The One Key to Learning a Language—What we Should Have Been Told Until we identify what lies below our awareness, we will call it randomness, and it will ruin our learning That’s a key: Our subconscious premises We have pre-established ways of handling information Some people skim, others read slowly so as to dive in… Many prefer videos, or podcasts Here’s the catch, we didn't stop to ask: What does learning mean for me? “For me”... Not everyone learns for the same reasons, so the meaning of learning can change over time. Here’s a point: your objectives, to a degree, define the method for your own learning A method that ignores the fundamental learning principles of your mind will set you up to fail, you’ll call it randomness and it’ll keep ruining your learning… Remember those school days? The teacher who could lull you into sleep… That other teacher, whose class inspired you… Both were teaching: one did so “against the grit” and the other “with the grit” of your system. Chances are the second teacher wondered: what do I want learning to be for my students? At the risk of spoiling your definition of what learning is, here goes mine: “Learning is the capacity to manage pain effectively” As far as any of us can remember, even in kindergarten, learning has come hand in hand with some sort of pain The goal of a teacher is to minimize the pain of her/his students, this is good news and bad news… It’s good news because you can now ask your teacher for more information on this subject, but it’s bad news if you don’t have a teacher… or is it…? You are on a platform full of qualified teachers, just a few clicks away… This is the benefit of Italki: You can find the teacher that suits your learning style… in a way, you have already done your best, so now the teacher takes care of the rest… Do you have any questions on learning? Feel free to reach out to me, and I will be happy to answer them during our first class