Intro
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| Becky: Welcome to a special Inner Circle Audio Lesson! I'm Becky and I'll be your host. My co-host today is the founder of InnovativeLanguage.com... Peter Galante! |
| Peter: Hi everyone! Peter here. |
| Becky: In this Inner Circle, we’re talking about Input versus Output... |
| Peter: and How to Get REAL Results From Your Language Studies. |
| Becky: You’ll learn... |
| Peter: ...One, What We Mean By “Input and Output,” |
| Becky: Two, The Importance Of Tracking Your Effort and Results, |
| Peter: ...and Three, How I Applied This Learning Tactic this Month... |
| Becky: ...And How You Can Too. |
| Peter: ...All so you can master your target language and finally reach your goals! |
| Body |
| Peter: Listeners, welcome back. |
| Becky: Last time, you learned how to write 1,000 words in 5 minutes a day... |
| Peter: ...with the daily dose app. |
| Becky: So Peter, what you did last time was... you’d review your daily dose lessons... |
| Peter: ...and based on that day’s lesson, I’d write 2 or 3 sentences about it. |
| Becky: And over the month you ended up writing over 1,000 words in German. |
| Peter: That’s right, Becky. And remember... this didn’t increase my speaking time... but my conversations with my teacher became a lot more complex. |
| Becky: Ah, quality over quantity. |
| Peter: Exactly. |
| Becky: What’s interesting is, the daily dose lessons aren’t writing exercises... but you found a way to write using them. That was pretty clever. |
| Peter: It’s a classic example of input and output. I was getting input from the daily dose... |
| Becky: ...and then you’d put it to use. Output. |
| Peter: And focusing on input and output is powerful learning tactic. |
| Becky: ...that almost forces you to succeed and helps you get real results. |
| Peter: Listeners, if you’re wondering what we mean, we’ll explain in a second. |
| Becky: In fact, this is the topic of today’s Inner Circle. |
| Peter: Input vs Output And Getting Real Results From Your Language Studies. |
| Becky: So today, you’ll learn... |
| Peter: ...One, What We Mean By “Input and Output,” |
| Becky: Two, The Importance Of Tracking Your Input and Output, |
| Peter: ...and Three, How I Applied This Learning Tactic this Month... |
| Becky: ...And How You Can Too. So..is this the tactic you applied this month? |
| Peter: Exactly. |
| Becky: Cool. Then you FINALLY hit your German conversation goal this time, huh! |
| Peter: Well... about that. I was at 13 minutes and promised 17 minutes, right? |
| Becky: Uh oh. Here we go. |
| Peter: Well, Becky, I came close but I didn’t quote get there! What I did was write 2 pages of German and that’s my output for the month. |
| Becky: Oh... hey! That’s not bad at all. So you made progress in writing. Okay, then let’s talk input and output. |
| Peter: Let’s get into the first part. |
| Becky: One, here’s what we mean by... Input and Output. |
| Peter: Listeners, input is simply the time and effort you put into studying. |
| Becky: Like listening to audio lessons for 5 hours a week. 5 hours is your input. |
| Peter: Or reviewing flashcards for 30 minutes, or even reading lesson notes for a minute. |
| Becky: And output? |
| Peter: It’s the return on the time invested. |
| Becky: So in other words, the results. The work that you produce. |
| Peter: Exactly. For example, if you listen to 5 hours of audio lessons a week... |
| Becky: ...then the return on the time invested would be something like... 5 or 10 minutes of conversation. |
| Peter: If you actually have those conversations! It could also be 3 recordings sent to your Premium PLUS teacher per day... |
| Becky: Or... writing 100 words a day to your Premium PLUS teacher. |
| Peter: Right. The output is the work you produce. It’s a result of your studies... or input. |
| Becky: Now that you know what the terms mean.... |
| Peter: Let’s jump into part two. |
| Becky: Two. The Importance Of Tracking Your Input and Output |
| Peter: Tracking your input and output is what makes this tactic so powerful. |
| Becky: If you take a look around... most learners do a ton of input with studying, right? |
| Peter: They read textbooks. They watch videos. They listen to lessons. |
| Becky: But they have no measurable results... or return on their time invested. |
| Peter: If someone told you that they’ve read 200 pages of a textbook... |
| Becky: ...first, Peter, I’d be pretty impressed. That’s a lot of input! |
| Peter: Exactly, BUT... can they place a specific number on their results? |
| Becky: Hmm. |
| Peter: Can they say “I learned 1,000 words” or “I can handle of 20 minutes of conversation as a result of reading 200 pages?” |
| Becky: Ah, good point. I think most learners wouldn’t even know. |
| Peter: Right. Most people don’t measure their input or their output. |
| Becky: However.. if you knew that listening to 1 hour of audio lessons a week... |
| Peter: ...resulted in being able to hold a 3 minute conversation.... |
| Becky: ...now you know what results you’re getting from your work. |
| Peter:. ...and because you can measure them, you can now improve your results. |
| Becky: Can you give an example? |
| Peter: Okay, let’s go with listening to audio lessons for 1 hour a week. This results in, for me, about 2 to 3 minutes of conversation depending on the content. Now that you know these numbers, you can assume that doubling your input to 2 hours a week would result in... |
| Becky: ...4 to 6 minutes of conversation. Ah I see! Now you know how to improve. |
| Peter: Now, with those, it might not double exactly. There is the law of diminishing return. But what’s important to understand is that, by inputting something, there should be some kind of output. |
| Becky: Listeners, that’s why this tactic is so powerful. It almost forces you to improve and succeed... |
| Peter: Because you’re actually producing output. Most people listen to music. Becky, what else do people do? |
| Becky: Listen to podcasts, read books. |
| Peter: And most of the time spent on the input... but actually sitting down after you read a book, you can apply this to your own life, and writing your thoughts about it - that’s output. Those notes can help you remember things later. |
| Look at it in another way. You can try to get more output while maintaining your input - 1 hour. |
| Becky: So... trying to get 7 or 8 minutes of conversation from 1 hour of study time. |
| Peter: Listeners, that’s why this tactic is so powerful. It almost forces you to improve and succeed... |
| Becky: ...by looking for ways to beat your current numbers. |
| Peter: Just think.. You even could double your speaking time... without adding extra input. |
| Becky: Okay, Peter, this sounds great, but you’re bringing out the skeptic in me. How can our listeners do that? How did you do it? |
| Peter: Hahaha. Fair enough, Becky. Then, let’s get into this third part. |
| Becky: How Peter Applied This Learning Tactic this Month |
| Peter: Again, Becky. This input/output idea is very interesting because so much, especially nowadays, is input only. Youtube - 4 hours of input and how about any output? |
| Becky: Sometimes I laugh while watching. Does that count as output? |
| Peter: So... back in September, I wrote 2 to 3 lines based on 1-minute daily dose lessons. |
| Becky: So was it 1 minute of input... or study time? |
| Peter: Well it actually it totalled to about 10 minutes a day. First I’d review the lesson. That’s 1 minute. Then, I’d research the topic and all of the grammar rules and vocabulary to write those lines. That would take me another 9 minutes or so. |
| Becky: And 10 minutes resulted in 2 to 3 lines a day. |
| Peter: And by the end of the month, I hit 1,000 words. So that's about 33 words a day. |
| Becky: 10 minutes of input for 30 days... that’s 300 minutes or about 5 hours for the month. Oh wow, okay! |
| Peter: So 5 hours for the month resulted in 1,000 words of German writing. About 1 page. |
| Becky: And this month? |
| Peter: This month, my output was 2 pages - 1,900, almost 2,000 words written. |
| Becky: And how many minutes of conversation? |
| Peter: Becky, you know, conversation did not increase. But, what I did was, I maintained the daily dose routine. So, that didn’t change. But see, I already knew that doing it for 1 month would result in 1,000 words... or 1 page of output. |
| Becky: Ah...yeah, it makes sense now. You’ve kind of swayed me from being skeptical. You have my attention. |
| Peter: Okay, Becky. Next. Next, were my Premium PLUS assignments. I’d write an additional 30 words a to my Premium PLUS teacher. Well, about 30 words. Sometimes more, sometimes less. So, multiply 30 days by 30 and that helped me reach |
| Becky: 900. |
| Peter: So 1900. Or almost 2,000. I’d send those daily to my teacher while receiving corrections on my previous assignments. |
| Becky: That was your output, right? What about the input? |
| Peter: Great point. I’d spend about 20 minutes or less per day on this part. Basically, I would listen to a lesson and read the PDF notes. Or listen to a conversation and then read the PDF notes. And that’s 10 hours for the month. |
| Becky; Okay, how’d you reach 16 minutes of German conversation? |
| Peter: Here’s the first piece of input. For every written message that I’d send to my teacher, I’d also record it. That took only 1 minute because I’d just read it out loud. That was one routine. |
| Becky: Got it! Huh, so that’s 1 minute of speaking time per message. That’s double the return on your time. You practice writing and speaking, and learn new words in the process. |
| Peter: Exactly Becky, so that’s what I mean by improving your output without increasing your input too much. |
| Becky: Ahh, okay. Wait, if you did 1 minute for 30 days... Wouldn’t you be at 30 minutes of speaking instead of 16? |
| Peter: Well, I COULD count it that way, but that’s not how real conversation goes. Remember, the 16 minutes comes from a timed conversation with my Skype teacher. And that’s my true goal – to maximize conversation. But, yes, you can say I had 30 minutes of output by recording my messages. |
| Becky: Yes, that makes sense. |
| Peter: And of course, I kept up with my GermanPod101 lessons. I’d listen 1 or 2 lessons a day and review the PDFs. That’s about 15 minutes a day for 5 days of the week. That also adds up to 5 hours for the month. |
| Becky: And that contributed to your 16 minutes of conversation. |
| Peter: Right, you can say that 5 hours of audio lessons for the month... plus 30 minutes of sending voice recordings to my teacher.... Resulted in 16 minutes of conversation. |
| Becky: That’s really interesting how you can directly connect study time... |
| Peter: ...to the results. Again, it’s an approximation. And of course there are diminishing returns. So, this idea of measuring the amount of time you input to your studies and then tying to... |
| Becky: ...your results. |
| Peter: The output. |
| Becky: The output! And it makes me think of that expression, “what gets measured, gets managed.” |
| Peter: Perfectly well said. So... |
| Becky: ...if you never knew the numbers |
| Peter:... then you wouldn’t know what your baseline was |
| Becky: ....you wouldn’t know how to improve... |
| Peter: ...which is exactly what makes this tactic so powerful. |
| Becky: Okay, now, how can our listeners do this? |
| Peter: It’s not hard, just measure your input, or the time you study. |
| Becky: Listeners, we already ask you to set small, measurable monthly goals |
| Peter: ....and outline your daily routines. |
| Becky: So this should give you an idea of how much time you put in already. |
| Peter: Then, measure your results or your output. You have to start doing output whether it’s a journal, texting your teacher, writing comments on the site, speaking conversation - you have to have that output and measure it. So If your goal is to learn 1000 words in 1 month.... |
| Becky: ...but you only learned 800, then you know that with your current input... 800 is a realistic number. 1 month results in 800 words mastered. |
| Peter: And because you know this, you can now improve by doubling your input... |
| Becky: ...or changing to a more efficient study method... like learning with flashcards. |
| Peter: Simply put, measure your time input.... |
| Becky: ...and measure your output! |
| Peter: And again, to measure the output, you have to do the ouput. You’ll instantly see what results you’re getting for the time spent... |
| Becky: ...and how to improve. Like I said “What gets measured, gets managed.” |
| Peter: And I think it’s a Peter Drucker quote. |
| Becky: Okay, speaking of Peter, Peter... let’s talk goals. Your next goal. More conversation than last month. |
| Peter: Again, I think this about, much like anything in life, managing and adjusting expectations so I’ve been kind of stuck on the conversation level but my reading and more importantly writing has improved a lot so let’s try to increase my speaking this month. I’m going to try for 15 minutes of conversation by next month. |
| Becky: That sounds good! And listeners,... |
| Peter: Try this input/output tactic out. Measure the amount of time studied and measure your results. |
| Becky: Let us know how it works out for you... |
| Peter: ...and if you can think of any ways of increasing your output. |
| Becky: Email us at inner dot circle at innovative language dot com. |
| Peter: And stay tuned for the next Inner Circle. |
Outro
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| Becky: Well, that’s going to do it for this special Inner Circle lesson! |
| Peter: Bye everyone! |
| Becky: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
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