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The best professors are the ones that know how to play with your mind.
Marco Camilo
This conversation is riveting, informative, practical, and profound. Approach with an open mind.
Today I’m joined by Marco Camilo (@_marcocamilo). Marco Camilo is a polyglot and professor of languages from Germany. Besides English, he can speak French, German, Russian, German, Italian, and counting. He’s a deep thinker well-equipped to handle conversations on complex topics.
We spent 75% of this nearly 3-hour conversation on language learning. Later, we talk about Christianity, faith, God, wisdom, and the meaning of it all.
SUPPORT MARCO ON THE WEB:
Marco’s Blog – Great resources on language learning and productivity
Marco on Twitter – Regular Tweets on language learning tips
In this episode we cover…
- Marco can play piano (6:00)
- Are there techniques from learning an instrument that overlap with learning a language? (10:00)
- Slow practice (13:00)
- How should one start learning a language? (17:00)
- “I’ve been learning foreign languages since I was 4.” (23:00)
- How much time should we spend studying a language everyday? (25:00)
- What are the best methods for learning a language? (30:00)
- Native languages are learned implicitly. Foreign languages are learned explicitly (35:00)
- Debunking the ‘Learning Styles’ theory (43:00)
- How to think (and overthink) in a foreign language (48:00)
- How does Marco structure his language classes? (55:00)
- What stops most people from learning a language? (59:00)
- Picking a language learning textbook that doesn’t suck (1:08:00)
- What to do when stuck with a textbook that sucks (1:22:00)
- Languages are a living, biological system (1:28:00)
- Creating sentences and phrases in a foreign language (1:38:00)
- What is Marco Camilo reading? (1:50:00)
- Stoicism, God, Christianity, and faith: Is there an afterlife? (1:55:00)
- How does Marco Camilo adds meaning to his life? (2:05:00)
- Meditation, secular or otherwise (2:15:00)
- What does it mean to have a relationship with a higher power? (2:18:00)
- The symbolic meaning of Jesus dying on the cross (2:30:00)
- Read from all sources (2:34:00)
- Tips for learning Japanese (use a bilingual dictionary) (2:37:00)
- Parting words (2:39:00)
Mentions
The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
The JLPT – Japanese-Language Proficiency Test
Genki: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese
Please enjoy!
Cheers, and here’s to your good health.
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple | Watch on YouTube
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