This is a place where I have collected materials about my system for learning languages called the GoldList method. I have started work on a book, which should be a useful addition to this, and in the near future, following on from my appearance speaking about this on “Dzien Dobry TVN” on 1st November 2009, I shall do a Polish film about the Gold List method, to help the large number of people who contacted me about it following the show.
My plan to use the Gold List Method to help me learn Portuguese
Człowiek, który mówi w 20 językach – Dzień Dobry TVN
Enjoy.
And by the bye, many thanks to TVN’s producers for withdrawing their complaint to TVN about my cap and upload of this, and clearing everything up.
On the Google Beta group Huliganov and Friends, one contributor, lepenseur, asked:
When you are doing the distillation process, what number do you use? Example if you are distilling the first list do you use 1 – 25 or the next number? How do you know (if that’s important) to what list that list belong to?
My answer:
Generally you treat each of the four “corners” of the exercise book as separate lists run with their own sequential numbering through all the pages of the book. The head list is top left, so the first page has 1-25, the second has 26-50 and so on very predictably. The 20th page will have 475-500. This is for ease of counting the input into the system, as well as being a convenient and appropriate portion for memory work before you should take a 10 minute break.
The top right hand of each page is the first distillation. It is sequentially numbered through the book, but the numbers will be about but not exactly 30% smaller than the numbers on the Head list. Page 1 may be 1-18 only. That would make page 2 start at 19, and if that adds another 16 then the second page will be 19-35, and the third 36-say 52 or 53 – it’s roughly going to be predictable but it can vary a bit. Similarly the bottom right hand will be 1-12 or 13, second page 13 or 14 through to 23, 24 or 25… and you get the idea.
A hard word which isn’t filtered out may for example be number 990 in the headlist, number 672 in the first distillation, number 503 in the second and number 378 in the third, but it will always be on page 40 of that first exercise book you use, which I call “the Bronze Book”. When you transfer to the second level book, the “silver book” in order to do distillations 4 through 7, the number this hard-to-remember word may have could be say 246. And this time it will no longer be on page 40 but in the second book it will already have moved up to page 10, because distillation number 4 also has 25 word blocks, like the Headlist.
If the word makes it to Gold Book, which is distillation number 8 and final, then it will be not in a group of 25, but will be written as beautifully as you can on a beautiful book using all the space as you think fit aesthetically. You can also mix languages in the final gold book, whereas I would advise keeping the bronze books and the silver books for one book at a time, and three or four bronze books will distil into one silver book. You would never use up a 96 side hardback book on one language once we got to the gold level, distillation 8. three thousand words at that level of distillation would have been 40 to 50 thousand at headlist. There is no sense in learning that number of words in a single language. Much better to learn with the same time 12,000 words in four languages than 48000 in the one foreighn language, which you will never use in ordinary conversation. Either way you are looking at many years to process such a lot of vocabulary properly into your memory. 48000*3/25/3 gives you 1920 hours. That’s an hour a day on average for a little over 5 years. With language school style learning it’d probably take you ten.
Lepenseur, many thanks for a good question. I shall also add this answer to my blog called Huliganov TV. I’d like to welcome everyone of you over there as there are also things going on over there for languages gthat will overlap a bit with here, but some completely different stuff too.
My TV Appearance on “Dzien Dobry, TVN”
Just to finish off today’s blogging flurry, here’s the link to this morning’s TV appearance that has kept me busy for the rest of the day answering queries! I hope a lot of good to a lot of people will come from it.
Uncle Davey discourses to Lord Moggy on the practical use of the Gold List System
If having seen all these films, anyone has questions, then please either click through to the youtube video and ask them there (which will guarantee the quickest answer) or ask me here, and I will be pleased to explain anything not made clear so far. As there are about a hundred people asking right now, it will be no offence to anyone, I hope, if I ask for people to make the questions and answers public rather than one on one tuition. If someone feels they cannot ask in front of others and must have one-on-one tuition then I will probably ask for some kind of charitable donation to be made for it to the Overcoming Shyness Fund.
Dla tych, ktorym to wszystko nie za bardzo pomaga, bo jeszcze nie znaja angielskiego a wlasnie dlatego w ogole szukali u mnie pomocy, to niestety na dzien dzisiejszy nie mam jeszcze takiego wideo w jezyku polskim. Bede go tworzyl jak najszybciej, wiec prosze pozostac “na linii”. Po dzisieszym odzewu wiem, ze musze szybko go zrobic.
