• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Get into English

Learn English | English From Melbourne

  • Home
  • Welcome!
  • English Courses
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Be A Better Learner / The Compound Effect & Your Learning

The Compound Effect & Your Learning

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • Del
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • VKontakte
  • Print
  • Email
  • Flattr
  • Reddit
  • Buffer
  • Love This
  • Weibo
  • Pocket
  • Xing
  • Odnoklassniki
  • ManageWP.org
  • WhatsApp
  • Meneame
  • Blogger
  • Amazon
  • Yahoo Mail
  • Gmail
  • AOL
  • Newsvine
  • HackerNews
  • Evernote
  • MySpace
  • Mail.ru
  • Viadeo
  • Line
  • Flipboard
  • Comments
  • Yummly

This comes the archives of another website I manage:

Apparently Albert Einstein called compound interest “the eighth wonder of the world”, while American billionaire Warren Buffet reportedly  said his wealth had come from “a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest.” Today ‘the compound effect’ is also the title of a new book by Darren Hardy, and its implications go beyond finance and business.

When it comes to learning, a lot of students actually don’t see how compounding works.

Imagine Pavel, a Praguer who goes to his English class twice a week. That might be all he has time for or all he’s prepared to do, and so his progress will be based on those few hours a week.

Now imagine Barcelona Barbora, who goes to class twice a week, and who does some study at home. Let’s imagine she goes beyond the homework the teacher sets and reads new books,  watches American films, and goes out and meets people from other countries. On top of that, she might even use English at work.

Who will make more progress?

The value of compounding means that when they come to class, they’ll be starting from a different point.

Pavel will be following on from the previous week’s lessons, and maybe he’s even forgotten quite a bit of what they did.

Bara will be following on not just from the lessons, but all the other work she has been doing.

Within about 3 months her progress will be greater, and she might eventually have to go up to a higher level class.

That’s the beauty of compounding.

They’re each devoting the same amount of time in terms of weeks and months to their course, but because Bara is putting in more minutes and hours, she will be far ahead of Pavel very soon.

So don’t forget that the homework your teacher gives you and all the other things you could be doing are adding ‘compound interest’ to your learning.

The principle of compounding also applies to learning a language.. Click to Tweet
  • Originally published February 14, 2014

 

Share this:

  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Market Talk – Investment Vocabulary – Get into English says:
    February 13, 2016 at 18:18

    […] Note: I’ve written before that you can apply the magic of compounding to learning English! [click here] […]

    Reply

What do you think? Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Welcome to Get Into English. I’m David, an English teacher, traveller & language enthusiast from Melbourne. I write articles on learning English especially for people wishing to live in or travel to Australia, and for those who are interested in business and all kinds of issues!

Older posts were written while I was in Europe, newer ones are from Australia.

Feel free to leave a comment!

Load More…Follow on Instagram

Subscribe

Get the latest stories in English and articles on idioms, phrasal verbs, grammar and exam tips! No spam.

Trending

  • The Difference Between 'Catch Up' And 'Meet Up' - Reader Question
  • The Present Simple In Everyday Conversation
  • "Let's CATCH UP" - And 8 Other Phrasal Verbs You Can Use Today
  • Short Phrases You Can Use In Conversation With Your Friends
  • "It'll Be Good To Catch Up With You" - Meeting Up With A Friend
  • "She Smiled And Walked Away" - Cambridge English: First For Schools Story Writing
  • Expressing Future Time: Plans & Arrangements
  • English Phrasal Verb - Take Care Of
  • Vocabulary For Discussing Gay, LGBT Issues
  • Small talk phrases - download

Aussie Vocab

Business

Finance

Patterns

Phrasal Verbs

Footer

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Featured

Transform Your English In 2019!

New! You can download this article to your phone or tablet by clicking here or the image on the right. You know how a snowball gets bigger and bigger as it rolls down a mountain? Or how a train you catch goes faster and faster as it pulls out of the station? That’s the momentum […]

Learn English

© 2009–2019 · David Sweetnam Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.