MissingMethod

Peter Cooper, creator of FeedDigest and Snippets and a famous Web2.0 entrepreneur, posts today about joining a health club:

Now I’m looking at ways to keep me motivated (as if the expense weren’t enough!) and I’m going to be putting podcasts, interviews, audiobooks, and so forth onto my iPod so I can still be ‘working’ while working up a sweat. All the machines have flat screen TVs built into them, but I’m not really a TV person, so the iPod will come in handy.

For almost six months now I’ve been downloading language lessons and listening to them while I work out. The best ones I’ve found so far are from the Pimsleur series. The reason I like them is that they’re designed to be completely auditory; you don’t need to follow along with a book. And they do a great job of teaching you the language through discovery and synthesis, rather than by pure memorization.

I’ve got the Japanese, Italian, and Portuguese units for myself and I got the Spanish set for my girlfriend (I grew up speaking Spanish, and she’s been promising to learn).

I’d recommend it even if you’re not great with languages; even if you don’t retain a lot of what you learn, it’s great practice for your brain and helps keep you sharp. I’ve also started downloading foreign-language podcasts (in Italian, for example) to get practice hearing native speakers talking in a natural pace and tone.

Warning: these things require you to repeat (aloud) what the tape is saying, so if you’re shy about looking a little strange while you’re cruising on that eliptical, you may want to think twice. If, like me, you don’t mind talking to yourself in public, then you should definitely give it a try.

Last Modified : May 4th, 2006
Filed under : General
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