• What is T.I.P.?  (1-15)

• Right-Brain Approach  (16-35)

• Right Attitude  (36-50)

• Successful Teaching  (51-70)

• Successful Learning  (71-99)

What is T.I.P.?  15 Questions to get your mind ready for T.I.P.

1. T.I.P. stands for Total Immersion Program. The idea behind T.I.P. is very simple. It is simply to surround yourself with English. (Q1. What is involved in surrounding yourself with English? Name as many items as possible to surround yourself with English.)

2. The most effective T.I.P. allows no escape as you totally immerse yourself in English. (Q2. How can one become captivated, stuck, and with no escape?)

3. There are three analogies to help you apply T.I.P. The first analogy is: Air. Think of yourself in a room surrounded by air. Air is everywhere. You cannot escape taking in air. And you oftentimes breathe it without even noticing it. Unless one chooses not to live, there is no escape from air. Like breathing, it is natural and easy for a child to pick up a language. The child does both with a minimum amount of effort. (Q3. Is speaking English easy and natural for you? If not, how can you learn it easily and naturally?)

4. The second analogy is: Water. The fastest way to learn how to swim is to jump into the water. It is what we call the “Sink or Swim” approach. (Q4. What is the fastest way to learn English?)

5. The third analogy is: The pressure cooker. The pressure cooker reduces the cooking time. If you are able to keep the T.I.P. pressure on for only five weeks, you’ll be amazed at how fast your brain can learn and how much you can accomplish. (Q5. How would you design a pressure cooker for your mind?)

6. The pressure cooker works by keeping the air in. No air can come out. No leaks. (Q6. What is a leak-proof T.I.P. for your English learning?)

7. Most Chinese college students have devoted 10 years or more studying English. After much effort, many do not speak it. (Q7. From your experience, why can’t so many Chinese students speak English?)

8. The average Chinese student spends 4,000 hours learning English. In T.I.P. you give a total of five weeks, averaging about 400 hours. The secret of T.I.P. is in its intensity. (Q8. To intensify means to increase the density and to grow stronger. How can you intensify your T.I.P. experience?)

9. T.I.P. works because you are surrounded. But you can come out any time you want. It is your choice. You can open the lid at your liking, and the pressure will be gone. (Q9. What can cause you to lose momentum in this program?)

10. Let us talk more about leaks. Like a tire leaking air. Or a bucket leaking water. Your responsibility is to plug the leaks. (Q10. Looking at your daily schedule in T.I.P., where are your leaks?)

11. It doesn’t take a big hole to empty a bucket. One small leak deflates the entire tire. (Q11. Do you have small leaks in your T.I.P. schedule? Do you have a plan that will make good use of each minute? How can you keep from wasting even one minute? )

12. T.I.P. works only if you abide with this agreement: No Chinese is to be spoken from breakfast at 7 am until journal time at 9:30 pm. (Q12. Why is this an agreement instead of a rule?)

13. Every time you use a Chinese phrase or sentence, it is like poking a hole and letting out some of the intensity of your English effort. (Q13. Have you signed a commitment card with your teammates? Are you holding one another accountable?)

14. The weekends are the biggest holes in this program. If you don’t use your weekends properly, you may have to start all over again every Monday. (Q14. Do you see why your 10 years of English learning do not add up? Why is it detrimental to your English learning if you go home on the weekends during T.I.P.?)

15. T.I.P. works simply like this: Surround yourself in English. Do not allow yourself to escape. Do whatever necessary to keep yourself at it. No leaks. Help one another out by holding one another accountable. Then you will be amazed how wonderfully your brain can work. (Q15. Is your mindset synchronized with the T.I.P. design? Have you developed the ideal language environment for yourself?)

Back to Top

Right-Brain Approach

16. The right-brain approach to learning is simple. It is very childlike.

17. The right-brain approach is fun-oriented.

18. The right-brain approach is activity-orientated.

19. The right-brain approach is creative. It involves music, pictures, imageries, art, games, or doing something interesting.

20. The right-brain approach is question-oriented.

21. To be question-oriented, effectively use the Power Tools: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.

22. “What is this?” This powerful and simple question will keep you talking in English for a whole day.

23. The right-brain approach does not emphasize grammar. During the first two weeks of confidence-building, do not distract yourself frequently by asking, “Am I correct?”

24. The right-brain approach does not emphasize a textbook. If a textbook is used, there should be no urgency to finish it.

25. The right brain approach does not emphasize on content. Most Chinese students want to learn more than English when studying. As if learning English is a waste of their time, they need to gain other information, some extra stuff like space technology or Shakespeare, to justify their involvement. But that mentality often slows down the English learning part, and the time spent is wasted on learning other things of no consequence.  

26. In the T.I.P. schedule, there are many lectures. Your objective in attending these lectures is to learn English. You are not there for the content. The speakers do not have to impress and entertain you.

27. Language is reflex. The T.I.P approach is the best way to train language reflex ability.  

28. Language is reflex, like breathing. The less you think about it, the more you know you are doing the right thing. The T.I.P. approach aims to create a childlike environment. Relax. Psychologically resist being self-conscious.

29. Language is reflex, like drawing a gun. The faster you draw, the better you are. The T.I.P. approach requires you to simplify your language processing, so your English comes out easier.

30. Language is reflex, like Kung Fu fighting. Training in repetition and training in intensity are crucial to improving your reflexes in Kung Fu fighting. The same concepts of repetition and intensity apply directly to English learning.

31. It is possible that by the third week your English will move deeper to a subconscious level. Then you may no longer notice whether you are speaking in English or in Chinese. Work hard to arrive at that subconscious level during the first two weeks. Don’t waste time. Start total immersion in English right away.   

32. When you start dreaming in English … Wow!

33. Friends are very important in the right-brain approach to learning English. Seasoned with laughter, friends turn the pressure cooker event into a meaningful, enjoyable, and once-in-a-lifetime experience.

34. Have a network of at least ten committed friends to speak English with, especially when T.I.P. ends.

35. The right-brain approach of learning the English language is simply this: Fun, creativity, childlike curiosity, openness, spontaneity, laughter, enjoyment, and friendship. Mix them all together, and you will make amazing progress.

Back to Top

Right Attitude

36. Attitude is everything. Tell yourself daily “I can do it.” It is possible to speak English in less than five weeks.

37. Encourage and say to one another daily, “You are doing well.”

38. Success in this program is not about beating others. In this program, you compete against the most challenging opponent: Yourself. There is no need to compare your progress. The question you ask of yourself daily during the five weeks is: Have I given my best today?

39. You will be tempted to give up. Hang in there. Remind yourself of the little train story, “I can make it, I can make it.”

40. The power of positive thinking works miracles.

41. If you hang in there, five weeks will pass quickly. Remember why you want to learn English. Remind yourself what you can use the English language for. Think of the future and the reward. Someday, you will look back and be very proud of what you have done today.

42. You may never have this opportunity again. Carpe Diem! Seize the day! Today!

43. Show up! Attend everything!

44. Show enthusiasm! No fear of losing face. Be the first to speak out.

45. Commit yourself to do the boring stuff, like going to the lab, studying your pocket notebook or writing your journal daily.

46. You have taken on the impossible. You have given more than a 100%. So now believe in yourself. You will have success.

47. The attitude you need for success in English learning is also the attitude you need for success in your career. Congratulations on your launch towards success in English learning.

48. Every major reward requires major investment. A sacrificial attitude will carry you a long way. Invest in your future. It is worth many times more than your sacrifice now.

49. The willingness to take initiative is a very valuable asset. That means you have a volunteer spirit and you are willing to do the work without being told. It is a skill not easily learnt. This program gives you the opportunity to sharpen this important skill.

50. The attitude for success is simply this: (a) Believe in yourself; (b) Be optimistic; (c) Be enthusiastic; (d) Be involved; (e) Be committed; (f) Be helpful to others; (g) And become successful.

Back to Top

Successful Teaching

51. In T.I.P., there are three kinds of teachers: the American teachers, your classmates, and you.

52. First, the American teachers. Chinese universities consider them the ideal English teachers and are willing to spend a fortune to bring them in. But because of their limited availability and their limited accessibility when hired, they are a major bottle-neck in the Chinese learning experience of English. (Imagine the average of 2 foreign teachers per campus of 30,000 people.)

53. In addition, the American teachers’ effectiveness is further reduced by the cultural differences in teaching style. Westerners usually have a different notion from the Chinese regarding how to approach the English language. To make the best out of the teaching relationship, Chinese students should consider ESEC teachers as friends rather than the traditional notion of “lao shi.”

54. As friends, the American teachers in T.I.P are there not to impress the students. They don’t need to be older than the students. They don’t even need to know more than the students. (The average Chinese student actually knows more grammar points than many of our teachers.)

55. As friends, the American teachers play a very important role in facilitating your English learning by helping you to overcome your fear of the language. (Keep in mind that Chinese teachers and classmates do the same for you.)

56. The success of T.I.P. doesn’t hinge upon the availability and the ability of the Americans. For the same reason, your English success should not be dependent upon foreign teachers either. However, most Chinese administrators and students do not agree with this. We believe otherwise. We have confidence that T.I.P. works because there are two other kinds of teachers.

57. If you can accept the concept of “friendship as a teaching tool,” then you have many teachers available to you. Obviously, you have the Chinese teachers. But in abundance and fully accessible to you is the second kind of teachers: your classmates and friends.

58. Comparatively, your classmates are more important teachers to you than the Americans. Your classmates make the program fun and enjoyable for you. According to the right-brain approach, that is the ideal language environment.

59. Furthermore, your classmates provide the motivation and encouragement as you weather through a very difficult and challenging situation. Like the geese flying in formation, the whole flock gets 71% greater flying range than if each goose flew on its own.

60. As your classmates can motivate you to successful learning, they can also de-motivate you and ruin your chance for success in T.I.P. Students who have an uninterested and non-participatory attitude should not join the program. Because of the very important role friends play in T.I.P., a bad example does not affect only one individual, but destroys the whole program for everybody in the class.

61. When we talk about friends as teachers, keep in mind that we are talking about attitude, not ability (just like the first category of teachers, the Americans). Classmates who have low ability but high-spirited attitude are your best influence in your flight formation through the language experience. A person with high ability but lousy attitude should not be in our program at all.

62. The third kind of teacher is the best you can have: Yourself. You are your own best teacher because your learning is no longer limited by others’ attitude, ability, or availability.

63. That assumes you will take responsibility for your own learning and you will take initiative to create learning situations. Success is guaranteed if you constantly and aggressively look for opportunities to teach yourself. Interestingly, that is not only possible in T.I.P., that is a most desirable trait.

64. Always do more than what is asked of. The volunteer spirit is important. Jump in with both feet. You take initiative to organize the activities. You mobilize others to participate. Think of ideas how to make the program more fun and enjoyable. In T.I.P., students assume leadership.

65. Without student leadership, T.I.P. will not work. This is because the American teachers work only 8 hours a day. The students are in T.I.P. for only 5 weeks, but a day for the students in the program is 14 hours.

66. Another reason why student leadership is crucial is because T.I.P. is made up of discussion groups of all kinds. The discussion groups will work only if you participate and take up the teaching responsibility for yourself. Your attitude towards participation decides the success or failure of this program for you.

67. Usually, study questions are provided to the various discussion groups. Please note that there is no right or wrong answer to the questions. Everyone’s answers are acceptable and welcome, as long as they are in English. Your challenge is to keep the discussion going. You do not need to arrive at the “right” answers.

68. If in certain sessions the discussion questions are not provided, you should have no trouble. Anyone can raise a question (like “what is this?”), and the discussion begins.

69. As you take on the teaching responsibility for your own learning, please be aware of two major hurdles: First, your first two weeks will be the most difficult part of T.I.P. It may also be the most challenging experience of your life for you may never have undertaken the responsibility of teaching yourself before. Just hang in there. You will survive. Just show up and participate – in everything. The program itself will carry you through. The two weeks will soon be over. Then T.I.P. will be a lot more enjoyable and rewarding. Second, you will experience much tension in cultural conflict. Your past experience of learning English will tell you that T.I.P. is all wrong. You want your textbook, you want to analyze your grammar, and you want to speak perfect English (you may even want your exams) … But tell yourself to hold your opinions just for two weeks and give T.I.P. a try. When you give a try, please give all you got. This is the T.I.P. promise: You will see results in two short weeks. Just hang in there and keep pushing yourself.

70. Summing it up, successful teaching in T.I.P. is simply this: It’s not the American teacher. It’s not the small classroom with tiny teacher-student ratio. The friendship, especially between the classmates, is what makes T.I.P. work. Ultimately, the responsibility of successful teaching falls on the best teacher available: YOU.

Back to Top

Successful Learning

71. Do not use a dictionary, always ask, ask, ask! By asking, you are repeating the word as often as you can.

72. After you learn a word or phrase, always tell, tell, tell! Repeat that word or phrase in a sentence at least 20 times as soon as possible.

73. If a dictionary is really needed, use it only at the end of the day in your own privacy.

74. Carry your pocket notebook and review the vocabulary frequently.

75. Use what you have, no matter how little you think you have. The key is to use it often. When you do so, you will be amazed how fast your knowledge multiplies.

76. As long as you are sitting or standing next to someone, keep talking.

77. When you are tired of talking, read an English magazine or review your pocket notebook.

78. If you’re not good at coming up with topics to talk about, read to one another from an article. One reads, the other listens, then summarizes. Swap roles after a few minutes.

79. The assured way towards fluency is to increase the amount of contact you have with English. During these five weeks, surround yourself with English sounds, materials and people.

80. Memorize sentence patterns, especially good quotes and speeches.

81. Do not miss your lab appointments! That is when your pronunciation problems can be corrected.

82. Always be ready to teach someone. You have nothing to teach your classmate? Well, take out your pocket notebook and go through it with him or her.

83. If you are learning something very difficult, the easiest way to learn it is to teach that to someone. You will be amazed that by saying it aloud, you may understand better and remember easier.

84. As a challenge, teach grammar points in English.

85. Teach someone. Do not waste time looking for a better English speaker.

86. Make the decision anew every day: No speaking Chinese. For many of you, that would be the most difficult thing to do. For in so doing, you would lose the only bearing or framework you have for daily living. However, if you refuse to speak Chinese, and if you try your best to communicate only in English (even to the point of embarrassing yourself by repeating something over and over again so you can be understood), you are forcing yourself to establish another framework for living. It will be the most uncomfortable thing to do. But the outcome and reward will be exciting, for from now on you will have two frameworks for deployment in your future and career development. Commit to changing the framework of your daily living. That is the most effective way to make English your native tongue.

87. Meal times are more important than the classroom hours for learning English. Do not use Chinese in the cafeteria, even when ordering food. No one in this program should eat alone or quietly.

88. The beginning and the ending of the T.I.P. day have special significance. You begin everyday with Morning Motivational, not just Monday through Friday, but Saturday and Sunday also. Every night before you go to bed, you write your Daily Journal. Consider the Journal a daily ritual for ending the day. The journaling helps you to review the whole day in English. The reflection will lead your mind to enter into a deeper level of thinking, using English as the medium. Hopefully, you will carry English into your dreams.

89. Participants in T.I.P. are requested not to go home on the weekends. First, these Chinese-speaking home visits will severely interrupt the T.I.P. learning dynamics. Second, though Saturdays and Sundays are less busy than the weekdays, you still have to do the language lab, catch up with reading assignments, and prepare for a speech contest. Just because the American teachers are not teaching on the weekends, that doesn’t mean you are not learning. Don’t be surprised if you end up learning more and faster on Saturdays and Sundays. (Why?)

90. During the weekends, students are requested to take turn to accompany the American teachers for sightseeing and errand activities. Thank you for helping.

91. If by the end of the second week you feel that your brain is jam-packed or that you are mentally exhausted, that is a good sign. But if you do not feel that way, something is wrong. Possibly you have not asserted yourself hard enough. You need to exercise harder your mind. Increase the pressure or else you may not have enough momentum for the language breakthrough.

92. Take your noon naps. Get enough sleep every night. T.I.P. is an exercise to challenge your limits. Please take good care of your body.

93. The T.I.P. curriculum covers 4 major skills of English:

Listening (input through your ears)

Reading (input through your eyes)

Speaking (output through your mouth)

Writing (output through your hand)

To reap the most benefits from the T.I.P. design, practice in variety and move from skill area to skill area.

94. The average person communicates in the following ways:

We listen for about 40% of the time.

We read for about 16% of the time.

We speak for about 35% of the time.

We write for about 9% of the time.

Our T.I.P. schedule reflects these percentages. Use these percentages as a guide for your learning activities.

95. The following explains why T.I.P. works:

Learning Methods			Retention Rate (how much we remember)
Lectures			5%
Reading			10%
Audio Visual			20%
Demonstration			30%
Discussion Group			50%
Practice by Doing			75%
Teach Others/Immediate Use			90%

Confucius said, “What I learn, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand.”

96. If you think that T.I.P. is loosely organized, you are very observant. This is a student-centered program, and students are encouraged to initiate their own learning activities. Therefore, many things can be happening at the same time. Despite the chaos, believe us, there is a design. Please follow along and participate with enthusiasm.

97. Therefore, if you feel that you are swamped, if you feel that there are too many things going on at the same time, if you feel that you are not learning everything presented, or if you feel that you cannot finish all the homework and assignments … you are on the right track, for you will end up learning much more than if everything were under your control.

98. This is not a paradox. On the one hand, this is a highly structured program. We have a very rigid schedule and a packed curriculum. You are encouraged to design a leak-proof language environment and a 24/7 surround-sound situation. On the other hand, there is a lot of flexibility. Students are encouraged to assume leadership. They are to initiate ideas and to take charge. Many learning activities should be popping up everywhere, especially outside the classroom. Whether you look at this as a structured or chaotic situation, the T.I.P. expectations remain the same: Give your best efforts. Believe in yourself. Aim for the moon. Compare with nobody. Rejoice in amazement what you can accomplish.   

99. Let us explain T.I.P. in one short paragraph: Building upon the ABC philosophy of oral English, Total Immersion Program invites you to take Three Steps forward, then apply the Four Laws, do the Five Simple Practices, ask the Fifteen Questions, and follow the Ninety-Nine Tips. Always use the Right Brain and have the Right Attitude. The many ideas of Successful Teaching and the many ideas of Successful Learning all point to this: English with a big i. When YOU can become your own teacher, YOU learn with the best results. YOU are at the center of the English learning responsibility.

Back to Top