Experiencing Automaticity and Flow State with the Bimodal Blitz Method

For those new to this blog, I'm learning Polish with an experimental method called the Bimodal Blitz. It involves reading an entire book in your target language in a day, or even a sitting, while simultaneously listening to the audiobook. Since March 13, I've "blitzed" 58 Polish books in 58 straight days, aiming to reach 100 in 100 days.

During my recent Bimodal Blitz sessions, I experienced a cool breakthrough in my language acquisition “blitzathon”. There were passages where I seemed to be thinking and reading in Polish, without consciously translating the words into English, my native language. I was likely in a cognitive flow state, immersed in the language and visualizing what I was blitzing.

FLOW STATE and LANGUAGE AUTOMATICITY

I believe that experiencing cognitive flow is key to developing language automaticity. When in flow, the brain is fully engaged and focused, allowing for more efficient language processing and absorption. This heightened state of concentration enables the brain to recognize patterns, grammar structures, and vocabulary more quickly and effortlessly, leading to a more natural understanding of the language.

BREAKING the TRANSLATION BARRIER

One of the most exciting aspects of this breakthrough was accessing the meaning of words and phrases directly in Polish, without conscious translation. This phenomenon, known as "breaking the translation barrier" or "thinking without translating," is a gradual process that varies from person to person. For me, it happened in flashes —brief moments of what I believe to be direct understanding, although I rarely stop to verify because I’m immersed in the book. So, take from this what you will.

REWIRING the BRAIN for POLISH

As I continue to immerse myself in Polish using the Bimodal Blitz method, I should expect my brain to continue reorganizing its neural connections to accommodate this new language, making language processing more efficient and automatic over time. My noggin will develop an intuition for Polish, allowing me to pick up on patterns, nuances, and meanings without consciously translating. I see hints of this now. This intuition results from the immersive (and somewhat intense) nature of the Bimodal Blitz experience, which lights up the language processing areas in the brain.

MILESTONES and the MILES AHEAD

While these experiences of language automaticity and flow state are big milestones for me, there’s still so much to learn. I’ll continue to “blitz” away, as the Bimodal Blitz has proven to be an effective tool for rapidly inputting the Polish language. I look forward to more moments of direct understanding and thinking in Polish as I grind on towards blitzing 100 books in as many days.

In closing, the Bimodal Blitz method has been a game-changer in my language learning experience, with the recent breakthroughs in language automaticity being a sign that I'm going in the right direction. Feel free to experiment with this method and experience the blitz for yourself!

P.S. A book on how to Bimodal Blitz (tentatively titled “Blitz This Book”) will eventually be released explaining the method in detail. Subscribe to this blog for updates. I’m also on Twitter/x.