Ralentissez! Slow Down!

Consider this: You are listening to a pre-recorded French conversation on your ipod. You have the transcript open in front of you. You follow every word of what is being said. But the moment you turn off the ipod and close the transcript, the whole conversation sort of disappears from your brain. You are not able to even recollect one full sentence. And this is happening even after listening to the recording many times.
Familiar!

Time to slow down! Time to fall back upon age old method of learning. Writing. Write down the conversation on a piece of paper, paying attention to each word written down. Once you have done that, read it aloud, slow….ly. Now see the difference.

I find this very effective. Hopefully you will find it too.