[1] Gaming

The Gamer Mindset

💡

The default mindset with which people approach language learning is “The Academic Mindset.” A better mindset to adopt is the Athlete’s mindset, or more broadly speaking the Gamer mindset. The video below explains the difference and why it’s so important.

The Nature of THE Game

💡

Now that we understand that we’re in a game, it’s time to think deeper about what exactly the game is about. The more clarity we have on the nature of the game, the more effective we will be at determining our goals and strategies within it.

Working on Your Game

💡

Just as it is with any other game, you have to actually get in the arena and play if you want to get good. But especially with games as vast and complex as the conversation game, immersion in the fullness of the arena can be overwhelming. To resolve this problem, we can isolate specific aspects of our game to work on, and then play different “Mini Games” the focus on those aspects. This reduces the complexity to a level we can manage, while maintaining the dynamism needed to actually develop our skills.

💡

After watching the three videos above, share a reflection and summary of what you’ve learned to the #completions channel for credit.

[1A, 2A] 👯‍♀️ The Imitation Game (Echo & Shadow)

💡

At the end of each lesson, we will introduce a new Mini-Game for you to incorporate into your practice. We will break down the Arena, Roles, Goals and Constraints of the Game. And we will also show how you can adjust the challenge of the game to match your skill. The first game you will learn how to play is the Imitation Game. The purpose of this game is to give you the chance to embody new words and expressions before fully understanding their meaning. This game represents the segue of Mimicry Training into Conversation Training. So if you haven’t invested enough energy into your Mimicry Fundamentals, you will not be able to play this game as well as you could.

‣

Arena & Roles

Arena Two persons face-to-face, on video call or in real life.
Role Model Says phrases with full embodiment at a level matched to the imitators skill level
Imitator Imitates every aspect of the role model’s movement and speech as accurately possible

‣

Goals & Constraints

Role Model’s Goal is to fully embody words and phrases at a challenge matched to student’s skill.
Imitator’s goal is to mimic the role model’s speech and full body expression, as accurately as possible.
Imitator should echo IMMEDIATELY after role model finishes, without accessing left-brain thinking. Immediacy is prioritized over accuracy, so it’s okay to mumble through (but try to keep melody).

‣

Skills Developed

Attentiveness/Responsiveness
Hearing/Pronunciation/Mimicry
Impressionability
Word Familiarity
Native Self-Identification

‣

Variables of Challenge

# of words/syllables/clauses
Speed, Spacing & Blending
Complexity of Vocabulary/Grammar
Frequency/Length of breaks (Shadow Version)

‣

Demos

💡

After you’ve played the Echo Game and Shadow Game at least once with a native speaker, share a reflection of the experience FOR EACH to the #completions channel for credit. If you haven’t played the games yet but you want to continue with lesson 2, you may do so as well.

🧠

[2] Knowing