I recently went to Mexico and was so excited to see Chichen Itza. We did a day-long tour (over 12 hours!) on a bus, with a local Mexican tour guide, who seemed to speak every language.
There were many tourists on the bus with us, so every sentence he said, he said in Spanish, English and Russian. These were complicated sentences too, like "this archeological site dates back to..." or "Chichen Itza was NOT built by aliens."
Then, he told us how all Mayans speak 7-8 languages fluently. Instantly, I perked up. Are Mayans my new #lifegoals ?
The Mayans, he explained, only study for 7 days a month. During those 7 days, they only study for about 2-3 hours. The rest of the month, they 'practice' what they have learned, but they do not sit and learn new grammar, verb conjugations, etc. He said when it is not his moon phase, he talks to native speakers, reads, watches movies in that language, etc.
Being a language lover, I had to know more!
The Mayans have one of the most accurate calendar systems to ever exist. One of their calendars is the Lunar Cycle (the moon cycle), which has 4 phases: crescent, gibbous, waxing, and waning.
They can tell you the exact lunar phase you were born in, depending on the month, day and year you were born.
I had a local Mayan paint my lunar calendar for me.
It turns out, I was born in the last lunar quarter, the wanning phase. The lunar phase you were born is, is when your brain is at it's peak learning phase - you can learn and retain information better during this week, than then entire month combined.
After telling us all of this (in Spanish, English, and Russian), our guide told us he just started learning Russian 6 months ago!! And he already knows Swedish, and now he's learning German!
I encourage you to find out your lunar phase, and try a new language! Study for 2-3 hours during your lunar phase, and then schedule a Lex, watch movies, and read, in the 3 weeks between your lunar phase. Please let us know how it goes and what language(s) you try!
Walsh Costigan
Founder of Lexody