Velocity Instant Fluency (3)

As we advance in our learning, we will add complexity. There are many advanced Enchart ideas and grammar objects that tend to move around and add complexity to this simple process. For example, when learning English, Mapping out an advanced idea like verb tenses (I eat, I am eating, I will eat, I ate, I have eaten) can be complex. Verb tense modifiers tend to be attached to the word they are modifying, and often impact other words in a sentence. However, adding all this at the beginning will make the Enchart too complicated. We will have to put this off until later when we begin using more advanced Encharts. There are many complex, advanced Mapping approaches that we will use to do advanced Encharting in the chapter on Mapping.

Condition, Rinse and Repeat: Condition your new language through repetitive usage.

Use your Encharts to practice speaking real sentences in a real context of communication. Embed the new language structure into those Encharts. Repeat these spoken Enchart games over several days, until they seem natural and flow through the mouth and mind. Slowly expand the Encharts and add complexity.

Don’t do Grammar: Don’t memorize grammar rules. In the early stages, memorizing grammar rules will slow down your new language acquisition. Too many rules can trigger the Reactive System, which can be easily overwhelmed and freeze. This is not to say that you should never study grammar rules. When you feel you are ready to dig into some verb tenses or verb conjugation, go ahead. However, in the beginning, you will find it easy to start speaking right away, if you focus on simple Encharting.

Focus on WHY: Why words are the emotional drivers in a communication. For example, words like choose, will, like, love, want, have to or need tell us why we want to do something. Build these into your first Encharts and practicing with a few support words and Action Words such as ‘to go’. They

can be mixed and matched to make hundreds of sentences about things that are important to you.

Go Off-Road in a 4x4: ‘Four-Word’ sentences mark a critical learning stage that most adult language learners often rush through. Consider that most young children spend at least 6 to 12 months talking in four-word sentences. The point is that you can say a lot and communicate many ideas with very simple sentences. As you communicate this way, your natural speaking ability begins to integrate broadly.

Language IS a Holographic Memory system. ‘Languaging’ is the process of creating linguistic distinctions in your mind and becoming your new language. This Languaging function will only work if you imprint the hologram through repetition. Here, we are repeating four-word sentences that form a complete communication. A sentence must form a complete communication, or the Intuitive Learning system will reject the effort as non-relevant and the Holographic Memory won’t get stronger. Think of a very simple Enchart with 4x4 and four variables. Try something like the Enchart laid out below.

4 x 4 x 4 x 4 = 256 If you look at the previous Enchart, you will see 16 words in 4 columns. You can combine any word from any column and you will ALWAYS make a correct sentence. If you practice and condition this Enchart until it seems natural, you can make hundreds of sentences, 256 to be exact. If you use this approach with 50 to 100 to 200 carefully selected words in 3 to 6 to 12 hand-crafted Encharts, you will gain a great territory of conversational possibilities with your new language. Try to build your Encharts with the topics that interest you most, such as people, travel sports, movies, dating, parties, or food – whatever you are most interested in.

Why Motivational Words: Why words are the motivational driver of action. These are some most important words to learn in your new language. They bring emotion into the sentence, which does most of the work transmitting the communication.

You could say that the Velocity Word Types are similar to traditional grammar. Grammar can easily be mapped around the Word Types. However, grammar tends to add a brittle ‘rule-based’ experience to language learning. Introducing all the grammar rules early on in the fluency process tends to interrupt our natural learning flow. Conversely, using these simple Word Types to learn language feels like a natural expression of the way that we are already accustomed to talking. This is because it maps across to our intrinsic set of human ‘thinking needs’ in any natural conversation.

Ignore Grammar – Follow Communication Needs: As you can see, all of this FEELS very simple and straightforward. We can list the Word Types in columns on our Encharts and put words from each list together to make simple sentences in a very natural and organic way.

Let’s examine some simple Communication Needs:

The one rule in Velocity is to take some time to map the Word Types into the correct Word Order of our new language. We will do this by arranging our columns in the right order for the new language when we lay out the Encharts. Once we have done this, we can often reuse this for other sentence templates.

You might notice that we include an absolute minimum of grammar. What about all of those language forms and rules: passive, active, masculine, feminine, verb conjugations, negative exceptions, and even varying tones? Where do all those fit into the Encharting model? The answer is... they don’t. At this stage, we are going to use them in speaking when needed, but ignore ‘figuring out’ the complex grammar ‘stuff.’

The entire point of Encharting is to start SPEAKING your new language right away – just like a small child does. This system is all about learning by doing, which is 10x faster than abstract grammar rules, or memorization. People learn best by having meaningful conversations.

For now, we are taking real action to get real results. Your aim is to start communicating with people first and to enjoy the process. Later on, we can build more complex Encharts which will include more of the language’s sophistication. Now, let’s make some Encharts!

Get the Word Order: The Word Order of sentences can be a challenge of learning any new language. This is especially true for transitions between European, Asian, African and Middle Eastern languages. However, once you get the Word Order correct and start using your new language’s Word Order in Encharts, from the start, you will get comfortable with this new thinking style. It is important to use the correct Word Order for your new language in your Encharts at all times. This is the habit that you will base all your communication on. The Enchart assists you to speak correctly from the get-go.

Here is a quick example for English and Japanese. Below, we have two simple Encharts to contrast English and Japanese Word Order. English speakers will see that the three example sentences don’t quite make perfect sense. This is okay. It shows us the limits of the Encharting approach, but also gives beginners some freedom to get going. Notice that you can still understand everything that is being communicated in each of the three sentences, even without the correct prepositions.

English Word Order:

In the Japanese example, we have now adjusted the Word Order to match the target language. We have also mixed in a few Japanese words to help the sentence structure. We have added des (to be) to make this feel Japanese. This Enchart is mostly in English, so you can’t quite use it as a language learning tool yet. However, reading this you will immediately get a feel for what speaking Japanese is like.

Japanese Word Order:

Notice that the two

Encharts don’t perfectly map across. With the Japanese Enchart, we added three elements to make the sentence a bit more workable in Japanese. If we didn’t add these elements, a Japanese speaker might still understand the communication, but it would require a bigger jump.

Add some Fudge Factor: When we make an Enchart, there is always a little Fudge Factor. Making it workable is a much better aim than trying to be correct. I suggest you forget the notion of ‘being absolutely correct’ for the first few months of your fluency adventure. The one exception is Word Order. Word Order guarantees understanding! Keep with this compulsively. If you are being understood in your new language, then the process is working! Just keep adding workability to your Encharts. Learn ‘grammar’

later if you want, as it is mainly a bonus. As a language learner, your aim is to communicate.

It is important to understand that not every idea can be communicated with the simple Encharting system. Encharting works best for learning short and simple sentences. You may have to break complex ideas into multiple sentences or simply hold off communicating those ideas for now.

Adjust to your Level: Most language tourists are at least at the level of a 3 to 4-year-old child. If this is you, be proud of the stage you are at. For now, you will have to build your Encharts at this level. As you progress, you can add more elements to the Encharts. They will get more complex, so it is important to inculcate the basic Word Order and to keep your first Encharts simple and comprehensive. Later, when we get to Mapping, we will add more grammar and language complexities.

Enchart an Important Conversation: Pick a simple and even a silly conversation to begin with. You will want to build Encharts that are relevant to you – anything from going for a run in the park, to eating at a restaurant. Previously, we talked about the value of learning this new language. What you value and are passionate about makes a great starting point for building your first Encharts. This provides a great foundation for Building Your Identity. Later, we will begin to build your new identity in your new language, using your Encharts! After that, we will practice turning our Encharts into games and real conversations. This is one of the fastest ways to get comfortable in your new language. From here on in, Encharts will be the foundation of everything we do. You may use your Encharts so much that one day you might realize they have disappeared.

How to Make an Enchart:

1. Start with a blank, letter-sized sheet of paper in landscape position 2. Draw five vertical lines to make nine columns

3. Establish the correct Word Order for your new language

4. Fill in the titles across the top in the correct Word Order

5. Pick a subject and write a title on the top left corner

6. Now find 4 to 16 words from your word lists which relate to the topic for each column 7. Cross-check the Word Order with a native speaker so that you can create real sentences the native way

For example, in English you might Enchart out questions with who, why, how, action, non-action, what, where and when.

Enchart your Motivation: Enchart your values and motivation for learning the new language. This is the most important element of the book, as this is your motivation structure. Build your prime interests into the new language and Enchart them for speaking. This will keep you interested and excited about talking with people and learning more. You immediately become a speaker.

For many languages, you can use four to eight basic ‘why’ words to communicate a vast range of motivational needs. The four simplest forms of ‘why’ words create an easy format to start speaking.

The best and easiest we have found are: want, need, choose and like. You can then add in a simple who with an action to build a simple communication. Or, you can put the question words: Who?

What? Where? and When? at the front of the sequence to turn it into a question. This will work in most languages as long as you swap the Word Order to match your target language.

Later, you can add another column for non-action or negatives once you have mastered several basic Encharts. The location for this will vary with the language. In English, we usually use the word

‘don’t’ before the ‘why’ (or modal verb) as in “I don’t want to go to the park.”

Simple Encharts like these pack a tremendous amount of learning potential and give you communication speed… real velocity! You could memorize all these words; however, that would be very different from being able to use them fluently in real communication. Take your time, and hang out at this important learning stage. Perhaps you are embarrassed by the simplicity of the communication. In order to be successful, you will have to give up this fear. Get comfortable with

being a beginner, and use your simple Encharts.

Delay Complexity:

1. First, practice a mind-numbingly simple approach. Delay the

complexity until later.

2. Use fun individual or group games to get into a learning flow.

3. Once you or the group is relaxed and having fun, slowly introduce more complexity.

Drill your Encharts: Practice your Encharts to build comfort and familiarity with the mouth movements. Practice speaking out loud and try to build a rhythm when drilling. You may synchronize to a metronome or, better yet, speak or sing in time with a moving hand or use light rhythmic music. Quickly increasing the speed of your rhythm is one of the best ways to build confidence.

It is a good idea to keep your current set of Encharts fresh in your mind for the first three weeks, with regular review. Rhythmic practice with Encharts for memorization is useful to a point; however, it can become repetitive unless you start right away to use it with real conversations. Notice and track your enjoyment of the process. Drilling with someone else is always better as their presence and your shared commitment will build focus and fun. Shortly, we will add people and games and Encharting will become a lot of fun.

Use your Encharts

The more you use the Encharts; the less you will need them. The Encharts exist in your mind, not only on paper. As you use them, the meaning-to-mind-to-mouth flow becomes established, and the paper disappears.

Reality Check: You may hear your own embarrassed Internal Dialogue complain, “The lack of grammar is driving me insane!” or “If I try to speak using this little Enchart, I won’t speak correctly and people will think I am stupid.”

However, if you are practicing with multiple sentences, you are really doing fine! To build any habit takes about three weeks of practice and you are learning to build key sentences! Encharting is training you to think in the new language. You are progressing even if, when people speak back to, you mostly hear a blur of sounds. This will gradually change.

Now that you have made some Encharts and have started to use them, you are ready for the BIG step.

You have just been shown the backbone of the Velocity Instant Fluency System. Your next step is to add muscle and sinew with lots of words so that you can become familiar with speaking your new language quickly!

7.Become

*************

Don’t learn your new language; Become your new language Many people spend years studying a new language, but they never really become a speaker of that language. Why not just skip the years of studying and simply become your new language?

Water unto Fish – Humans unto Language: What do we mean by “become your new language”? Think of the way a two-year-old starts to talk. A two-year-old doesn’t learn a new language, they emerge into it. Humans are creatures of language. We live in a world of language in the way that fish live in a world of water. As children, we grow into language. Learning to speak a new language ALWAYS happens the same way.

This can help or hinder the learning process. Many people identify their personality in the language they learned first as a child. In this case, the new language may seem awkward and irrelevant.

Conversely, we can flip this around to make the whole learning process natural and sticky. All you need to do is keep building a new vision of yourself in your new language. The more you focus on your New Language Identity as relevant and meaningful, the easier the learning will become.

Become Your New Language: This whole process will flow quickly if you build up enough learning intensity for your new language and then continue to step into your new language for a few minutes each day. This is one of the big secrets of how the Velocity workshops can create such a big transformation to spoken fluency in just two or three days. When you BECOME a fluent speaker of your new language, you are, in essence, establishing a new identity in your new language.

Don’t learn your new language

Become your new language

Step into your New Language Identity: Stepping into your New Language Identity is the very heart of becoming your new language. Building a New Language Identity will add an additional dimension to life.

Ask Yourself:

Who do I want to be in my new language?

Who do I want to become in my new language?

Who am I becoming in my new language?

Always Respect Identity: ‘Identity’ is a BIG word and some people may worry that there is some intention in all this to externally manipulate their personality. In truth, building your identity in your new language is quite the opposite. We always approach language identity with the utmost respect.

Only you get to say who you want to become. It is extremely difficult for any single experience to manipulate an individual’s core identity. A person’s core Intuitive System is an inbred, supreme, top-level management system. It is a very effective and efficient self-correcting mechanism. If anything

comes along which doesn’t feel right, your Intuitive System rejects it very quickly.

Below are two very simple thought experiments you can try with your own identity to demonstrate this concept. They prove that any identity shift has to fit and link to the real world to make it stick. An identity level shift is not magic; you have to do a huge amount of work or go through a major experience to make it a permanent reality.

Test 1: Say to yourself, “I am a frog.” Notice if anything happened. Are you a frog? No, you are not a frog – proof being that frogs cannot read books. In order to shift to a frog identity, you would have to declare to yourself and the world that you are a frog, every single moment of every day. Your mind would have to commit to becoming a frog. Finally, you would have to take physical and mental action every day to become a frog. As you build solid, concrete evidence over time that you are a frog, this new identity would get stronger. Finally, everyone in the world would have to agree that you are a frog. Clearly this is not going to happen. Before any of this could happen, your body and mind would reject the entire process as ridiculous – at least under the normal reality that we all agree upon.

Test 2: Say to yourself, “I am a parent.”

For any of you who are parents, this would fit with who you know yourself to be and the statement would reaffirm your existing identity. The statement seems obvious. For any of you who are not parents, this statement would seem a little strange, and your inherent intuitive identity would probably ignore it. However, there is a third category. This third category will begin to demonstrate the real power of an identity level shift.

What if you are thinking about becoming a parent? How would the phrase “I am a parent” impact you? What if you were actively trying to have children? What would be the effect of this statement in this case? What if you were expecting a baby soon? This statement would be exciting and would really support you in becoming fully prepared for this key life shift in your identity. The moment you had that new child, you could declare “I am a parent.” The evidence (your physical child) would complete a big shift in who you know yourself to be. While the shift would have been completed the moment you saw your new child, it would have begun the moment you originally declared it.

4 Steps to Building a New Language Identity: With language learning, we are using this natural process to build energy and an unstoppable learning momentum. As we build this identity, all of our new learning will fit into this identity and provide the context that our Intuitive Learning System needs to make the learning stick. We will build this one step at a time using this proven formula:

1 Declare

2 Commit

3 Take Action

4 Build Evidence

1 Make a Declaration: I speak... (insert your new language here) Declare this in your spoken word and in writing.

Speak it in your mother tongue.

Speak it in your new language.

REPEAT this declaration out loud in your new language as a daily

ritual.

These are the MOST important words you will ever say in your new

language.

Repeat this declaration in your new language, every day.

A Declaration is Not an Affirmation: If you are familiar with positive psychology, this may sound like an affirmation. An affirmation is a feel-good phrase that you say over and over again.

Affirmations usually are ineffective because, at some level, your gut knows the statement is currently not true. The more you say it, the stronger the untruth gets. This is because an affirmation lacks commitment, action, and evidence. A declaration is FOUNDED in commitment to action and realized with new language evidence.

2 Commit Formally and Publicly: In the beginning of the book, we asked you to formally commit to practicing every day for 30 days. Now we will ask you to commit to building your New Language Identity for the next 30 days. This is a key tool and practice. It will make your language learning sustainable over time. We do not ask you to promise to become a native speaker or 100% fluent in 30 days. We simply ask you to follow these steps:

In the next 30 days:

1. Commit to making a small step towards fluency,

2. Commit to beginning to build your New Language Identity,

3. Make your commitment in writing.

4. Share this with 3 family members or friends you trust.

Be sure to set end date out 30 days. Make your commitment now.

3 Take Action Every Day: Make the commitment to take physical and mental action steps for the next 30 days. Action is the most critical step. Our Intuitive Learning system knows that sometimes we say things but don’t really mean them. Likewise, our Intuitive Learning system knows that action takes place in the real world, not in words or intentions. If we take action, our Intuitive Learning system knows the declaration was real, and the new identity will begin to become stable and generalized through our day-to-day awareness of self. If we don’t take action, our Intuitive Learning system knows the declaration was false, and the new identity gets discarded. The New Language Identity is then used as brain food for other habits or areas of attention.

Step into Your New Identity Every Day

You may have an “I like watching TV” identity or something else linked to comfort. To maintain learning over the long-term, your language learning identity must be stronger than your comfort identity. You must perform the action to make the new identity stick. Even if the action is small, it still works. Ten minutes of any kind of formal language learning practice daily is enough to make the identity start to stick. However, ten minutes of practicing the identity building activities outlined here, followed by language learning practice sessions, will be even more effective with the practice outlined at the end of this chapter. This way, you will be working directly on building the new identity and the new language together. Your motivation intensity now develops along with your interest in the practice.

4 Build Identity Evidence: There are three was to build evidence.

1. Do the Work. You don’t have to work hard. Just follow the steps in this book and keep practicing. Build strong habits and practice at least once every day. Maintain the order of your evidence building to create a set ritual.

2. Notice that you are Making Progress. Spend a little time each week to recognize the results you have achieved. Look again at your cards and Encharts and other materials. This evidence shows you that your new identity is getting stronger. Build your evidence further, whenever possible, through enjoyable and simple conversations with native speakers.

3. Actively Appreciate your Progress. You have to be systematic in how you measure, express and declare your progress, both to yourself and to the people in your life. The evidence won’t stick unless we speak our progress in real dialogue. Powell Janulus discovered that it would take about 80 to 100 Encharts, well practiced in conversation, to really speak each language comfortably. You can begin to count your Encharts against his mark, noticing the progress you

are making each week.

Identity building is inherently linked with accelerated language learning. All language learners begin for the same reason: to become someone who can speak the new language fluently. Next we will give you even more ways to make your New Language Identity stronger.

Three Roads to Identity: The fluency process is always intertwined with the identity-building process. People reach their peak of language learning by exploring and expressing the areas of life that they are most passionate about. There are three unique approaches: Personal – Business – Metaphoric

Personal Identity: Your personal identity is ‘who you are’ most of the time. You are always in in the driver’s seat, creating your new-language personal identity by building your vision of who you are becoming as a fluent speaker of your new language.

Enchart your Passions: Your New Language Identity will develop by learning how to talk in your new language about the things in life that most interested you. Enchart your passions and your New Language Identity will form quickly. This can also includes your preferences, values and intimate thoughts. All the things you might share with close family or friends. In the beginning, this development moves through narrow channels of building Encharts about things you wish to talk about.

Next, you begin to practice self-expression with learning partners. Finally, as an advanced learner, you think and express yourself naturally, in your new language. This is the Velocity approach that will vastly expand your depth of communication in your new language – and do it quickly.

Your personal identity in the new language is always the mirror of your first-language identity. Your new-language personal identity is paradoxically both private and shared.

Share it to Make it Stronger: You have to share your new language personal identity to make it stronger. Therefore, because it also touches on the innermost areas of your private life, there is always some risk in the beginning of that sharing. You must seek out practice partners and people who you can trust with the intimate details of ‘who you are’ to support you in your quest to merge your New Language Identity with your core being. As with any partners in every situation in life, it takes time to build trust in this new learning context. Take the time to assemble a circle of trusted friends. You need to talk about ‘who you are becoming’ in your new language in order to build strong interest in continuing your drive towards your goals.

Your present personal identity is focused on ‘who am I now,’ which includes your interests and experience. Your future personal identity is focused on expanding to ‘who am I becoming,’ which is an expression in your new language of your future aspirations, goals, vision, and values of life. As

you develop and express your vision and values of life, you get more energy and engagement, which further entrenches your new language personal identity. A strong personal identity base is your main foundation. All other identities are built on that solid base.

Business Identity: Your Business Identity includes your professional goals and results.

These are things that you share publicly. Think about your public image and how you wish to ‘look good,’ or ‘look professional.’ This is usually based on an external reference of ‘how others see you’

or ‘how you wish to be seen.’ Some people are highly motivated by building their own personal brand. If this seems to fit for you, focus on doing this in your new language.

Your Business Identity is the ongoing process by which you develop and manage ‘who you are’ as a successful person in business. Many people wish to learn a new language to achieve a professional career result. Building your Business Identity in your new language requires you to be able to talk about yourself as a professional and about your work goals in a professional manner. As you progress, you will begin to express your Business Identity in your community and later expand that community. All this is intertwined with the fluency process. Your Business Identity is inherently public in nature; therefore, in the future, you will wish to manage this information as your professional persona.

Exercise: Past – Present – Future

Enchart some of your career achievements, current projects and

future business goals

Practice building sentences with these ideas and talking about them This will build up your Business Identity in a broad spectrum, which includes your professional work goals, mission and vision. Link back Business Identity to your personal identity and share your biggest goals with your trusted friends and practice partners.

Metaphoric Identity: Humans constantly use metaphors to express themselves.

Metaphorically compare yourself to someone or something. Have fun expressing and sharing fantasies with others in a playful way. This is the core foundation of a metaphoric self-identity.

Elvish or Klingon?

Around the world we ask this ‘geeky’ question; do you want to learn Elvish or Klingon? For about 60% of the people in the western world, this single question will take them into a Metaphoric Identity. If this is you, focus your learning attention here.

Metaphoric Exercise One:

What animal most represents you: An eagle, lion, dolphin?

Why do you choose that particular animal?

What quality does this animal have that you feel most represents you as a human?

Translate that quality word into your new language. Link in and feel it as you do!

Make it one of your key words!

Metaphoric Exercise Two:

Who do you admire: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey?

Which great leaders inspire you: Gandhi, Einstein, Mandela?

Which fictional characters would you like to be: Gandalf, Superman, Rocky?

What are the qualities that you like about these people?

Imagine you possess these qualities. Imagine becoming that person.

Step into the visualization.

Learn how to talk about these metaphoric qualities in your new language!

Keep your Metaphoric Identity Anonymous: As you are building an identity of ‘who you imagine yourself to be in your language,’ you must keep your thoughts about yourself to yourself. If you share your building blocks, the foundation for your identity that you are building will weaken and the power will dissipate.

Anonymity provides the freedom to explore your secret identity without fear of judgment or self-doubt. The sky is your only limit if you don’t have to justify yourself. Privately, you can build and adapt your own personal values, and link them to your own unique visions.

Your Metaphoric Identity will accelerate your learning abilities. It allows you to create your own unique personal journey forward. Some people see this as a form of personal branding.

The Internet is full of Metaphoric Identity

The virtual worlds of the internet are the perfect places to express and develop your Metaphoric

Identity with complete anonymity. In a virtual setting, no one can see that you are NOT actually Gandhi or Gandalf. You don’t need a phone booth to change into your Superman costume. Check out any virtual world on the internet, and you will see that thousands of people have populated it with their metaphoric identities. Once you start living this persona in your new language, you won’t believe what happens. You will quickly and easily take on your New Language Identity and merge it naturally and powerfully with your foremost values.

Anchor your Identity into your New Language: Step into the world of your inspiring identity, knowing you are firmly Anchored and that your identity and confidence are secure.

Discover your playfulness and link it to integrating and vitalizing contexts.

The more you use your new language to build your inspired identity, the more you send a powerful message to your Intuitive Learning system and the more confident you become.

Your confidence and commitment propel you into the useful conversations that you need to move forward. Your new language now becomes a natural shortcut to what you want.

Declare yourself to a Native Speaker: “I am learning your language, and this year I plan to dramatically expand my proficiency. Please feel free to support me by telling me what I’m doing well and what I can do even better!”

Start Visioning your New Identity: Previously, we explored the powerful effect of the visualization of moving images in your mind’s eye. It takes only 10 seconds to review a small movie in which you view yourself being a natural speaker in your new language – easy to do each day, anytime and anywhere.

Become your Mission

Then think about the value of learning your new language and design some personal commercials or short movies, with your new identity in the starring role. See yourself as a native speaker – talking with the people you want to talk with the most! Make these moving images bright and fun, maybe even absurd, so they are memorable. Structure your day with 10–second commercial breaks that pop up.

Watch these with frequency, like any commercial on TV or any online pop-up ad. Make sure that your new, inspired identity, the truly natural speaker, is always cast in the lead role.

Build your Identity Profile:

Creating a visual display. This is a physical and material representation of your New Language Identity. This is the very best way to keep your New Language Identity in existence. Construct a large, flip-chart poster of who you want to become in your new language. Make sure to build your Identity Profile in your new language. Use different colors, Post-it Notes and images to make your poster

visually attractive. Keep it in a place where you can see it every day.

Here are some suggestions of the things you can add to your New Language Identity Profile: Your name (ideally in your new language)

Your key Value Words

Graphic images cut out of magazines or downloaded from the

internet

Logos of products relating to your new language

Images of animals found in the country of your new language

Flags, ethnic dress, food or customs relating to the culture of your new language

Post-it notes with inspiring ideas

People you admire

Your learning goals

Your life goals

Your career goals

Success in your new language

Visuals that represent your new language travel plans

Put your New Self Around the House

Use Post-it notes to display elements of your New Language Identity Profile around your home. The bathroom mirror is an ideal spot because you will see the notes when you brush your teeth twice a day. DO NOT ignore them or the words will lose power. Your Intuitive Learning system will not value them unless you do. Stop for a moment to honor them and they will gain power. Sticky Post-it Notes are one of the most useful tools. Post them near the fridge or on the bathroom mirror for a 5-second review of your new identity.

Introduce your New Self to your Trusted Circle: In life, we all maintain an inner circle of people close to us. As you declare your New Language Identity to those people in your life who you trust the most, your commitment gets stronger. You can’t let down your closest confidants, so what you have shared with them must remain strong and committed. This step takes courage, so begin slowly if you

need to. As you build evidence, it will get easier.

Start Talking About yourself in your New Language: Talk to others about your interests and intentions, using your new language. Map your identity profile to talk about the values you personally will get from your new language. You now can feel the intensity of purpose and inner power that your Value Words provide. These two practices form a solid foundation for building your New Language Identity.

Keep Talking to yourself in your New Language: For example, keep a small display of your key Value Words from your Identity Profile on the steering wheel or dashboard of your car. Acknowledge one word at every traffic light. Imagine becoming the person that matches that value word. Later, we will discuss this in great detail when we look at the power of Internal Dialogue. Depending on how you use your Internal Dialogue for language development, it will either be your best friend or worst enemy.

Upgrade your Identity: You will find yourself needing to constantly add to and upgrade your vision, values and identity because they will develop as you get stronger in your new language universe.

Be a Beginner

Say to yourself, “I am a beginner.” Your New Language Identity is newly born and therefore fragile.

You cannot expect too much of yourself. You have a beginner’s identity in your new language. Keep giving yourself permission to NOT know how to speak the language very well. Enjoy being a beginner just as a child delights in learning to speak. Keep it all in perspective: Here is a scenario. A person practices like crazy to prepare for a trip. They imagine arriving and being able to speak the language. They arrive to discover the rapidly spoken language and grammar habits of the locals are far beyond their abilities. They end up giving up, convinced that they can never learn the language. So they stop practicing for the rest of the trip and miss out on the rich and immersive learning environment.

We call this scenario: New Language Identity Collapse. It is very common and easily preventable with a little planning.

First and foremost, always give yourself permission to be a beginner Keep your language speaking level in perspective and be proud of

beginning. Use basic Encharts to begin to have simple conversations with real people

Learn this key sentence in your new tongue: “Please speak slowly!”

Jump to the People section for many more tips and how to practice The Conversation.

Become ‘One of Them’: Catch yourself when you think you feel separate or alienated from

‘them.’ Keep stepping into your New Language Identity and culture. Keep expanding your immersion in your new language to include its culture. Language includes many forms of expression besides words. Start with accent, tone, and rhythm. Expand this to include a mindset which encompasses mannerisms, movements, facial expression, gestures, bearing and behavior. Make it your own – the way a great actor becomes the role. Enjoy it.

Immerse yourself in your New Culture: A language like Japanese, Turkish, Russian or Mandarin is usually linked to a single culture. A language like English, however, is linked to many cultures. For instance, if international business communication is your motive for learning English, immerse yourself in the culture of business English. Learn the latest Harvard MBA jargon and practice talking like an experienced international consultant.

Communicate with Culture, Not Words

If you travel to India or Northern England, you will discover vastly different variations of English that would be tricky for most native English speakers to understand. These language cultures vary greatly in terms of accent, tone, rhythm, and body language. Step into the culture of communication as you step into your New Language Identity. Maximize your immersion by taking on the culture, body language and mindset.

While you are practicing the words, also take on the mindset. In our research with Powell Janulus, he demonstrated, time and time again, that taking on the mindset of the New Language Identity accelerates every other element of the learning process. More than anything, Powell loved becoming an Italian. You could feel his passion. Try this. When you fall in love with your new language, you will have fully stepped into your new language identity.

Become Powell Janulus: It’s true you are not, nor can you ever be Powell Janulus, but you have exactly the same basic brain technology. If you are trying to learn Spanish, for instance, don’t give up the process if you don’t feel Spanish at the end of the first day, week or even month. The idea is to maintain the intention of becoming a Spanish speaker. This holds true with whatever language you are trying to learn. Commitment simply means that you commit to re-commit, step by step.

By exploring how to see yourself as a native, or how to immerse yourself in the culture to the point where you feel yourself a native, you will discover more and more opportunities for easy accelerated learning. The waiter serving you coffee will enjoy the repartee with you while you practice. The Velocity system is a process of being open to acceleration. Give yourself the opportunity to get so much enjoyment out of learning that you expand your identity. Become someone who succeeds at

speaking your new language and quickly start to build relationships in that new language. Step into your New Language Identity and feel the sudden rush of acceleration and speed.

“When I moved from Korea to Canada, English became my prison. Everyday I tried to connect with people, but I kept failing. I was a prisoner, alone and isolated. In Velocity I discovered that in English, I can be anyone I want. I am reinventing myself as a dancer of the English language. In Velocity, I went from prisoner to dancer. - YounJoo – Victoria, Canada”

8.Fun

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“People rarely succeed unless they have fun with what they are doing.”

– Dale Carnegie

Kids are Experts in Accelerated Learning:

Look at a group of kids playing together. Watch them with new eyes. You will see a group of humans in a state of hyper-learning. They might be engaged in layers of social interaction, group games, visual-special games, imagination, Visioning, acting, rhythm, numbers, words and body movements –

all tied together with a silly context such as ‘hide and seek.’ Foremost, they are learning to how to ‘be human’ in a safe and simulated problem-solving environment. This is what hyper-learning looks like, but most kids just call it fun.

Fun is Learning: As adult language learners, we can use fun to dramatically speed our rate of learning. All of the best Velocity Learning Systems include games, but the most important element is the relaxed joy you bring to the process. To add velocity, we layer fun into Group Learning games that include acting. Group Learning games are some of the very best ways to bring in fun.

Fun Melts Risk: Communication requires other humans. However, any time you bring in other people, you cannot predict their response. They may not understand you. They may reject you.

Communication carries risk. Humans know this and start cautiously. Fortunately, the ice will always melt with a little playful group rapport. What comes next is the big tsunami. Once we relax and start to have fun, everything changes. We get hit by a big wave of learning. Fun group games always work wonders for accelerating the fluency process. Go find your group.

Fun Drives Learning

Making the learning experience enjoyable is the key to fluency success. You discover your fun genes whenever you feel safe, secure and relaxed. Fun is always there in the gene pool of possibilities; however, we need to set ourselves up for it, protect it and encourage it to blossom.

Having fun is a sure sign that you have built a solid foundation to your practice. You will notice that throughout this book, and in every aspect of our system, we have sprinkled fun, silly and playful elements. You job is to use them, dramatize them, invent even more of them and keep generating a relaxed and playful space for learning.

Eat Ice Cream Everyday: Set a clear intention for FUN for your time and your practice. Learning a new language is just like eating ice cream. If it is hard or annoying, you are doing it wrong. The same goes for fluency. Your mission is to find a way to have FUN learning EVERY DAY.

Laughter = Learning: The highest form of fun is humor. The moment you laugh, you have achieved the perfect foundation for accelerative learning. Laughter is the bridge from our everyday awareness into the relaxed and intentional focus of effective intake. This is not to say that humor alone will get you there; you could observe something very funny and not learn anything!

Humor also has a tremendous ability to reset and align our focus. Later in this chapter, we will introduce games, play and acting, which are some of the fastest ways to become comfortable speaking the language with other people.

Put on Your Silly Hat: In the Velocity workshops, we ask people to put on silly hats and ridiculous, brightly colored wigs, masks or costumes when they play learning games and perform their short comedy performances. It is hard to take yourself too seriously when you are wearing a rainbow-colored wig. The embarrassment of your silly wig is much greater than the worry that your words might come out wrong. Anything that makes you laugh will work. The more outrageous, the better! It is important to understand that we need lots of humor to offset the challenges that come with language learning practices.

Kids Play to Learn

Children see their world of learning as fun. A two-year-old child exhibits 100% language learning efficiency. Most language teaching methods operate at about 4% effectiveness. Fun is the difference.

The more extreme a person can get in their silliness or their personal idea of enjoyable absurdity, the more their brain can relax into that pure, child-like, two-year-old state. Every human being has the ability to learn a language in nine months to a year. Each of us did it once. We can do it again.

Think of fun as one of the batteries that keeps you going. When you have fun, you are charging your

fun battery. The process of challenging your brain to absorb new language learning ideas and testing new tools depletes your fun battery. Your job is to keep your fun battery boosted so that you can take on more learning challenges while making it a pleasurable experience. The more you practice, the more you are building up your risk-taking capacity, which will end up recharging your whole life!

Recharge Your Fun Battery: What happens if you totally empty your fun battery? If the fun battery runs dry, this can easily trigger old cynical emotional systems which start the internal thinking processes of negative thoughts like “This is pointless / embarrassing / stupid / hard.” Your brain naturally disengages in order to protect yourself.

The sad truth is that the world is full of people who learned to read and write a second language in school, but have never felt comfortable speaking that language. There is a simple solution to that problem. A sufficient amount of fun will always break through the spoken language barrier.

Plan a concrete foundation of relaxed and playful engagement

Plan your next practice event to be as entertaining as possible

Get silly hats or a crazy wig that reflect your New Language Identity Get a group involved in planning a fluency party

Get everyone to bring food, costumes or props

Plan to have fun

The Fun Philosophy

Use the power of fun to relax the Reactive System. Fun can override your old negative self-comparison and self-judgment. As you start to have more and more fun in your practice, you forget that you are even learning a new language and just go with the game. The brain’s Reward System gets activated.

Learning happens best when we do what we enjoy most. Around the world, everyone is playing games on their phones or devices. Not just kids anymore, but everyone. Consider that the brain is wired to enjoy learning, and learning is one of the reasons that everyone enjoys playing these games.

Fun is focused motivation.

Fun is a single-minded immersion in the moment.

Fun represents the ultimate in harnessing one’s emotions in the

service of learning.

Fun allows the emotions to be positive, energized and aligned with the task at hand.

Fun is energized focus and success in the process of the activity.

Add More Fun: Ask yourself, “What do I normally do for fun in my everyday life?” What activities might you engage in that bring laughter or happiness to your life? What would you do if you woke up one day and could do anything you wanted? Make a list of 10 everyday activities that you would do just for fun. Find ways to bring your language learning into this activity.

The Brain Science of Fun: Fun and relaxed learning is the key to a healthy brain.

Research has identified areas of the brain associated with the perception of novelty, which are stimulated by unusual or surprising circumstances. Anything new, extreme or unexpected will kick off this process; however, humans must feel safe and relaxed, or it will not begin. Information is initially received in the Hippocampus, the site of long-term memory.

The brain attempts to match new information with recognizable patterns stored in long-term memory.

When it is unable to do this, the brain releases dopamine, a chemical which stimulates the amygdala, the site of emotion, and creates a pleasurable feeling that is associated with the new memory. In other words, fun is created by stimulating the brain with novelty.

Dopamine – Reward-Driven Learning:

Neuroscience correlates the concept of fun in a learning environment to a positive healthy addiction to dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter and hormone that functions by sending signals to other nerve cells. The release of dopamine is associated with pleasure, motivation, concentration and learning. Every time an activity releases a jolt of dopamine, you connect that activity with a pleasurable or fun feeling, which motivates you to do that activity again and again.

Group Games: The very best learning fun comes from group games. Group Learning games are a bit like party games, in which a small group of 3-5 people work through some silly and embarrassing game. We almost always work from an Enchart, so the first segment of the game is building your Enchart. Brightly colored Post-it Notes are one of the best ways to warm up the visual brain and assist everyone to get into the learning flow.

Add More People, Add More Fun: The addition of 2-4 people into your learning process will increase your learning power by ten times. The more people, the more power! Plan a party and invite friends and friends of friends who speak the new language. Start a Meetup group. Attend a Velocity program and jump into the fun. Build your group.

“Pretend Anything and You Can Master It.”

– Milton Erickson

Acting: At this point, we need a special mention of acting. Of all the group games that can speed up language fluency, acting has a special place. The moment that you step into a role and become someone else, all of your first language barriers to learning fall away. Just as the silly hat allows you to step around your embarrassment, acting allows you to experience a range of expression in your new language. The more you add melodramatic emotions and silly humor, the stickier the learning becomes. Even though it is all pretend, any kind of social interaction with real humans will make the learning real. Finally, we lock it in with laughter. The moment we laugh at how silly we are, what we have learned becomes part of who we are.

Break the Embarrassment Barrier

Having a conversation when you are new to a language carries the risk of embarrassment. You shy from it because you don’t know if your attempts at communication will work or be humiliating.

Human instinct is to avoid shame and embarrassing situations.

The Acting Approach:

Uses the power of ENCHARTS to build sentences

Uses the power of PEOPLE to embed the learning into interactions

Uses the power of FUN to break through the language barrier

The moment you communicate an idea in your new language and it is understood by the person to whom you are speaking, a critical fluency circuit is completed in your brain. This integration happens in your Intuitive Learning system. This happens because it suddenly becomes relevant. This is especially true when we move from memorized phrases to customized sentence construction.

Acting ‘As-If’ You Were Fluent: All this business of acting or ‘skits’ is just a cover for the real work that is happening at an intuitive level. The “As-If” frame, sometimes called ‘the pretend game,’ is one of the most transformative shifts you can undertake.

Act ‘As If’ you were a fluent native speaker. Spend a little time each day, acting as if you are a native speaker to have. Take on the style.

Imagine each element in detail.

What if you had the point of view of a native speaker?

How would they see you? What might they enjoy discussing?

What if you used the natural gestures that the native speakers use?

What would those gestures look like?

What if you had the natural rhythms and tones a native speaker would use? How would you sound?

Add More Emotion: Acting takes us into the world of emotional self-expression which is the very heart of communication. This makes our new language our real language. Children know that acting games are the best ways to learn, and every kid’s pretend game has some element where they try on emotions of an imagined adult character.

I can’t Act –It is Silly and Embarrassing: The trick to getting over embarrassment is to add more embarrassment until it becomes ridiculous and therefore loses its power to embarrass. In the Velocity workshops, we have tested this method over many years by using group games, silly skits and playful Enchart games to put people into fun, but slightly embarrassing, situations. The very best way to do this is by adding silly and fake extreme emotions to the process.

4 States of Existence: In ancient Greek theatre, there were three types of theatre: drama, tragedy and comedy. We add in romance because it has a profound ability to put people into extreme states of over-the-top embarrassment.

Drama: Always pump up drama until it becomes melodrama. Push the motions to the extreme over-the-top limit. The classic example is Fire-Fire-Fire in which you pretend that you are trapped in a burning building and know you are going to die. You SCREAM “Fire!” at the top of your lungs. This produces almost no new language learning, but always generates a breakthrough in self-expression.

Tragedy: Take Romeo and Juliet to the next level. Keep in mind that it is very sad and all the main characters die at the end. Take this to the limit.

Comedy: Once you ‘redline’ the emotions, almost everything gets funny and silly. Everything becomes comedy. This has the strange effect of making the learning very sticky and hyper-relevant.

Romance: Bring the full range of love. Scale from an innocent first love to sexy flirtation to burlesque overacting. If possible, have the men play female characters and the women play male characters. This is one of the best ways to breakthrough embarrassment and extend the range of expression.

The Wheel of Emotions: A Wheel of Emotions is an ideal way to trigger over-the-top emotional acting during a skit or game. Your wheel may have eight choices of emotions that can be

acted out in outrageous ways. Later, you can add an intensity range that will move from low to high on a scale from one to ten.

Eight Segments of the Crazy Wheel: There are many versions of this wheel, but this CRAZY

Wheel seems to work best.

Silly Sentences

Silly Sentences bring fun and acting into the sentence construction process and begin to build natural and intuitive fluency.

1. Build an Enchart: Build a simple Enchart using the template below. Ideally, use a big, flip-chart-size page. Use brightly colored Post-it notes for each column. Put the names of each group member in the Who column. Use a group brainstorm to fill in lots of words in the Action and Where columns.

Add in lots of crazy and silly words.

2. Make a Silly Sentence: Take turns making a Silly Sentence. Read it out loud, using the name of another person from the group.

John says: Susan loves umping in the zoo

3. Act it Out: The person who was called says the exact sentence back, and then makes up some silly actions to act it out in an exaggerated manner. Have fun. Get crazy.

Action Learning: Action Learning is a simple and popular way to embed the learning of Encharts into your physical world. It also allows you to listen – the way a small child listens – as an active participant. Below, you will find a simple action learning game that you can play with the following Enchart. It requires that one person speaks and at least one other responds with actions using real objects. The second person doesn’t need to speak at first, but only take the action steps.

Build a similar Enchart in your new language.

Build an Action Learning Enchart: Use the example below to build an Enchart in a big flip-chart page. Find some objects to use as props and put each one in the WHAT column. Put the names of each group member in the WHO column. Use a group brainstorm to fill in lots of words in the columns.

Use brightly colored Post-it notes for each column. Add in more silly words or actions as you go.

Act it Out: The person in the WHO column repeats the exact sentence back, and then gets up and performs the actions using the random objects you have provided for props. Have fun.

Do three or four rounds one way, then revise for another go around by simply re-arranging the words on the Enchart. This 4x4 action learning Enchart will give you enough steps for this preliminary learning level. Take turns, each telling the other person what to do.

Add more crazy elements to take it over-the-top. Add people to the final WHERE column to mess things up. Here are some classic examples:

Paul put Paul on the tomato. (This caused a big red splat.)

Paul put the universe in Paul. (I am still trying to figure this one out.) Enchart Skits: When we start to have more and more fun with skits, we forget that we are learning a new language because we are immersed in the game. The brain’s Reward System is getting activated. This is the ultimate value of acting. Having fun with other people is the purpose of language. A 55-year-old man doesn’t worry about his sentence structure when he is wearing a bright pink wig and acting the part of a young woman flirting with a fireman who has just rescued her cat.

This is what Instant Fluency looks like.

Set Up a Skit:

Start with Roles: Assign roles randomly, even if the role may seem completely wrong for the person.

It makes it very funny. It is fun if there is a demonstration beforehand, so people will feel confident when they start their own version of the script and play.

Select a writer who comes up with an idea and writes the script.

Select a director who can change the script as you go.

Select a cast who will follow the instructions of the director

Select a cinematographer to record it on their phone, post the video on Facebook and email the link to everybody.

Switch roles each time the group meets.

Writer: The writer writes a funny script based on Enchart conversations. Try to tell a story using a series of Encharts. Each Enchart might have a two parts: a question or action from one actor and a response from another. Build a full 4x4 Enchart for the response, so the actors may choose how to respond. The writer chooses the cast and directs the scenario. The writer casts the roles as outrageously as possible.

Director: The director picks one emotion for each ‘take’ and explains the motivation. The director announces the level of intensity for the emotion to each player and demonstrates it. Finally, the director announces and changes the cast, script and Encharts as the action proceeds to keep the story flowing.

Actors: The cast should value the importance of each role and practice the lines like a real actor.

Practice the acting full of emotions! Overacting should be encouraged and praised. Every actor has permission to add their own unique elements to the skit to make it even funnier. Indulge yourself in high drama and over-emphasize physical actions so the skit is hilarious and fun.

Everyone: Contributes costumes, props, wigs, masks and playful word guides so that people get maximum enjoyment from the play.

Guidelines:

Use popular topics: cops and robbers, zombies, vampires, firemen

and fires, dating and flirting, families on holidays, fashion shows, beauty contests, dog shows, etc.

Create a simple Enchart that develops some interaction within the language.

Keep it basic at the beginning; you are acting in your new language.

This is a challenge.

Use the simple keywords to keep the story moving.

The director can interrupt the process at any time to demonstrate outlandish postures that would go with the words or intonations and allow people to take on dramatic qualities.

Repeat the skit. Take one, take two, take three. Repeat each scenario three times, with three different people playing three different roles three times.

Storytelling Skits: Storytelling is a very simple approach for building simple skits out of well-known stories. Pick a classic one. Build a set of Encharts with the intention of telling that story. You can build on storytelling with others by taking turns adding one sentence to the tale, using combinations from the Encharts.

Example: The princess must kiss the frog; the frog must turn into a prince. As you build the Encharts, try to create a whole range of variable things by changing words around. It is always fun when the princess kisses a flower and the flower turns into a dragon.

Storytelling skits add an exciting new level to language learning. You can take well-known stories and hand out script Encharts to people in your circle a week before the get-together. This lets everyone prepare and allows them to get comfortable with their new language Encharts.

9.People

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“He that converses not, knows nothing”

– Turkish proverb

Drop the Books and Talk to REAL People: We keep studying more, thinking that someday we will be ready to talk to real people. Confront the obvious. The reason language learners hide in books is to avoid the fear of making mistakes and being embarrassed. STOP. Break the language barrier and talk to real people. This is absolutely the fastest way to learn.

What is the difference between practicing on your own and talking with another real person? Isn’t it all just the same, as long as you are practicing and making progress? The Intuitive System knows the huge difference between saying a sentence to yourself and speaking it to another person in a real conversation. In this chapter, we get very clear on the exact nature of this difference and how you can use real conversations with people to dramatically accelerate your language learning.

Search for Native Speakers: At one point, Powell Janulus set out to learn Polish. This wasn’t a big challenge for Powell; he usually conquered a new language in about 4-6 months. He was confident, and he set off polishing his tools: He made word lists, he created his Encharts and he built his Encharts. Then he came up against a big roadblock. He didn’t know anyone who actually spoke Polish.

Polish has a unique written consonant system that can be a challenge for spoken fluency. For Powell’s accelerated language learning to succeed, he had to start by modelling a Polish person. He needed to become one with the Polish people and immerse himself in the Polish culture. He had given himself a six-month deadline and time was passing. Powell recognized that once he had given himself a new Polish identity, his brain’s Intuitive Systems would take over and he could let nature take the wheel.

But he was stuck in first gear because he didn’t have a Polish community. He needed to fashion a surefire, people-sourcing widget for his toolbox.

This is how the ‘The Velocity Conversation Process’ came into being. In his search for ways to find Polish people, Powell was forced to develop a system to establish some highly effective rapport and user-friendly questioning skills. Immediately, he set out asking everyone he came across if they knew anyone Polish.

Buy Milk – Learn Polish: Finally, he discovered that the owner of his corner grocery store was a native Polish speaker. He started arranging daily visits to buy things. It began slowly with Polish questions like, “Where is the milk?” Gradually, he began to take on bigger subjects. He practiced being interested and curious about the store owner. He worked on asking open-ended

questions that would get the store owner talking. He focused on keeping the conversation going as long as possible so he could get the most learning out of it. Soon Powell had conversational liftoff.

With delight, he started planning his daily shopping trips. He selected topic after topic, creating ten minute, card-sized Encharts constructed from scripts he wrote for casual conversations. He planned his time carefully, making sure his visits to the store occurred when customers were the least likely to be present, so as to maximize his chatting time with the store owner.

Step-by-step, Enchart-by-Enchart, topic-by-topic, Powell slowly built a relationship with the store owner and began to move towards his goal. Out of this experience, Powell developed the essence of the conversation which we pass on to you. Over the years, we have expanded this through deep research in the field of coaching. Coaching, at the very heart of it all, is the technology of having great transformational conversations.

Talk to Everyone – Everywhere and Everywhen: Forcing yourself to constantly meet new people will give you the confidence to meet even more people, and the conversations with all those people will expand your

capacity for learning until it snowballs, generating astounding results.

What if they judge me?

Actually, this has nothing to do with language and everything to do with openness. Be open. All humans are scared of other humans. They are just as scared of you as you are of them. However, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Be a Leader. Leaders Go First. Decide to be a leader and be the first to break the ice.

Rule No. 1: People are Safe. Don’t even hesitate for a moment to think about what other people might think. It’s been proven that if a person is stopped and asked for help, in 99% of the cases they are delighted to connect and be of service. If the odd person rejects you, consider this experience as one small positive bump in the road. You probably would not benefit in interacting with that kind of person anyway. It is a positive occurrence when you are able to rule out negatives without too much effort expended. It is perfectly normal to feel a little afraid at the beginning of a new language learning adventure. You are just afraid of failure, and failure isn’t an option if you conquer fear.

Challenge Yourself to Take a Few Risks! Through finding new friendships and discovering new possibilities, you open your endorphin learning center, and lifelong learning becomes an adrenalin rush. You will soon discover that risks are rewarding.

90% of Language Learning Happens in Real Conversations.

The Intuitive Learning system needs to make learning a persistent habit; it can’t grab onto abstract thoughts. Real person-to-person communication (or a strong visualization) is required or the learning

process is simply reduced to the level of unimportant bulk memorization.

Real Communication: Saying a sentence to yourself is only an abstract thought. As such, it has limited learning power. Who are you talking to? Why are you saying this sentence? When might you say this? What is the point?

Take a minute to contrast the concept of an abstract inner thought with any type of real communication with another human being. A sentence is formulated in the mind to communicate to a specific person for a specific reason. You speak the sentence. They hear it and respond. This response might take the form of body language or eye contact. Whatever the form, there is a moment where you know that communication was received, and this closes the communication loop.

Transactions – Close the Loop: In computer science and banking, this kind of interaction is called a transaction. In computer science, transactions are a handshake communication protocol that prevents data loss. In banking, a transaction is not complete unless both parties sign off that it actually occurred. In face-to-face human communication, the idea is the same. Transactions form the critical difference between solo learning and talking with a partner.

Keep in mind that 90% of communication is nonverbal. Our communication includes both our focused awareness and our Intuitive System. In a communication between two people, both Intuitive Systems are also having a conversation. They signal understanding and recognition back and forth to each other. Most of this signaling is done with body language and tone.

Three Steps to Close a Key Loop in the Learning Process:

1. Practice and learn how to communicate an idea.

2. Speak it to another human.

3. Receive response/signal back that they have understood.

These three actions represent a shift to the moment of understanding. This pattern closes a key loop in the learning process. Once this pattern is set, our Intuitive Learning system has a context for why the thought process is important, and it has a repeating pattern to which it has become accustomed. At this point, the abstract shifts into a reality.

To ensure this pattern becomes permanently stored in your brain, you need to add people (receivers) into the sequence. If you avoid speaking to other people, the shift will occur too slowly to create an ongoing pattern or habit. This idea of transaction-based learning may seem simple and obvious, but it is often poorly represented in most formal language learning programs.

The Conversation: But how to begin? In Velocity, we have one more power tool: The Conversation. The Conversation is an awkward and contrived simulation of ‘people talking’ that lets language learners experience what it would be like to have a REAL conversation. The Conversation

uses Encharts and scripts to walk people through ‘something like’ a real conversation. Ready for the secret sauce? Somewhere in The Conversation, the magic of authentic interest kicks in and we forget that we are having a ‘pretend’ conversation. Basic human rapport takes over, and we end up in a real conversation. Expand the script a bit more, and suddenly we are getting to know someone new and finding out what they are most passionate about in life. Authentic interest is the key. At the point that our interest in the other person exceeds our interest in learning the new language, the entire learning process becomes sticky. When this happens, our Intuitive Learning process takes off and everything becomes easy. Welcome to Velocity.

The art of constructed dialogue is a time-honored approach to having a real and meaningful conversation in any language. Some of the most successful and highly regarded professional

‘conversationalists’ are talk show hosts. The art of The Conversation is to appear to be in a natural conversation, not to conduct a cross-examination. It is a skill that must be developed and practiced over time.

Enchart a Real Conversation: Generally, we use open-ended questions starting with Who and gradually moving up to How, What and, specifically, Where and When. Notice that these questions cannot be answered with a short ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response. Open-ended questions will accelerate your learning as you will be exposed to a wider range of words immediately at the beginning of a conversation. With some simple templates you can customize sets of Encharts and have a wide range of conversations.

It is very useful to Enchart your conversations with learning or real life conversational partners.

Build a set of cards with the intention of conducting very simple conversations with your partners.

You need to make the conversations as ‘real’ as possible by focusing on things that you are interested in and things that you might really want to talk about. Asking questions is the key to keeping the conversations flowing. You can start with a few closed questions such as “Can we talk?” or “May I ask you a few questions?” and gradually begin to include open-ended questions. In the beginning, it is best to mirror back the question so that both partners get a chance to practice it.

The point is to take a moment and think about your answers. Try to make them as authentic as you can within the limits of the Encharts. This single exercise is a powerful gateway for building comfort and relaxation as you actually start speaking in your new language with other speakers or other learners.

Conversational Tools: This chapter introduces the art and science of having great conversations in your new language. Paradoxically, we do this by introducing scripted conversational tools. The Conversation, because it is pre-scripted, may appear to be the opposite of a real authentic conversation. However, in practice this approach works. Once you get engaged in a real conversation, the script appears to disappear.

Pick a topic that you feel very strongly about.

Map out the conversational Encharts relating to that topic.

Seek to engage another person in the area of your passion.

Find out what they are most passionate about and find out why.

Set an intention for a meaningful communication.

Feel yourself relax and realize the script has disappeared.

If you want to learn your new language fast, be curious and interested in people. Ask great questions, and authentically want to get to know everyone you talk to. The fastest way to learn your new language is by having real conversations!

Four Key Conversational Tools: Each of these four tools forms a critical element to getting the conversation going and keeping it flowing.

Warm-up

Contract

Topic

Thanks

These are time-honored tools that have been tested in conversations thousands of times. Using the Enchart structure, they are actually very easy to master, even in a new language that you have never spoken before.

1 The Warm Up:

Get Interested in Them: Powell Janulus had a passion for people. When he spoke to someone, he was fully engaged in the conversation, and he honestly wanted to find out as much as possible about the person. He asked questions and then asked more questions. This expression of interest showed that he sincerely cared about what they had to say. This basic interest in others is the foundation for all great conversations:

The Conversation Deal:

I will be interested in you if you will help me learn my new

language

Here are some great questions to warm up the conversation. Use the 1-10 scale to practice a range of answers.

How are You? Being genuinely interested in the current state of someone is the key to building rapport. Every language has a set of warm-up phrases and current-state questions. Some examples of the range are: “How are you?” in American English to “How is the weather?” in UK English to “How is your energy?” in Japanese.

These are some of the best questions and Enchart conversation segments to learn first. These can range from very formal to very casual. Many learning processes focus on the very formal in order to maximize the chances of not offending anyone. This is always a good practice. However, to get a conversation flowing, it is best to focus on the more relaxed, casual end of the spectrum.

Answer in a 1-10 Scale: Notice that this scale provides a great range of intensity levels of 1 through 10. This very simple tool allows you to bring the authentic emotion into a conversation that creates connection.

2 The Contract: Powell’s ‘conversation contract’ was to start a brief discussion in Polish:

“Hey, Joseph. How are you today? Can we have a Polish conversation for a few moments? I want to ask you: Who do you think will win the game tonight?” These questions would, of course, be asked in Polish. His approach required a bit of charm, a relaxed tone and lots of interest – the foundation of basic rapport.

The contract or contracting refers to anything structural that has to do with the conversation itself or your communication. Respectful permission is key. Always ask permission before assuming a person wants to chat with you.

I’m curious; may I ask you a question?

May I ask you some more questions?

May I practice (my new language) with you?

May I have 10 minutes of your time to practice (my new language)

with you?

Conversation Contract Fundamentals: Keep these questions in your contract toolbox in case you need to pull them out. These are some of the best phrases to learn in your new language.

I speak a little English (add your new language).

Can you repeat that, slower?

Please say that again, slowly.

May I ask you a question?

How do you say (the word) in English?

Remember the most important contract phrase: Please speak slowly.

3 The Topic: The topic is the focus of the conversation. As such, it is important to pick topics that link to natural enthusiasm. In the beginning, focus on topics that you are passionate about. This will make your preparation and focus much easier. Later, concentrate on topics that you think will engage your conversational partner. You don’t always know what you might be talking about, so it is best to have a few generic topics that can appeal to almost everyone. Powell’s secret weapon was food. Almost everyone likes food, so this is a very easy way to strike up a conversation.

Three Magic Topic Questions: Here are three magic questions to get the conversation going. You can loop these three questions around to keep the conversation flowing.

1. What do You like? This question is the key topic entry point. It is a meta-question with thousands of variations. You can ask it in the most open way, such as: “What do you like to eat?” or

“What kind of music do you like most?” Or you can ask it in a narrow way using a closed question:

“Do you like soccer?” or “Do you like sushi?” This will result in a “yes” or “no” answer, which you can follow with the next question: “How much do you like it?” It is very easy to answer a ‘yes’ or

‘no’ question, so this is often a good way to get the conversation going in the beginning.

What do you like to _______ ? (eat)

What kind of _______ (music) do you like most?

Do you like _______ ? (soccer)

Do you like _______ ? (sushi)

2. How much do You like it? Whether you are asking or answering this next question, it plays a very important role. It will bring out a range of emotional expression about whatever the topic is. This adds in the emotional expression that does 90% of the work of communication. Also, this emotional expression is the foundation of human connection that creates rapport and leads to friendship.

Answer in a 1-10 Scale: Share your feelings about the object or action you are building into your conversational script by choosing from the intensity levels of 1 through 10 in the scale below: I Really Really Hate It: You will notice that it doesn’t always have to be something you love. You can be just as passionate about something you hate. Maybe in The Conversation, you will find out how much the other person really hates something. This is one more very useful connection because it links to passion and conviction.

3. Why do You like it? Why words and questions are the gateway to deeper connection in a conversation. However, people won’t usually give you that next level of authenticity unless you show genuine interest and willingness to go a bit deeper. You may need to ask these questions a few times in different ways to show that you really want to get to know them. For example: Question 1

Why do you like soccer?

Answer

It is a FUN game

Question 2

Why else do you like soccer?

Answer

It is EXCITING when my team WINS.

Question 3

Why else do you like it when your team wins?

Answer

When our team WINS, we CELEBRATE!

Value Words: We now need to come back to the ULTIMATE conversational tool – Value Words. Value Words are the very fastest way to build rapport and connection and create the experiences of interest and friendship in a conversation. Value Words are single keywords that link to emotions or ‘what you want’ in life. For example, if we take the soccer conversation above, we can highlight the Value Words in bold: It is a fun game. It is exciting when my team wins. When our team wins, we celebrate!

The key skill is to catch the Value Words and work them back into the conversation. In the soccer example, the third question is based on the value word from the second answer.

Listening: Catching the Value Words takes practice, especially when you are listening to a fast native speaker. This is a great place to use the power of Intoning. Intoning sets of common Value Words in your new language is a great way to build your listening skills. Build sets of common Value Words and practice Intoning them using the 3x3 method. That is, 3 times in 3 days. If you do this, the Value Words will start to POP out when you hear them. This is what the same soccer answers will look like when you listen to a fast native speaker:

Blah blah FUN blah blah EXCITING blah blah WINS blah blah blah CELEBRATE!

This may seem silly, but it is actually tremendously useful in a conversational setting. Give yourself permission not to understand everything. This is the only way forward. Have some fun and laugh at your primitive conversational skills. The point is not to have a perfect conversation, but to get some kind of a conversation flowing until your natural Intuitive Learning system can kick in. Value Words are the key to making this happen.

Powell Janulus was a master conversationalist. The truth is that he often didn’t know all the words he was hearing. However, his amazing ability for picking up key words allowed him to create the experience of having a conversation with a fluent native speaker. For the Guinness Book of World Records, he had to have a two-hour conversation with a native speaker. That native speaker had to have the experience of a fluent conversation for those two hours. This testing took place over a one-month period. Powell was trying for 64 languages, but he only passed on 42. Now you know one of

his many ‘magic’ tricks. We challenge the next generation of polyglots to use this approach to break Powell’s world record. Perhaps it will be you!

4 Thank You: Complete the conversation with WARM appreciation. When you appreciate the person for the conversation, it creates even more trust and connection. Again, this increases the relevance and stickiness of the learning for you. It also increases that chance that you can have another conversation with this person in the future.

Pick Up the Gold: Appreciation is GOLD. Remember to ‘pick up the gold’ at the end of the conversation. Don’t brush past this or try to sweep it under the rug.

Thank you for your time.

I enjoyed this conversation.

You can always explore the appreciation a little more to harvest more gold (Value Words): Q: What did you like about this conversation?

It was interesting.

It was fun.

It was exciting.

I got to know you a bit more.

It gave me an understanding of your... (insert their Value Words).