Level: CEFR B2+
Meet the Rare Breed Unicorn Learners:
Habits of Successful Self-Learners
Over the thousands of classes I've taught at Lingoda and other schools, and over the many years of teaching, I've had the pleasure of meeting many different types of learners. As with any observant professional in almost any field, one begins to see patterns. What I mean by patterns are the ways people seem to have picked up English as a second, third, or even fourth language. There are some patterns that seem to fit those who tend to have:
1. Clear and accurate pronunciation
2. Natural use of informal speech in spoken interaction
3. Natural speaking flow in spoken production
4. An ability to easily understand or quickly piece together unclear ideas to ascertain meaning
Most of the students who exhibit the above characteristics report that they have had little formal education in English aside from some basics at a language course many years before or at an elementary level in their early years. Furthermore, these individuals do not live in English-speaking countries and usually report that they have not visited one either. So how are they able to speak so clearly and adeptly that one might be confused to think they actually live in Chicago, London, or Los Angeles?
Here's the shocker: they all generally report the same types of habits. They've never met each other, nor are they in the same class. In fact, they are the "Unicorns" as I like to call them. Why? Because they are a "rare breed," far and few in between. And it makes sense! Why would such a successful type of speaker, who speaks so naturally, adeptly, and accurately, need to take classes when they have never taken classes before?
So, what makes these "Rare-Breed Unicorns" so unique and what do they do? Well, to begin, they often report watching movies—lots and lots of English movies. There seems to be a connection with the simple dopamine effect of the viewing experience, being enlivened with the characters on set and being subsumed by the experience of a foreign culture.
Watching in a foreign language is no walk in the park* either. However, these Rare-Breed Unicorns also report another interesting habit: watching their favorite movie first in their native language. Yes, they watch in their native language, listening-in by using their mother tongue dubbing of the movie. They do not waste any energy listening to something they cannot initially understand. Very efficient indeed. After they watch the movie in their mother tongue, they then proceed to watch the movie a second time (not immediately after but sometime later) in English. This is so smart. Why? Well, they already know the story, they know what happens in the movie, but here comes the trick to their magic act.
Zeroing in on key phrases, new words, and favorite sentences seems to be the third “hallmark**” of the Rare Breed Unicorns. What does this mean? Well, they listen to the movie, repeat it if they need to in case they did not initially understand something, then write down their favorite sentences, favorite words, and phrases, and repeat, focusing on both correct sentence stress and intonation. This “double-pronged***” approach does two things: A. Allows the Unicorn to learn new language and B. Ensures good deployment and usage through proper pronunciation and context.
Titles are another thing that binds the Rare Breed Unicorns: prepare to be shocked, they don’t use titles. At all. Well, I digress. What I mean is that they don’t use titles when they watch the movie but if they don’t understand or miss something, they rewind the movie, turn on the titles, read the word, write it down, and then turn off the title.
So, why does watching a movie without titles, after first watching it in their native language, help? Well, I think it has to do more with the natural way we pick up languages, the way that children learn languages. Children are the best language learners because they enjoy the activity, they are not challenged by it and they don’t care if they make mistakes. And so the same thing goes for the Unicorns, they often never feel embarrassed about making mistakes, they understand that they are engaged in a fun activity and are focused on learning the sound. Imagine traveling to live in New York for a year and speaking with native speakers. Will those native speakers have subtitles on their t-shirts? No! Are you crazy? Imagine a New Yorker saying, “Oh excuse me please Mr. Olaf, please give me a moment while I turn on my subtitles on my t-shirt so that you can understand what I’m saying.” No, that’s not going to happen. Instead, they speak fast, hoping you understand, you probably pretend that you do even though you only understood 60% of what they said. Life goes on but in the overall year of you spending time there, you suddenly realize, one day, out of the blue, that whoa! Oh my god! I understand everything. It did not happen suddenly, but it was those thousands of experiences of not understanding but doing it again and again and again that forced you to understand. This is called “immersion,” and you are robbing yourself blind every time you turn on subtitles, every time you worry, and every time you panic when not understanding. It’s O.K., not understanding 100% of everything that was spoken is A-Okay! In fact, I did not define every idiomatic phrase and new word for you in this blog because I want to challenge you to take that extra step of learning it on your own. Trust me, this extra small step of “hard work” will help you retain the word. Go on, go the extra mile and look up the words and phrases from this blog post that you did not understand.
The Rare Breed Unicorns would look at this blog post and be excited, elated because they might find so many new words that are unfamiliar. This is fun to them. And they will revisit this page many times to ensure they’ve learned and taken away as much as possible. Dig in and dig deep, because going the extra mile on your own will help you become part of the Rare Breed Unicorns.
Idioms and Definitions:
1. Walk in the park: Something that is easy and effortless.
2. Hallmark: A distinctive feature, especially one of excellence.
3. Double-pronged: Having two distinct parts or aspects.
4. More idioms and new words hidden in the text, but the Rare Breed Unicorn hiding in you has to discover them on your own.
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