Learning Techniques

I didn't see much in the forum regarding how to best assimilate the lessons, so I thought I’d pass on two techniques I’ve personally found helpful: 1.) With the exception of the “Write it!” section, I do all the lessons standing up – even walking around the room. I have my PC at eye level so it’s easy to move around and I can look at it when I need to. I find that moving around keeps my attention much better than when I’m sitting. 2.) I learn the phrases backwards (which is counter intuitive I suppose but I’ve found it works for me). So with the following phrase: ”La única cosa que me importa es que es feriado obligado en toda la región.” I’ll put it in English: “The only thing that I care about is that it's an obligatory national holiday throughout the region.” I would learn the phrase in the following order: …throughout the region. …it’s an obligatory national holiday throughout the region. …that I care about is that it’s an obligatory national holiday throughout the region. The only thing that I care about is that it’s an obligatory national holiday throughout the region. Nothing earth shattering but I have found these two simple techniques to be helpful.

Steven, your technique of studying while standing up has some similarities to Alexander Arguelles' "shadowing technique" outlined in Advanced Learning Technique #21. He advocates echoeing Spanish language audio while walking quickly, speaking loudly and clearly. I think you are right about standing up and moving about helping to focus concentration. I have found success using his "Scriptorium Technique" of listening to and repeating a sentence, then carefully and slowly writing it out longhand paying close attention to pronunciation, meaning and accenting, and speaking each word while it it being written, then repeating the sentence again as written. This has helped my concentration and the slow process has allowed me to focus on each word in the sentence.