Intro
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| Becky: Welcome to a special Inner Circle Audio Lesson! I'm Becky and I'll be your host. My co-host today is the founder of InnovativeLanguage.com... Peter Galante! |
| Peter: Hi everyone! Peter here. |
| Becky: In this Inner Circle, we’re talking about…. |
| Peter: Your Step by Step Path to Reaching Language Goals. |
| Becky: You’ll Learn... |
| Peter: One, All About the Learning Paths Study Tool... |
| Becky: Two, How Peter Reached His Language Goal with It... |
| Peter: And Three, How You Can Use Learning Paths... |
| Becky: All so you can master your target language and reach your goals! |
| Body |
| Becky: Listeners, welcome back to the Inner Circle. |
| Peter: Last time, you learned why most learners are NOT getting the most value |
| Becky: ...out of their study time... |
| Peter: ....and why you should time yourself to master your target language.. |
| Becky: So last time, Peter, you promised.... |
| Peter: ...to read 60 Chinese lesson dialogs. |
| Becky: Man, you are really just living life to the fullest this July. |
| Peter: ...2 a day Becky! I 2 a day and I did it; it’s easily doable if you break it down! |
| Becky: Okay, I take it you reached your goal then? |
| Peter: I did. |
| Becky: You know, you had a hard time reaching 60 audio lessons in a month. |
| Peter: Becky, but that was May. |
| Becky: And that was for listening, which is fairly easy, I think. But you hit this goal, even though reading’s a lot harder... right? |
| Peter: Exactly, Becky. But that’s because of some of the lessons I learned along the way. |
| Becky: Oh? |
| Peter: So, no question about it; reading, at least reading Chinese... is tough. Last month, listeners... |
| Becky: ...we talked about timing yourself... |
| Peter: ...right, I timed my reading sessions. It took me 7 times longer to fully master a dialogue when reading. I had to go back and forth between the romanizations, the dictionary and the grammar sections in the Lesson Notes. |
| Becky: That’s a lot of going back and forth. So what lessons did you apply? |
| Peter: First, since I already KNEW Intermediate was tough, I went down to the Upper Beginner Level. |
| Becky: Oh, that’s a nice, realistic approach. |
| Peter: I took it down a notch. Reading 60 Intermediate lessons in 1 month... |
| Becky: ....probably would be unrealistic... |
| Peter: So, I adjusted. |
| Becky: Smart, Peter. |
| Peter: Thank you, Becky. Second, to hit 60 lessons... I needed a checklist of all 60 lessons. A path I could see in front of me. Lesson 1, 2, 3, 4... up to 60. |
| Becky: Ah, so you knew what lesson to do now, what’s next. |
| Peter: Right, having A PATH to follow makes reaching goals so much easier. |
| Becky: Yeah, you don’t have to think about it. No confusion about where to go next. It’s all in front of you. |
| Peter: And that’s the topic of today’s Inner Circle. |
| Becky: Your Step by Step Path to Reaching Language Goals. |
| Peter: Let’s jump into the first part. |
| Becky: One, All About the Learning Paths Study Tool. |
| Peter: So, listeners, if you didn’t know, there’s a Premium study tool called Learning Paths on the site. |
| Becky: Ah, I see what you mean now, yes! With learning paths, you get all kinds of courses... or paths, based on your level and goal... |
| Peter: Exactly. You have paths for Grammar, Conversation, Culture, Particles, Reading, Writing and much more. |
| Becky: Listeners, you can find this study tool on the site, in the Lessons drop-down menu. |
| Peter: Just hover over Lessons and click on Learning Paths. |
| Becky: There you can browse through all the various courses you can take. |
| Peter: And you can see how long each one is... like 50 lessons, 13 hours in total. |
| Becky: Just click on the ones you want to study, |
| Peter: Then you’ll see, kind of like a path or a checklist of lessons, the list of what you want to take, 1, 2, 3.. All the way to the end. |
| Becky: That way, you know what lessons to take next and can visualize your path... or language journey. |
| Peter: Perfect way of putting it, Becky. Being able to visualize what you need to do, where you need to go next... |
| Becky: ...it makes learning and going through the lessons so much easier! |
| Peter: Then, when you select a Learning Path, click “Add to Dashboard.” |
| Becky: This will add the Learning Path to your dashboard... |
| Peter: ....so you can easily jump into learning and track your progress. |
| Becky: Okay, so how did you apply this? |
| Peter: Let’s jump into the second part. |
| Becky: How Peter Reached His Language Goal for the Month. |
| Peter: So the power of Learning Paths is... they’re focused. |
| Becky: You can study the topics you want. |
| Peter: And at the level you want... |
| Becky: Absolute Beginner, Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced. |
| Peter: Now, in my case, my goal was to read 60 lesson dialogues. About 2 a day. |
| Becky: 60 is a lot. |
| Peter: Exactly, Becky. But with Learning Paths I got the 60 lessons up front. Of course, I had to combine a few since they vary, but you can easily see how many lessons a Path includes. One Path may be 50 lessons, another 5, or another 10. |
| Becky: Right. The path to 60 lessons is clearly laid out in front of you. |
| Peter: All I had to do was read through the dialogues. It would take me about 7 to 10 minutes to master one on the first try. |
| Becky: They’re quite short aren’t they? Like a few lines? |
| Peter: Yep, they are, but I wanted to make sure I understood every word. So, I was switching between the dictionary and the romanized versions. And I was listening to the line-by-line audio to make sure I read the lines right. I read them out loud as well. |
| Becky: 7 minutes...oh, you timed yourself, just like we talked about in the last Inner Circle. |
| Peter: And I re-read and reviewed them the next day. We mentioned that in the last lesson too. |
| Becky: Did it take you as long? |
| Peter: Nope. By the second day, I was down to 2 minutes. There are always a few words that just didn’t stick. |
| Becky: Wow. Why were you able to read faster? |
| Peter: Well, with reading, it’s a lot of work on the first try. |
| Becky: Yeah, normally you have to define a lot of words. |
| Peter: Right. But once you’ve done the work, it’s a lot easier the second time. I knew most of the words and grammar points already, and the jist of the conversation. |
| Becky: It’s a good thing you timed yourself! From 7 minutes to 2 minutes. That’s progress! |
| Peter: What gets measured.... Becky? |
| Becky: ...gets managed, Peter |
| Becky: Didn’t... I.... say that last time? |
| Peter: No, I’m pretty sure I was the one who said that last time. But Becky, I think it’s Peter Drucker that said it. |
| Becky: Ohhh... Okay, Peter, Peter.... Drucker... not Peter Galante, I get it. |
| Peter: And not Becky, either. |
| Becky: So, once you measure and know the time it takes to master a lesson.... |
| Peter: ....In my case, it was 7 minutes.... |
| Becky: ...you can start improving upon it... |
| Peter: ...to 2 minutes. I’m verrrrry close to reading the dialogues again, without additional support. |
| Becky: Nice! So that’s how you hit your goal for the month. Learning Paths. |
| Peter: Well, remember, Becky. These were Beginner Level lessons. |
| Becky: Oh, you took a bit of an easy learning path! |
| Peter: Easy learning paths are good! But you’re right. Learning Paths gave me a clear path from lesson 1 to lesson 60. All I had to do was stick with it. |
| Becky: Okay, now what about the listeners. How can they apply this? |
| Peter: Let’s jump into part 3. So, listeners, what’s your monthly goal? |
| Becky: If you have a goal of say doing 20 audio lessons for the month... |
| Peter: ..then all you really have to do is, pick a 20-lesson path that fits you best... |
| Becky: ...or you can combine a few... |
| Peter: Or do part of one, and stick with it. |
| Becky: What if it’s something like... mastering 3 minutes of conversation? |
| Peter: Great question, Becky. The good news is... most of our lessons focus on conversation. |
| Becky: ...ah, unless they’re the video lessons dedicated to writing or grammar. |
| Peter: Exactly. So, pick a path that interests you, for example, like the “Ultimate Getting Started,” and start with that learning path. Take the lessons in order. |
| Becky: And in every lesson, you learn a conversation. |
| Peter: It’s anywhere from a few seconds... to 30 seconds long, depending on the level. |
| Becky: Then, just stick with the Learning Path... |
| Peter: ...until the conversations you master add up to 3 minutes. |
| Becky: Done! You’ve hit your goal. |
| Peter: Listeners, the same thing goes if you have a goal to learn 100 words in a month. |
| Becky: In every lesson, you learn new vocab. |
| Peter: So, as you learn them, save them to your WordBank. |
| Becky: And once you’ve mastered all 100... you’re done for the month! |
| Peter: I recommend using our Spaced Repetition Flashcards to master words fast. |
| Becky: They sort your cards based on how well you know them, and display them as needed... |
| Peter: ...to get you to master them fast. |
| Becky: So, the easy words you'll see less and less... but they’ll show up again sometimes to keep your mind fresh. |
| Peter: And the tough words, the words you’re not so good at, you’ll see much more often, until you get to know them. |
| Becky: Peter, what about the 2,000 core word list and the vocab lists? Listeners can use these to also master words. You know, instead lessons and learning paths? |
| Peter: You’re right, Becky. But with lessons, you hear conversations with the words. There’s context. |
| Becky: Ah, and the others - it’s mostly about drilling words. |
| Peter: But really it’s up to the learner. |
| Becky: Alright, listeners, be sure to take advantage of Learning Paths. |
| Peter: You can find this study tool in the Lessons drop-down menu. |
| Becky: Just hover over Lessons and click on Learning Paths. |
| Peter: And there, you get focused paths... or courses based on your goals and needs. |
| Becky: Peter, what about your goals? Tell us your next monthly goal. |
| Peter: Okay, my next monthly goal is to review and make sure I know 500 words. |
| Becky: That sounds great. Deadline? |
| Peter: August 31st. These will be all the words I learned in these 60 lessons. |
| Becky: Nice. And listeners, let us know what your goals are for the month. |
| Peter: Email us at inner dot circle at innovative language dot com. |
| Becky: And stay tuned for the next Inner Circle. |
Outro
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| Becky: Well, that’s going to do it for this special Inner Circle lesson! |
| Peter: Bye everyone! |
| Becky: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
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