Instant Noodle teaching & coaching!

I' ll be blunt: I hate how-tos espousing quick fixes!

I'm not a how-to teacher or coach! I' ve never been about how-tos. I like to take a holistic approach to things and connect with the person who is in front of me because I am all about the messy, non-linear process of things!

I get that we live in an immediate how-to culture! Many people want quick, fast results! And I´d be a hypocrite if I didn't say that I sometimes fall prey to the instant-noodle mindset (no offense to instant noodles they were hunger savers in college).

A week ago, one of my most highly motivated and bright students started the class with a question:

¨ I often see on Instagram some teachers or courses promote a method that allows you to learn how to speak fluently a language in a few months. It´s a method they say they have used with some famous actors and football players. Does such a method exist?"

My answer: "I wish! If only! I'd be rich by now!"

As my student is a fellow gym enthusiast, I asked:

"Can you build muscle quickly after your newbie phase?"

Student: "No. Muscle growth is slow, hard work!

Me: "Ok, so learning a language is the same. Sometimes you learn things quickly and other times it seems as if you aren´t making any progress. There are days where you are fluent and understand everything and other days where you can't piece together a sentence. "

Student: "So, it's a lie?"

Me: What do you think?

Student: "I thought it sounded too easy, but I get so many of these ads where people talk about learning very quickly that I had to ask you if you knew that method."

I have no doubt that specific crash courses can help someone dip their toes on a topic or be beneficial to work on some specialized area. If an actor needs a crash course in a language they will be performing or acting in, they can for sure learn how to effectively piece together some functional language for their task. A whole nother question is speaking fluently (yes, the exception are the savants).

Speaking a foreign language well requires a lot of effort! The unsexy truth is that learning like muscle growth requires us to rewire, make or strengthen the synapses on our brain and that takes time.

Many adults juggle with work, family, and life pressures while also trying to have communication training and language courses to further their skills and professional development. I haven't even mentioned the immense foreign language anxiety some feel, the critical voice of measuring your progress with all that you don´t know yet alone fearing miscommunication or not understanding something in a crucial meeting. People come with real concerns and aspirations to improve their speaking skills. Thus, many desire to have effective, quick and fast courses. And I don´t blame them.

We can do things better! Yes, I can help my students apply and use the specific skills and abilities they have honed to their language learning. Yet, most of my work over the past two years has been focused on coaching them to get past false (limiting) beliefs and myths about language learning. I spend most of my time now helping students see that they have a unique set of skills and abilities that are transferable to their English learning.

Now, as a teacher-coach, my goal is to get to what really motivates people and help them see that developing better learning habits, strategies, and improving their mindset will get them better results, although not fast. It is about showing my students that learning can be rewarding and fun!

Perhaps how-tos can help, but again, people might get disappointed when they don´t see the promised results, especially in instant-noodle time. Even maintaining your current English level takes work and that is also progress when at times it might not seem so.

I always end my classes with some of these questions to remind students that learning builds up over time (Feel Free to use them):

What have you learnt today?

What two or three words do you want to add to your vocabulary use?

What was useful? Don't say everything! Pick one thing!

What can you do in English today that you couldn't do at the beginning of class/course / x time?

What task was challenging or what point do we need to review in future classes?

What can you do to work on your English this week/month? (Be realistic!)

It's all about quality and small, steady progress. Learn slower, but better!

Happy Teaching!