Today was a beautiful sunny day here in the middle of Europe. I was in the garden, laying on a deck-chair, sunbathing. Doing “nothing” this way needs some courage and it needs some practice too :-) Try it on you own (in the middle of working day) and you will see. I had my new Google Nexus 7 with me, to test this my little toy, for the fist time, outside the house. And the result is this post.

I found this beautiful poem named “Please Hear What I'm Not Saying”. You are probably familiar with it. I have known it for years, actually this poem was the fist poem I had ever sent to a girl (RF). This poem is worth listening. I mean listening several times (you can download the mp3 of it down) I think that the meaning of this poem is deep and significant for us now more than ever before, even though it is from 1966 (the year of my birthday – just coincidence ;-) )

I was not able to memorize this poem, so I will not recite it by heart myself like the May or Rumi. I found a much better presentation on YouTube – see details here if you want.

You can find more about the poem itself  here

The transcript:

Please Hear What I'm Not Saying

Don't be fooled by me.
Don't be fooled by the face I wear
for I wear a mask, a thousand masks,
masks that I'm afraid to take off,
and none of them is me.

Pretending is an art that's second nature with me,
but don't be fooled,
for God's sake don't be fooled.
I give you the impression that I'm secure,
that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well
as without,
that confidence is my name and coolness my game,
that the water's calm and I'm in command
and that I need no one,
but don't believe me.
My surface may seem smooth but my surface is my mask,
ever-varying and ever-concealing.
Beneath lies no complacence.
Beneath lies confusion, and fear, and aloneness.
But I hide this. I don't want anybody to know it.
I panic at the thought of my weakness exposed.
That's why I frantically create a mask to hide behind,
a nonchalant sophisticated facade,
to help me pretend,
to shield me from the glance that knows.

But such a glance is precisely my salvation, my only hope,
and I know it.
That is, if it's followed by acceptance,
if it's followed by love.
It's the only thing that can liberate me from myself,
from my own self-built prison walls,
from the barriers I so painstakingly erect.
It's the only thing that will assure me
of what I can't assure myself,
that I'm really worth something.
But I don't tell you this. I don't dare to, I'm afraid to.
I'm afraid your glance will not be followed by acceptance,
will not be followed by love.
I'm afraid you'll think less of me,
that you'll laugh, and your laugh would kill me.
I'm afraid that deep-down I'm nothing
and that you will see this and reject me.

So I play my game, my desperate pretending game,
with a facade of assurance without
and a trembling child within.
So begins the glittering but empty parade of masks,
and my life becomes a front.
I idly chatter to you in the suave tones of surface talk.
I tell you everything that's really nothing,
and nothing of what's everything,
of what's crying within me.
So when I'm going through my routine
do not be fooled by what I'm saying.
Please listen carefully and try to hear what I'm not saying,
what I'd like to be able to say,
what for survival I need to say,
but what I can't say.

I don't like hiding.
I don't like playing superficial phony games.
I want to stop playing them.
I want to be genuine and spontaneous and me
but you've got to help me.
You've got to hold out your hand
even when that's the last thing I seem to want.
Only you can wipe away from my eyes
the blank stare of the breathing dead.
Only you can call me into aliveness.
Each time you're kind, and gentle, and encouraging,
each time you try to understand because you really care,
my heart begins to grow wings--
very small wings,
very feeble wings,
but wings!

With your power to touch me into feeling
you can breathe life into me.
I want you to know that.
I want you to know how important you are to me,
how you can be a creator--an honest-to-God creator--
of the person that is me
if you choose to.
You alone can break down the wall behind which I tremble,
you alone can remove my mask,
you alone can release me from my shadow-world of panic,
from my lonely prison,
if you choose to.
Please choose to.

Do not pass me by.
It will not be easy for you.
A long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls.
The nearer you approach to me
the blinder I may strike back.
It's irrational, but despite what the books say about man
often I am irrational.
I fight against the very thing I cry out for.
But I am told that love is stronger than strong walls
and in this lies my hope.
Please try to beat down those walls
with firm hands but with gentle hands
for a child is very sensitive.

Who am I, you may wonder?
I am someone you know very well.
For I am every man you meet
and I am every woman you meet.

Charles C. Finn
September 1966



P.S. The listening is crucial for language learning. It goes without saying (meaning=obvious). But important is also what you are listening (for your life). Download the MP3, lay yourself in the garden and listen. Let the sun shine on your body, let English penetrate your being. The learning happens, let it happen.

Yes, I am so confident to say “English is easy for EVERYBODY”!

You may think that this is not your case, that maybe for somebody else, maybe for native speaker or a teacher...

And I still insist: “English is easy”. For everybody? Maybe, if it is not, it could be. I will explain this idea in this short post. Then you can think of it for a while if you want.

English like other things in our life is just as it is. Actually it is a reflection of us, of our perception of it (reality), our attitude towards it. WE make it easy or difficult. In case of English we sometimes create even impossibility to learn it at all. So, solution is quite simple: change your attitude towards English and English becomes EASY for you.

It that so simple to change the attitude? To say the truth, I do not know. Maybe because it depends on the definition of word “simple”. To help you with this process I will provide you here one of possible step by step methods I invented. I call it the ”AAWEL method”.

The AAWELL method is acronym which stands for:

A – Allow
A – Accept
W – Welcome
E – Enjoy
L – Love

Maybe I could stop here with my writing. All is clear, isn't it? But to be certain, I will describe it a little bit more in detail, although shortly.

This method is not only for learning English. It is applicable to everything. In our case we will use if for English. If you want to learn English, you must first to Allow it. If you say “NO” to it right at the beginning, if you resist it fully, no learning process can happen. For example my mother would say: „I am too old to learn English already, I will not to do it“ And it is done. Finished. In many cases it is not so resolute, but we resist the learning process. Maybe partially, but it still takes from us a lot of energy which could be used for learning itself. This way it is wasted. So, first- Allow it - fully! Do not resist it, do not create artificial obstacles and excuses.

The second step, as we already know, is Accept it. What to accept? Accept your present attitude towards English. Do you think that it is difficult, there are to many new words to learn, complex grammar, all it takes too much time, effort, it is not for you, you have different activities to do, different priorities, no talent for languages? Do you have bad experiences already… ? Accept it all. Do not try to change it anyway. Just accept it as it is. In some cases even accept that you cannot accept it. It is enough. This acceptance itself makes a difference! You will see. A big difference.

Another step comes naturally from previous two. If you allow something in your life and if you accept it as it is, you do not resist it anymore actually it becomes friendly, easy part, of your life and you start to WELCOME it into your life. Spontaneously you become to create circumstances for it to be in you life more and more. Somehow you become a „magnet“ for English (in our case) to come into your life. You will start to use it more and more, you become to be „friends“ and it leads naturally to another step – to ENJOY it. Not only because you are friends with English, but also because your mastery of it has significantly improved, you start to enjoy using it, learning it, be in touch with it, you enjoy activities, English activities, from previous step… shortly to say you enjoy it now, it is a joy for you and not the contrary as it is usual. You enjoy it more and more.

The ultimate phase or step is to LOVE it. Not because you know it well, not because you have mastered it already fully … but you love it unconditionally. You can do mistakes, you can have troubles in some (most) areas of English, you can be disappointed sometimes with results of your test or understanding of English movie or inability to recall some vocabulary… it all can happen and it does not matter. You love it anyway. It is unconditional love, it is love of tolerance, comes from acceptance and all previous steps. It is not any obsession, it is not any romance. It is the mature love which can, and will, sustain - and you need to sustain with learning process.

Although these steps are consequential, they can differ from one English activity to another and can somehow fluctuate in time too. Can be intertwined. Be prepared for setbacks, inability to move, being stuck or also for sudden jumps forward... Allow them all, Accept them all, Enjoy them all and Love them all exactly as they are.

Be at ease!
English is easy :-)
It is easy for YOU, 
NOW

A short dialog:
-Hi, Jirka, I would like to say (or write) a few sentences to clarify…
-Hi, who are you? I write this blog, I am the author, don’t I? I am a bit perplex now.
-Hi, Jirka, once more, I am the one who you called the „Parasite“. Yes, I write it in quotes. The reason is that I am not any parasite. And if you allow it, I will write more about it right now, to clarify it.
-Yes, you can. Feel free to do it J

The „Parasite“ clarifies:
So, first of all, do not mistake me for the „programs“ I am „running“. Those could be called parasitic programs, or viruses, if you want. But I am (writing proudly;-) )  a biological supercomputer, and I serve you the best way I can. I always do my best for you. Yes, it is true that during your upbringing, school, social life and a life as such… there have been a lot of not very effective programs implanted into me and I run them now. They sometimes work on the background, hindering and in many cases sabotaging your effort to succeed in life (in many areas, learning languages included). It is not ME who do it, I only perform the tasks, I provide the capacity, computing power, storage... So, do not call ME the parasite, please, anymore. Get rid of those viruses instead. Do not waste your energy to fight with me.

So, maybe you would ask, how to do it. How to get rid of them to have a free space for you English learning in our case? I will not to do a lecture from this short post here and now. I suggest to you only ONE thing – BE AWARE. Be aware of those mind structures, viruses in your mind, observe them… Actually it is all (what you CAN do and you NEED to do) I, myself, cannot clean them, I am not intended to do such tasks, but YOU can, by observing them you take them out of ME and they will (eventually - it takes some time) die. Maybe you are a little skeptical. It is normal. Just try it ;-)

And just a few notes about learning English. Yes, repetition is good for me, I like it, but do not forget that my purpose it to protect you from unwanted and painful experiences. The best way for you to learn and me to be OPEN towards your learning (I store information for you. Know, that I am also gigantic „super hard drive“) is to LIKE it or even better to LOVE it. No ANXIETY, no stress, no force... Do it with ease, enjoy the activity and you will see that the results will come (sooner or later ;-) Sorry, but I do not care about time, for me time does not exist) 
-Thank you for allowing me to express myself.

-Thank you Para... MY FRIEND!

 
There is an entity inside of you about which you are not too much aware. I will call it (using the terminology of Don Miguel Ruiz) “the parasite”. Do not be afraid, do not panic – this entity is in all of us and it directs (more or less, usually more, some would say from 90%) our life.

Don Miguel Ruiz divides this parasite to three parts – judge, victim and value system (for more). For us at this moment will be enough to know that HE (I will use HE, but it could be appropriate IT or SHE too – it makes no difference) influences very strongly our ability to learn, especially to learn foreign languages. HE is very conservative and learning in its essence means a change, HE has its own value system, HIS own judgment and - on top of it - the older we are (6,7,10 years … 40 goes without saying) the stronger HE is. Maybe you have already heard the term „thinking out of the box“. HE is that BOX. HE will sabotage to some extent your effort (without HIM there would not be actually any effort) to learn any new language. Why? Because HE has the language of its own already, the mother one.

It doesn't sound very positive, does it? So, why I write about it. I am positive from my nature. Yes, to be positive, really positive, does not mean to avoid negative aspects of live. For me to be positive means to search for solutions. And I have a solution for you, maybe even bombastic;-) solution – we will turn this sabotaging parasite into our best language teacher. HE will be the best one not because of HIS education, methods... but because HE is ALWAYS PRESENT with you, HE works „instead“ of you, for you, without rest, without forcing HIM to do it, all the time, even at night, even if you do not care about your English at that moment. HE can perform several tasks at the same time easily, HE is tireless... But enough was the superlatives. How to do it?

First – we need to let HIM to learn the new language. Actually HE CAN learn several languages (but somehow HE is reluctant to do it. At least from the beginning) HE lives by HABITS. HIS current habit is (for majority of us) to use just one language. HE resists bigger changes, and the new language is quite a big change. So, what we can do? We cannot persuade HIM, force HIM... Why? Because HE DOES NOT LISTEN. Yes, HE does not listen at the moment YOU (your conscious mind) is in charge. Yes, HE is your UNCONSCIOUS (or SUBCONSIOUS) mind. HE is your so called „autopilot“. And we need to reprogram HIM. How to do it? It is rather easy, but there is here one little obstacle, something which will try to prevent you to do it – it is HE! HE will tell YOU – it is all nonsense, it is bull-shit, do not do it! Or things like that. In other words – he would like you to stay “in the box” you have always been and everything will be OK. Yes, it will be OK, OK for HIM. But there will be no English improvement, at least not very significant one. So, do not listen HIM (NOW) and PUT INTO YOUR EAR HEAD-PHONE WITH ENGLISH AND LISTEN! LISTEN HOURS AND HOURS, LISTEN SUCH WAY THAT YOU DO NOT PAY ALMOST ANY ATTENTION TO IT, LISTEN OVER AND OVER THE SAME STUFF, LISTEN KNOWN MATERIAL. And this is important – listen most of the time the KNOW material, prepared before. Sometimes you can listen unknown too, but your parasite would not be willing to „digest it“ and could be rebellious. HE likes repetition, HE listens when YOU are engaged in other activities (consciously engaged) and HE learns:-) So, at the beginning he will resist, after while he will like it, and then he will even demand it! It becomes HIS HABIT.

Second - let yourself to be taught by HIM. After some time he will speak English rather well. You will notice that you can now chose what language will be in your head – your native language or English. No big difference anymore. Maybe only smaller vocabulary, but it is just a question of time to build it. This thinking, this voice it your head, is HE. HE does not resist the new language anymore, for HIM it is not any NEW language after all, and HE is willing to help you, to learn you and to assist you. You will notice also for example such phenomenon like this – you will say a sentence and „HE listens“ and „HE says“ It is wrong, reformulate it! And he will say you how, or better to say, HE will say it. After all HE and YOU are ONE. You will have much bigger ability of self-correction, you will be able to understand and speak better and the both immediately without mixing languages. You will enjoy the language learning process. It will not be so big effort. Much of that effort was just fighting with HIM after all. Just try it and try OUR METHOD too.

Sometimes the simplest methods work best (look at our method :-) ) but we, people, usually search for complexities. The more complex the method is, the better, says our mind. Is that so? Usually not.

At the same time we take things too seriously. Natural learning is simple, joyful, playful... Otherwise we can hardly sustain to do it, to do it for a sufficient amout of time.  What is the biggest problem of all (not only for learning a foreign language) We “STOP IT” in the middle, or better to say somewhere in the process letting unfinished business behind us. This way it is just a waste of time and energy.

So, do not stop it, do not stop learning English. In the contrary - enjoy it, make it enjoyable for yourself. Enjoy this “Stop It!” funny, but I would say, quite deep video and learn another piece of mosaic into your English in the process :-) Enjoy!

TRANSCRIPT:

Dr. Switzer?

Yes, come in. I'm just washing my hands.

I'm Katherine Bigmans. Janet Carlisle referred me.

Oh, yes. You dream about being buried alive in a box.

Yes, that's me. Should I lay down?

No, we don't do that anymore. Just have a seat and let me tell you a bit about our billing. I charge five dollars

for the first five minutes and then absolutely nothing after that. How does that sound?

That sounds great. Too good to be true as a matter of fact.

Well, I can almost guarantee you that our session won't last the full five minutes. Now, we don't do any insurance

billing, so you would either have to pay in cash or by check.
Wow. Okay.

And I don't make change.

All right.

Go.

Go?

Tell me about the problem that you wish to address.

Oh, okay. Well, I have this fear of being buried alive in a box. I just start thinking about being buried alive and

I begin to panic.

Has anyone ever tried to bury you alive in a box?

No. No, but truly thinking about it does make my life horrible. I mean, I can't go through tunnels or be in an

elevator or in a house, anything boxy.

So, what you are saying is you are claustrophobic?

Yes, yes, that's it.

All right. Well, let's go, Katherine. I'm going to say two words to you right now. I want you to listen to them

very, very carefully. Then I want you to take them out of the office with you and incorporate them into your life.
Shall I write them down?

No. If it makes you comfortable. It's just two words. We find most people can remember them.

Okay.

You ready?

Yes.

Okay. Here they are. Stop it!

I'm sorry?

Stop it!

Stop it?

Yes. S-T-O-P, new word, I-T.

So, what are you saying?

You know, it's funny, I say two simple words and I cannot tell you the amount of people who say exactly the same

thing you are saying. I mean, you know, this is not Yiddish, Katherine. This is English. Stop it.

So I should just stop it?

There you go. I mean, you don't want to go through life being scared of being buried alive in a box, do you? I

mean, that sounds frightening.

It is.

Then stop it.

I can't. I mean it's --

No, no, no. We don't go there. Just stop it.

So, I should just stop being afraid of being buried alive in a box?

You got it. Good girl. Well, it's only been three minutes, so that will be three dollars.

Actually, I only have five so --

Well, I don't make change.

Then I guess I'll take the full five minutes.

Fine. All right. What other problems would you like to address?

I'm bulimic. I stick my fingers down my throat.

Stop it! Are you a nut of some kind? Don't do that.

But I'm compelled to. My mom used to call --

No, no. We don't go there.

But I --

No, we don't go there either.

But my horoscope did say --

We definitely don't go there. Just stop it. What else?

Well, I have self-destructive relationships with men.

Stop it! You want to be with a man, don't you?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, yes.

Well, then, stop it. Don't be such a big baby.

I wash my hands a lot.

That's all right.

It is?

I wash my hands all the time. There's a lot of germs out there. Don't worry about that one.

I'm afraid to drive.

Well stop it. How are you going to get around? Get in the car and drive you, you kook. Stop it.

You stop it. You stop it!

What's the problem, Katherine?

I don't like this. I don't like this therapy at all. You are just telling me to stop it.

And you don't like that?

No, I don't.

So you think we are moving too fast, is that it?

Yes. Yes, I do.

All right. Then let me give you ten words that I think will clear everything up for you. You want to get a pad and

a pencil for this one?

All right.

Are you ready?

Mm-hmm.

All right. Here are the ten words: Stop it or I'll bury you alive in a box!

May is here and it is "time of LOVE" :-) So, I would like to present you two poems - English transcript is included.

The first is a poem by Jalalludin Rumi named "Looking for your face". The one version is recited by me (by heart) - I wonder if you are able to recognize which on of them it is;-)

I marked some of the words which seem to me "difficult"

You can download the MP3 version of this beautiful poem below these videos.

LOOKING FOR YOUR FACE

From the beginning of my life
I have been looking for your face
but today I have seen it

Today I have seen
the charm, the beauty,
the unfathomable grace
of the face
that I was looking for

Today I have found you
and those who laughed
and scorned me yesterday
are sorry that they were not looking
as I did

I am bewildered by the magnificence
of your beauty
and wish to see you
with a hundred eyes

My heart has burned with passion
and has searched forever
for this wondrous beauty
that I now behold

I am ashamed
to call this love human
and afraid of God
to call it divine

Your fragrant breath
like the morning breeze
has come to the stillness of the garden
You have breathed new life into me
I have become your sunshine
and also your shadow

My soul is screaming in ecstacy
Every fiber of my being
is in love with you

Your efflugence
has lit a fire in my heart
and you have made radiant for me
the earth and sky

My arrow of love
has arrived at the target
I am in the house of mercy
and my heart
is a place of prayer



Another love poem is a poem by Czech poet Karel Hynek Mácha called "MAY". It is translated to English language by Edith Pargeter and is recited by me (this time the only one who was available)  Enjoy it! With love :-)

Note - This is only a small fragment of it.

Late evening, on the first of May--
The twilit May—the time of love.
Meltingly called the turtle-dove,
Where rich and sweet pinewoods lay.
Whispered of love the mosses frail,
The flowering tree as sweetly lied,
The rose's fragrant sigh replied
To love-songs of the nightingale.
In shadowy woods the burnished lake
Darkly complained a secret pain,
By circling shores embraced again;
And heaven's clear sun leaned down to take
A road astray in azure deeps,
Like burning tears the lover weeps.
.
.
.
Late evening, on the first of May--
The twilit May-the time of love--
Meltingly calls the turtle-dove:
“Hynek! Vilem! Ah, Jarmila!!!

They say that nobody is PERFECT and hardly anybody is PRESENT. And actually there is somebody who fulfills both these two criteria perfectly and it is our dear Mr. PRESENT PERFECT. Yes, it is true that “he” seems to be a little bit TENSE, I would even say rather SENTENCE. So let's look at „him“ closer.

I found this video, which maybe some of you have seen already, very instrumental. Plus I created a sophisticated Mind Map of this phenomenon but oops! Nothing is perfect and my software is not any exception – something went wrong, so after about 2 hours of work I have only this picture (see down). That „sophisticated“ Mind Map will be some other day (note of the author-already ready to use:-) ) . But I have an excuse ;-) for not to do it again – I have swum 2 km in pool and now I need to go to the bed (take, please, into consideration that it is half past 1 a. m.) So, as you can see, the human mind can always find some „more or less relevant“ excuse for everything and to use the present perfect at the same time, at this time (is it correct?)

So, at least this way. Enjoy this instrumental video:

And here is the promissed Mind Map (note of the author - repaired next day):

Maybe you have already noticed that some of my posts, probably majority of them, contain some kind of strange picture or even more of such pictures. These are pictures of Mind Maps which are the graphical representation of the content of that particular blog post (usually). Not at all times.

I found the Mind Maps very useful. I think that this tool, which is available on Internet in many cases for free (in my case I paid some small amount of money to be able to offer you some additional funcionality). They can be valuable tool also for our language learning. I can imagine a lot of applications – for example:

To use them for our “loved” grammar – to make it visible, obvious, not hidden behind the veil of strange foreign terminology. Yes, the grammar is valuable to learn too. Yes, later ;-)

Other application of Mind Maps for language learning could be so called „vocabulary trees“. I only hope that such term exists. If not, I invented that just now ;-) Imagine for example the tree of FOOD, one branch could be MEAT, other FRUITS, DIARY PRODUCTS … and the „leaves“ are examples of appropriate food.

Or kind of „associative trees“. Make some word or expression, use it as the central topic and try to recall from your memory the relative expressions to it, somehove associated with that term. Create new main branches and sub-branches as long as you are able to do it... By the way, I think that the training of the associative memory is in case of language learning one of the most important activities. Our BrainSpeakActivator program puts a big attention to this kind of ativities.

You can use Mind Maps to „catch the meaning“ of some article or speech instead of making classical notes, just use the schematic Mind Map with main lexical units (words), draw the connections between them, some picture :-) ... – then you can use it to try reconstruct the speech (or reading) as your active exercise (practicing the speaking or writing).

You can use the Mind Maps to prepare your own speech or writing. In this case I do not have any such preparation though (and it is my disadvantage new, the writing is not so easy)

So, these are some of the possible applications of Mind Mapping (by the way invented by Tony Buzan) which go to my mind now, probably there are much more of them... you can, if you want, suggest to me and to the other readers some in the comment of this post.

But today I would like to ANNOUNCE you a new feature of this BLOG! I noticed and maybe some of you too, that it is getting to be a little chaotic, unstructured, such kind of mix of posts. In reality is it not, is has some logic, but it is obscured by my inherent „sense of mess“ ;-) So, I decided to make it a little bit structured by creating this MIND MAP OF THE BLOG – the bigger picture of it you can see above and the smaller one, which will be there „for ever“ on the right side of the screen. This Mind Map will be up to date all the time and will show the entire structure of my blog. Its global picture. You will be able to see, what is connected together, in which order, what it contains and you could chose what you want. You will see the logic of this blog and will be able to navigate through it with ease. (At least it was my intention)

On some branches of that map (or tree if you want) you can see the symbol of the „link“, a small chain – it is this one:

If you click that, the appropriate post will be open and you can read it.  Down the open Mind Map you will see another possibilities - what you can do with that Mind Map. I will not describe it here. Play with it – it is not too complex thing :-)

You can use also your mouse to move the map here and there, you can click the “–„ and „+” to collapse and expand the branches, you can use mouse wheel to zoom it “IN“ or “OUT“… Yes, it is fun. Play with it. Enjoy it. The game is the best way to learn. Not only to learn the languages.

IS THAT SO?

I was doing my Qigong exercise today (I do it twice a day) and suddenly I realized that I was thinking, my mind was producing a stream of thoughts. I, at that moment in the role of an observer of my thoughts, realized that these were not in my native Czech language but in English. It was nothing special in my case. But …

And I would like to share this “but” with you. Originally I wanted to do something else today, not to write, but I would forget it, so only shortly.

They say that we have thousands of thoughts during the day and the majority (maybe 99%) of them are useless, repetitive thoughts.

I agree, but what if we could do this thinking in English? This way we could be able to learn the language, better to say let ourselves to be „learned“.  And I tell you, it is doable! I do it. Not all the time. Maybe it is the result of extensive listening of English (I use mp3 player) or because of doing our BrainSpeakActivator exercises every day. It learns me spontaneously express myself. I like it and I enjoy it!

I also realized, that when I speak (and it is valid not only for English but for my Czech language too) I practically „think aloud“. I just say what comes to my mind and I do it aloud, using my vocal cords, tongue, mouse... you know, what I mean. But in case of my English it was not always this way. And at that time my speaking was in trouble. I tried to translate from my mother Czech to English first and then to say it. It was not working of course. In most cases I wanted to translate something for which I had not proper vocabulary yet...

So, I have a question for you - because I do not know, if I am right. That question is:

„IS SPEAKING REALLY = THINKING ALOUD?”

If it is, and I will assume for now that it is, then hardly anybody who learns English at school really speaks English. The speaking is NOT translating, it is NOT reading a text aloud... So, what is that? THINKING ALOUD!

Maybe you will be able to persuade me that it is not. BUT at least for now I THINK so.

there was a king* and that king had a son*. That young prince was very brave, he was learning English. And that prince was me :-) Actually that prince was not so very young already, he was in his early forties and actually he was not any prince. That king was not any king too. He was an elderly, already retired man, my father.

I can remember a short story that can be interesting more for me then for you. But I will write it anyway. We were sitting in my car, the radio was playing and my father asked me: “You are listening the BBS radio?” He was a little surprised.
I replied: “No, I am learning English. It is from CD”
He was surprised even more. “But this is not an English course, it sounds like a real English”
I replied:”Of course, I am learning English, I told you, REAL English, what else?”
My father is kind of macho man, so he laughed out loud (LOL) and said: “This way you cannot learn anything! If you want to learn English, go to a language school”
It made me laugh too a bit, remembering our last dialog concerning English which took place about 30 year ago. I told: “I was there in such school, don't you remember anymore?“ He stayed silent.
I continued: „The result was not so bad, I became the best chess-player in the chess-club I attended“
Maybe he also remembered because he did not argue and said: „H'm, but you cannot understand anything, it is too quick, there is not Czech language there, just English. Maybe you can catch one word here and there. It is only a waste of time and effort what you are doing“
I expected his opinion. So, I tried to explain to him the situation: „This way I am just listening what I already understand after a short but intensive preparation at home. This is called a passive phase of my listening. At home it was an active one. As you can see, I have a headphone in my ear too. I listen all day long. But most of that time I do not pay any conscious attention to it.“
He started to be somehow nervous, not very at ease. It was obvious that this activity, I do, makes him irritated. He said that it is all nonsense and what I remember word by word was: „You should go abroad to  lean foreign language, there is no way“
I agreed with him this time, but I replayed: „I can create the English surrounding for me here without moving abroad. It goes without saying that this cannot fully substitute the longer dwelling in some English speaking country but it is the best possible thing I can do for it now and here“. I saw that he was not very convinced, he wanted to say something, something probably not very pleasant to me, but he stayed silent. After while he continued: “You will see that I am right, this way you will never be able to speak English well“
 
And maybe he was right. I really was not able to speak English to much this way. You can read about it here. But I was able to understand native speakers well, BBC, CNN, audio-books and different kinds of courses I was interested in... It was my goal at that time. And the other language activities? The reading was not so big problem. It is in reality very similar to listening - only it goes to your head the different way – and there is more time to „perform it“.  And the speaking, my father was talking about? It needed some „special care“ I was writing about it in some of my previous posts. Yes, maybe here is a good opportunity for me to mention our BrainSpeakActivator exercises you can download for free (7 day version) and our new VIP inner circle coaching program which begins these days. You can ask at the end „And what about the WRITING? You forgot to mention it somehow!“

AND WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM DOING NOW!? :-)

-----
* The characters in this post are non fictitious and any resemblance to persons living or dead is not coincidental at all.