Vadim

My goal is to master English. Strong resistance to languages developed in me during school years, now I have to fight that. In high school I "had" German. Hmm, I tried to study a language in many different ways, but only the most commonly used words would remain in my mind. Then, sometime in January of last year I came across your web site. "This is something interesting", was my thought, but I was too lazy to act on it and just dropped the link into bookmarks. In the summer there was not much to do, and I began trial training.

After I sang the song about 20 times, its' lyrics were firmly planted in my head. Then the list of songs expanded to 11. Actually,even though I cannot say that it was difficult, you should only practice when you have time and desire, otherwise later it will be difficult to encourage yourself to do it. Oh yeah, all of this took place during my semester in a university, I practiced in addition to my college courses.
I chose singing first and foremost because I like to sing, even though I don't have a perfect voice. Bits of text? I didn't think they made as much sense, they have no associations in the mind; songs are associated with melodies, performers, darn it, with many things=))!

Impressions from the training? - I cannot say I became an instant expert, but I am able to pick up English by ear significantly better!

Ramzia

SLANG-SPORT-trainer: Ramzia is training French from scratch. She has already mastered English and German. At the time of the testimonial she had only spend 92 hours practicing the trainings. This is what she had to say...

Ramzia, 02.11.2007: Hurray! Today I understood one entire phrase! It was an instruction to a cosmetic creme where in French was written: "This creme should only be used on a face." I was so happy! I started reading Saint-Exupery's "The Little Prince" in French. I am ecstatic, it is such a cool book, I really like it, there are plenty of familiar words and entire expressions! Rapidly approaching the time when I will be able to speak in complete phrases!
I really like the sensation of encountering many familiar words from songs, long passed, but instantly resurfacing in my memory. They felt like good old friends.

SLANG-SPORT-trainer: Congratulations, Ramzia! I can see in the table of the statistics of the trainings that you have only been training for 92 hours, that's a wonderful result!

Ramzia, 21.10.2007: Grigori Olegovich, good morning. The most important thing is that, thanks to your technology, I am constantly exposed to French language through listening to musical CDs in the car, reading poetry of Rozhdestvensky in French and Russian, there are verses with parallel translation. Sometimes I find lyrics of the songs with their translations on the Internet. Basically, I am fully immersing the language without actually having to go to France. I am yet to try the cartoons, cannot wait.

The high level of interest exhibited by the people who contact you is inspiring. That means people are ready to put in effort and utilize your approach. Not study, but practice skills in speech and writing! Personally my level of interest is remaining very high.
From my personal experience I can testify that slight fear of the sheer scale of my undertaking, learning such complicated language, French, has left me. I like French language more and more, it is really attracting my interest. I am not really capable of using it in any practical way just yet.

NEVERTHELESS: I am getting used to the language; I recognize many words when I am listening to it. French language seems to me so familiar, beautiful. There is a feeling of an accumulation of a lexicon, as a result of the training. This knowledge is passive right now, but very soon it will be fully activated and I will be able to use it freely in speech. So, the progress is constant! The speed of the progress depends on each participant, how much training that person does, how deeply immerses in a language, also depends on their individual characteristics etc.

And a VERY important aspect for me, even though I am mentioning it last, is recommendations of Grigori Olegovich, corrections, advice that I gain as a part of our interaction and expression of my experiences. No training is complete without a real experienced trainer!

I hope everyone makes a choice that is the best for them!

Masha Zhurankova
Trial Training

Masha: I have just completed trial training. Here are my impressions. First time I did not read the instructions on the page http://www.paarschool.com/proba.php, carefully enough and was under impression that the volume of text needed to be read has to be 300 words, instead of 300 characters. Thus, my first training was strenuous, the text was too long; I was only able to read it 25 times .Another training did not seem appealing the next day. I decided to read the instructions again and confirm my actions, and was relieved to realize my error!

SLANG-SPORT-trainer: Training instructions have these fascinating quality, there is always something new to uncover with each reading. This quality only reveals itself, though, if the person reading them practices the training in between the readings. If someone does not train, there will be no understanding, regardless of the number of readings. You did everything correctly, Masha.

Masha: I began to train again. This time around it seemed extremely easy, especially when compared to the first attempt, and only took 30 minutes. I was reading a history text; next day I wanted to continue, felt no fatigue. After about 4 readings the speed picks up; pronunciation improves, becomes clear.The content becomes understandable after about 10 readings of a fragment.

SLANG-SPORT-trainer: Well, this training is not really designed to uncover the meaning, there are other trainings for that purpose.

Masha: During my second attempt I was reading humanities text.It was even easier to read since there was a bunch of familiar words. In general a training would not take over 30 minutes. The last training that consisted of seven texts to be read 10 times " as one text" was very fruitful. All the fragments were easy to read; it took about 45 minutes. It was a very effective training.

SLANG-SPORT-trainer: This is one of the simpler trainings, although I have to say that all of these are similarly simple, require no special kind of effort or talents. They do require an investment of time.

Masha: I would like to ask , just how well will I know a foreign language after doing prolonged training, the one I am starting from a scratch and the one I have a basic knowledge of? My goal is to be fluently speaking and writing in three languages. Will I be able to reach my goal as a result of these trainings? And how much time will the achieving of this result require?

SLANG-SPORT-trainer: I have answered this question many times. Therefore, there is actually a chapter in my book, dedicated to such inquiries. You can read it here. Read it, please, and if you have additional questions or thoughts , don't hesitate to write me.

Masha: Thank you.

SLANG-SPORT-trainer: Well, there nothing to be grateful for yet.When practicing slang-sport, you should be thanking yourself for every hour of your time that you allocate for your practice. This dedication of an "hour of your life" guarantees both higher quality of a result and faster pace of immersion into foreign speech. Can you see that? Actually, I am the one grateful to you for sharing such an eloquent description of your trial training experience.

Alexander,

has been training 5 foreign languages simultaneously since October 18. Sometimes he trains together with his colleague Max, who also trains in slang-sport.

Prior to the beginning of the training I could only read in English, understand it halfway. The thought of learning other languages has not even crossed my mind. Now you can for yourself judge the result from my diary of trainings. I started training on 18th of October, a week has passed since then.

October 27. The trainings turned out to be meager today, I was mostly training in pauses when not running around.:( Both yesterday and today I practiced by singing in all of the languages except German, reading texts in English and attempting to read in French and Spanish in between. I am confidently singing in all of these languages by now without having to check the lyrics.

October 28. Today's training consisted of singing for 15 minutes in all of the languages. I make no errors in French and Spanish and English, my ability in Italian is catching up. The content of the songs is rapidly becoming clear. These practices were followed by reading in English and attempts to read in Spanish.

October 30. My progress in Italian was inspiring, I felt that today I understood its focus. Also I checked out Zen-reading practice for English and began preparing for practicing the same in Spanish and German. There is a sense of familiarity with English, I am no longer struggling with pronunciation. I spent 25 minutes reading and had to stop because of a sudden urge to sing.

October 31. Today I was in a foul mood, which led to a feeling of inadequacy of my pronunciation. I had to switch between the exercises quickly because of lessened interest. We are implementing Zen-practices without delving into phonetic rules, my practice partner Max is familiar with the pronunciation and corrects me as we go. Then we trade places. This makes the practice very interesting.

November1. Today was an intense training day. I spent entire day reading and practicing songs; in the evening I immersed in a Zen- reading in every language except German. I cannot get a hang of it quite yet. The feeling of inadequacy of pronunciation had vanished, I was surprised to realize that we can read in Spanish and Italian, and are even starting to catch on in German and French.

November 2. The trainings included singing in every language (about 20-25 minutes each), reading instructions in Spanish and Italian and a brief survey of Spanish grammar.

November 3. Oddly, I did not feel like singing along with the music, so I was singing to myself without an accompaniment. I chose intensive Zen-practice instead of singing. First, I spent 20 minutes reading and walking, then grew tired of walking and sat down, then got tired of reading aloud and read to myself, but very importantly had held "inner focus" the entire time, meaning, I was focusing on consciously pronouncing words in my mind. By the end of the book the number of unknown words was very close to zero.

November 4.Today I sang a bit in every language (no longer than 7 minutes each). Read an instruction in every language a bit. And in the evening I had a session of blind typing with Max.

My progress in five languages surprises even me!

Wish you luck in mastering foreign languages! It turns out that mastering of languages can become a great joy instead of a difficult process when training properly!

Ivan Iutin
College student, future attorney, he is mastering English

(Pictured in Katanu, Altai Mountains)

I.Iutin: My goal is to pass the entry exam for a Master's Program in September. Here are my impressions.

Stamina: I am pleased with the results because I enjoy typing on a computer keyboard.

Zen-reading: Words are so much easier to pronounce now; few more trainings and I will blend in seamlessly with native speakers.

Singing songs: This is the most pleasant method for me. I love singing.

Everyday trainings result in vast improvement, even when only a short amount of time is invested. I would like to be able to exercise more.

Thanks to training techniques such as speed reading, singing, my pronunciation has improved dramatically, it became easier to construct grammatically correct sentences. Often I even begin to think in English. Few times I have caught myself arranging sentences in Russian according to English grammar. Continuation of these practices (which I am only able to do couple of time a week) is constantly improving my pronunciation and grammar skills.

Practicing English is bringing me a great joy now, even though previously I would come up with myriad of various excuses, such as lack of time etc. Now I can be waiting at a bus stop and singing a tune.

In October I passed an entry exam in Environmental Law, receiving an "A" in all three parts. I used the same trainings when getting prepared, except selected appropriate materials. For example, I had research and locate an English law dictionary specific to the environmental field.

I had calculated that during the time from February to October I had trained for 70 hours altogether. The calculation really surprised me; I felt I had to be training much more than that to achieve such great result.

So, I had passed with flying colors this environmental law English exam that I had been told many students fail. Now I am in Moscow working on my Master's degree.

Lena K., Bishkek

Accountant of a joint venture, who needs English in her field of work, also a single mother with a 12 year old son

During the first day of the training I alternated three kinds of practices as advised: songs, Zen-practice and text. I dedicated about 15 minutes to each. The entire length of the practice was about an hour and a half.

I spent two days practicing an hour and a half a day, until I was feeling tongue tied. It seems to be the optimal amount of time for me at this stage.

It is also interesting to consider mastering an additional language, I have been wanting to learn French for a long time. I have no previous knowledge in French, never really had a chance to encounter it.

I am trying to do all of the exercises well, that does not always happen. Nonetheless, I do not get discouraged since I have only been practicing for a month. The awkwardness will pass and I will acquire perfect pronunciation.

Yesterday's practice session turned out to be long, from 6 to 10 pm. I was so immersed in the process that I felt no fatigue.

The text I chose is from my field of work, but only after I have been doing the training I started to comprehend its meaning without a translation. There were so many words I did not know before; I had chosen this text without thinking too much about its content. Now I am able to understand it! Such a positive result!

I asked my son to dictate aloud to me. The process is moving easier and easier, this really made a difference. This time I wrote down my text and realized that it became easy for me to work with it, I make almost no grammatical errors when writing it down.

I am becoming immersed in the books that I am reading, which is my absolute favorite practice. My main book is ending, I am dying to find out the finale. It is becoming easier and easier to read, more and more enjoyable. Interestingly, I am already itching to begin a new one. The lyrics of the songs are clearly imprinted in my mind, I have no trouble memorizing new words and expressions through this technique. The only time I lose interest is when an exercise becomes too easy, when everything is understandable and obvious. Then I am eager to begin mastering new texts, books, songs!

Please write to us if you would like to contact any of these slang-sport sportsmen and ask them questions. We will gladly forward your letters to them. Then they can decided if they would like to correspond with you. Good luck!