The Montreal Skyline
Welcome to "The Flow Blog" I started this blog a few months back but put it aside to focus on developing my Flow Series Courses. I figured no one would want to hear what I had to say about language and learning until I had proven that my ideas were worthwhile. I mean who would ever believe some crazy guy who talks about the virtues of rapping in foreign languages?
Well as it turns out, quite a few people have found the idea compelling, and a growing number of people are trying out Rhythmic Phonetic Training to learn to sing and rap in Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese (French coming soon!).
But now that people are starting to really feel the Flow of their target languages, I've been getting a lot of emails from students similar to this:
Well as it turns out, quite a few people have found the idea compelling, and a growing number of people are trying out Rhythmic Phonetic Training to learn to sing and rap in Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese (French coming soon!).
But now that people are starting to really feel the Flow of their target languages, I've been getting a lot of emails from students similar to this:
"Hey Idahosa, so I can sing and rap a couple songs now which is great!
But what now? How do I actually learn the language?"
But what now? How do I actually learn the language?"
For my business, I am trying to carve out my own niche in musical accent training, as accent is the most underdeveloped (yet the most crucial) aspect of any language learning program. So to keep people's attention on what I believe has been ignored for too long, I have remained staunchly silent on the rest of the language-learning process.
But now that I have a decent-sized following of students putting faith in my methods, I feel a duty to complete the entire story. So I have reinvigorated this blog to explain my language approach in detail, using my current mission to learn French in Montreal, Quebec, Canada as a case study.
But now that I have a decent-sized following of students putting faith in my methods, I feel a duty to complete the entire story. So I have reinvigorated this blog to explain my language approach in detail, using my current mission to learn French in Montreal, Quebec, Canada as a case study.
Why It's Called "The Mimic Method"
For those of you unfamiliar with my language philosophy, it is based on one simple principle:
Language is acquired through mimicry.
Notice how the name of my business is not "Rap Linguistica" or "The Sing-Songy Method" but rather The Mimic Method. This is sequence of events:
So you don't learn language through rapping - you learn it through mimicking. Singing and Rapping is just an extremely powerful way to hone your skills in Mimicry.
Of course, this is still very open-ended. Even if you develop impeccable mimicry skills in your target language, the process of actually using that language to understand others and express your own views will still be challenging.
But if you really put in the effort to train your Flow, you will be extremely surprised at how quickly and naturally the rest of the process can occur given certain conditions.
- Language is acquired through mimicry.
- Mimicking a foreign language requires experience perceiving and producing the sound patterns of that language, or "Flow".
- The best way to train Flow is to sing and rap songs in that language with a perfect accent.
So you don't learn language through rapping - you learn it through mimicking. Singing and Rapping is just an extremely powerful way to hone your skills in Mimicry.
Of course, this is still very open-ended. Even if you develop impeccable mimicry skills in your target language, the process of actually using that language to understand others and express your own views will still be challenging.
But if you really put in the effort to train your Flow, you will be extremely surprised at how quickly and naturally the rest of the process can occur given certain conditions.
French Mimicry in Montreal
My current language mission is to learn an "adaptive" french in Montreal, Quebec (Canada). What I mean by "adaptive" is a french whose accent and word/expression selection varies in accordance with the situation.
To explain further, Montreal has a huge immigrant population. As such, there is a great opportunity for one to expose himself to a variety of French accents by mingling with people of North African, West African, European, Caribbean, and even Asian origins. In addition, Quebec is known for having a French dialect very different from those of the rest of the world. In fact, the Quebec dialect is so different that fluent French speakers from other parts of the world often find it unintelligible when they first arrive.
So which accent will I learn? Once again, my goal is to be adaptive.
Whenever people ask me "Idahosa, what's the best accent to learn for [insert language]?" I always respond the same:
To explain further, Montreal has a huge immigrant population. As such, there is a great opportunity for one to expose himself to a variety of French accents by mingling with people of North African, West African, European, Caribbean, and even Asian origins. In addition, Quebec is known for having a French dialect very different from those of the rest of the world. In fact, the Quebec dialect is so different that fluent French speakers from other parts of the world often find it unintelligible when they first arrive.
So which accent will I learn? Once again, my goal is to be adaptive.
Whenever people ask me "Idahosa, what's the best accent to learn for [insert language]?" I always respond the same:
"The 'best' accent to mimic is that of the person
you happen to be listening to at that moment."
you happen to be listening to at that moment."
As you will hear about in future blog posts, I am passionately critical against anyone who labels any accent/dialect/version of a language as "incorrect", "Bad" or "Poor." The phonetic and grammatical rules of ANY language will always be arbitrary. To claim one's own arbitrary set of sound conventions to be innately superior to that of another requires a detestable degree of chauvinism.
Behind the principle of "Always Mimic" lies the basic truth that oral language in its most basic sense is people communicating with one another through a common set of sound-meaning conventions.
My goal is never to speak a "More Perfect French" or a "More Perfect Mandarin". My goal is always to become a "More Perfect Communicator."
I chose Montreal as the city to learn French (over the more common choice of Paris) because I determined it would offer more opportunities for me to achieve this goal.
Behind the principle of "Always Mimic" lies the basic truth that oral language in its most basic sense is people communicating with one another through a common set of sound-meaning conventions.
My goal is never to speak a "More Perfect French" or a "More Perfect Mandarin". My goal is always to become a "More Perfect Communicator."
I chose Montreal as the city to learn French (over the more common choice of Paris) because I determined it would offer more opportunities for me to achieve this goal.
The Secret Musical Flow Agenda
As you will also learn, my language philosophy blends elegantly together with my music philosophy, and both of these philosophies ultimately unify into my overarching "Flow Philosophy".
There's a lot more to "Flow" than I typically lead on to, and I plan on revealing its true beauty over the next few months as I delve deeper into the multi-lingual music scene in Montreal.
I will discuss this in more detail in later posts, but Montreal is a hotbed of multi-lingualism. With two official languages (English and French), the majority of residents are at least bilingual. Then you have the immigrants and children of immigrants, who are typically tri-lingual.
And to put the cherry on top for a Poly-Flow individual like myself, people mix all these languages together like no other. I've already had and heard several conversations that involved as many as 4 languages fluidly intertwined!
So in this blog, you expect to hear about:
Throughout all of this craziness, I hope you will glean some insight into the true nature of Flow and the duality of music and language.
There's a lot more to "Flow" than I typically lead on to, and I plan on revealing its true beauty over the next few months as I delve deeper into the multi-lingual music scene in Montreal.
I will discuss this in more detail in later posts, but Montreal is a hotbed of multi-lingualism. With two official languages (English and French), the majority of residents are at least bilingual. Then you have the immigrants and children of immigrants, who are typically tri-lingual.
And to put the cherry on top for a Poly-Flow individual like myself, people mix all these languages together like no other. I've already had and heard several conversations that involved as many as 4 languages fluidly intertwined!
So in this blog, you expect to hear about:
- My adventures exploring the musical and linguistic landscape of Montreal.
- My attempts to freestyle rap battle people simultaneously in five different languages.
- My attempts to do all of this while learning new musical instruments.
Throughout all of this craziness, I hope you will glean some insight into the true nature of Flow and the duality of music and language.
Final Notes
If the idea of this blog intrigues you, bookmark it or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also like and subscribe to The Mimic Method Facebook Page or my personal Twitter feed to stay up to date with my date-to-day adventures and musical discoveries.
If you are interested in developing your Flow for Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin or French, check out the courses I offer in The Flow Series. I also recommend signing up for the Free weekly Flow Mini-Lesson. It's a great way to discover new artists in your target language while casually developing your language flow music-memory vocab.
Finally, PLEASE COMMENT ON EVERYTHING! Your feedback only makes me and my program better, so please share anything you wish. I am of course open to healthy criticism and debate as well, but please keep it respectful.
À la prochaine!
If you are interested in developing your Flow for Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin or French, check out the courses I offer in The Flow Series. I also recommend signing up for the Free weekly Flow Mini-Lesson. It's a great way to discover new artists in your target language while casually developing your language flow music-memory vocab.
Finally, PLEASE COMMENT ON EVERYTHING! Your feedback only makes me and my program better, so please share anything you wish. I am of course open to healthy criticism and debate as well, but please keep it respectful.
À la prochaine!
