While there are many ways to learn a new language, at Launch India, we believe that you will learn most meaningfully when you exercise the patience and discipline to conduct all your sessions in Hindi Urdu only without using English. This belief and recommendation comes from the research behind the approach we use: The Growing Participator Approach (GPA). While eliminating English from the language learning process will increase ambiguity and confusion in the short term, in the long term it creates opportunity for stronger encounters with words, for opportunity for our brains to go through appropriate struggle to actually grow, and for the needed openness to actually understand new concepts in another language.
While we work hard to coach our Nurturers to use only Hindi Urdu during sessions, Growing Participators (GPs) are ultimately responsible to choose for themselves if they will allow themselves to struggle through the discomfort of learning a new language by keeping English out of their sessions in order to ultimately improve their understanding and speaking ability in the end. This practice really is uncomfortable and challenging. And while one can make progress in a language by always filtering back through English, we have seen that this approach ultimately slows the learning practice. It may feel more safe and comfortable but we cannot agree that it is best for the long term growth of our Growing Participators (GPs).
We hope each GP will consider these four reasons why GPA sessions for Hindi Urdu and other South Asian languages should be done without using English.
1. Visuals make it possible to learn another language without using English
One of the unique things about the Growing Participator Approach (GPA) is that from day one, it is designed so that you learn your target language only using your target language. This means that your home language, English presumably, is not needed to learn your target language from the very first day that you start, even though you don't know any of the target language at that point.
In the beginning phase, which is often discussed the most and is the most widely known because it's where everybody starts, it uses toys and image sets to teach a huge amount of vocabulary. (Teach isn't actually the right word; it's more about giving growing participators exposure to a huge amount of vocabulary and having those participants then use those vocabulary words in a variety of different contexts, following a variety of different commands.) By the end of phase one, participants should be able to freely construct sentences of their own design using the structures they have learned up to that point. GPA continues to provide different supports throughout the program from phase two all the way to phase five, ensuring there's always some sort of visual or audio reference for classes to be conducted entirely without the need for English.
Contact us for a free consultation or free trial class today if you'd like to hear more about which GPA Phase would be the best fit for you.
2. Our brains make more direct links when we use only the target language.
When you're learning a target language, your brain switches into an entirely different function. Ultimately, exposure to a huge amount of your target language is what's going to grow your ability to understand and speak it. When you hear English spoken, either by yourself, your Nurturer, or someone else in the room, it basically "records over" the recording that has been played and recorded in your mind up to that point in your target language. It is very interruptive and distracting. If you're constantly translating words into English, you're actually adding an extra step, preventing yourself from fully engaging with the new language with efficiency. Instead of listening carefully to the new word in Hindi or Urdu, for example, you're clarifying its meaning in your native language. Speaking the English word when you should be listening carefully to the target word is a disadvantage to yourself.
3. Struggle actually improves your language ability long-term
We like to use the example of someone who's looking to gain muscles at the gym. If he or she goes to the gym and has a trainer who, the moment this person starts to be discouraged and says, "This is hard, I can't do it," just responds, "No problem, let me do it for you," that participant is never going to make the gains needed. He's never going to finish the reps that will push him to the place where he sees significant improvement in his form or function. Rather, if the student says, "This is hard," and the trainer continues to push them in an encouraging, supportive way, saying, "Yes, you can do this. Stick with it. Keep going. Give me five more. Push it, push it. You got this," all of a sudden that person pushes through. They do make the extra reps, and as a result, over the long term, with discipline and repeated effort, this person will likely see the gains they hope to achieve.
In the same way, if you keep asking for words in English during your class, your brain is taking the easy way out. You are actually training your brain that these words are not important to learn because you can just ask for a translation and get the answer. When given the choice, our brains will choose to be lazy. If they don't need to struggle to learn, they won't! So using English means our brains are not getting the reps they need in Hindi or Urdu. There's a huge power in the struggle.
Just like in the gym example, the same thing happens when learning another language. When you have to struggle to learn a new word, experiencing ambiguity and confusion, it's not entirely clear when your nurturer explains it to you in their target language what you're getting at. But you try making a sentence anyway, and they say, "That's kind of close, try again." They explain it again, and you make another sentence. They say, "That's closer, we're almost there," and explain it again. You make a sentence, and they say, "Yeah, you got it." That struggle to use the new word correctly is a powerful encounter with that word and it will not be easily forgotten. Your brain has learned that this is an important word to know and will therefore apply the necessary memory structures to recall it in the future.
Let's go to an earlier phase example: if you're in phase two and trying to ask for the word for "maybe," which is kind of an ambiguous word in itself and doesn't have a great picture to show it. You shrug your shoulders, draw a picture of a guy shrugging his shoulders, make examples that show different options, and try to get towards this word. You come up with different examples where this word would fit. When your nurturer starts to understand what you're asking for, and it finally clicks, that's going to be a powerful word for you because you struggled to get there. You will remember it much more likely because your brain learned it is an important word to know.
4. Hindi Urdu won't always fit into your English boxes
The last reason to avoid using English during your sessions is that when you habitually ask what a word in your target language means in English, you're significantly limiting your understanding of that target word by putting it into the box that only English offers. When learning another language and culture, there are concepts and expressions that we aren't accustomed to expressing in our home language. There can also be multiple Hindi Urdu words that in a similar way represent the same word in English. At the same time, words we have in our language may not have a clear equivalent in the target language. This difference in thinking, values, and development of different languages means that needing to anchor every word you learn in an English word demonstrates a lack of curiosity about what is really happening in the target language. You're likely missing out on the subtle uses of words in the new language and the way things are expressed. Misapplying these words is a risk if you always seek a translation.
Master Tip: Welcome WORKING DEFINITIONS of new words and concepts as you learn a new language.
There's a high chance that at some point, you'll ask for a word, they'll tell you something, and your understanding will be limited. You might operate under a misconception for a while. However, words that are important will come up again and again. The next time you encounter that word in a different context, it might be described slightly differently, challenging your current understanding and deepening it. Correcting what you thought it meant and learning it as something else is another powerful encounter with that word. Struggling and restructuring your understanding makes the word memorable.
Listening, asking questions, creating sample sentences, and using them again are crucial. In higher phases, or any phase, try to use new words immediately. Though initially low in your memory, using them right away helps them rise to the top of your "iceberg" (or "well" as we like to use in our South Asian context). Don't feel pressured to memorize every new word; it's normal to ask about a new word many times before it becomes familiar. Asking again and again until you feel confident is key.
Conclusion
The number one indicator of success in language learning, beyond any method, is time spent learning the language. While you can use English and be successful, we believe that GPA used with the discipline to only use Hindi Urdu to learn Hindi Urdu will accelerate learning further, faster, and deeper in a more relational way. The Growing Participator Approach provides the necessary supports at each Phase to have powerful encounters with vocabulary, phrases and grammatical forms using only the target language. These structures allow your brain to make more direct connections without slowing the process by always adding the extra step of "translating" through an English word. These supports also provide the necessary challenge for your brain to actually decide it needs to learn the new word forms in the target language. It encourages both fun and struggle in learning for growth. And lastly, the GPA activities across phases help reinforce the learner mindset that a new language and culture is unique from English and needs to be approached with curiosity rather than forcing it to fit an English vocabulary system.
You want to be able to think, speak and understand freely and deeply in another language. This takes patience, discipline and hard work. But you can absolutely do it! We at Launch India would love to help you grow towards your goals! Reach out today!
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