First 2023 Update!

Hello everyone!

I know I’ve been quiet, I’ve been thinking.

Coming into 2022, I told myself (and you, I believe!) that I would give it a year with the ‘competition model' to find new course writers, and then reflect on that to see if we’d continue as per, or change the game. I had almost forgotten that, until things forced me to reconsider where everything was in reality as opposed to just in my head.

Wrapped up in the team dream that my last (now almost embarrassing) post was the subject of, I didn’t realise that what was different about this collaboration -the one that led me to fly someone to Asturias- was only that this person was applying (most of) my feedback to their course. No-one had actually done that yet, most running for the hills the moment they realised they weren't 'the' course writer that would get it all right first shot (even though I stress in the guidebook that I never do!). That's a low bar I'd set myself there for deciding I had found a new course writer, and I was eventually forced to face that fact. It soon became clear to me that I was mostly just ‘writing by proxy’ through the new course writer, and in a super inefficient way: run by run, edit by edit, new concept by new concept - and, of course, all those rejected concepts that would eventually be accepted and fine editing would have to restart. After months of work we managed to solidify around five classes and do a little work on some others, and by the end of it I couldn’t help but face the fact that most of the ideas, wording and structure of the new lessons was my own. Clearly, it would have been quicker to write it myself with the help of native speakers, than to help one native speaker to write it. If finding new course writers was imperative because the demands of LT are too much for one person, 'writing by proxy' is not going to solve the problem. What was I thinking? I guess I’ve been trying to fulfil social needs through the project that I need to satisfy elsewhere. The (very recent) moment I realised this (and it’s especially clear to me now reading my last update!) the dream team idea died a sudden death. And about time, because it has been wasting time.

For these and for other reasons, in the midst of this all it became apparent that the balance of 2022 was not in favour of the current model, nor the idea of an LT team. My ideas about new material can all get realised without it though, which I realised the moment I really let go of all this dream fodder about uniting LT demands and other social needs. I found a fix so simple that it’s almost embarrassing, but I can't wait to share it:

The 'competition' will now be a submission to join a virtual platform for new course writers to upload their material. All my interaction with new course writers will now be public by default. Supporters and learners alike can see the (otherwise behind-the-scenes) work I’m doing on other people’s material, and all that work is logged so that it can be used by new course writers as a type of self-training. Nothing is wasted. This also relieves the constant stress of whether my investment into people will amount to anything, as that investment is always generating material for the platform, even if that's just material for new course writers rather than new course material.

This video I uploaded when I corrected a Portuguese class was well received by course writers and learners alike ( https://youtu.be/cgBbU6VMJA8 see the comments). The new platform will basically just systemise a lot more of this, but on an independent platform designed for this rather than on YouTube. It will also include non-language subjects taught with the Thinking Method, and will include followups to my own courses (like Intro to Music) which will be created by new writers, say a course specialising in harmony for example. If I make an ‘Intro to’ Mycology or Chemistry course (I'll quietly work on courses in things I like to study!), I debut the possibilities of the method in that context, and other teachers can pick up from there and generate more material. The possibilities are endless.

The new platform will allow the teacher/writer to engage straight away with LT learners, and this should really motivate them in their course creating journey, and so more material should become available more quickly. I won't be focused on signing off perfect courses in order to label them 'LT courses' through the platform, but rather I will simply be helping everyone get better at what they are doing. I can't wait to see what could grow from there, and I really am excited to be relieved from navigating complicated relationships based on trust and promise, with people I don’t know. This simplifies everything, and we lose nothing.

The finer details of the platform -and there are many- I’m still hashing out but the summary is this: teachers of languages or any other subject will upload their Thinking Method lessons for people to use freely, and can also offer themselves for private classes (paid or free). In this way, the platform will help private teachers practice their material whilst making a living, and that living feeds into their course creation... and on it goes. Language Transfer will take no cut from the private classes and it will be made clear that the teachers have no official affiliation with Language Transfer.

The lessons are also necessarily uploaded under the assumption that the course writers want my feedback, which they are free to take onboard and then upload improved versions of their lessons. If they do, all of this remains catalogued, so that new course writers can see the evolution of other writers’ material, and use it to teach themselves. This will mean more of my time can be directed to the most advanced course writers as things proceed.

Everything uploaded becomes common ‘property’ of the platform, which means we’re no longer reliant on one teacher. If someone uses hours of my time to perfect two Russian classes and then disappears, it’s no problem - it’s all there, publicly available for anyone to use, and for a new teacher to continue creating.  

On top of all of this, the platform will also be used to work on visual material which employs the ideas of the method (such as the Arabic Thinker Cards https://www.languagetransfer.org/arabic). I'll also upload all the visual material I began over the years for others to continue.

I know I’ve announced the future of Language Transfer a few times before, but this has to be it. How overwhelming I find this workload means I evolve slowly in the organisational sense, to say the least, so I’m sorry it took me so long to find this obvious solution, but a lot was learnt and material has been generated for the new platform on the way… and so it should begin with a bang! One of those bangs will be the first classes of that 'mystery course', Mandarin Chinese, which I can tell you are smashing! Of course, I don’t need to keep that a secret anymore now that I’m not relying on any one person to finish that course. The platform will launch with the first classes of Chinese, at the very least! And if a budding course writer would like their material on the platform at launch, now is the time to get busy! 

Thanks for all your support and accompaniment in this, and please let me know if you have any questions about this new system!