BALTIMORE, USA – Here’s a question for you.
Imagine you want to become the best pianist in the world.
Your first step is to find a teacher.
Who* do you choose?
Choice A: The Jedi Master of piano.
This pianist is a truly a wizard. He’s won awards. His records outsell Brittany Spears pre-internet. His melodies make dictators weep. And he regularly must decline marriage proposals from empresses.
Lessons with him are intense; when he’s not yelling at you he’s beating you with a bamboo rod.
Choice B: A little old lady
Lessons are at her apartment, which smells like cookies. She’s always glad to see you. She puts a gold star at the top of your sheet music when you tell her you practiced for ten minutes. Even her cat likes you.
So who do you choose?
If you chose the little, old lady, give yourself a gold star!
According to a 1980 University of Chicago research study of 120 top pianists, tennis players, sculptors and swimmers, master performers don’t start with master teachers.
Their first teacher was merely average in skill and teaching ability.
But at the same time, this teacher was critical to their eventual success. Without this teacher, we may never have heard their names.
So what did this average teacher teach them that was so important to their success?
EMOTION
The first teacher taught the future master to love tennis or swimming or the piano.
And this love was fuel which gave them the energy and focus to later become the best.
When the weather was bad or when they were tired, it didn’t matter; the love for their sport or music or art was even greater.
Can you say the same for English?
Did your first teacher create a love for the language?
Probably not.
In fact, from the stories my students tell me, it was the exact opposite.
In English class you were bored or stressed or embarrassed or afraid…
And now, like Pavlov’s dogs who drooled when they heard the bell, you feel negative emotions when you speak English.
Maybe in the future teachers will stop using English to torture children.
But until then, let’s talk about what you can do to re-program your Pavlovian connections.
Because, it’s not too late. It is possible to start over.
Instead of feeling boredom/stress/fear when you do English, you can you feel relaxed, happy and excited.
It takes time and practice, but the technique itself is actually quite simple.
If you have a teacher, you can start reprogramming yourself during your lessons.
If you don’t have a teacher, you can do it by yourself.
I teach you how in my new guide, Private Lesson Secrets.
Plus, you get six other valuable lessons I learned from teaching over 2,000 private lessons.
Are you a Vig U member?
It’s waiting for you to download here:
Not a Vig U member?
Here’s the link to get the guide:
https://master-english.mrvig.com/private-lesson-secrets
And because it’s a new guide, this week you can get it for 50% off the regular price.
Here’s to enjoying English,
*Yes, I know “whom” is gramatically correct. But it’s a triceratops and the asteroid is in the sky and getting bigger. “Whom” is already on the way out and very soon it’ll be like “thy” and “thine” – extinct parts of the language. |