Try Our Method
Sample #1: Articulating Consonants
The first technique you will try out is our technique for learning new consonants.
Consonants are created when one part of your mouth articulates with another to block or restrict airflow through the mouth.
What distinguishes one consonant from the next are subtle differences in the way the articulators are placed, and how the air interacts with it.
To learn the articulations for your target language, they need to be properly explained and visualized for you. Then, you need to be able to observe and practice that sound in the context of the language.
So for this sample lesson, you will learn how to pronounce a special class of consonants in Spanish that we call “Tongue Bladers”.”
Note, by this point in the curriculum, you will have already learned the mouth diagrams and how to distinguish each point in your palate and tongue. So there will be a gap in your knowledge as you try this lesson, but it should still be informative.
Also note, that even though this Tongue Blader lesson is from the Spanish materials, these sounds also exist in other romance languages.
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Buildup & release VOICELESS air
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Buildup & release VOICED air
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Direct VOICED air through nose
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Direct VOICED air around sides
Sample #2: Echoing Melody
Beneath our oral articulation, our vocal cords vibrate to give a pitch melody to ours speech. The melody of speech can strongly influence the meaning of words and phrases.
But even deeper than that, the Melody captures the spirit of the language and people, even more so than the vowels and consonants do. Therefore, the better we get at mimicking melody, the more we feel like native speakers, and the more intuitively we will speak, listen and learn.
In fact, if you observe infants learning their first language, you will notice that they learn to mimic melody long before they learn how to articulate the vowels and consonants clearly. We would be wise to repeat the process that worked so well for all of us the first time.
Before this lesson, we do a special training to fine tune your ear to the nuances of melody in your target language. Then for this lesson, we start to apply that skill to actual speech.
You watch a video, tune your ear into the melodic layer, and then pause periodically to “echo” the melody of the last phrase you heard.
Note, you don’t need to know words or meanings of a language in order to practice mimicking its melody, anymore than you them when you were a baby.
If you make a habit of mimicking melody all the time, then like a baby, you will learn your language much faster by tapping yourself deeper into the source.
A sample video from Brazilian Portuguese is included below. Have fun with it!
Sample Lesson #3: Entraining a Song Lyric
Towards the end of the Mimicry Curriculum, you put together all the skills you learned to commit a song lyric to memory.
Aside from singing being fun, it’s also a very powerful learning tool for several reasons. First, music activates the learning and motivation centers of the brain like nothing else does.
Second, you need lots of repetition in order to entrain the movement patterns of your target language into your muscle memory. Music helps you get the reps in in a way that is fun and spontaneous, rather then boring and tedious.
For this sample lesson, we give you one line from a French song. Watch the video below to understand the process, then give it a try for yourself.
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ɔ̃f - fin - ni(t) - tuʒ - ʒuʁ(p) - paʁ(t) - tχuv - ve
Now you should have a good sense of just how different the training is here at Mimic Method. You won’t find this sort of stuff anywhere else.
So if you want to stay on the dead end conventional route and study texts and theories all day, then this program isn’t for you.
If, however, you see the value of taking a first-principled and thorough approach to learning a language, then I strongly encourage you to…