Improve your English and life with handwriting

18 Ago 2024 | Podcast | 0 commenti

Hi I’m Nick Simcock, an English Language coach. I help Italians to unlock their English.

Puoi ascoltare questo podcast e leggere contemporaneamente una trascrizione completa sul mio sito speakwithnick.it podcast. Ma prima di seguire la trascrizione ti invito ad ascoltare senza leggere. Con un approccio positivo e curioso, accetta il fatto che non capirai tutto all’inizio, cerca di intuire il significato, poi dopo usa la trascrizione per arrivare ad una comprensione completa. Buon ascolto! 

In my membership Second Nature English August is writing month. So, this month I want to talk to you about the benefits of putting pen to paper.

We are all so digitally savvy these days and it’s probable that you don’t spend much time writing by hand. In fact I use a computer everyday. It checks my spelling, I can shift the position of whole paragraphs and immediately delete what I don’t like returning to a perfect blank page. And if I were to include audio dictation and AI it would be possible to produce a piece of writing without even tapping the letters on a keyboard! And let’s not even get into the discussion of AI’s ability to fabricate writing for us from a simple request. 

You could say handwriting is old fashioned and slow, but when it comes to learning and our general wellbeing faster and easier doesn’t mean better, writing is about slowing down and reaping the undeniable benefits of putting pen to paper.

Writing by hand improves your memory and learning

As an English learner, the physical act of writing will strengthen the neural connections in your brain. The more we align physical movement, such as writing with learning, the stronger our memory of the new information becomes. For children and adults alike, there is little doubt that writing by hand and taking notes improves memory and recall.

Writing down key phrases and new vocabulary in sentences that are relevant and important to you, takes the information out of your lofty unorganised thoughts. It gives you a visual and concrete structure upon which your learning can grow. You can take single words, or phrases and draw pictures, diagrams and maps of information. There is no right or wrong way to do it. Have fun developing your own personal style that works for you.

Our brain is arguably the most incredible machine known to us, but it works for very specific purposes. The human brain has evolved to remember only what is important for our survival and pleasure and ignore the rest, this means that passive reading alone without writing, speaking or actual practice of the new material, means you’ll have little chance of remembering what simply flashes before your eyes.

The only way we have of learning anything is through experience. The famous “cone of experience” created by Edgar Dale in the 1940’s tells us, starting at the top of the triangle, that we remember only
10 percent of what we READ
20 percent of what we HEAR
30 percent of what we SEE
50 percent of what we SEE and HEAR
And here’s the important one: 70 percent of what we SAY and WRITE
And best of all: 90 percent of what we DO!

So when it comes to retaining new information: write about it, read it out loud. Summarising your notes by speaking out loud to an imaginary person is a great way to cement the new information in your memory. Finally for maximum recall create real experiences using the new material!

Handwriting is therapy for your mind and life

Call it a diary, a journal or simply my notes, writing can give you great calming clarity. Our thoughts are constantly throwing us in random directions in often dizzying confusion, it’s no wonder we need to sleep at the end of the day, to turn off the constant buzz in our heads.

Putting your thoughts down on paper in black and white, no matter how trivial they may seem, helps us to understand the invisible ever shifting contents of our head. It can be a real healing process crucial to our mental well being. Writing and reviewing what we’ve written in a non judgemental way with a professional or simply a close friend can give important insights into our mental state. This kind of writing can ease depression and anxiety, sooth nerves and at a more basic level simply help us to take action, otherwise we easily become caught in loops and traps of thoughts.

Starting to write can be difficult. It’s easy to have good intentions, but action is what counts. Probably the best way to begin and find inspiration is to spend some time deciding on what stationary to use. Do you prefer to use a pencil or a pen? What colour ink do you prefer? What size notebook A6, A5 or A4? Do you want a classic diary format, lined or blank pages? Maybe you want to use different books: one for your English learning, one for your personal journal. Invest some time in choosing your materials, enjoy this process, but don’t get lost in it.

If journaling or simply taking notes is new to you and you want to introduce it into your life, remember that to make a new habit stick you need to give yourself constant reminders to do it. So leave your notebook in an obvious place where you see it everyday and decide on a time of day for writing, and stick to the plan.

Then start! Now is always a great time to start! Don’t wait for perfection, or a brilliant thought, just get scribbling and doodling, it will be uniquely you and remember to adopt a non judgemental attitude. I love the quote: “you were born to be real, not perfect”. So leave your unique mark, and express yourself in a truly beautiful and uniquely human way, through handwriting.

So let’s create more time for pen and paper and embrace the joyful and often illuminating act of handwriting.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast and you want English as your second language, find out more about me and my method on my website. Simply go to speakwithnick.it. 

And also on my website, as I said at the start of this podcast, you can listen to my voice as you read the transcript. There’s also a language focus to help you with some of the more unusual phrases. The link is in the description.

Speak to you very soon.

Ciao for now.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

  • digitally savvy -  esperto digitale
  • audio dictation -  dettatura audio
  • let’s not even get into (something) - non entriamo nemmeno nel discorso di (qualcosa)
  • old fashioned -  vecchio stile
  • general wellbeing - benessere generale
  • reaping the undeniable benefits - raccogliere i benefici indiscutibili 
  • for children and adults alike - per bambini e adulti allo stesso modo
  • lofty unorganised thoughts - pensieri per aria e disorganizzati (loft = soffitta)
  • there is no right or wrong way - non c'è un modo giusto o sbagliato
  • passive reading - lettura passiva senza prendere appunti
  • flashes before your eyes - lampeggia davanti agli occhi
  • dizzying confusion - confusione vertiginosa
  • it’s no wonder - non c'è da stupirsi
  • turn off the constant buzz - spegnere il ronzio costante
  • down on paper in black and white - su carta, nero su bianco
  • the invisible ever shifting contents of our head -  i contenuti della nostra testa invisibili e in costante cambiamento
  • mental wellbeing - benessere mentale
  • sooth nerves - calmare i nervi 
  • loops and traps - cicli e trappole
  • stationary - cancelleria 
  • don’t get lost in it - non perderti in esso
  • give yourself constant reminders - datti costanti promemoria
  • stick to the plan - attieniti al piano
  • scribbling and doodling - scarabocchiare e disegnare senza attenzione
  • you were born to be real, not perfect - sei nato per essere reale, non perfetto

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