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Sept. 28, 2023

288. The Powerful Connection Between Meditation and Language Learning - Angel Pretot

Discover the extraordinary approach to learning from Angel Pretot, a Frenchman who defied conventional wisdom and mastered English without leaving his home country. His groundbreaking method of language learning shattered the belief that complete...

Discover the extraordinary approach to learning from Angel Pretot, a Frenchman who defied conventional wisdom and mastered English without leaving his home country. His groundbreaking method of language learning shattered the belief that complete immersion into an English-speaking location was the only path to fluency. But it was his unexpected journey towards meditation that added a mystical twist to his already remarkable approach.

Prepare to be captivated as Angel's tale unfolds, revealing how the intersection of language learning and meditation holds the key to unlocking a whole new level of linguistic prowess. Angel's approach to learning considers the whole person, even their past and future selves. Is this the beginning of a more holistic approach to very practical learning such as with a foreign language?

Are you ready to embark on this transformative journey with Angel? Stay tuned for the incredible revelations that lie ahead.

In this episode, you will be able to:

  • Discover the captivating connection between language learning and meditation.

  • Appreciate the power of personalization in mastering a new language.

  • Realize the importance of a nurturing environment for adventurous language experimentation.

  • Explore the benefits of infusing mindfulness and meditation in your language learning journey.

  • Experience a holistic and mindful method to language coaching, unlike any traditional approach.

My special guest is Angel Pretot

Angel has dedicated nearly two decades of his life to mastering the art of teaching French. His passion for improving his methods has benefited numerous English-speaking enthusiasts eager to become fluent and live an international life. He's a true embodiment of the term lifelong learner, demonstrating his expertise by continuously refining his teaching approach. Angel's mindful approach extends to his lifestyle too, as he currently resides in Vienna, Austria.

The key moments in this episode are:
00:00:15 - Introduction

00:01:20 - The Intersection of Language Learning and Meditation

00:03:17 - Language Learning without Immersion

00:07:13 - The Four Steps to Language Learning

00:12:41 - Safe Practice in Language Learning

00:15:22 - The Role of Meditation in Language Learning

00:16:13 - Using Meditation for Personal Development

00:18:04 - The Power of Energy Clearing

00:21:59 - Language Learning in Dream

00:24:56 - Clearing Ancestral Energy

00:30:45 - Exploring Neurodiversity and Personal Neurotype

00:32:08 - Language Learning Methods and Outcomes

00:33:50 - The Four Pillars of Language Learning

00:34:52 - The Future of Holistic Approaches and Healing

00:36:22 - How to Connect with Angel

  • Visit Angel's website about to learn more about his coaching and courses for learning French fast and becoming fluent.

  • Use the code Meditation at Zencastr.com/pricing to get 30% off your first month of any Zencaster paid plan, a podcasting service that provides high-quality audio and video recording.

  • Check out YouTube for French channels related to your hobbies, profession, or any other interests you have. Immersing yourself in content you enjoy will help you learn the language faster.

  • Explore French TV channels if you have cable TV, even in the US. This can be another great way to immerse yourself in the language.

  • Consider practicing French in a safe and supportive environment by joining Angel's coaching program or one-on-one sessions. You'll have the opportunity to speak and practice without the fear of making mistakes.

  • Take the time to select what you want to learn in French based on your specific needs and interests. Focus on relevant vocabulary, phrases, and concepts that will be most useful to you in your personal or professional life.

  • Activate your learning by participating in grammar lessons or asking specific questions about how to express certain ideas.

Other episodes you'll enjoy:

283. Aromatherapy Unleashed: Exploring the Healing Potential & Chemical Complexity of Essential Oils - Amy Anthony

278. The Science of Feeling Tones: How they Shape our Thoughts and Actions - Mark Williams and Dr. Danny Penman

276. Psychedelic Therapies - Jahan Khamsehzadeh

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Transcript

Kara Goodwin: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the meditation conversation, the podcast to support your spiritual revolution. I'm your host, Kara Goodwin, and today I'm joined by Angele Pretot. Angele is a French learning coach and online entrepreneur. And through his coaching and courses, he helps English speakers learn French fast, become fluent and live their best international life. After a master's degree and 19 years of teaching and coaching French learners, he's still obsessed with improving the methods he uses.

He loves seeing his students learn faster and better and create wonderful lives for themselves. He lives in Vienna, Austria, and he has a very [00:01:00] mindful approach. To his teaching, which is why he's here today. I can't wait to talk about the intersection of language learning with meditation.

 

I really enjoyed my time with Anjell. You might be wondering what a coach for learning French has to do with meditation and expanding your consciousness. But this is the exact reason that I love this conversation. With the approach that he's using on gel is an awesome example of how we can use our expanding consciousness in practical ways in our lives. . Wait until you hear about his quantum approach to his work. With his clients from working with a future self to clearing out energy and the role of healing trauma in learning a new language. These are things you might expect, an energy practitioner or even a shaman to be utilizing in their work. 

I really believe we're glimpsing the future where we have a more holistic consideration. That's given to the entirety of [00:02:00] our human experience and we see how all areas of our life. Are impacting all the other areas rather than the siloed way that we view things now. Before we start. I just want to give a quick shout out to a podcasting service that I absolutely love. 

People contact me a lot about starting their own podcast. And I always point them to Zencastr to record high quality audio and video. I remember a couple of years ago, listening to one of my own episodes in my car. And I was really embarrassed by the quality of the audio. At that time I dropped everything and I started researching how to get crisper audio for my recordings. And this began my journey with Zencastr. Zencastr is so easy. And it gives you studio quality sound. And up to 4k video with your guests. So go to zencastr.com forward slash pricing and use my code meditation. And you'll get 30% off in your first month of [00:03:00] any Zencastr paid plan. I want you to have the same easy experiences I do for all my podcasting and content needs. 

It's time to share your story. And now enjoy this episode 

Kara Goodwin: So welcome Angele.

Angel Pretot: That's right. Thank you for having Kara. That was perfect. Yes, Angèle. That's awesome. You're great at French.

Kara Goodwin: Oh, wow. Well, thank you. I did take two years of French in high school. and I lived in Italy for four years. And my, one of my closest friends there is from Paris. And so we often spoke in English or in Italian, but mostly English. And, but I would always make jokes about, like, that I could speak French because I'd take words that are, English, but sound French, like garage or, baguette or,

Angel Pretot: Yes.

Kara Goodwin: and I'd say, see, I can speak French.[00:04:00] 

but anyway, it's a beautiful language. And I'm really excited that you're here today. So can you start by talking a little bit about your background?

Angel Pretot: Thank you for having me. Well, you, summarized my background pretty well in the introduction. so what can I say more? I have lived in France for the first 25 years of my life. I am French. I was raised monolingual. So the English that you hear right now, I learned it. I did learn it quite young because I, in France, everybody has to take English in school.

So that's what I did. And I did quite well with it. So I was able to speak English properly by the age of 15. But I do like to insist that I did learn English, and that I'm not a native bilingual, so I myself am the proof that you can actually learn a language and be fluent in it, without actually ever living in a country where that language is spoken.

I mean, I've never spent more than three weeks at a time in an English speaking country.[00:05:00] 

Kara Goodwin: Wow. So what can you say about that? About how It is possible to become fluent without really immersing yourself in the culture, in, in a place where you're hearing it all the time.

Angel Pretot: Right, I wouldn't say we thought immersing yourself. I think we do have a misconception and probably that comes from the past, like before the internet, it was just not as easy to immerse yourself in another language or another culture without physically going there. But nowadays we have so many resources.

That, it's actually pretty easy to go to a country and not immerse yourself at all, which I have been guilty of. I lived first five years in Austria and then I moved to Germany and I thought to myself, Oh, I'm moving to Berlin. I'm going to finally learn, the right German, the German that they speak in Germany, you know, the weird Austrian variant.

And it didn't happen at all. I

Is that because you were around a lot of French speaking [00:06:00] people or No, mostly English speaking people. I mean, I went to work in a startup where even the leadership didn't speak German and my ex wife, even though she was German, she just didn't want to speak German to anyone and she spoke English all the time, including with me. so it's the idea that being in the country equals immersing, being immersed in the language is just completely divorced now.

It's no longer an equivalence like that. You can absolutely. Sit where you are and immerse yourself in any culture of any language that you want to learn provided that it's a language large enough to have content on the internet.

Kara Goodwin: hmm.

Angel Pretot: For French, of course, it's no problem. If you pick a very small minority language that has very few speakers, of course, it's harder.

Kara Goodwin: Right. So that immersion is key to becoming fluent.

Angel Pretot: Yes. It's one of the four steps in the four step system. I like to explain how to [00:07:00] learn a language with four steps. So immersion is step number three. And so, if you want I can go over, the four steps. It's, I like to say it's S A I S because that's like the verb to know in French. Like, I know is je sais.

That's how you remember it. Selection, activation, immersion, and safe practice. So, selection is really a pillar that most methods miss. Basically, it's really important to select what and learn what is relevant to you. Tim Ferriss said it's not about how you learn, it's about what you learn. he's famous for having learned, Japanese really fast, from being an English speaker.

And when he did it, he said that, yeah, it's all about selecting what is important, which words are important, what kind of terms or phrases are important. And one thing that I do in my work, being a coach and working a lot one on one with people and even in my group program, I insist on doing a lot of one on one, you know, just one student has the hot seat and the [00:08:00] others listen, basically, because it's really important to identify what makes sense for you to learn.

And if you're a doctor and you're going to go do charity work in Africa. You're going to learn a completely different French than if you're an international lawyer and you're only ever going to deal with big corporations. You know, speaking about law, right?

Kara Goodwin: Yes, I love that because it really, you know, having, I also have been a foreign language learner because of living in Italy and because I was immersed in the culture to some extent. I mean, I did have a lot of expat friends. I spoke English a lot, but I also had to speak Italian, every day. but.

I didn't take that approach. This is new to me. That method is new to me, but it really was like in trying to learn it. I mean, I spent all four years really trying to learn it, taking private lessons, group lessons, doing language exchanges, hosting language exchanges, where we would speak [00:09:00] English half the time and Italian half the time.

And you'd always have native speakers of each. but I tried to learn the whole world. And in Italian, I don't know if it's similar to French in this way. I know that the Romance languages are very similar to each other, but it's a lot like they have, you know, seven past tenses or something. So you would use a different past tense for the ancient past than you would use for something that happened last year and.

Angel Pretot: It's similar in French, yes.

Kara Goodwin: Yeah. So it's, and it's like, just, you know, you take it step by step, but it's also like not being intentional about what it is that you're wanting to learn. That would have been real, a really great way to approach it.

Angel Pretot: I mean, to be honest, that's also how I learned all the languages that I learned. I learned them like you learned Italian. It works this way, but like you said, it's years and years and years of sustained effort.

Kara Goodwin: Yeah.

Angel Pretot: a coach and I was like, okay, what [00:10:00] can I do to optimize the process and to just get my clients the result as fast as it gets because they don't have the time.

They have a career, they are adults, they have families, and to just, you know, have other things to do than sit in the French class forever. It's

Kara Goodwin: Right.

Angel Pretot: it's not going to work this way for them. We have to find something better.

Kara Goodwin: Right. Right. So, selection is S,

Angel Pretot: yes. Then it's A, the A is for activation, and this is something you're going to be familiar with if you know about meditation and manifesting and things like that, you know, that, when you are seeking to bring something in your life through manifestation, you will use a lot of anchors.

You will, seek to define precisely. I mean, I guess defining would be rather the selection, but then you'll use anchors. Yes. And you'll visualize what you want and things like that. That corresponds to activation, the activation step. with French, the activation step can sometimes look like a grammar lesson.

So very often that's what happens when the client comes in class with me and I [00:11:00] introduce a new concept or they will ask me a question saying, Oh, how can I say this or that? And then that will trigger a little... You know, lesson on how to say this and that, and what kind of things you can use the same pattern for.

So that pertains to activation. This is among the things that have been selected that you know you need to learn. Now you choose a few things and you like, actually, quote unquote, learn them. But you know that you can't remember everything you learned once, right? So that's why the two steps, the other two steps are here.

So we know step number three is immersion. We've already spoken about that. I recommend immersing with things that you enjoy. YouTube is full of French channels about everything you can think of. And I know about that because I spent the last seven years listing them and categorizing them so that I can handpick them for my clients.

So just YouTube alone could do this work, but of course, there's so much more. There's Netflix, there's podcasts. a lot of people have French TV. If you have cable TV, [00:12:00] even in the US, you'll have some French channels. So there's really like an endless list of things that you can use to immerse yourself.

You need to choose the stuff that keeps you motivated and that you enjoy so it can be in relation with your hobbies, with your profession, or with really anything that, you know, floats your boat, as we would say. And if you do all three of those pillars very well, you will become very competent at understanding. The French language or the language that you're learning, but it will not be enough to make you competent at speaking or producing that language. That is why we have the fourth pillar, which is S and it's safe practice. Now it could be just practice and that would be practically self explanatory, right?

Of course, you cannot do anything that you haven't practiced. Practice makes perfect or practice makes permanent, as they say. So that's super important for obvious reasons. I like to add safe practice, not just to complete my acronym, but also because it is absolutely critical [00:13:00] to be in a space where you feel safe enough to quote unquote take risks. I don't really like the idea of taking risks. The idea is actually to remove the risk. Like if you are on a Zoom call with me, you can say anything and nothing bad will happen to you. That's really. The one of the cornerstone of my coaching practice, like there is nothing that you can say on those calls that will have any kind of bad consequences.

Worst case scenario, we will all laugh together because you said something really funny or maybe really offensive, but it doesn't matter because you didn't have a bad intent, right? And it's better that you say the offensive thing on the Zoom call with me than next week with your client or your patient or whoever it is that you're speaking French with in real life.

So yeah, those are the four pillars, selection, activation, immersion, and safe practice.

Kara Goodwin: I love it, and I love that idea of safe practice too, where you know you're in like a nurturing environment, and People are going to [00:14:00] be not only like correcting you,

Angel Pretot: Mm hmm.

Kara Goodwin: but also meeting you halfway, you know, that's one of the things as having the experience of being the foreign speaker where, you know, people will ask me like, Oh, are you flewing fluent in Italian?

I'm like, no, I'm not fluent my ability to speak Italian depends on how generous the listener is, you know? How much are they willing to flex their understanding of what I'm trying to say to be able to meet me where what I'm saying can make sense, 

Angel Pretot: that's absolutely critical. That's also an important part of my coaching practice, even though it's only on my side, so I don't speak so much about it. But yes, meeting the learner where they're at is absolutely critical. And that's also part of the reasons why I decided seven years ago that I would specialize in teaching English speakers.

And I stopped teaching German speakers or, speakers, people who did not speak English. You don't have to be a native English [00:15:00] speaker to speak, to work with me, but you have to at least speak English.

Kara Goodwin: hmm.

Angel Pretot: So if it's your second language, it's okay.

Kara Goodwin: Yeah.

Angel Pretot: it's better for you because you already have the experience of learning another one, another language.

but, because it's so important for me to understand how the mind of the person works and how it works in their language, I found out that I can't do that with several languages. 

Kara Goodwin: Yeah. That makes total sense. So how does meditation play into learning a language? Can you talk to us about that?

Angel Pretot: Yes, absolutely. So meditation is something I brought into my practice. And if you go to my YouTube channel, there is a playlist with all the meditation tracks that I've

Kara Goodwin: What is your YouTube channel?

Angel Pretot: oh, it's at French fluency. In fact, that's my handle on all the social media. If you type my name on YouTube, you'll also find me Angèle Préteau, but the handle is at French fluency and my website is frenchfluency.

net. So it's consistent like that. And there are,

Kara Goodwin: have all that in the show notes, but just in case anybody's just listening. Yeah,

Angel Pretot: So [00:16:00] there is a playlist with the meditation tracks that I have created. also in my group program, there's a workshop, which is energy clearing for French learning

Kara Goodwin: I wanna talk about that. I wanna know what the importance of energy clearing is, but please

Angel Pretot: right. and basically like, yeah, I guess I can make a small summary on all of that and we can branch out in the details. The reason why I brought that in is because I started practicing it for myself because I was building my business and I got into. All of the personal development that you can do to be successful at building a business.

So that included meditation, manifestation, the law of attraction, and all of that. And I found out that you can use meditation for absolutely anything. One person that has inspired me so much with creating my meditation track is Bird Coleman who created the quantum jumping meditation system or method which is itself sort of a spin off of the Silva method.[00:17:00] 

So I absolutely love the Silva method as well and I love what Bird Coleman did spinning it off to really make it very playful and very efficient at the same time where you Go to an alternate universe and you meet your twin self who has the skill or the quality that you want to embody. And then you merge with that twin self that allows you to bring the quality back into this world.

Kara Goodwin: Oh,

Angel Pretot: it's my favorite technique ever.

Kara Goodwin: that. So is that, because that to me seems like, if you have a client who is not into meditation at all, that might be a big leap in terms of like, Belief construct and what they even believe is possible. But so I'm curious, like, how open have people been to that type of concept?

Angel Pretot: If people are not open to it at all, I don't try to force it on them because I think it's counterproductive. I am perfectly able to do my coaching without ever. having the [00:18:00] clients using these resources, but they help if you can use them. If you can suspend your disbelief long enough to meditate to the, meditation track, then it will greatly help mostly because people have a lot of anxiety and it's just, it's unnatural speak a foreign language, whether you want it or not, unless you're very practiced, it's not natural to speak a foreign language.

So being able to lower your brainwaves and lower your. guard, so to speak, it helps tremendously with being able to access your capacity to speak at any point you have more un conscious capacity to speak than conscious capacity. I like to illustrate that with a little, a bit of a silly dentist story where I, once I was at the dentist in Berlin and I had not noticed, but I was clenching my teeth on her finger.

And she said something to me, and so I relaxed my jaw. And [00:19:00] only after I had already complied, I heard that she had said, Don't bite me, in German.

Kara Goodwin: Oh,

Angel Pretot: Meaning that I'm able to, take in the command and physically do all the things that are required before I consciously understand.

Kara Goodwin: yeah.

Angel Pretot: imagine what that means for how much you know that you are not conscious that you know.

Kara Goodwin: That's really interesting. And that is, I love that story and it reminds me too of when I lived in Bologna. And like I've mentioned, I tried really hard to master that language. I didn't come close to mastering it, but to be able to confidently speak it, because you make that point too, you can understand it.

But speaking it is different. and I don't know I imagine maybe some people have a strength where it's like, Oh, speaking is a lot easier than reading it or understanding. But like for actually hearing it and comprehending was always [00:20:00] the hardest for me. If somebody's a native speaker is speaking to me, and then second to that was speaking it, but reading it, I got a lot easier and quicker.

But I was always taking classes. I was always doing like self study things I really worked hard. This was like pre meditation days, too So I didn't really know much about consciousness at that time, but I would always go home back to America in the summer for like four or five weeks.

And I remember coming back after I'd been on break and I was like, okay, here we go. We're back in Italy and I'm going to have to start flexing these Italian skills again. And. Am I going to be starting over? I was just like very curious, like how much did I lose because I didn't work on it at all for all that time.

And, I think I'd only been back for like one or two days [00:21:00] and I woke up from a dream and I'd been speaking Italian in my dream. And I was like, yes, I'm dreaming about it, and I was like, that's gotta be a good sign because I'm not consciously, it was enough a part of me that I, it had come into my subconscious and I could actually create a dream where I was.

Speaking it and hearing it and I was immersed in it. and that again, it fascinated me and it gave me confidence that I was like, well, I must not have lost as much as I thought I did.

Angel Pretot: Yes. I mean, and often you can actually speak Italian or French or whichever language you're learning in your dream better than you can when you're awake, which also speaks to the role of the unconscious versus, your conscious awareness because Yeah. Like, what? Like, if you're not there, you can do it better. It's a bit frustrating, but also I think it's good information to have.

Kara Goodwin: [00:22:00] Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. So let's go back to that energy clearing because that's fascinating. So what role does energy clearing play in learning a language?

Angel Pretot: So I noticed, also over my own quest for understanding energy and how energy clearing works, and also working with my clients, that a lot of people have had terrible experiences, either with the language, with the French, or, with learning, even in their own life. I mean every week I hear some horror stories about how teachers mistreated my, student now who are adults but how they were mistreated as children and it seems to be like international teacher hobby to just. Damage the kids somehow?

Kara Goodwin: traumatize them.

Angel Pretot: Yes, and so there's That which is related to being in school, or learning a language as an adult, or also the interactions that you have had with the language, or with the speakers, or the people in general that you associate with the [00:23:00] language.

And if it's not you can bet your ancestors have. Because in, in my energy clearing workshop, you know, you can watch it if you're part of my group program. I've put some maps and there isn't a single place on earth that the French haven't gone and waged war at some point of history.

Kara Goodwin: Oh wow.

Angel Pretot: Yes. Like, if you are part of any kind of modern world, Which is pretty much anywhere, right?

Like, unless you're part of a tribe that has not been contacted, in which case you're definitely not hearing this. If you're hearing this, you can be sure at some point some of your ancestors have been at war against the French. And even if they are French themselves. Because they used to wage war against each other before it was, you know, the country as we know it now.

So, someone in your family too has had a problem with the French. And very often it is in your lifetime. I had one of my students who was a nurse, he was from Australia. And he, [00:24:00] during that workshop, it's actually recorded because he had the aha moment on the workshops live. he realized that when he was...

12, the French had been practicing their nuclear weapons close enough to Australia. yeah, we'd like to explode bombs in the Pacific at some point. Sorry about that. And as a result, people were having cancer that they shouldn't be having. And because he was a nurse, he was actually seeing those cases.

And well, actually, he wasn't a nurse at the time. He was 12. So he had seen those cases. But, you know, then it continued, right? It's not something that stops as soon as we said, Oh, we're going to stop exploding bombs. No, like The damage stays. So he remembered being extremely angry at the French when he realized that the, it's the French nuclear trials that had caused those health problems that he now had to deal with in his patients.

it was during his life, his lifetime. So when I say like at some point somewhere the French have been [00:25:00] messing up with your family tree, it might even have been you. And he had completely blocked it out because at that point he was maybe 50 or so years old. And he just had forgotten, but it's here in your energy somewhere if you don't clear it.

So that is why I do, energy clearing.

Kara Goodwin: That's fascinating. I mean, the care and the intentionality of your method that goes so far beyond okay, here are some verbs that you need to learn how to, and you know, or here are the, you know, five different ways that you can say, oh. Or the five different meanings of the word, Oh, you know, I, that blows my mind.

I don't know how you guys know the difference between water and what are all the other O words?

Angel Pretot: we have water and then there's a preposition which is O, and then there's O which means high. And no one has asked me this question before, interestingly. I'm sure there's more. We know it from context, but [00:26:00] yeah. There's also spelled differently.

Kara Goodwin: but there's like also, Oh, and then like, Ooh. Which is different, which it seems like it sounds very different to you guys, to French speakers. And it doesn't really sound different to me. So there's, Oh, and then there's, Ooh. And then there's like, there are little variations where I'm like, those are different words.

That's the same sound.

Angel Pretot: I do actually insist on pronunciation quite a bit in my coaching practice. There's a pronunciation workshop that's in the member zone. every time I have a new client, almost every time, some people are really good to start with, but most people aren't. So when I work one on one with someone, I will make personalized tongue twisters.

I will identify which words and which sounds are difficult for them to pronounce and just make them an audiophile to practice. And then every group class, we end up discussing, okay, like, this particular word, that's how you pronounce it, and you have to, like, shake your mouth this way or that way to be able to make the French sound. Yeah, it's part of the job,

Kara Goodwin: the care. [00:27:00] And the intentionality and the, you know, I mean, even going into the trauma and the healing and trying to clear that out to make it as easy as possible. This is really unique and such a high vibration approach, you know, of like helpfulness way beyond language, which is just amazing.

Bravo. 

Angel Pretot: thank you. I appreciate you saying that. It's also understanding that learning a language is a personal growth journey. You will be a different person at the end than you are at the beginning. At the very least, you'll be a person with like a different coat of what you can do.

Kara Goodwin: hmm.

Angel Pretot: And I like to really insist that it's important to understand that you'll be the same person with some extra skills.

Also because there, there is, I don't know if they still do that, I think some people still do it. There is a trend in language learning where at some point they realized that the person's [00:28:00] ego and their conscious, their awareness of who they are was getting in the way of them learning the language because they couldn't identify with.

The new language that they were learning, it was a good observation. And that is also something you can combat with, for example, those quantum jumping tracks that I have on my channel. And there are like different ways to combat this that I have found that are less damaging than the solution that they had found because what they did were like, Oh, well, okay.

So the person that you are now cannot learn the language. So what we're going to do is that when you're in the language class, you pretend to be a different person. It was super fashionable at some point. And the thing is, it gives great results. Quote unquote, because the people who were pretending to be someone else just for the Italian class or the French class or the whatever class were doing amazing in the class.

They had great results on the exams. Perfect mission accomplished. Then they left and they were never able to speak a word in their real life when they became the actual person with which they are again.

Kara Goodwin: [00:29:00] Oh. They fractalized.

Angel Pretot: right. So, so when I realized that was happening, I was like. Ah, yeah, it makes sense because you're pretending to be someone different and as soon as you stop pretending...

It does not happen anymore,

Kara Goodwin: Yeah. That's fascinating.

Angel Pretot: so that's why I explored, you know, using meditation and visualizing your future self, where you are you're just you in one year, where now you can speak French and you

have your profession and your life and your hobbies and so on, and you can go do all of that in French and in a French speaking context, and it's really super important to not dissociate the two. Thank you. Like you have to, it's the basic of manifesting, to be honest. That's how you manifest. See yourself as the person that you will be right.

don't spin another identity. That's that doesn't work.

Kara Goodwin: Especially if you are like you, such as you, where you're evolving [00:30:00] yourself and like that is important to you in terms of just continuing to grow as a person, as a spirit. It's like, you don't want to nurture in somebody else. Like pretend that you're not you completely disassociate from you and become somebody different and reject that person.

You know, it's like, no, we actually want to integrate. even beyond language learning, but it's all about integrating the different parts of us to be more whole.

Angel Pretot: Yes.

Kara Goodwin: well, talk to us about neurodiversity and different learning styles. How does that, we've, we have touched on this a little bit, but is there more to that in terms of your approach and how you deal with that?

Angel Pretot: there is definitely something that I'm still exploring. So I'm trying to find precisely, what pertains to neurodiversity and it's, I'm still learning about this. It's something that we know hardly anything about. You can read every book that has been written about neurodiversity. You [00:31:00] will not come up with.

A protocol for learning a language successfully with your, even if you're a language learning expert like I am, it's just, it's completely unexplored. But recently I've come to identify that my neurotype is what we call ODHD. So it's a crossover between autism and ADHD. So because of that, my brain works quite differently from the majority of the people.

And I have observed that it seems, even though this neurotype is rather rare, It does seem that a lot of my clients do have a similar neurotype and it makes sense because if I find the way that it makes sense to me, it makes sense that it also makes sense to them. The people of this neurotype struggle extremely hard.

 honestly, I don't know if there's anyone who doesn't struggle with that, but we have, language learning as it is, or language as it is taught, traditionally, like language learning apps have. Terrible outcomes. Language schools have terrible outcomes. They can all be part of a successful process, but [00:32:00] alone they can't do much.

Kara Goodwin: Okay.

Angel Pretot: So, I mean, I have never met someone who has told me, Oh yeah, I did Duolingo for two years and now I'm fluent. Despite the fact that it is what they claim on their website. So some, there's a disconnect here, right? Like, like, I don't know if they still do that. I should go to their website and check. On their website, and they have a link that says we have proof that it works, and when you click on that link, you have a list of studies that it's about like memory retention rate after spaced repetition and whatnot, like, I don't know what this proves.

I mean, for me, the proof would be someone coming and saying that they did it,

Kara Goodwin: Right.

Angel Pretot: Yeah. And again, it goes back to like, are you fluent? Like are you comfortable being immersed in that environment? Can you stay afloat when you're swimming in a French language environment? Or do you sink? And you know, it's. As so much of it is psychological, [00:33:00] where like you get it because you can be immersed in like a French environment and then just.

Kara Goodwin: it's like you just suddenly it's very hard. It's very hard. It's very hard. And then you just decide like, I'm not doing it. I can't do it. And it's just like this wall goes up and likewise, it can be that you find yourself in that flow and it's like, oh my gosh, look, I'm doing it, you know, and, but it's, it, there is such a psychological element.

It's not just about memorization, like you're

Angel Pretot: absolutely. you can circle back to the four pillars or the four steps that I had at the beginning, pretty much every method that you can find will miss at least one of the four steps. Most methods do miss the first one, which, you know, if you miss the first one, but you have all the other three, basically will just be very long.

Kara Goodwin: Mm hmm. Yeah.

Angel Pretot: If you miss the second one, I don't know, because it's the one that's least missed, I think. You have to like, teach something, right, at some [00:34:00] point, so that it pertains to activation. If you miss immersions, you'll have people who will get, like, if you have the first two, and the last one, you miss immersion, you have, you get people who get really good at drills and filling out grammar exercises.

Kara Goodwin: Yeah.

Angel Pretot: exactly what you want speaking a language. If you miss the last one, you basically scenario get people who are good at understanding the language not speaking.

Kara Goodwin: Yeah. Yeah.

Angel Pretot: So yeah, that's why there are four. You want them all.

Kara Goodwin: Yeah. Well, it's, this is fascinating. I have learned so much and really appreciate your approach. I hope that we see over time more people taking this kind of approach in their All right. In all of their endeavors, whether, because again, like you're doing this with language and it could be really easy to just be like, well, here's a worksheet but again, you're going so deep with people to clear things out and to work with them on an individual [00:35:00] level.

And to really like, help things get clicked in based on what is most important for them. But again, I'm like blown away that you're even like. Clearing things out, working with trauma, even like taking that into account that could be a barrier for people. That's fascinating, but I mean,

Angel Pretot: spent many years just trying to find out how could I make the method better, better for the people I work with. So yeah, that's the result. Yes.

Kara Goodwin: it really feels like it's. a prediction or a glimmer of like what the future could be like for humanity as more and more people take their own evolution seriously and they do their own inner work and then they take into their profession. That, and they hold that up and work with people from that platform, which is what you're doing.

But it's like, imagine if everybody who is holding jobs, like that are diverse and not [00:36:00] directly related to helping people work with their trauma or helping them to evolve, to become more mindful, to become more intentional, to manifest what they want, but they're fitting it into. Their work and people are healing even when they're trying to do something else I mean, it's like that's that would be an amazing future for humanity

Angel Pretot: Yes. I mean, one way or another, everything is connected. So the more holistic your approach, the more likely you are to be successful with anything that you're trying to do.

Kara Goodwin: Absolutely. Yeah. Well, thank you for being a pioneer and for helping so many people Tell us again how people can connect with you.

Angel Pretot: Yes. So you can find me on most, all the big social media platform with the handle at FrenchFluency that includes YouTube. And you can find my website, FrenchFluency. net. You will find details of my coaching programs over there. I am always available [00:37:00] to have a call with you if you're interested in working with me, either one on one or in the group program.

I just, you know, love to connect with people and hear, what their journey was like, what they struggle with and, if I can help them. so yeah, I'm always remaining available. It's called the application call. Right? But basically, it's a free call that you can, you can, book from my website and, you know, you can see if we can work together.

Kara Goodwin: Wonderful.

Angel Pretot: basically. And if you have any questions, you can, there's a contact form on my website. Every video has a comment section. So yeah, I'm happy 

to answer any questions.

Kara Goodwin: Beautiful Well, thank you so much on gel on yell on say it again on shell

Angel Pretot: Yeah, that is a tongue twister in and of itself.

Kara Goodwin: Angel. Angel. Thank you so much for being here

Angel Pretot: Thank you for having me.

Kara Goodwin: to you.

I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'd love to ask you for one quick favor, and that's to share this episode with one [00:38:00] person who you think will benefit from it. Let them know you're thinking about them by sharing this episode with them right now. Thank you, and I look forward to the next meditation conversation.

 

Angel  PretotProfile Photo

Angel Pretot

French learning coach

Angel Pretot is a French learning coach and online entrepreneur.
Through his coaching and courses, he helps English speakers learn French fast, become fluent and live their best, international life.

After a master’s degree and 19 years of teaching and coaching French learners, he is still obsessed with improving the methods he uses. He loves seeing his students learn faster and better, and create wonderful lives for themselves. He now lives in Vienna, Austria, and he has been through all the expat struggles too.

Besides that, he's an actual Frenchman who loves cheese, coming from a monolingual French family who’s still wondering what’s wrong with him, moving abroad, learning five languages to fluency and running an online business rather than just getting a job!