Idahosa Ness

Idahosa

Now Hiring: Head of Student Success

March 7, 2019 By Idahosa Leave a Comment

What We Do

At The Mimic method, we create products for people to learn languages online. But our approach is different from that of any other language learning company.

We don’t teach literacy, grammar theory, or translation like everyone else. Instead, we focus on ear-training, accent-perfection, subconscious learning, and spontaneous performance.

In essence, we teach people how to have Flowing Conversations in a foreign language.

In a Flowing Conversation, the world disappears and you become fully engaged with the person in front of you. Self-expression and mutual understanding come effortlessly, and time flies by without anyone even realizing it.

By the end of a flowing conversation, both parties walk away with a sense of knowing more about the other person, and feeling more connected to them.

Without a doubt, you’ve experienced Flowing conversations with people who share your cultural-linguistic background.

Our mission is to help MORE people have MORE Flowing conversations with people from other cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

We’re passionate about this mission, because we believe Flowing Conversations represent the bottom line of human interconnectedness.

We believe the world would be a better place if more people had more Flowing Conversations, ESPECIALLY across the cultural-linguistic boundaries that have historically divided us. We’re convinced that more Flowing Conversations directly correlates with LESS fear, hatred and suffering and MORE curiosity, love and flourishing.

If you agree with our philosophy, and you want to join us in our mission, then we may have the perfect opportunity for you as…

How to Hear Fast, Blurry Speech

July 11, 2018 By Idahosa Leave a Comment

Last week, I held a webinar to help understand what students like you need to clean out your ears and speed up your brain so you can hear every word in a foreign language with precision.

Because of your input, I now have greater clarity on how to design my new listening comprehension course. A big thanks to everyone who participated.

Listening Comprehension Webinar – (Download For Offline)

In the webinar, we covered a wide range of topics, so really take your time if you want to get the most out of it.

During the first half, I lecture on various topics such as:

Listening Comprehension: The Most Common Solutions
How I Taught Myself to Understand Fast & Blurry Speech
Why Hearing is the Foundation of Language-Learning
The Double-Edged Sword of Transcription Practice

During the second half, we held an open discussion which touched on topics such as:

The Psychology of Having a Good or Bad Accent
Word Search vs. Melodic Syllables
How to Perceive Word Boundaries
Conversation Exchange: A Highly Underrated Tool
The Memory Triad: Sounds, Context & Emotion

Finally, here is a list of student recommendations we covered to help train your ears for listening comprehension and syllabic perception:

Thanks again for your interest and participation. Over the next few months I’ll be synthesizing these ideas together to create a more fully formed course, so stay tuned.

What are some good listening comprehension resources that have helped you in the past? Let us know in the comments below.

Learning by Eye vs. Learning by Ear: Which is better?

March 6, 2018 By Idahosa Leave a Comment

In almost every language-learning program out there, you start by learning to read and write.

Then, you learn new vocabulary by focusing on visual symbols like letters or characters.

This is the traditional “learn-by-eye approach.”

But our program doesn’t start with reading and writing. Instead, we start with hearing and pronunciation.

How to Pronounce G in Spanish

December 4, 2017 By Idahosa 2 Comments

The letter G in Spanish can be tricky, because there are four ways to pronounce it.

In this article, I will answer the following questions:

What are the four ways to pronounce the G in Spanish?
How do you pronounce each Spanish G sound?
When do you use each pronunciation?

Should I Learn Two Languages At The Same Time?

November 6, 2017 By Idahosa 1 Comment

“Should I learn two languages at once?”

It’s a question I get asked all the time. And I understand where it’s coming from.

You see me online, speaking 6 languages. You see other polyglots around the world who have command of seven, eight, nine languages – and you think, hey! I want some of that action. I want to speak all of these languages.

And I want to do it all at once.

So then you think to yourself – how hard can it be? If this guy speaks six languages, why can’t I learn two at the same time?

Well. I get it. I really do.

But learning two languages at the same time usually isn’t a good idea. Unless you just want to practice hearing and pronunciation in multiple languages.

Let me explain.

Italian Pronunciation: The Ultimate Guide

September 12, 2017 By Idahosa 28 Comments

Most Italian pronunciation guides are really only about pronunciation rules for the language. They tend to fall short of teaching you how to actually hear and pronounce said sounds.

Here at The Mimic Method, our mission is to help bridge the cross-cultural gap between people and inspire real human connection. If you’re the kind of person who wants to make real long-term relationships in another language, this is the place for you. We do this by teach unique pronunciation method through mimicry.

By the end of this Italian pronunciation guide, you should be familiar with most of the sounds associated with the Italian alphabet in their phonetic form. You may even discover a few tricks to overcome things like ‘trilling your R’s’.

In general, Italian pronunciation is quite regular. You can tell how to pronounce a word from the way it’s written once you know what sound each letter (or group of letters) represents.

Luckily, the sounds almost always match the spelling. Many speak the consonant sounds in a similar way to English. For instance, the main differences are with the dz, ʎ, ɲ, r, ts sounds.

Vowels are pronounced the more-or-less same wherever they occur – unlike English, in which each vowel can be spoken in several distinct ways (i.e., through vs. tough vs. though). Read on to learn more.