Speak a Foreign Language Like a Native
Whenever I meet someone for the first time and we get to the part where we exchange names, I always follow the same script:
Me: Hi, my name is
EE…DOW…SAH… …ee-DOW-ssah Person: “ee-DOW-ssah?”
Me: Exactly
Person: Interesting name. How do you spell that?”
Me: Don’t worry about it; it will only confuse you.
In The Mimic Method, you study foreign language just as you would study a musical instrument.
For most musical instruments, you create sound through motor movements of the hand and fingers. For language, you are creating sound through precise motor movements of the articulators in your speech organ.
People tend to mystify language because all the motor movement is hidden inside of your mouth. So the only people who have any idea what’s going on in our mouths when we speak are the few people like myself who study linguistics and phonetics.
Language learners very rarely study phonetics.
The important thing to remember when learning Pandeiro or any other new coordinated physical movement is patience.
It will ALWAYS feel awkward at the start of the learning curve. This discourages many people right away from learning any new instruments or languages.
They see how effortlessly other people can do it, they feel how awkward it is for them to do it, and they think, “I must not have it in me.” This is just a wrong assumption to make..