Language Transfer... and The Thinking Method!

For those of you who have been following for a while, you probably remember when I reached a point of saturation some time ago. Having made courses in nine languages by myself, and under very stressful and precarious conditions, I just kind of broke a little! And so, I decided to go part-time (albeit with full-time bouts!) to get my health in order and to focus on laying the groundwork for building a team. I’ve been writing the Thinking Method Guidebook, and I moved back to Buenos Aires in March as part of ‘getting my life back’, and also to make hiring a team a real possibility... dollars go a lot further here than in Europe!

Ironically, days after arriving and needing to saturate myself with life and friends, with music and dance, after years of a quarantine all of my own… the world shuts down! It was a hard pill to swallow, but five months later and still in partial quarantine, I have to say it was probably the best thing that could have happened for the project, and for me too. Quarantine brought a lot of fresh and motivating attention to Language Transfer, and the best kind of attention too. More of you were able to get further into the project, and decided that you wanted to support! (And thank you!) We are consistently clearing the $2,000 milestone for the first time ever, and I’m already interviewing for our first ever team member! 

Not only that, but with all this time I’ve been really able to do at least one of those things I came back to Buenos Aires for, and that is to return to my other major love: music! I’ve been studying and composing and—almost in spite of myself—writing a new Thinking Method course for Music ...If I needed any proof of what an inevitable teacher I am, I guess it’s that!

It seems my way of needing to understand language is my way of needing to understand most things, and writing the new Music course I was somehow reminded of my Human Biology studies, half a life ago. One day after class I went home to find my brother’s pregnant girlfriend on the sofa eating a cake. Suddenly I fell into awe, thinking about how the tiniest parts of that cake, completely unchanged, would form part of my nephew. I remember noticing how everything I was learning in biology seemed to keep boiling back down to one thing: shape! It was the (very literal) shape of the smallest of things which governed how they interacted, or didn’t. ‘What?!’ She complained, catching my wide-eyed stare. 'You are literally eating your son!’ I replied. How I'd love to test the plausibility of a biology course based around that central idea!

When I went part-time I gave myself the time to find what I needed to be 'me again', and it was only a little more freedom. With that freedom, not so much changed. I eat better, I relax more, and I follow passions other than language. This has given me more energy to give, too, and I have found myself wanting to do something more with what I always knew; anything can be taught using the principles of the Thinking Method. To show how, I will begin releasing the first lessons of the coming video course ‘Introduction to Music (Theory)’ in SEPTEMBER! This is not an official release date for now, so please keep it hush! :) 

The course will teach music in such a holistic way that we might never be able to look at it, or the physical world, in the same way again! From neurology to physics, the journey of understanding music will really exhibit some of the best of what this method has to offer. If you were under the impression that the Thinking Method was only for languages, you are about to be proven gloriously wrong... and that's the point! With the release of the first lessons of the new course, I’ll be inviting teachers of the arts and sciences to get familiar with the Language Transfer/Thinking Method project with a view to coming over to the dark side! My plan is that, eventually, most disciplines will have a Thinking Method course to dissect them and lay them bare to the world, from biology to economics! Language Transfer would become but a branch of the Thinking Method tree, offering expertise in any number of subjects. So many of you have said that you wished you learnt everything in school like this, well, let's dream big!

I’ve changed the page title to ‘Language Transfer and The Thinking Method’ in order to reflect this new plan, but don’t worry, this of course doesn’t mean less languages, just more material! It should also mean more languages and sooner, too. I'm expecting the Music course to draw more attention to the project, and more attention means more support!

Here’s a run down of the new Patreon milestones:

$2500

Once we reach this milestone we'd have guaranteed our new team member for 'marketing', to help build up the project and get a team of course writers on the payroll!

**We’re already hiring for this position as we have some savings from these months, so as soon as we find the right person I'll be showing you their face!**

$3000

LT's first ever hired course writer, and a new language course and visual material promised!

$3500

LT's second hired course writer will join the team, and a new language course under way!

$4000

Now we'll have three paid course-writers on the team in Buenos Aires! And that's in addition to whoever may be working remotely on a semi-volunteer basis! Language courses galore!

$4500

Now we can hire the first Thinking Method teacher for a new subject to be voted for by the usership, in a new art/science!

$5000

Language team complete! Four rotating positions for writers in 4 different languages, all guided and directed by Mihalis!

....and then some new milestones!