The past two weeks I’ve been teaching 3 women new to Africa some language learning techniques, the same ones I’ve used. They’re practicing using these methods on French before they move out to a village to learn the language they’ll be working in.
Today I was bonding with them after class. We were watching an episode of Friends where Phoebe teaches Joey how to play the guitar-by practicing in the air. He questioned this method, and she said something like "No touching a guitar!"
At this point, one of my students turned and looked at me.
Great. I’m teaching language acquisition like Phoebe taught guitar.
Ok, there are certain parallels. It’s a strange technique to them, they’re not using textbooks, a teacher, or any traditional methods, and I’ve asked them to delay doing a lot of talking in their sessions for the first few weeks. But, um, I speak a few languages slightly better than Phoebe plays the guitar? The methods are based on solid research with proven results? My hair isn’t blonde? Help me here…