How to learn any language in six months | Chris Lonsdale | TEDxLingnanUniversity

Summary

En esta charla inspiradora, el orador comparte su viaje personal y profesional en la búsqueda de acelerar el aprendizaje, especialmente de idiomas. A partir de su experiencia en China y estudios psicológicos, revela cinco principios y siete acciones que cualquier adulto puede aplicar para aprender un segundo idioma con fluidez en seis meses. Subraya la importancia de la relevancia, el uso práctico desde el primer día, y la comprensión significativa. Además, desmiente los mitos sobre la necesidad de talento y la inmersión completa, ofreciendo un enfoque práctico y motivador para dominar nuevos idiomas rápidamente.

Takeaways

• 🤔 La pregunta clave del discurso es cómo acelerar el proceso de aprendizaje, lo que podría reducir el tiempo de escolarización y mejorar la eficiencia del aprendizaje.
• 📚 El interés del orador por la aprendizaje rápido comenzó en su infancia y llevó a investigar áreas como la hipnopaedia, que aunque no es efectiva, abrió puertas a otras investigaciones.
• 🇨🇳 El orador desafió la creencia de que el chino es difícil de aprender al alcanzar la fluidez en mandarín en solo seis meses, utilizando principios de la investigación psicológica.
• 🌐 La habilidad de aprender y hablar idiomas es crucial en un mundo con desafíos globales, y el orador cuestiona cómo ayudar a los adultos a aprender nuevos idiomas rápidamente y efectivamente.
• 🔍 El proceso de aprendizaje del idioma se basa en identificar y aplicar principios exitosos observados en otros aprendientes y situaciones.
• 🚀 Según el orador, cualquier adulto puede aprender un segundo idioma con fluidez en seis meses, una afirmación que desafía las creencias convencionales.
• 💡 El progreso humano ha sido sobre expandir nuestros límites, como se demuestra en la historia de correr la milla en menos de cuatro minutos y el desarrollo de aviones y trajes alados.
• 🎨 Cinco principios clave se pueden aplicar para aprender a dibujar y, por extensión, para aprender un segundo idioma, como se demuestra con la historia personal del orador.
• 🙅‍♀️ Se desmienten dos mitos comunes: la necesidad de talento para aprender y la eficacia de la inmersión total en un país para aprender un idioma.
• 🧠 Los cinco principios para el aprendizaje de un idioma incluyen atención, significado, relevancia y memoria, y cómo estos se interconectan para facilitar el aprendizaje.
• 📝 Las siete acciones para aprender un idioma incluyen escuchar mucho, obtener el significado antes de las palabras, comenzar a mezclar, enfocarse en el núcleo del idioma, tener un 'padre del idioma', copiar la expresión facial y hacer 'conexión directa' entre las palabras y las imágenes mentales.

Q & A

¿Cuál es la pregunta principal que el orador ha mantenido en su mente durante muchos años?

La pregunta principal del orador es '¿Cómo puedes acelerar el aprendizaje?'

¿Qué método de aprendizaje llamado hipnopaedia fue probado por el orador en su juventud y por qué resultó ineficaz?

El hipnopaedia es un método de aprendizaje durante el sueño que implica usar un grabador cerca de la cama que se enciende en mitad de la noche. Aunque es una buena idea, resultó ineficaz para el aprendizaje.

¿En qué año se dio el desafío personal del orador de alcanzar el nivel nativo en chino dentro de dos años y cuál fue el resultado?

El desafío personal del orador fue en 1981, y logró fluir en mandarín en seis meses y alcanzar el nivel nativo en un tiempo más.

¿Por qué según el orador, el aprendizaje de un nuevo idioma es crucial en el mundo actual?

El orador argumenta que el aprendizaje de un nuevo idioma es crucial debido a los desafíos masivos en el entorno, la desubicación social y las guerras, y que sin comunicación efectiva, será difícil abordar estos problemas.

¿Cuál es la afirmación del orador sobre el tiempo que un adulto puede necesitar para aprender un segundo idioma con fluidez?

El orador afirma que cualquier adulto puede aprender un segundo idioma con fluidez en seis meses.

¿Cuáles son las dos mitos que el orador desea desmentir sobre el aprendizaje de un idioma?

Los dos mitos que el orador desea desmentir son que se necesita talento para aprender un idioma y que la inmersión en un país nuevo es la forma de aprender un idioma.

¿Cuáles son los cuatro principios fundamentales para el aprendizaje de un idioma según el orador?

Los cuatro principios fundamentales para el aprendizaje de un idioma según el orador son atención, significado, relevancia y memoria.

¿Qué es 'brain soaking' y cómo se relaciona con el aprendizaje de un idioma?

El 'brain soaking' es el proceso de sumergirse en un contexto donde se escucha una gran cantidad de un idioma, sin importar si se entiende o no, para escuchar los ritmos y patrones que se repiten.

¿Qué es un 'language parent' y cómo ayuda en el proceso de aprendizaje de un idioma?

Un 'language parent' es alguien que interactúa con el aprendiz de idioma de manera similar a como lo hacen los padres con sus hijos, proporcionando un entorno seguro y comprensivo que ayuda a construir confianza y entender los mensajes.

¿Cuáles son las siete acciones que el orador sugiere para el aprendizaje de un idioma y cómo se relacionan con los principios fundamentales?

Las siete acciones son: escuchar mucho, obtener el significado primero, comenzar a mezclar, enfocar en el núcleo, usar el idioma como una herramienta desde el principio, tener un 'language parent', copiar la expresión facial y realizar un 'direct connect' entre las palabras y las imágenes mentales existentes.

¿Cómo el orador describe el proceso de 'direct connect' y cómo ayuda en el aprendizaje de un idioma?

El 'direct connect' es el proceso de conectar directamente las nuevas sonidos con las imágenes y recuerdos internos existentes, evitando la necesidad de traducir de la lengua materna a la lengua objetivo, lo que aumenta la eficiencia del aprendizaje.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 La búsqueda de la aceleración del aprendizaje

El orador comparte su obsesión por la pregunta de cómo acelerar el aprendizaje, planteada desde su infancia, y cómo esto podría reducir el tiempo escolar. Narra su experiencia con la hipnopedagogía y cómo, a pesar de que no funcionó, llevó a investigaciones en otras áreas. Desarrolló una pasión por la psicología y, en 1981, se propuso alcanzar la fluidez en chino mandarín en dos años, utilizando conclusiones de la investigación psicológica. Logró fluidez en seis meses y nativo después de un tiempo, lo que lo llevó a cuestionar cómo ayudar a un adulto a aprender un nuevo idioma rápidamente y eficazmente, destacando la importancia de la comunicación en el mundo actual.

05:02

🌟 Los cinco principios del aprendizaje de un segundo idioma

El orador introduce los cinco principios fundamentales para aprender un segundo idioma: atención, significado, relevancia y memoria, y cómo estos se interconectan para el aprendizaje. Utiliza la analogía de un paseo por el bosque para ilustrar cómo el interés y la relevancia afectan nuestra capacidad de aprendizaje. Destaca la importancia de centrarse en contenido lingüístico relevante y utilizar el idioma como una herramienta de comunicación desde el principio, como lo hacen los niños, para aprender de manera más efectiva.

10:02

🛠 Las siete acciones para aprender un idioma

Se describen siete acciones específicas para aplicar los cinco principios del aprendizaje de un segundo idioma. Incluye escuchar mucho, obtener el significado antes de las palabras, comenzar a mezclar y ser creativo con las palabras y frases que se conocen, enfocarse en el núcleo del idioma (palabras de alta frecuencia), utilizar el idioma como una herramienta desde el principio, tener un 'padre de idioma' que proporcione un entorno seguro para la comunicación y aprender a articular correctamente al observar a hablantes nativos o utilizando herramientas de aprendizaje de pronunciación.

15:03

🔗 Conectando directamente las palabras con las imágenes mentales

El orador explica la importancia del 'conecte directo' en el aprendizaje de un segundo idioma, que implica asociar las palabras nuevas con las imágenes y sensaciones ya existentes en la mente, en lugar de simplemente repetir las palabras en la cabeza. Destaca cómo este proceso se vuelve más eficiente y puede ser inconsciente con el tiempo, y cómo, siguiendo los cinco principios y realizando las siete acciones, cualquier persona puede mejorar su capacidad de aprendizaje y alcanzar la fluidez en un segundo idioma en seis meses.

Keywords

💡Aprendizaje acelerado

El 'aprendizaje acelerado' se refiere a la capacidad de adquirir conocimientos y habilidades de manera más rápida. En el video, es el tema central, ya que el orador explora cómo se puede mejorar la eficiencia del aprendizaje para reducir el tiempo de estudio y aumentar la comprensión. Se menciona como una pregunta clave que ha impulsado su interés en la psicología y el aprendizaje de idiomas.

💡Hipnopaedia

La 'hipnopaedia' es un concepto que el orador menciona al principio del video, relacionado con el aprendizaje durante el sueño utilizando un grabador. Aunque se descarta como efectivo, abre la puerta a investigaciones en otros campos del aprendizaje, lo que refleja la importancia de cuestionarse y explorar en el proceso de aprendizaje.

💡Psicología

La 'psicología' es una disciplina que el orador menciona como su pasión y el área en la que ha estado involucrado a lo largo de su vida. Es relevante en el video porque muchos de los principios de aprendizaje que se discuten se basan en hallazgos de la investigación psicológica.

💡Chino mandarín

El 'chino mandarín' es un idioma que el orador decidió aprender y alcanzar la fluidez en seis meses, utilizando principios de la investigación psicológica. Este ejemplo se utiliza para ilustrar la posibilidad de aprender rápidamente un idioma, desafiando la creencia de que el chino es difícil para los occidentales.

💡Modelización

La 'modelización' es el proceso de observar y aplicar principios de aquellos que ya han logrado lo que se busca aprender. En el video, se utiliza para describir cómo el orador ha estudiado el aprendizaje de idiomas y ha llegado a la conclusión de que cualquier adulto puede aprender un segundo idioma a la fluidez en seis meses.

💡Comprensión

La 'comprensión' es un concepto clave en el aprendizaje del idioma, según el orador. Se refiere a la importancia de entender primero el mensaje antes de aprender las palabras, y está relacionada con la adquisición del lenguaje de manera inconsciente a través de la 'entrada comprensible'.

💡Estado psico-fisiológico

El 'estado psico-fisiológico' es mencionado como un factor crítico para el aprendizaje. El orador enfatiza que el estado de ánimo y la tolerancia a la ambigüedad afectan significativamente la capacidad de aprendizaje, y se debe buscar un estado de curiosidad y relajación para maximizar el aprendizaje.

💡Entrada comprensible

La 'entrada comprensible' es un término técnico utilizado para describir el aprendizaje del idioma a través de la comprensión del mensaje sin la necesidad de comprender cada palabra. El orador cita estudios que respaldan esta teoría y la relaciona con el éxito en el aprendizaje del idioma.

💡Habilidad linguística

La 'habilidad linguística' se refiere a la capacidad de usar un idioma para comunicarse eficazmente. En el video, el orador sugiere que el uso del idioma como una herramienta desde el principio del proceso de aprendizaje es fundamental para dominarlo.

💡Principios del aprendizaje

Los 'principios del aprendizaje' son conceptos fundamentales que el orador presenta como base para el aprendizaje efectivo de un segundo idioma. Incluyen atención, significado, relevancia y memoria, y se relacionan con cómo el cerebro procesa y retiene la información.

💡Acciones para el aprendizaje

Las 'acciones para el aprendizaje' son estrategias específicas que el orador recomienda para aplicar los principios del aprendizaje y alcanzar la fluidez en un segundo idioma en seis meses. Incluyen escuchar mucho, obtener el significado primero, mezclar y crear, enfocar en el núcleo del lenguaje, tener un 'padre del lenguaje', copiar la expresión facial y hacer 'conexión directa'.

Highlights

The speaker has had a lifelong question about how to speed up learning, driven by the desire to reduce time spent in school.

The concept of hypnopaedia (sleep-learning) sparked initial interest, but it was found ineffective, leading to other learning research.

The speaker became passionate about psychology and applied psychological research to the learning process.

In 1981, the speaker aimed to become fluent in Chinese within two years, applying psychological principles, and succeeded in six months.

The refined question became: How can a normal adult learn a new language quickly, easily, and effectively?

The importance of communication in addressing global challenges underscores the need to learn new languages.

The principle of modeling successful language learners and situations where learning is already effective.

Any adult can learn a second language to fluency within six months using five key principles and seven actions.

Talent is not necessary for language learning; practical application and the right methods are more important.

Immersion alone does not guarantee language learning, as exemplified by many expatriates who do not learn the local language.

Focus on language content that is relevant to you and use the language as a tool to communicate from day one.

Understanding the message first aids unconscious language acquisition through comprehensible input.

Physiological training is crucial; the ability to hear and produce sounds correctly is essential for language learning.

A relaxed, curious state of mind enhances learning; tolerance for ambiguity helps in dealing with unknown language elements.

Actions include listening a lot, getting the meaning before the words, starting to mix words, focusing on high-frequency content, and getting a language parent.

Copying facial expressions of native speakers helps in mastering the correct pronunciation and intonation.

Directly connecting new language sounds to internal imagery and memory paths enhances retention and understanding.

By following these principles and actions, one can achieve fluency in a new language within six months.

Transcripts

Transcriber: TED Translators admin Reviewer: Allam Zedan

The people in the back, can you hear me clearly?

OK, good.

Have you ever held a question in mind

for so long that it becomes part of how you think?

Maybe even part of who you are as a person?

Well I've had a question in my mind for many, many years

and that is: How can you speed up learning?

Now, this is an interesting question

because if you speed up learning,

you can spend less time at school.

And if you learn really fast,

you probably wouldn't have to go to school at all.

Now, when I was young, school was sort of OK but...

I found quite often that school got in the way of learning

so I had this question in mind: How do you learn faster?

And this began when I was very, very young,

when I was 11 years old,

I wrote a letter to researchers in the Soviet Union, asking about hypnopaedia,

this is sleep-learning,

where you get a tape recorder, you put it beside your bed

and it turns on in the middle of the night

when you're sleeping,

and you're supposed to be learning from this.

A good idea, unfortunately it doesn't work.

But, hypnopaedia did open the doors to research in other areas

and we've had incredible discoveries about

learning that began with that first question.

I went on from there to become passionate about psychology

and I have been involved in psychology in many different ways

for the rest of my life up until this point.

In 1981, I took myself to China

and I decided that I was going to be native level in Chinese inside two years.

Now, you need to understand that in 1981, everybody thought

Chinese was really, really difficult

and that a Westerner could study for 10 years or more

and never really get very good at it.

And I also went in with a different idea

which was: taking all of the conclusions

from psychological research up to that point

and applying them to the learning process.

What was really cool was that in six months I was fluent in Mandarin Chinese

and it took a little bit longer to get up to native.

But I looked around and I saw all of these people from different countries

struggling terribly with Chinese,

I saw Chinese people struggling terribly to learn English and other languages,

and so my question got refined down to:

How can you help a normal adult

learn a new language quickly, easily and effectively?

Now this is a really, really important question in today's world.

We have massive challenges with environment,

we have massive challenges with social dislocation,

with wars, all sorts of things going on

and if we can't communicate,

we're really going to have difficulty solving these problems.

So we need to be able to speak each other's languages,

this is really, really important.

The question then is: How do you do that?

Well, it's actually really easy.

You look around for people who can already do it,

you look for situations where it's already working

and then you identify the principles and apply them.

It's called modelling and I've been looking at language learning

and modelling language learning for about 15 to 20 years now.

And my conclusion, my observation from this is

that any adult can learn a second language to fluency inside six months.

Now when I say this, most people think I'm crazy, this is not possible.

So let me remind everybody of the history of human progress,

it's all about expanding our limits.

In 1950, everybody believed that running one mile in four minutes was impossible,

and then Roger Bannister did it in 1956

and from there it's got shorter and shorter.

100 years ago everybody believed that heavy stuff doesn't fly.

Except it does and we all know this.

How does heavy stuff fly?

We reorganise the material using principles that we have learned

from observing nature, birds in this case.

And today we've gone even further...

We've gone even further, so you can fly a car.

You can buy one of these for a couple 100.000 US dollars.

We now have cars in the world that fly.

And there's a different way to fly which we've learned from squirrels.

So all you need to do is copy what a flying squirrel does,

build a suit called a wing suit and off you go, you can fly like a squirrel.

Now most people, a lot of people, I wouldn't say everybody

but a lot of people think they can't draw.

However there are some key principles, five principles, that you can apply

to learning to draw and you can actually learn to draw in five days.

So, if you draw like this, you learn these principles for five days

and apply them and after five days you can draw something like this.

Now I know this is true because that was my first drawing

and after five days of applying these principles that was what I was able to do.

And I looked at this and I went:

"Wow, so that's how I look like when I'm concentrating so intensely

that my brain is exploding."

So, anybody can learn to draw in five days

and in the same way, with the same logic,

anybody can learn a second language in six months.

How? There are five principles and seven actions.

There may be a few more but these are absolutely core.

And before I get into those I just want to talk about two myths,

I want to dispel two myths.

The first is that you need talent.

Let me tell you about Zoe.

Zoe came from Australia, went to Holland, was trying to learn Dutch,

struggling extremely, extremely... a great deal

and finally people were saying: "You're completely useless,"

"you're not talented," "give up," "you're a waste of time"

and she was very, very depressed.

And then she came across these five principles,

she moved to Brazil and she applied them

and in six months she was fluent in Portuguese,

so talent doesn't matter.

People also think that immersion in a new country is the way to learn a language.

But look around Hong Kong, look at all the westerners

who've been here for 10 years, who don't speak a word of Chinese.

Look at all the Chinese living in America, Britain, Australia, Canada

have been there 10, 20 years and they don't speak any English.

Immersion per se does not work.

Why? Because a drowning man cannot learn to swim.

When you don't speak a language, you're like a baby.

And if you drop yourself into a context

which is all adults talking about stuff over your head, you won't learn.

So, what are the five principles that you need to pay attention to?

First: the four words,

attention, meaning, relevance and memory,

and these interconnect in very, very important ways.

Especially when you're talking about learning.

Come with me on a journey through a forest.

You go on a walk through a forest

and you see something like this... Little marks on a tree,

maybe you pay attention, maybe you don't.

You go another 50 metres and you see this...

You should be paying attention.

Another 50 metres, if you haven't been paying attention, you see this...

And at this point, you're paying attention.

And you've just learned that this... is important,

it's relevant because it means this,

and anything that is related, any information related to your survival

is stuff that you're going to pay attention to

and therefore you're going to remember it.

If it's related to your personal goals,

then you're going to pay attention to it.

If it's relevant, you're going to remember it.

So, the first rule, first principle for learning a language

is focus on language content that is relevant to you.

Which brings us to tools.

We master tools by using tools and we learn tools the fastest

when they are relevant to us.

So let me share a story.

A keyboard is a tool.

Typing Chinese a certain way, there are methods for this. That's a tool.

I had a colleague many years ago

who went to night school; Tuesday night, Thursday night,

two hours each time, practicing at home,

she spent nine months, and she did not learn to type Chinese.

And one night we had a crisis.

We had 48 hours to deliver a training manual in Chinese.

And she got the job, and I can guarantee you

in 48 hours, she learned to type Chinese

because it was relevant, it was meaningful, it was important,

she was using a tool to create value.

So the second principle for learning a language is to use your language

as a tool to communicate right from day one.

As a kid does.

When I first arrived in China, I didn't speak a word of Chinese,

and on my second week, I got to take a train ride overnight.

I spent eight hours sitting in the dining car

talking to one of the guards on the train,

he took an interest in me for some reason,

and we just chatted all night in Chinese

and he was drawing pictures and making movements with his hands

and facial expressions and piece by piece by piece

I understood more and more.

But what was really cool, was two weeks later,

when people were talking Chinese around me,

I was understanding some of this

and I hadn't even made any effort to learn that.

What had happened, I'd absorbed it that night on the train,

which brings us to the third principle.

When you first understand the message,

then you will acquire the language unconsciously.

And this is really, really well documented now,

it's something called comprehensible input.

There's 20 or 30 years of research on this,

Stephen Krashen, a leader in the field,

has published all sorts of these different studies

and this is just from one of them.

The purple bars show the scores on different tests for language.

The purple people were people who had learned by grammar and formal study,

the green ones are the ones who learned by comprehensible input.

So, comprehension works. Comprehension is key

and language learning is not about accumulating lots of knowledge.

In many, many ways it's about physiological training.

A woman I know from Taiwan did great in English at school,

she got A grades all the way through,

went through college, A grades, went to the US

and found she couldn't understand what people were saying.

And people started asking her: "Are you deaf?"

And she was. English deaf.

Because we have filters in our brain that filter in

the sounds that we are familiar with

and they filter out the sounds of languages that we're not.

And if you can't hear it, you won't understand it,

if you can't understand it, you're not going to learn it.

So you actually have to be able to hear these sounds.

And there are ways to do that but it's physiological training.

Speaking takes muscle.

You've got 43 muscles in your face,

you have to coordinate those in a way

that you make sounds that other people will understand.

If you've ever done a new sport for a couple of days,

and you know how your body feels? Hurts?

If your face is hurting, you're doing it right.

And the final principle is state. Psycho-physiological state.

If you're sad, angry, worried, upset, you're not going to learn. Period.

If you're happy, relaxed, in an Alpha brain state, curious,

you're going to learn really quickly,

and very specifically you need to be tolerant of ambiguity.

If you're one of those people who needs to understand 100 percent

every word you're hearing, you will go nuts,

because you'll be incredibly upset all the time, because you're not perfect.

If you're comfortable with getting some, not getting some,

just paying attention to what you do understand,

you're going to be fine, relaxed, and you'll be learning quickly.

So based on those five principles, what are the seven actions that you take?

Number one: Listen a lot.

I call it brain soaking.

You put yourself in a context

where you're hearing tons and tons and tons of a language

and it doesn't matter if you understand it or not.

You're listening to the rhythms, to patterns that repeat,

you're listening to things that stand out.

(Chinese) Pào nǎozi.

(English) So, just soak your brain in this.

The second action is that you get the meaning first,

even before you get the words.

You go: "Well how do I do that? I don't know the words!"

Well, you understand what these different postures mean.

Human communication is body language in many, many ways, so much body language.

From body language you can understand a lot of communication,

therefore, you're understanding, you're acquiring through comprehensible input.

And you can also use patterns that you already know.

If you're a Chinese speaker of Mandarin and Cantonese and you go to Vietnam,

you will understand 60 percent of what they say to you in daily conversation,

because Vietnamese is about 30 percent Mandarin, 30 percent Cantonese.

The third action: Start mixing.

You probably have never thought of this

but if you've got 10 verbs, 10 nouns and 10 adjectives,

you can say 1000 different things.

Language is a creative process.

What do babies do? OK, "me", "bath", "now".

OK, that's how they communicate.

So start mixing, get creative, have fun with it,

it doesn't have to be perfect, just has to work.

And when you're doing this, you focus on the core.

What does that mean?

Well, any language is high frequency content.

In English 1000 words covers 85 percent

of anything you're ever going to say in daily communication.

3000 words gives you 98 percent

of anything you're going to say in daily conversation.

You got 3000 words, you're speaking the language.

The rest is icing on the cake.

And when you're just beginning with a new language,

start with your tool box. Week number one,

in your new language you say things like:

"How do you say that?" "I don't understand,"

"repeat that please," "what does that mean?"

all in your target language.

You're using it as a tool, making it useful to you,

it's relevant to learn other things about the language.

By week two, you should be saying things like:

"me," "this," "you," "that," "give," you know, "hot,"

simple pronouns, simple nouns, simple verbs,

simple adjectives, communicating like a baby.

And by the third or fourth week, you're getting into "glue words."

"Although," "but," "therefore," these are logical transformers

that tie bits of a language together, allowing you to make more complex meaning.

At that point you're talking.

And when you're doing that, you should get yourself a language parent.

If you look at how children and parents interact,

you'll understand what this means.

When a child is speaking, it'll be using simple words, simple combinations,

sometimes quite strange, sometimes very strange pronunciation,

other people from outside the family don't understand it.

But the parents do.

And so the kid has a safe environment, gets confidence.

The parents talk to the children with body language

and with simple language they know the child understands.

So you have a comprehensible input environment that's safe,

we know it works; otherwise none of you would speak your mother tongue.

So you get yourself a language parent,

who's somebody interested in you as a person

who will communicate with you essentially as an equal,

but pay attention to help you understand the message.

There are four rules of a language parent.

Spouses are not very good at this, OK?

But the four rules are,

first of all, they will work hard to understand what you mean

even when you're way off beat.

Secondly, they will never correct your mistakes.

Thirdly, they will feed back their understanding of what you are saying

so that you can respond appropriately and get that feedback

and then they will use words that you know.

The sixth thing you have to do, is copy the face.

You got to get the muscles working right,

so you can sound in a way that people will understand you.

There's a couple of things you do.

One is that you hear how it feels, and feel how it sounds

which means you have a feedback loop operating in your face,

but ideally if you can look at a native speaker

and just observe how they use their face,

let your unconscious mind absorb the rules,

then you're going to be able to pick it up.

And if you can't get a native speaker to look at, you can use stuff like this...

(Female voice) Sing, song, king, stung, hung.

(Chris Lonsdale) And the final idea here, the final action you need to take

is something that I call "direct connect".

What does this mean? Well most people learning a second language

sort of take the mother tongue words and the target words and go over them

again and again in their mind to try and remember them. Really inefficient.

What you need to do is realise that

everything you know is an image inside your mind, it's feelings,

if you talk about fire, you can smell the smoke,

you can hear the crackling, you can see the flames,

so what you do, is you go into that imagery and all of that memory

and you come out with another pathway. So I call it "same box, different path".

You come out of that pathway and you build it over time,

you become more and more skilled at just connecting the new sounds

to those images that you already have, into that internal representation.

And over time you even become naturally good at that process,

that becomes unconscious.

So, there are five principles that you need to work with, seven actions,

if you do any of them, you're going to improve.

And remember these are things under your control as the learner.

Do them all and you're going to be fluent in a second language in six months.

Thank you.

(Applause)