M E M B E R S O N LY

2015

N OV E M B E R

11
THE TWO DIRTY
LITTLE SECRETS TO
MASTERING LANGUAGE
 Welcome back to the Inner Circle,
listeners.

Last time, you learned why fun,

non-intensive learning routines are
crucial to your long-term success.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Especially to avoid burning out and

The two things that I

quitting.

This time, I’m going into my two

attack immediately
dirty little secrets for learning a
language. In other words, the two
things that I attack immediately

when I start learning...

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
when I start learning. And this is a
result of having learned 3 other
languages in the past. And one of
these, you can definitely apply to
any goal you have.

In this Inner Circle Lesson, you

will learn...
Why a calendar is the first
thing you need

Why knowing your OWN

R
MBE
E
DEC
grammar is a MUST, and

How to apply these methods

As promised, I hit my goal
of 40 minutes of Spanish
conversation for this month.
TIMED AND TESTED. YOU CAN DEFINITELY SAY THAT
I’VE HAD A GOOD YEAR WITH SPANISH.

I’ve learned Japanese. I reached my However, learning a new language is

30-minute Italian conversation goal
in 2014. There was my Chinese goal
in 2013. But, before this comes as off
as me saying I have a “knack” for
languages...
easy when you’ve learned another
one before.
And based on my experience, there
are 2 things that I attack immediately.

...trust me, I don’t. Please refer back I call them the two dirty little
to my failed goals earlier this year. secrets.
And the ones last year. And my Italian
attempt in high school. Let’s get into them.
 1
WHY A CALENDAR IS THE
FIRST THING YOU NEED.

What’s the first thing that you tend to get when you start Somebody asking you go to a concert with them 2
learning a language? months from now? “Sorry, I’ll be away.” Now, let’s apply
that to language learning. Let’s say you planned your
A textbook? A subscription? Both very sensible options. next week:

In my case, the first thing I get is a calendar. And to

illustrate just why I do this, imagine that you’re planning
on going on a trip in 2 months. You’ve bought your
tickets. You’re excited. And...you’ll probably mark it down
on a calendar now, right?
DECEMBER
Mon Tue Wed Thur

It’s something you can look forward to. 7pm: Home

2 audio
7pm: Home
Review lessons
lessons + 1 more

You mentally set time aside and you know that in 2

Fri Sat Sun
months you’ll be abroad. Any tasks, requests and work 7pm: Home
Tutor session
that coincides with your trip will take a back seat.
Once you plan it out, you know what you need to
do on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7PM.
Anything else that comes up will have to wait.
Somebody asks you to write an email on Monday at
7PM? “Sorry, will have to wait until 8PM.” So, when
you plan out your upcoming schedule, as I do every
Sunday, and you stick it to it...you guarantee your
success.
And practically every goal is a measurement of time.
For argument’s sake, let’s say 100 hours. If you take
those 100 hours, and map it out in a year, using a
calendar...
...you can see a roadmap to your goal.
Another reason why a calendar is so powerful is
that you get to see your own progress. If you plan
it all out and write it in, when you look back, you
can see a ton of small accomplishments over a long
period of time.
They all add up.
In my case, I can look back and see, week by week and
month by month. I had 0 minutes of Spanish
conversation for January. Failed again in February. 3
minutes by March. 10 minutes by May. Then, 30 minutes
in September and 40 minutes as of November.
The other amazing thing you can see on a calendar is
tipping points, as we spoke about in a previous Inner
Circle. Tipping points are points where you tip over and
begin to devote more and more of your time to
language learning.
When I started earlier this year, I had 1 or 2 study
sessions a week. By May, my study frequency went up.
I’d have 4 to 5 sessions in a week. More and more of my
time started going towards Spanish because the more I
progressed, the more I wanted more progress.
So, to recap, by using a calendar... ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

By using a calendar...
If you plan out your study sessions for
the week, you’ll know what to do and
when to do it.

you can see a clear

You’ll mentally make time for it and
decline unrelated requests, work
and events.

roadmap to your goal.

You can see a clear roadmap to
your goal.
You get to see your progress grow
when you look back.
You can spot tipping points in your ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
learning routines.

And the reason I call this a dirty little

secret is because it takes time to reach
your goals! That’s not the safe and easy
answer that most people want to hear or
acknowledge. However, with the
calendar, you’re going to see that time
laid out in front of you.

Now, the second dirty secret is definitely

a tricky one.
 2
WHY KNOWING YOUR OWN GRAMMAR WILL DOUBLE
YOUR PROGRESS IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE.

So, if you’re a native English speaker, knowing your own
grammar – English grammar – is absolutely critical. And
this is tricky because most native speakers aren’t familiar
with their own grammar. If you asked someone what an
infinitive or a conjunction was, they probably wouldn’t
know. But you’re probably wondering why knowing
your own grammar is critical.
Well, when you don’t know the grammar rules of your
own language, and you start studying another language,
learning the foreign grammar will be extra challenging.
That’s because you’re learning it for the first time. On
top of that, foreign languages often come with their
own set of new rules.
But by knowing your grammar first...
You can quickly find out what rules exist – both in
your language and a foreign one.
You know which rules to learn. These will serve as
guiding points.
You find out which rules are unique to the foreign
language.
Most importantly, you discover patterns that will
increase your range of expression.
For example, if you know what a conditional sentence is
in English, meaning a sentence starting with “if,” you can
learn it quickly in the foreign language because you
already know the rule. In other words, you learn how to
say “if” sentences, rather than learning the language word
by word, phrase by phrase.
Similarly, if you know how verbs are conjugated in
English, you now know to focus on conjugations in your
target language. You know what to learn when it comes
to verbs. Then, knowing conjugations such as “I’m
eating, I ate, I will eat, I was eating” will allow you to
express more rather than just learning the word “to eat.”
And I speak from personal experience. The reason I
failed Italian in high school was because I was skimming
over the grammar. I was doing so because it was
intimidating. And that’s because I also didn’t have a
grasp of English grammar.
So, when I gave Japanese a serious try, I was learning all
these grammar rules. And I realized some of them exist
in English. What did I do?
I took a week to re-learn the basics of English
grammar.
Once I reviewed the must-know rules, many things
made sense in English. When you know the basics, you
begin to see patterns in the English language.
For example, most verbs follow the same conjugation
patterns. Once you spot the patterns, you can easily
learn them.
Then, when I revisited Japanese, I would look for what
patterns I had to use to create certain grammar points. I
noticed certain adjectives followed one pattern and
others followed a different pattern. This, of course, is
not similar to English, but knowing that I had to look for
and study adjectives in the first place, I was able to
discover and master these points.
Without the roadmap of what to learn that was given to
me by English grammar, I would not have learned
Japanese as fast as I did. I would’ve been learning word
by word. And then, later, realized that there were even
more rules attached to these words.
What’s the point of all this? When you •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Why is this a dirty little

understand the way your own language
works and the patterns that repeat
themselves, you can more easily see how

secret? Simply put,

it translates to another language. And then
you can look for those same patterns. As a
result, your progress skyrockets.

And why is this a dirty little secret?

Simply put, people are intimidated by
people are intimidated
by grammar.
grammar. They’d rather listen to audio
lessons or watch videos, memorize words
and do everything else except master the
rules that will allow them to express
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
themselves in many different ways. And
the reason I call it a dirty little secret is that
it takes time. You have to put in the work.

So, how can you apply these dirty tricks?

 3
HOW I’VE APPLIED THESE METHODS
AND HOW YOU CAN TOO.
In regards to the calendar, do I as do. Every Sunday, I
plan out my upcoming week, from Monday to Sunday.
Here’s an example of a previous Monday:
MONDAY
What: Study the next 2 SpanishPod101 lessons.
Intermediate Level Series. Read PDF Lesson Notes.
When: 9PM.
Where: At home, living room.
Duration: 45 minutes.
I know what I’ll study, where, when and for how long.
And I do this for 5 days out of the week, similar to the
example above. However, depending on the day, the
routines will be different. Some days will have a
30-minute session for my morning commute with the
Innovative Language 101 App. Fridays will include my
lessons with my Skype tutor. Saturdays will involve my
in-person tutor.
It’s up to you to create your own schedule for the week.
Remember, just as your goal should be small,
measurable, realistic (easily doable) and have a deadline,
so should your planned sessions. Don’t aim for 3 hours
of study if you can’t honestly do the work.
And the grammar?
Most learners make the mistake of avoiding grammar.
Not only in the language they are studying but also in
their own language. And I understand that. It’s
intimidating. Grammar is (or was, at least when I was a
student) not taught in a very friendly way. However,
you’re going to need it.
First and foremost, if you don’t have a good grasp of
English grammar, you’re going to have to read a book or
look up a website on grammar and do some hard, heavy
lifting. It’s only once you’ve done that, that you know
what to look for and what to learn with a new language.
When I start a language, I attack the patterns and
grammar rules head-on. How can you do this? A few
ways.
1) With our PDF Lesson Notes. With every audio and
video lesson, we include PDF Lesson Notes that cover
all aspects of the language taught – including the
grammar. Make a point to read the Grammar Section
for every lesson you take on: It breaks down the
grammar rules presented in that lesson. And the best
part is that you’re not learning grammar rules alone;
you’re learning them in the context of a conversation
from the lesson.
2) With our brand new Advanced Lesson Search. If
you’re on the site, you’ll see the search bar in the upper
right corner. This will help you find any grammar point,
grammar rule and any WORD that our teachers have
said in our lessons...instantly.
Search for a grammar rule and find the lessons where
our teachers explain it: The best part about this is that
you can find multiple lessons on certain grammar
points. So you get a ton of practice and extra context to
fully understand how they work in conversations.
3) If you’re a Premium PLUS member, contact your
teacher. Ask them for extra practice on a certain
grammar point or for extra clarifications. Remember,
the more you ask for, the more practice you’ll get, and
the better your language will be. Premium PLUS is
designed to give our listeners 1-on-1 access to their
own teacher.
4) Or simply leave a comment in the lesson’s
comment section. Our teachers will respond to you
and do their best to explain the grammar.
Now, back to you.
What’s your monthly goal for December?
There’s only one more month left in the
year! Make it small, measurable and
realistic and give it a deadline. Set it and
stick with it. If you’ve been succeeding,
congratulations. If you’ve been missing
goals – set an easier one that you know
you can hit. Remember, my goal back in
February was to hit 1 minute of Spanish
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Do you plan out your

conversation. That was a very small goal.
And I failed that too.

lessons with a calendar?

Now, I’ve hit my 40-minute goal for
November. December’s goal is to hit 45
minutes of Spanish conversation. My
deadline will be December 31st, 2015.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Finally, let me know – do you plan out
your lessons with a calendar? And how do WHAT DID YOU GET STUCK ON? EMAIL ME AT:
you approach learning grammar? INNER.CIRCLE@INNOVATIVELANGUAGE.COM

Shoot me an email at
inner.circle@innovativelanguage.com

To your fluency,
SAT
Peter Galante
Founder, InnovativeLanguage.com WED

MON