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Models are very important, and by model I mean role model, not the models you see on magazines. That's a different meaning. A role model is kind of like a hero. It's someone that has success, the same kind of success that you want. So, for example, if you are a football player, you want to be great then maybe Ronaldo or Messi is your role model, maybe both. It's important to have role models. Role models are people who have clone already what you want to do. Why is that important? Well, it's important because you can learn from them. You can learn much faster if you find out, if you discover what they did to succeed. This is the fast track for success. You don't have to make all the same mistakes. You can copy them in a way and learn much, much faster.
So, for example, when I started my own business, in the beginning I knew nothing, zero, I had no idea what to do. I was just a normal guy with a passion for languages. Now I had two choices, I could have just tried something, tried something else, kept trying things, trying things, making mistakes, failing, try again. But I wanted to succeed faster. That would be a very slow method if I only experimented, if I only tried and failed, tried and
failed, and tried to find everything by myself. So, of course, I wanted to succeed faster, so what did I do? I went and I found role models. I found other people who were already successful business people. I read their books. I went to their seminars and their workshops. I learned everything possible from them. And then I used what I learned with my own business. And in this way I was able to succeed much, much faster. I could take all the great strategies that they were using, that they discovered in their life, maybe with many, many years. I could take all those great strategies and I could use them in months or in weeks.
Well you can do the same thing with your English learning or with anything. You can find role models, people who are total masters, and you can steal their ideas. You can steal the best ideas, the best strategies, the best methods that they have used, and you can copy those so that you will learn much, much faster. You will make fewer mistakes. So that's why role models are so important.
They speed up the learning process, they boost it up. They also, of course, give you an emotional boost because you can see that they did it. Somebody already did what I want to do. It proves it's not impossible, it can be clone. And I also had that a little bit with my business. I was a little bit scared. I didn't know much about business. But the more I read about all these other people who started, like me, with no knowledge of business, with no money, but they did certain things and those certain actions led to
success. Tho se certain strategies led to success and I realized if I used the same strategies I will get the same result, the same success. It's the same with English learning. If you follow the strategies of people who are masters, you also will become a master, quite simple.
So let's talk about this a little bit. In fact, this is how I developed my teaching system, my methodology. I knew nothing at first, zero. I went to Mexico and started studying Spanish, but I didn't know anything about language learning. I had a degree in engineering, but that was aboutit. And I did what most students do, I just grabbed some textbooks and followed the textbooks that the teacher gave me. And the result was not so good. And I did this for a little while before I quit school to study on my own.
And I began to notice something. I began to notice that a I was learning much faster than everybody else. I was doing much better than everybody else. So I was curious, I wanted to understand why am I learning faster, how am I different than the other students? So I started paying attention to how the other Europeans were trying to learn Spanish. Over time, I began to realize there were patterns.
Me and a few others, the best students, were always doing similar things and they were different than what most students were doing.
And I started looking at what researchers had found. I started listening and reading articles from scientists who were studying Spanish or, in general, language learning. And I wanted to find out again what were the results, the scientific results that showed which methods were fastest, which methods were best for learning languages.
And again I began to find patterns and the very interesting thing tome, the patterns were the same as what was happening with me and the rest of the best students. So the research was showing the same thing that me and the other successful students were showing. We were doing exactly the same thing as the research said you're supposed to do. So from these role models, these academic role models, these scientists, and then my actual students, my best students, also role models, I learned a totally new way to teach English. And that is what you have now, the RAI O system, the RAI O approach.
So let me talk about some of these examples and then I will talk in more detail about the importance of finding role models and finding a peer group. So peer means... it's a person who's equal to you. But a peer, really it means, it's the people you have contact with every day. Your coworkers, your friends, business partners, all of those people are your peers, so people you have contact with
constantly, every day, the people you see again and again and again, every day, those are your peers. And it's important to
have a very good peer group. You need to have a good peer group and you need to have good role models.
So first let's talk about role models. I just want to talk about a few success staries, a few of my best students that I've had over the years. So one of my best students, her name is Andrea, she was and still is a student of mine. She loved listening to English.
Andrea was listening to my staries all the time. She was listening to podcasts, she was listening to television, very focused on listening, an auditory method, learning with her ears, in the car, at work, at home in her couch, everywhere and all the time. She was listening, listening, listening a lot.
Another key thing that Andrea focused on was meaning and interest. In other words, she always chose English materials that were interesting to her that had meaning for her. Textbooks usually don't have much persona! meaning. So she chose a story "Oh, this story is very interesting, I want to watch this video." She was focused on the meaning. She was focused on the story. She was not focused on grammar or vocabulary. So that's interesting.
W ell, later I listened to a guy called Steve Kaufman. Steve Kaufman is a linguist. He speaks, I think he speaks 12 languages now. He keeps adding languages so I forget how many he speaks. But the last time I talked to him he was speaking 12 languages. Not bad. He's a Canadian, a native English speaker, but he speaks French, he speaks Japanese, Cantonese and Mandarin. He's learning Russian now, he's learning Korean. He' s an amazing guy and, of course, I was very curious about Steve, another great language learning role model. So I stalked him on Social Media...
So Steve, guess what, same as Andrea. Number one, he has a listening approach.
He focuses mostly on listening, probably 80% of his time he spends listening. He learns with his ears. Another thing Steve does, he listens for pleasure. He does not focus on grammar, this is another interesting thing. Steve does not study grammar. He might learn a little grammar sometimes like we do with the Reversa.net tool but, in general, he focuses on listening for fun, just like Andrea. Interesting...
W ell I began to see these patterns again and again and again. The superstar learners, the superstar students have these same exact patterns. They're great role models and they're doing the same things. They seem to always be focused on listening...
listening, listening, listening. They focus their listening and their on interesting content, meaningful content. Another interesting thing, they never focus on grammar. They may learn a little bit of grammar, or not. Sorne of them will study grammar a little bit, some never study grammar. But they all focus totally on listening to interesting content...input, input, input is their focus.
Another interesting thing that you find with these superstar students, these superstar learners, is that they do a lot of deep learning, in other words, a lot of repetition. My favorite example of this is Jerry Dye, a man called Jerry Dye. Jerry was a native Chinese speaker and he moved to Canada. And he wanted to have perfect pronunciation. He wanted to sound like an American. So number one, what did he do? Well, he focused on listening again...listening, listening, listening. Every day he listened to English.
Something else he did very interesting. He learned deeply. It means he took the same article, for example, or the same conversation, he listened to it 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 times.
Amazing. The same conversation. Why did he do that? I mean it sounds crazy. lt's very different from what normal students do. Well, because he realized he needed that massive repetition so that he could really learn and absorb all the sounds of English, the patterns of English. He realized that deep learning was more
important than going fast and trying to learn a lot of words and a lot of grammar.
Now you don't need to do quite so much like Jerry Dye, 500 times with one thing is a little bit much. It's kind of hard to stay motivated. It can become quite boring. But the general principle is important, deep learning. It's something that all my superstar students do, that the superstar learners do. They learn a lot very deeply first so they go deep, deep, deep, a lot of repetitions, and then later they add more.
Another guy who does a lot of deep learning, one of my favorite examples in my mini-staries, Tiger Woods, we've heard a lot about Tiger Woods. W ell, think about Tiger Woods for a minute. Tiger Woods started to practice golf when he was a child.
His father taught him golf and he learned how to putt. He would practice putting, right, the little short, little short strokes. And he practiced big, long strokes, driving in golf, it's called driving it means hitting it far, the same swing. Tiger Woods has been practicing the exact same swing for years, since he was a small child until now.
He's a master but he still practices his swing. I mean this is super deep learning. He' s doing the same simple thing again and again and again, each time trying to make a tiny little improvement,
right? Tiger didn't decide "Oh, well, l'm sick of this, I already know this. I don't need to practice anymore." That's what a lot of English learners do. They say "I already know the past tense. I can take a test, I can pass it, no problem." But when they speak they make constant mistakes with the past tense. lt's because they did not learn it deeply. They know it at a shallow level, they can take a test, but they don't know it deeply, deeply, deeply, the way Tiger Woods knows his swing because he's clone it, I don't know, 50,000 times, 100,000 times, maybe more. So deep learning is something else we can learn from our role models.
Take the point-of-view staries in Chapter 4, for example. Study
those staries 500 times and you'll see how good your grammar will be.
So what you need to do then is find role models. And you can get them from a peer group. Peer group means it's the people you associate with, the people you're around, the people you connect to every day. How do you find a peer group of super great English learners, of superstar students? W ell there are different ways to do it but I think the easiest way to doit is in the Familia RAIO group. I mean the internet is amazing because you can communicate with people all over the world. And you can corne together as a group and communicate, learn from each other. And that's going to increase your learning speed so much.
That's one reason we call ourselves Familia RAIO. The family partis equally important to the program. The family partis a peer group, a group of superstar learners so that you can connect with people, other latinos, in different parts of the world who are using these same patterns, these same methods, these same systems.
And you can learn from them and so you can learn faster yourself. And another important thing about a peer group is it gives you support, emotional support. When you have other superstars to help you, you learn faster and you feel better.
Sometimes maybe you feel tired. Sometimes you have a problem. W ell, you can go to these people, go to your peer group. Go to the Facebook group and tell us "Help me, I feel tired." We will help you. We will encourage you. We'll bring your energy back up. lt's very important to do this. Doing something alone is much
tougher than doing it with a positive, superstar peer group. So you need to take advantage of the family, a powerful peer group of role models. People who are great English learners, you need to connect with them. Learn from them, do what they are doing. If you do that, I promise you, you will be so much more successful than you have in the past.
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Hello, welcome to the mini-story for "Models." Are you ready to begin? Big smile! Shoulders back, breathing deeply, moving your body? Let's go.
*****
Sandra wanted to be a tri-athlete.
She wanted to win the Ironman race in Hawaii.
But she had a problem, of course. Oh, there's always a problem.
Her problem was her peer group were all lazy lasers.
Her coworkers complained constantly and they were lazy.
They stole money from their company. They were thieves. They were complainers and they were lazy.
Her friends slept all day and watched TV and ate french fries.
So Sandra said "I want a new peer group."
So she got a new job.
lt was a better job with great coworkers, super enthusiastic coworkers.
She also found new friends.
Her new friends were all super athletes. They all loved to run. They all loved to swim. They all loved to cycle. They went to the gym every day. They ate healthy. They were super healthy.
So she had new coworkers. She had new friends. She had a new peer group, a great peer group, an inspiring peer group. Now she felt great so she trained every day. She practiced every day. Every day she ran. Every day she swam. Every day she rode her bike.
Finally the day came, the lronman race. First the swimming, she jumped into the ocean and she swam and she swam.
She was a superstar swimmer. She came out of the water number one! And next she got on her bicycle and she rode and she rode and she rode and she rode. Faster, faster, faster, she was a superstar cyclist. Finally, after 212 miles she jumped off her bike
and began to run. She ran faster and faster and faster and faster. She felt stronger and stronger and stronger. She was a superstar athlete at last. Of course, she won the Ironman race. She became the number one superstar tri-athlete of the world. Sandra succeeded.
*****
Okay, that is the end of the mini-story for "Models." As always, listen toit many times, deep learning, deep learning, deep learning. I'll say it one more time...deep learning. I know this seems like repetitive points, but I'm going to keep saying it every time because you need to learn deeply. Most of these staries are in the past tense because most students need more practice with the past tense. And there are some other tenses mixed in there too sometimes. You don't need to know the names, it's not important.
Don't think aboutit. The important thing is to listen, listen, listen. And you want to answer the questions quickly, quickly, quickly. It's okay to just listen. You don't need to answer if you don't want to, if you're on a train or you're around other people, you can just listen quietly. But if you want to you can pause and answer the questions, pause and answer the questions. Try to doit quickly. But the important partis repetitive listening, deep, deep learning. You don't want to just learn these things, you need to master them.
Okay I will see you in the next.
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Hello, welcome to the mini-story for "Models." Are you ready to begin? Big smile! Shoulders back, breathing deeply, moving your body? Let's go.
*****
Sandra wanted to be a tri-athlete.
Who wanted to be a tri-athlete?
Sandra, Sandra wanted to be a tri-athlete.
What is a tri-athlete?
Well, a tri-athlete is a person who does three different sports, swimming, cycling...riding a bicycle, and running, right? So tri means three, T- R-I, tri means three so three sports, a three-sport athlete, swimming, cycling and running.
Did Sandra want to swim, cycle and run?
Yes she did. She wanted to swim, she wanted to cycle and she wanted to run. She wanted to be a tri-athlete.
Who wanted to be a tri-athlete?
Sandra, Sandra wanted to be a tri-athlete.
Did she want to be a normal tri-athlete?
Not Sandra.
Sandra wanted to be a superstar tri-athlete. ln fact, she wanted to be the number one tri-athlete in the world.
What kind of tri-athlete did she want to be?
A superstar tri-athlete, Sandra wanted to be a superstar tri athlete.
She wanted to win the lronman race in Hawaii.
Which race did she want to win?
The lronman race, she wanted to win the lronman race in Hawaii, the lronman tri-athlete race.
Did she want to be a superstar tri-athlete or a pretty good tri athlete?
Well, of course, superstar, she wanted to be a superstar tri-athlete.
Sandra always wants to be the best. So Sandra wanted to be a superstar tri-athlete. She wanted to win the lronman race.
How long is the lronman race?
Hm, well, the lronman race is a swim that is 2.5 miles, 2.5 miles swimming, and 212 miles cycling, and 26.4 miles running.
Is it a long race or a short race?
Oh, it's a long race, it's a super long race. 2.5 miles swimming, 212 miles cycling and basically 26 miles running, that's the lronman race.
Who wanted to win the lronman race?
Sandra, Sandra wanted to be a superstar tri-athlete. She wanted to win the biggest race. She wanted to win the lronman tri athlete race.
But she had a problem, of course. Oh, there's always a problem.
What was Sandra's problem?
Her problem was her peer group were all lazy lasers.
Did she have a positive, strong, superstar peer group?
No, no she did not. She had a peer group of lazy lasers.
Were her friends superstars?
No they weren't. They were lazy lasers. Her peer group was full of lazy lasers.
What about her job? Were they superstars? Were they athletes?
No they weren't.
Her coworkers complained constantly and they were lazy.
What were her coworkers like?
W ell, they were lazy and they complained constantly.
Who were lazy and complained constantly?
Her coworkers, her coworkers complained constantly and they were lazy.
Were they superstar athletes?
No, they weren't. They were lazy. They were lazy and they always complained.
And they stole from their company.
What did they do?
They stole money from their company. They were thieves. They were complainers and they were lazy.
No, it was a terrible peer group. Terrible coworkers for Sandra, her coworkers were complainers. They were lazy and they were thieves. They stole from the company.
How did Sandra feel about her coworkers?
Oh, she hated them.
She hated her coworkers.
Did she love them?
No, of course not, she hated them. She hated her coworkers, they were a terrible peer group. They complained. They were lazy.
They stole from the company.
Did her coworkers encourage her and inspire her?
No, they didn't encourage her. They didn't inspire her. She hated them. They were terrible.
How about her friends?
W ell, they were nice but they were lazy.
Her friends slept all day and watched TV and ate french fries.
What did her friends eat?
French fries, 20 pounds of french fries every day.
AU her friends ate 20 pounds of french fries every single day, each!
How much did they eat?
20 pounds, 20 pounds of french fries every day.
Were they healthy?
No, they weren't healthy. They were very unhealthy.
Were they in good shape?
They were not in good shape, they were not healthy. In good shape means healthy or strong physically. So they were not in good shape. They were not healthy.
Did Sandra want to be in good shape?
Yes, she did. She wanted to be in great shape. She wanted to be super healthy.
What did she want to be?
A superstar tri-athlete, she wanted to be a superstar tri-athlete.
Were her friends superstar tri-athletes?
No, they weren't. They were lazy french fry eaters. They ate 20 pounds of french fries every day while watching TV.
Was this a good peer group for Sandra, who wanted to be a superstar tri-athlete?
Of course not, it was nota good peer group for Sandra.
So Sandra said "I want a new peer group."
What did she want?
A new peer group.
Who wanted a new peer group?
Sandra did. Sandra wanted a new peer group.
Who wanted a new peer group?
Yeah, that's right, Sandra. Sandra wanted a new peer group.
Did she want new coworkers?
Yes, she did.
Did she want new friends?
Yes, she did.
What did she want?
A new peer group.
So she got a new job.
Was it a better job?
Oh yes it was.
lt was a better job with great coworkers, super enthusiastic coworkers.
What kind of coworkers did she have?
Super enthusiastic, she had super enthusiastic coworkers.
Did they have a lot of energy?
Of course, they did. They had a lot of energy, they were super enthusiastic, of course they did.
Who had a lot of energy?
Her new coworkers.
She also found new friends.
What kind of friends did she find?
W ell, she found super athletes, super athletes.
Her new friends were all super athletes. They all loved to run.
They all loved to swim. They all loved to cycle. They went to the gym every day. They ate healthy. They were super healthy.
What kind of new friends did she find?
Super athletes, superstar athletes, her new friends were all superstar athletes.
Were they superstar athletes?
Of course they were. They loved to exercise.
So she had new coworkers. She had new friends. She had a new peer group, a great peer group, an inspiring peer group. Now she felt great so she trained every day. She practiced every day. Every day she ran. Every day she swam. Every day she rode her bike.
Did she ride her bike every day or sometimes?
Every day.
How often did she swim and run and cycle?
Every day.
Who swam? Who ran? Who cycled every day?
Sandra, of course, Sandra swam every day. Sandra cycled every day. She ran every day. She exercised every day.
Finally the day came, the Ironman race. First the swimming, she jumped into the ocean and she swam and she swam.
W as she fast or slow?
She was fast.
She was a superstar swimmer. She came out of the water number one! And next she got on her bicycle and she rode and she rode and she rode and she rode. Faster, faster, faster, she was a superstar cyclist. Finally, after 212 miles she jumped off her bike and began to run. She ran faster and faster and faster and faster.
She felt stronger and stronger and stronger. She was a superstar athlete at last. Of course, she won the Ironman race. She became the number one superstar tri-athlete of the world. Sandra succeeded.
*****
Okay, that is the end of the mini-story for "Models." As always, listen toit many times, deep learning, deep learning, deep learning. l'll say it one more time...deep learning. I know this seems like repetitive points, but l'm going to keep saying it every time because you need to learn deeply. Most of these staries are in the past tense because most students need more practice with the past tense. And there are some other tenses mixed in there too sometimes. You don't need to know the names, it's not important.
Don't think aboutit. The important thing is to listen, listen, listen. And you want to answer the questions quickly, quickly, quickly. It's okay to just listen. You don't need to answer if you don't want to, if you're on a train or you're around other people, you can just listen quietly. But if you want to you can pause and answer the questions, pause and answer the questions. Try to doit quickly. But the important partis repetitive listening, deep, deep learning. You don't want to just learn these things, you need to master them.
Okay I will see you next time.