Italian and times when you don’t.
You may be thinking that all these exercises aren’t helpful at all, that they are rubbish, that they are based on suggestion, but anyway… does it really matter? If these exercises work for you, very good! If they don’t, then you can laugh because you practiced them… And we all known that laughing is good! 😉
So, remember that you can learn Italian – and many other things! – from a lot of people (speaking Italian, of course) and from everything that surrounds you, by experiencing it, because, by saying it Siddhartha’s way, wisdom can’t be transferred…And at the same way, you can have all teachers you want to improve your Italian, but no one can do it for you. It’s you the one who can act constantly and relentlessly toward your goal of speaking Italian very well, also by relaxing while enjoying your journey.
You can have all teachers you want so that you too can grow and discover what Siddhartha found out;-)
Relax and enjoy the journey!
-Antonio
P.s.: I adapted this article from a former article of mine in Italian… You can read it from here: http://goo.gl/i9qFZO
