The new adult learning

Readers who follow our thinking avidly, or have worked with us on change, will know that we use a body of research about what makes personal change work in order to make organisational change happen.  One of the contributors to that research, Dr. Michael Merzenich, a professor at the University of California ,  San Francisco, says that the brain's ability to change - its "plasticity" - is lifelong.  Which raises the interesting question, if we can change, then why don't we?  Dr. Merzenich has an interesting perspective on the issue because as well as being a leading neuroscientist he is also an entrepreneur.  He has started two companies which both use software to train people to overcome mental disabilities or diseases.  One of them focuses on children who have trouble learning to read, while the other, is working on ways to prevent, stop, or reverse cognitive decline in older adults .  Merzenich says the key to staying flexible, coping with and even enjoying change is keeping up the brain's machinery for learning.  And, he says, don't mistake activity for learning.  His recommendation?  Take up the oboe – or start learning Spanish.

Which may be why the Vybrant offices are awash in language courses from Michel Thomas.  And the first thing we learned was not another language, but a whole new way of learning.  Here is Michel at the beginning of his basic French course:  "All this will be achieved without memorising, without drill, without text books, without taking notes and without homework."  He starts with two ground rules.  The first is 'never worry about remembering, and therefore never to try to remember'.  Trying, which means making an effort, causes tension and tension is the enemy of learning.  This, he tells us, is a method where the responsibility for the learner remembering lies in the teaching and not with the learner, and the responsibility for attention is with the teacher, not with the learner.  He enjoins his pupils not to review what they have learned, not even mentally, just to absorb.  Ground rule number two is:  think things through - and try it out.

He then goes on to say that learning French is very easy.  That French and English have thousands of words in common.  So much so that over 60% 'de votre vocabulaire Anglais' (of your English vocabulary) comes from French.  'Pratiquement' (practically) two out of three or four words in English are 'd'origine Francais'(of a French origin), well you get the idea.  So he begins by saying that it will be easy and goes on to demonstrate the truth of what he says.  He sets up a positive expectation that you will succeed, and succeed easily.  Then he proves he was right .  He proceeds by implanting a brilliant series of audio and visual cues.  Get together with a couple of other converts and you can have a whole conversation in 'Michelese' – as well as in French! You will need to listen to Michel to find out how he does it – and you will rapidly find out just how well it works.

A little input and a lot of practice is the staple diet on all Vybrant courses but we are now working hard to see how we can incorporate some of Michel's genius for teaching into our courses and programmes.  In the meantime you can learn Spanish with Michel, or German, or a whole host of other languages through followers and exponents of his method.  If you are opting for the oboe instead do let us know how you get on!  And if you want to know more about creating effective organisational change through personal change then click here to be in touch.