Revisiting Merri Scott and Gary Scott’s Teaching “Super Thinking -Super Spanish” Using Baroque Music. Studying a Musical Instrument Makes You Smarter: Madeline’s Monthly Musical Tips Blog and Radio Show for December 2023.
This month’s blog and Radio Show revisits the work of Merri Scott and Gary Scott experts on teaching 1000s of people to speak Spanish through Baroque music and how to be International Investors. Merri and Gary Scott are our Radio Show’s 2022 “Teachers’ Lifetime Achievement Award” winners.
A new article by Dr. Madeline Frank, 3 Ways to Communicate You Are Listening!
Radio Show for December 2023 Feature Statement: Merri Scott and Gary Scott taught 1000s of people to successfully speak Spanish in their “Super Thinking- Super Spanish” course using Dr. Georgi Lozanov’s method with Baroque music. How did they do it? (This is a reissue from September 2014.)
https://www.madelinefrankviola.com/one-minute-radio-show-2023/
Our blog article features Merri and Gary Scott, writers, publishers, and experts on International investing and in teaching 1000s of people to successfully speak Spanish in their course “Super Thinking- Super Spanish” using Dr. Georgi Lozanov’s method with Baroque music.
On July 18-20, 2014 my husband, Allan and I, were students in Merri and Gary Scott’s “Super Thinking- Super Spanish” Course.
Merri Scott studied with Dr. Georgi Lozanov, medical doctor and Father of Accelerated Learning who taught, through the power of positive suggestion, with a “relaxed and focused state of mind learning becomes joyful.” He believed in removing roadblocks to learning. As a medical doctor his approach was holistic. Merri and Gary Scott are continuing Dr. Lozanov’s work by offering their “super Thinking- Super Spanish” Course.
Dr. Madeline Frank: “Merri what was studying at the Goethe Institute like?”
Mrs. Merri Scott: “After years of studying Latin and French, I found myself in Europe in my early 20s once again studying for 2 1/2 years at the Goethe Institute in Europe. The accomplishment of German in the Institutes in Europe was extremely painful and stressful. Although I did obtain bountiful mastery as well as even dreamed in German after over 2 years there, I felt exhausted and depleted. I should have been excited, thrilled and happy.”
Madeline: “When did you decide to learn Spanish and how did you do it?”
Merri: “After returning home to Georgia, I decided to winter in Yucatan. The urge to explore another country and the desire to pursue a career in Import & Export plus the continued dreary weather convinced me to go and try it. So, I packed a suitcase & headed out. As a language major, I was fluent in French, German with years of Latin and Origins of Modern Language courses behind me.”
“Loving the weather but not enjoying (or being able to afford) an idle life, I discovered a world of opportunity. The markets of Yucatan unfolded to me, discovering the wonders of textiles beautifully made in styles and fabrics unknown to the U.S. at that time.”
“However, not speaking Spanish made me feel deprived, and not in a strong position to do business. It was imperative to speak Spanish! Fast!!!”
“What happened was quite miraculous. Fluency in a language as the Goethe Institute (the respected language school) defines it as 1200 words.”
“Because I had studied for those years under this powerful learning system, I knew of its accuracy. As I struggled to teach myself Spanish, my first thoughts were “How quickly can I know 1200 words?” Well, a lot quicker than you can imagine! Modern languages (French, Spanish, Italian, English) are based on Latin, with the same roots. If I knew a word in French or English, perhaps there would be a similar word in Spanish. This led to a number of “rules” on how to automatically convert English words to Spanish.”
“My great hope was there might be a couple of hundred words that are more or less the same in both languages…but lo and behold, you’ll see that there are actually 4005 words! (These I painstakingly selected. I went joyfully through every word in the largest Spanish dictionary and decided whether its English counterpart was familiar & suitable & if so, added it to my list.)
“Back then, I thought…I need to know how to pronounce these words and I need to know how to recognize more and more and that’s about it…but whoa”
“How about speaking in whole sentences? How about conjugation of verbs? How about the dreaded derivation of sentences? How about sounding gracious and honorable?”
“I must learn instantly. I must speak now. I must communicate. I sought to communicate…while honoring the language. Could this possibly be? Well, of course it could. And it did.”
Madeline: “Where did you hear about Dr. Lozanov?”
Merri : “I was pursuing my lifelong career in publishing and I read with a great deal of interest, “Psychic Discoveries behind the Iron Curtain” by Ostrander and Schroeder and also their book on “Super Learning”.”
“I was totally taken with this idea of stress free learning and couldn’t agree more over Dr. Lozanov’s comment, “Many of us are the victims of education.”
Madeline: “Merri when did you work with Dr. Georgi Lozanov and tell us about the experience?”
Merri: “Thirty eight years ago, I was fortunate enough to be chosen for Dr. Georgi Lozanov’s , “SuperLearning Course” and became a certified teacher licensed in these techniques in 1976. This is a stress free, remarkable system and my life was changed forever. Spending weeks with 11 very erudite and interesting others from all over the world was a remarkable experience. Having the benefit of the understanding and experience of Dr. Georgi Lozanov, the energy and drive of Dr. Carl Schleicher and the devotion to language of who was to come my best friend, Parisian Simone Bedard (whose father was the Ambassador from France) gave me the root, the basis, the knowledge and the joy of these powerful techniques.”
“The class and the teachings were extraordinary. We had the head of the Buddhist Monks, the Cultural Minister of Russia, the head of the radionics masters from Zurich, and a number of equally fascinating people. And then there was me!”
“In a sense, super learning adds by taking away deleting negative suggestions, limiting ideas, fear images, and self-blame. It is not so much that super learning gives us something new…it gives us something we already have…ourselves!”
“Dr. Lozanov wanted everyday people to have “joyful learning” with a “positive outlook” with “team learning and cooperation.”
“The miraculous did happen. The Bulgarians were viewed and categorized as the lowest order in the Russian Empire. After just 10 months of training by Lozanov, the students and countries rose to #1 in the Empire!”
Madeline: “What is the “Music you use as the bridge to awareness” in your “Super Thinking- Super Spanish” Course?
Merri: “The music in the background of our “Super Thinking- Super Spanish” Course is the music “Dr. Lozanov taught us to use in his classroom. The slow movements of Baroque composers Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Corelli, Tartini, and Pachelbel. The music played is slower than a person’s heart beat and relaxes the students and helps them remember more.”
Madeline: “Gary how did you and Merri develop your “Super Thinking- Super Spanish” course?”
Mr. Gary Scott: “The principles taught at the “Super Thinking + Spanish” course are the same that led to the creation and execution of the course. They are principles of using the mind body to create and grow rather than rote learning with the brain.”
“These principles and the actual techniques evolved over three decades. The evolution began in our self -publishing and seminar business that was focused on international investing and business. We had no thought whatsoever of writing or teaching about communication in Spanish.”
“Our focus did however look at the concepts of integrating logic with intuition. Having taught tens of thousands of readers about multi currency investing, we were always puzzled how the same advice helped some readers reap rich rewards while others would use the same advice and lose money.”
“The roots of the Spanish course started in a small Ecuadorian indigenous village. As increasing numbers of our readers moved to Ecuador we saw that many of them struggled to learn Spanish. Merri was in a perfect position to help so in about 2002 she developed the course.”
Dr. Madeline Frank: “Merri and Gary Scott thank you for inspiring, motivating, and teaching your “Super Thinking -Super Spanish” course to thousands of people and for your courses on “International Investing” and “writing”. What a wonderful legacy you are sharing with others.”
3 Ways to Communicate You Are Listening! by Madeline Frank, Ph.D.
Must be personable, empathetic. Understand that your connection is with a human.
What is everyone asking about you?
1) “Do you care about me?”
2) “Can you help me?”
3) “Can I trust you?”
(John Maxwell’s 3 questions to connect with others.)
- 1) “Do you care about me?”
We have all experienced people who have rolled their eyes at a simple request, making us feel unimportant. On the flip side; Bob Burg shares a story of how a little bit of empathy can go a long way.
“It was several years ago while I was in the fantastic city of St. Louis, Missouri. After being seated for lunch, the waiter made his initial approach to our table with a bit of an…attitude. He was coldly polite and acted as if he’d rather not be there at all. One could say he literally looked “pained” to even be there.”
“And, indeed, he literally was, as indicated by his pronounced limp as he walked away. So, when he came back, my friend and colleague Dixie Gillaspie — kind and thoughtful as she always is — acknowledged his obvious discomfort and asked what happened.”
“He explained that he’d been hit by a car and was in fact in extremely significant pain. We didn’t ask him why he was there at work or in any other way pry; we just let him know how badly we felt for him and that we’d try not to bother him too much with needless trips back and forth.”
“You wouldn’t believe (or, maybe you would) how polite, solicitous, and friendly he then became. In fact, he made so many trips over to check up on us that we had to try and keep from getting his attention.”
“Dixie simply verbalized her concern and showed him she cared. Not only was she not offended by his attitude, but instead valued him enough as a human being to focus on *his* situation. Consequently, he went above and beyond in trying to please us.”
Burg’s “Key Point: As human beings, we have a need to know that people care about us. And, when people show us they do, even — perhaps especially — with no obligatory reason to, we will go out of our way to make them happy.”
“It’s just another of those “Laws of Life.”
“Think back to when someone has done that for you. Did you feel yourself change in your thoughts and feelings toward them? When you’ve done that for others, what were the results you noticed? I’m guessing it changed them, and that you felt pretty darned good yourself.”
The world does not revolve around you. Challenge yourself to be more empathetic when encountering someone and see what happens.
2) “Can you help me?”
Everyone desires to have an experience they can rave about.
Since the dawn of time, people have been writing about solving problems rather than listing the features of their products or services.
Who would you rather do business with?
- The broker who tells you about how long his company has been in business, or the broker who assures you that he will help guide you through life to create a comfortable retirement.
- The dentist who tries to upsell you on every additional service they offer at every visit, or the dentist whose office calls you the evening after a procedure to check in and see how you are doing.
- The carpet salesman who just sells you the flooring and installation, or the salesman who stops by on his way home from work to drop off some spot cleaner because he recognized you had a pet and wanted to make sure you were prepared “just in case”.
No one cares what you do. They only care about how you can help them.
3) “Can I trust you?”
It is no secret that car salesmen do not have a great public perception for trustworthiness. When you get to experience someone, who is an amazing trustworthy salesman, they are legendary.
My husband and I had the privilege of doing business with the greatest salesman I have ever met. His name was William “Bill” Carwile. Bill possessed a burning passion for helping his customers find the right vehicle for them. He studied cars inside and out, so he could guide you to the right car to fulfill your needs.
Bill also had great relationships with the service department at his dealership, often buying them lunch and recognizing them for a job well done frequently. Having built that relationship with the service team…if one of his customers had a car break down in the evening or on a Sunday, one of Bill’s trusted technicians would likely be right over to help.
How did I meet Bill? For the third time in two weeks my 17-year-old Mitsubishi decided to die. I had replaced the battery, the alternator, the regulator and a few more parts and I had had enough. Tidewater AAA Service had told me this was my last time to be towed and they would no longer help me. Three strikes and you are out!
My dad and several friends had raved about this guy named Bill at the Chrysler/Plymouth dealer. They were all happy with their purchases and considered Bill Carwile their friend and trusted adviser. My husband and I made an appointment with him for the next day.
Bill asked me what I was looking for in a new car. I wanted something that got good mileage, was comfortable, and was reliable and safe. He showed us 2 or 3 vans, and instead of pressuring us into buying on the spot, he invited us to take the van for the weekend and to let him know what we thought on Monday.
Over the years we bought many cars and vans from Bill and we also recommended him to all our friends and family members who bought cars from him. Bill has become a close friend over the years and we respected and trusted him as a trusted adviser for all our car needs. He always had a passion for cars and other vehicles and studied them.
As customers and friends, we enjoyed buying our vehicles from Bill Carwile for four reasons.
- We immediately liked him and trusted him and he always had a positive attitude.
- Bill listened to what we wanted and needed in a car, truck , or van and then told us the benefits of each vehicle he thought we would like in our price range. He had the solution to our problem.
- Bill had such a passion and knowledge of cars, trucks, and vans that he shared with his customers and friends. He knew everything about these vehicles and when he made a promise he would keep it.
William “Bill” Carwile passed away on September 8, 2011. His family, his friends, and his customers were blessed to have known such a wonderful caring person who shared his passion for automobiles with them all these years.
(I wrote about Bill in a previous article “A Salesman’s Dream”
“In a letter to John Maxwell, Emran Bhojawala introduced him to Lloyd, a car salesman in the Washington, D.C. area, who went above and beyond for Emran. Lloyd proved himself so trustworthy that Emran even purchased a car from Lloyd in D.C., sight unseen, after Emran moved to Minnesota.”
Imran said, “When I wanted to buy a car I didn’t have to worry about anything. I told him my budget and flew to Virginia to pick up a car I had never seen.”
He “then drove twenty-three hours to get home.”
Imran continues, “Lloyd is THE legend when it comes to selling cars in the area near my school. He does not advertise, and all his business comes from previous customers and references. I think that’s a perfect example of success in connecting with people.”
“Trust is the foundation that makes rapport, communication, and connection possible – it may not be easily built up, but it pays exponential dividends in relational value.” ( John Maxwell Leadership)
Not everything is about the latest tech, latest selling trend or anything else. It is the foundation that everyone sells themselves. © 2023 Madeline Frank
Contact Madeline Frank for your next speaking engagement or
virtual event at [email protected]
“Playing Musical Instrument ‘Sharpens Mind’ Says St. Andrews Study” (Sep. 27, 2013) from the BBC News Edinburgh, Fife, & East Scotland.
This study “adds to previous studies linking musical skills with mental and physical well-being.” Dr. Ines Jentzsch, psychologist and pianist, says, “Our study shows that even moderate levels of musical activity can benefit brain functioning.” She also says, “musical activity could be used as an effective intervention to slow, stop or even reverse age, illness, related decline in mental functioning. Musical activity cannot only immensely enrich our lives but the associated benefits for our physical and mental functioning could even be even more far-reaching than proposed in our previous research.”
“The Secret of Teaching Science & Math Through Music” by Madeline Frank, Ph.D. is available in book form, and newly updated as an e-book on Kindle, Nook, or iBook:
- com(Kindle)
- Barnes and Noble(Nook)
- iTunes
“Musical Notes On Math” by Dr. Madeline Frank teaches your child fractions and decimals, the fun easy way, through the rhythm of music, Winner of the Parent To Parent Adding Wisdom Award is available in book form, newly updated as an e-book on Kindle, Nook, or iBook.:
- com(Kindle)
- Barnes and Noble(Nook)
- iTunes
Dr. Madeline Frank’s book “Leadership on a Shoestring Budget” is available through amazon. To order your copy as an e-book on Kindle click on the following link:
http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Shoestring-Budget-Timeless-Principles-ebook/dp/B00HTD65V4/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1416332320&sr=1-3
“Madeline’s Midnight Melodies- Music From around the World”. This CD complements her books with a blend of dance music, gigues, tangos, ballet and favorites including “Danny Boy”, Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro”, Debussy’s “Claire De Lune” and others. “Madeline’s Midnight Melodies” CD is now available for purchase by downloading a song, downloading the album click below:
Wishing you and your family a happy Chanukah and a Merry
Christmas from your Non-Invasive Medicine…Music Expert, Madeline
For over 30 years, Dr. Madeline Frank has helped children and adults overcome problems through Classical music. Madeline Frank, Ph.D., DTM is an award-winning teacher, an amazon.com best-selling author, researcher, speaker, conductor, and concert artist. She has discovered a scientific link between studying a musical instrument and academic and societal success. Madeline Frank earned her Bachelor and Master’s degree from the Juilliard School of Music. Her education has included scholarships at the Juilliard School, Indiana University, and the University of Cincinnati and she has a violin performance diploma from the North Carolina School of the Arts. (C) 2023 Madeline Frank.
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