A Prolific Learning Principle: Choose Appropriate Methods

Choose your methods wisely; they determine where you will go.

Any method of learning will give some type of results. Sometimes those are good results and sometimes not. You need to carefully choose methods which will give the type of results you want.

This is one of the cornerstones of prolific learning. Every method of learning will produce results. The question is whether or not those results are what you really want.

I spent decades approaching foreign language learning using the only methods I knew. Those methods were great if my goal was to get good grades in classes and get good grades taking tests. I had no clue that these methods didn’t produce much in the way of effective language skills. Over a period of about 25 years, I put in much time and effort but seeing little real improvement in my language skills. When I started using different methods which produced actual language skills, I started to see results I was happy with. When I was younger, getting good grades was a priority for me. Now that I’m older, sitting down and enjoying reading a book in Spanish or ancient Greek is a priority. I no longer care if I can pass a test with good grades nor what language teachers might think of my language skills. I want to enjoy using a language.

Most of the methods of learning and studying that most of us know are geared around formal education and training. We many years learning how to function as best we could in a formal system. Those were usually based on meeting deadlines and standards. Our “success” was usually geared around how well we can check off items on a checklist of required knowledge and skills. We got used to the idea that learning is about memorizing and using a body of knowledge that an expert tells us we need to know. In practice, many of us developed attitudes toward education expressed by an old joke that passes around social media that goes, “that’s another day I didn’t have to use algebra!” Most of the methods of learning we know how to use were about making other people happy with our progress. They also created in us a binary type of attitude of either “I know this” or “I don’t know this” rather than an attitude of “I am consistently improving in this”.

Prolific learning is about consistently making progress for a lifelong skill we want to have. It is about using methods that give results that satisfy us and that we can be proud of. I probably couldn’t pass a test in either Spanish or ancient Greek today. However, I can enjoyably read several pages per day in each. I enjoy binge watching various shows on Netflix with Spanish dubbing and subtitles. There are times I need to flip to English subtitles or stop to look up what various phrases mean. However, for someone with little language learning success who started learning Spanish in his mid-50s, I’m content with the progress I’m making. When I first started watching shows in Spanish, I was spending most of my time looking up words and phrases. Now, I can often go for minutes at a time without needing to look things up. As each month goes by, I find that I can simply understand more and more as I hear it or read it.

The sad reality is that many of us simply don’t know many methods for consistent improvement and growth. A large reason for this web site and material I’m writing is to try to help people learn more about this. It took me years to figure out how to do this myself. I’m hoping to help people bypass a part of that time and labor and make more progress more quickly.