Dr. Barbara Oakley: Chat about "Mindshift" interest changes & better learning

If you've ever been on Coursera, you've seen the "Learning How to Learn" MOOC run by Dr. Barbara Oakley.
She just published a new book, "Mindshift", about changing careers & learning things better even if it's not your speciality. She should know, since even though she is Oakland University's Engineering Professor, her background is actually in language learning!
Check out her book here:
fi3m.com/mindshift
Otherwise, click the following timestamps to go straight to that point in the interview:
00:35 Are foreign language skills transferrable to different areas of your life?
02:55 What if you don’t have a natural aptitude for languages?
05:12 What would you tell someone who needs to learn a language, but doesn’t feel passionate about it?
06:35 When are you too old to learn something new?
08:36 What’s a simple change people can make to be more successful in learning new skills?
13:32 How can we turn our weaknesses into strengths when learning a new skill?
Make sure to subscribe for more videos, and don't forget to leave a comment and check out Barb's book!

[@naingchanmyae]

I love both Barbra and Lewis. Barbra literally changed my life!!!

[@Natalicha1234]

Barbara is just amazing!

[@ErikaBardere]

Really enjoyed all the advice in this video. It's very inspiring when someone can relate to your "little" everyday issues and help you realize how they affect you long-term and give tips on how to make "little" progressions in order to off-set that and create momentum instead. That's how I got myself back into reading books! I was the biggest bookworm as a child, refusing to go to bed without one and even winning a Reading Olympics of my elementary school one year. Started telling myself that 5min of reading during random down-times were better than waiting for the day I knew I had 3hrs to read (which I wouldn't have used to read most likely anyways). I honestly have no idea why I never used this method towards language. I used to drive around with Pimsleur in my car, which was the best thing I ever did, then I got tired of not listening to music on my very long and daily commutes. I get sick of routine (#Sagittarius), so keeping myself on track is a mission. Also, because I am almost never at home, I always use up my phone data before the cycle starts over, so I can't keep myself glued to online apps any more than I already am. Mixing techniques will be my only hope at becoming a polyglot.

[@irishpolyglot]

Hey everyone - I hope you enjoyed the video! If you are short on time right now to watch the whole thing, then let me help you with a link directly to the questions: 00:35 Are foreign language skills transferrable to different areas of your life? 02:55 What if you don’t have a natural aptitude for languages? 05:12 What would you tell someone who needs to learn a language, but doesn’t feel passionate about it? 06:35 When are you too old to learn something new? 08:36 What’s a simple change people can make to be more successful in learning new skills? (My favourite answer, since she goes deep into the Pomodoro technique, explaining a component of it that I had never even thought of, despite using it for years!) 13:32 How can we turn our weaknesses into strengths when learning a new skill? Make sure to subscribe for more videos, and don't forget to leave a comment and check out Barb's book! fi3m.com/mindshift

[@surdude282]

Totally cool you got to interview her. As a Special Education learner I was hoping Dr. Oakley was going to talk a little bit about different learning styles and how they play into learning a language. I know colleges are starting to teach future Special Education Teachers about the different learning styles.

[@martaserena3322]

Fantástica entrevista de una señora por la que siento una franca admiración.¡ Enhorabuena, Benny!. Justamente acabo de terminar su nuevo curso "Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential" para mi ha sido muy inspirador. En dicho curso Barbara comenta la importancia del aprendizaje activo, entonces me acordé de ti: para aprender un idioma hay que utilizar el idioma. ¡Qué gran verdad!

[@irishpolyglot]

Gracias Marta - es una verdad que no enseñan en muchos lugares. Barbara y yo, intentamos cambiar eso :D

[@EDR-ih2fu]

Very great video: inspirational and it sustain ourselves in ou work ! we can avoid certain tricks from our brain! Thank you for all !

[@reginashdown]

Such an enriched interview! I'm doing the Learrning how to Learn couse now and has helped me massively already to make the most of my Social Work studies. 💛💡

[@kamiprisa]

I´m fan of both courses!!! Congratulation!!!

[@javierrojas758]

! Excelente entrevista Benny ! Gracias !

[@irishpolyglot]

Gracias a ti Javier!

[@caroleottcoelho806]

This is fantastic. Thank you for this!

[@irishpolyglot]

You're more than welcome ;)

[@user-ux6pb3vb5i]

I really like the way that you did this interview on a cafe where we can hear a light background noise of people talking. I don't know if you purposely did this, but I am pretty sure that this is helpful for us listeners in maintaining our focus in what you are discussing (I've read some study about this and I am lazy to look for it right now ^_^ ). I hope to see more (interview-type, informational) video like this on youtube with the technique you somewhat did. :)

[@themejin93]

Great video! Thanks!

[@irishpolyglot]

Always happy to share inspirational people we can all learn a lot from with the world!

[@creeksidecubing1009]

Hey nice video! I really like it. A takeaway for me is the point on focusing on something else during the 5 minute breaks for the Pomodoro technique. This will be a great way to mix cubing with language study!

[@irishpolyglot]

Ever since I implemented this strategy, I've been able to get the one task done for hours, whereas before I'd run out of patience after an hour max. I can highly recommend it!

[@paulhowlett8151]

Hi Benny, I just ordered the book " Mindshift" from UK Book Depository. I should have the book within a week and a few days. Its a long way from the UK to Australia!!

[@irishpolyglot]

+Paul Howlett The stories in it are really inspiring - I'm sure you'll find it useful!

[@edvaldomoraesdasilvajunior4646]

Prabéns pelo canal! Essas dicas e metodologias que você menciona nos seus videos se aplicam ao estudo para o IELTS? Poderia indicar: livros, cursos, aplicativos, simulados, metodologias e etc voltados ao IELTS?

[@futurebliss]

Thanks, Benny! The do-a-different-type-of-cognition-break was new for me as well, and is something I will be more conscious of and try to use pro-actively! Oh! And the audio - the volume to be specific -, was skewed towards you. You had a much higher volume than Barbara. Try to point the mic in a more balanced way perhaps? Just in case you didn't already know…

[@irishpolyglot]

Glad others got a good takeaway from that point that was new to me too! The mic was pointed at her actually, but she's quite soft spoken. On top of this, I've had hearing issues for years that have gotten worse recently (I'm going for surgery on Tuesday), and one result of that is that I simply project my voice a lot because I feel like compensating, presuming others hear me as bad as I hear them. I am never aware I'm doing it. In future interviews I'll either try to consciously talk softer, or I can actually use a sound editing technique in Adobe Audition that will equalise the volume digitally. But don't worry, I know. People love to tell you to talk softer and I hear it a lot...

[@futurebliss]

Oh! The VERY best luck for the operation, and getting back on track!

[@irishpolyglot]

Sure thing! I do appreciate the feedback & reminder, so I promise I'll try to take it into account in future interview videos. Little changes like this can make a great video excellent, and I do want to keep improving them ;) Thanks again!

[@ghenulo]

Pomodoro? Apple-smell? Ah, my Esperanto strikes again!

[@irishpolyglot]

lol, hilarious way of looking at that word :D

[@ghenulo]

I like studying languages and learning how there are different ways to do the same thing, but I'm a horrible communicator. I'm shy and have no people skills at all. In school, I had to go to special classes to teach me how to interact with people. It didn't work; I'm as bad as an adult as I was as a kid at interacting with people. So, I call BS on the notion that language learners are better communicators.

[@irishpolyglot]

Then I call BS on your interpretation ;) Learning another language gives you the ability to communicate with more people, and can help you understand your own language better to even appreciate other words. I was always pretty weak at picking the right word, but since I learned romance languages, I've known what a lot more *English* words mean as a result. You are going to get better at communicating period - your other traits may remain the same, but this fact is hard to argue against. What you are talking about is social skills, which is an entirely different issue. Learning a new language won't necessarily change that at all. In my case, it happened to force me to be more outgoing as I travelled and had to make friends with locals, since I was avoiding English, and being OK with making mistakes to boost my confidence as I interacted with people, but that's more a case that lifestyle choices led to better social skills, with language learning simply being the catalyst. In that sense, if you are using "better communicator" to mean "more outgoing", then sure, I'd agree that an actual correlation is harder to argue. People skills have aspects to them that need to be worked on directly, and learning vocabulary and practising basic phrases won't really achieve that. But it will open the doors to allow you to improve your people skills with way more people, and other cultures that may be less intimidating if your current environment makes it a little harder.

[@oscar_jacques]

It's also worth keeping in mind that to a certain extent, social skills are structured in the same way that a language's grammar is. You may never be the best conversationalist in the world, but there are certainly tangible elements of conversation that can be learned regardless of how you naturally speak to someone (i.e. asking somebody where they work and, depending on their answer, asking how long they've been doing it, do they find it difficult or fun? Was it always their dream, or do they plan to do something else in the future?). A lot of conversations actually follow a very structured formula, and with some practise, the right questions and answers can be learned, and the ability to improvise will just get better with time. Then learn to do it in Chinese.

[@ghenulo]

Hmm. I'd like to know how learning a language is similar to learning a musical instrument. As far as I can tell, learning a language is mental and learning an instrument is physical (i.e. how fast you can move your fingers, hands and/or feet, depending on the instrument). Of course, I've never really learned either, but another language is something I've actually wanted to learn. Learning an instrument, on the other hand, is something I've actively avoided; when I was forced to learn a recorder in school, I never practiced and was called out on it, but eh, maybe if my music teacher weren't a massive asshole anyway, I might have cared.

[@yuxiangwang2122]

Ah, madam. You look like Carrie Mathison!!