In case anyone is interested, the TED talk mentioned is available on LingQ (traditional) Login - LingQ
Professor Karen Chung has some excellent points, her method is very practical, I like it. I’m not so familiar with the echoic memory, and I’m not sure I understand why it is better to wait to repeat, instead of repeating right away; but I will definitely give it a try.
This whole approach reminds me of Scott H. Young who is a well-known productivity blogger. See for example: Designing the Perfect Practice Loop - Scott H Young Some might also know his book “Ultralearning”, in which he advocates self-directed learning based primarily on deliberate practice and feedback loops. The book is available in Chinese as well, I am reading the Taiwanese Mandarin version here on LingQ, it is called “超速學習”.
I believe the role of deliberate practice is, in the realm of physical activities and especially in the field of sports hardly controversial. For some reason, it doesn’t seem to be universally accepted in the realm of “mental activities”.
In general, I think there is a human tendency to prefer the easy to the difficult, the fuzzy-warm to the hyperborean, the immersion to the practice.
This is especially likely to become problematic if we are engaged in an activity that involves failures and possibly embarrassment, as is the case with language learning. Avoidance behavior is a potential consequence, this can lead to one’s never properly developing certain skills like, “getting the tones right” or improving one’s accent. I will be the first to admit that I am very much guilty of that myself. For example, English is a language I know quite well - I claim to read it with pleasure and understanding. In fact, I have read more English than German in my life. Writing, however is another thing altogether; most likely due to a lack of practice, I struggle quite a bit. Definitely one reason for writing here in the forum is to practice my English. I hope you’ll forgive me, but I for one do not believe in progress without practice.
I am aware that Peter has written extensively about the avoidance problem in the past, so I don’t want to harp on this. But my point is that I believe this might be another reason why people resign themselves to their accents, at least once they become comprehensible to native speakers.
By the way, a suggestion Mischa, if possible could you get yourself a pop-filter for your microphone, I’m sure this would increase your podcasts’s the production value 