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What you learn in this Chapter will completely change your approach to learning! As you might imagine, I apply these Four Secrets to Long-term Retention to the development of all our Spanish Power™ Courseware, and consistently see that students who follow these instructions achieve impressive long-term retention of the Spanish language.

Secret Number One: Relax

The number one factor to achieving long-term retention is relaxation. In other words, chill out. People who are relaxed remember information well. Think about this — to get serious results in learning you cannot take learning too seriously, if you do, you will have serious learning problems.

Have you ever seen pictures of brain cells under stress? The brain cells expand and actually make it difficult for the neurons to pass through your brain. The term mental block is a physical reality. If I push you, you will want to push me back. Pressure produces resistance. If you push your mind too hard, or in the wrong ways, your mind will rebel, and you will have trouble remembering things for any length of time.

I cannot overstress (pun intended!) the importance of a relaxed mind and environment if you want to learn well. This has many practical applications and we will work through several of them. Typically, the best learners are people who do deep breathing, stretching, yoga and meditation on a regular basis. These people have very fertile minds, as well as do most musicians, artists, and actors. Most of the time, these types of people have a fairly carefree view of life, and this keeps their minds in a relaxed state.

Here are some great ways to relax your mind.

1. Be positive about your ability to learn.

I cannot tell you how many people I have talked with who say things like, I am too old to learn, I do not have a very good memory, I never was any good at learning language, I am really forgetful, etc. It is a fact that you are what you think! You may have heard the saying, As a man thinks in his heart so is he. There is ample documentation regarding the power of positive thinking and the destructiveness of negative self-talk.

Make it a practice to tell yourself that you do have good memory and that you can learn well. Eventually, reality will catch up with your internal belief system. The subconscious mind is extremely powerful and our thoughts about ourselves are normally self-fulfilling prophecies.

Imagine the mental stress involved in trying to do something you have already told yourself you cannot do, or will be hard, or worse yet near impossible. Stop telling yourself these types of things. None of these things are true! Again, if you have this kind of stink’n think’n, you will create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you fear you will not learn, most likely you will not. The primary reason is because you are setting up so much mental stress that it becomes impossible.

I do understand that in order to learn you also need results-driven learning processes or your best efforts will run amiss. It is possible to be positively doing the wrong things in a Spanish learning program! This is why it is so important you implement great learning methods as I talked about in the first Chapter of this book.

2. Do deep abdominal breathing with your eyes closed.

Most people in the Western Hemisphere breathe through their chests. Unfortunately, this is not the best way to breathe. The human body is designed to eliminate up to 70 percent of the toxins in the body through breathing and this is done through deep abdominal breathing, not short breathing through the chest.

Here is a great breathing technique I learned several years ago that will help you. It is done in a 4 - 6 - 8 sequence.

Breathe in through your nose for four seconds. Make sure you put your hand on your abdomen, and that you actually fill your abdomen with air. Hold the breath for six seconds. During this time you should let your mind go blank and let go of any concerns and thoughts you have. Slowly exhale through your mouth for eight seconds. You should feel like a tire going flat or like a balloon that is slowly releasing air.

When I do this I can feel my shoulders tingle as I release the stress. Repeat this at least three times each sequence.

I recommend you do deep breathing at least three times daily; in the morning, at noon and again in the evening after work. I also recommend you do this before you sit down for any extended period of Spanish learning.

3. Exercise at least three times weekly.

Much has been written about the benefits of exercise in relation to relaxation and a positive mindset.

When we exercise the chemical phenylethylamine or PEA is released to our brains. Studies conclusively show that people who are depressed have low levels of PEA in their bodies and people who are positive about life have higher levels of PEA.

Much has been made in the past about the release of endorphins after exercise but studies are now showing that the chemical PEA penetrates the brain more easily than endorphins, thus being the true stimulus to what many call runner's high.

The good news is you don't need to run, just get moderate exercise at least three times weekly and you will probably speak Spanish much better, much more quickly.

Personally, I prefer to exercise in a peaceful environment. I do not relax in a health club with TV's blaring, people talking, or having to wait on the next exercise machine. This is not my idea of relaxation. I stopped going to a gym because I could not relax there — TV's, music, people talking. I was mentally better off sitting at home on my sofa!

As an aid in developing good retention skills, you should exercise regularly, and if possible, in a peaceful and positive environment.

4. Visualize yourself at peace.

I believe if you asked 100 thinking people what they really want in life, most would say, peace. If you want to be at peace, you need to train yourself to be at peace. Visualize yourself in peaceful surroundings and settings.

My all time favorite peaceful place is up on the top of a mountain in Puerto Rico looking over the Caribbean Sea. I mentally go there several times a week. In fact, I had a mural painted of this exact scene in one the rooms at Bilingual America's headquarters so that I could go there more often.

5. Give yourself enough time to learn Spanish well*.

(* I define well as a minimum advanced plus to superior rating as defined by the ACTFL. For more on this, go to our home page and click on these references.)

Enough time does not mean years. For some people it can mean weeks. I measure learning time in total number of hours. I can tell you that most people have the ability to learn to communicate well* in Spanish within a total of 288 hours. This I have studied and watched many, many times.

Whether you develop this skill in three months or one year depends on your time availability more than anything else. This, of course, is only true if you are implementing the right kind of learning process.

I can tell you that most people who work normal jobs are able to consistently commit around five to six hours weekly to the learning process. If you take 288 divided by 6 you get 48. In other words, most people, dedicating 6 hours weekly to the learning process are able to communicate well in Spanish within 48 weeks. When you throw in a few review weeks and perhaps a few weeks of vacation or sick leave, you can plan on around a one year process.

If you can invest more time than this weekly, great! Be aware that most people are only able to truly assimilate 15 to 20 hours of learning Spanish on a weekly basis even if they do have more time. Balance your desire with the reality of your learning abilities and your time availability.

It is very important to get some momentum and in the process. In other words, the learner must see real progress or she gets frustrated and discouraged. This is frankly why many people quit a learning program. They just are not seeing real progress. This is not the learner's responsibility, it is the responsibility of the people who created the Spanish learning course.

I have not seen too many people learn to communicate well* in Spanish who take significantly more than one year to achieve the goal. Again, balance reality of time availability with the need for the language to gel in the learning process.

Do not try to cram in information too quickly. If you are in a results-driven learning process, the language will gel very nicely within a reasonable period of time.

In a great learning system you will learn the language well within the framework of a planned and comprehensive learning process. Remember, too much pressure will produce resistance. If you implement a great plan, you will get great results!


Secret Number Two: Be Ridiculous

Simply put — have fun! Things need to be a bit humorous, a little ridiculous. We all know that laughter produces a relaxed mind, and now you know that a relaxed mind is critical to great learning.

Allow me to give you a good example of what I mean by learning in a ridiculous way:

While learning Spanish you will need to learn a lot of new words. Let's say you come across the word the oak tree. In Spanish this is el roble. It is pronounced like l row blay. That is the letter l then row then blay.

You have a choice; either learn the oak tree - el roble by looking at a book or by using a memory retention card. As you learn you can mumble the information to yourself —or you can— picture a HUGE el roble falling right on top of you and you start screaming EL ROBLE, EL ROBLE, EL ROBLE. I guarantee if you picture the tree falling on top of you and start shaking your body as you are saying, EL ROBLE, EL ROBLE, EL ROBLE you will remember the word.

If you are learning the word for the food (la comida) then do not just say la comida. Imagine yourself starving to death after having been abandoned in the wilderness for 10 days, and someone puts your favorite food in front of you and you say, La Comidaaaaaaaa...

You will always remember what you do with passion and emotion! This is a basic law of memory and retention.

Lifeless, emotionless learning is not only boring, it does not produce results. If you want things to stick then you must have fun when you are learning. Be dramatic and do crazy things to remember information.

Actors and actresses remember their lines because they put words within an emotional context. You can and should do the same — if you want to remember what you learn.

The people who struggle with this are your analytical thinkers. People who are very fact oriented and have difficulty with out-of-the-box thinking need to loosen up and have some fun!

In general, women learn language more quickly than men because they tend to be more emotional or feeling oriented in their way of viewing things. (Please no letters about me being a machista Puerto Rican! I said in general and this is a fact.) Besides if you are a woman, this is good news! All I can say is whatever your gender and tendencies, it is worth the extra effort to learn with lots of ridiculous passion and emotion. Not only will you learn more quickly, you will have more fun in the process!


Secret Number Three: Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

It has been said that repetition is the mother of all learning. Do something enough times and eventually you will get it no matter how analytical and emotionless you are! The way to reduce the number of times is to apply the first two secrets I gave you; relax and be ridiculous. If, however, you do not want to relax and be ridiculous you can actually get long-term memory by just doing the same thing enough times in enough different ways.

The average person needs at least 15 repetitions of the same thing to begin to store it into long-term memory. This means that every new word you learn should be cycled through your brain at least 15 times if you want to really remember it. This is critical in Spanish language learning because you may use one word in a conversation, and not use it again for two to three weeks! If the word is not truly stored in long-term memory, you will have trouble recalling it again after two weeks. This, of course, is very frustrating.

One reason why so many Spanish language courses are unsuccessful is because they do not contain an effective memory system. In other words, they give you the information, but they do not set up the correct number of repetitions you need to actually achieve long-term memory.

For this reason, (among others) many people go through Spanish language courses, get wonderful grades, or feel like they understand things, but still cannot recall words and structures in a real conversation. One thing we do in all Bilingual America Spanish Courses is to set up a highly effective long-term retention system. Unless you do not follow instructions, you will remember what you learn!

If you want to learn using Courseware that will allow you to remember everything you learn, whether it be vocabulary or structure, you will love our Spanish courses. The fact is you cannot get out of a lesson without having worked with each vocabulary word at least 15 times, and each structure taught a minimum of 60 times! It is built right into the learning system, and absolutely insures that the Spanish you learn will be retained.

Secret Number Four: Retroactivity

Retroactivity is the cousin to repetition. Repetition is how many times you repeat something in a given time period, retroactivity is how long you use and apply it from when you initially learned it. You can do 20 repetitions of something over ten minutes or you can do 20 repetitions over five days. If you do it over five days (retroactivity) it will store more easily into long-term memory than if you do it the same number of times (repetition) in ten minutes.

Information is stored into long-term retention most easily in manageable bits and pieces. You do not want to attempt to cram things into long-term retention. It will not go there, it will go into short-term retention.

Here is some good news! The issue here is not memory. The issue is retention and recall. Unless you have a physiological memory issue or are under great amounts of stress (which, of course, can be reduced) you have no memory problem.

I will prove this to you. Have you ever driven down a road and see something that jogs your memory about something that happened 10, 20, 30, even 40 years ago? All of us have had this type of experience. Now, if your memory were affected physiologically, as with Alzheimer's Disease, you could not recall this information.

The fact is that you are able to recall information that has been stored in your memory bank for many, many years. The key here is not your memory, it is learning in a way that will allow you to have instant recall of what is in your memory bank.

Different people need different amounts of repetition and retroactivity. We will help you to determine the amount that is right for you.

Closing Thoughts to Remember...

If you apply these Four Secrets to Long-term Retention to your Spanish learning activities, you will learn. You can be sure any course you take at Bilingual America will be filled with learning that is relaxing, ridiculous, repetitive and retroactive! Let me say that again — You can be sure any course you take at Bilingual America will be filled with learning that is relaxing, ridiculous, repetitive and retroactive!

Please click on Chapter VII, The Cozy, Comfortable Classroom, in the left-hand navigation to continue.