Alan Watts on Intelligence

Hello and welcome to Effortless English. This is AJ Hoag in San Francisco, California. Today's podcast will be a little different. I'm going to try something new.

This time I'm going to split the podcast into two parts. Part one will have the basic article. and Part 2 will have the vocabulary explanations. That way, if you don't need or don't want the explanations, you can skip them.

This is the article section. This part is going to be only the article, and the next part will be the vocabulary. Today's podcast is titled, Alan Watts on Intelligence.

Previously, I wrote about the three basic principles of Taoist philosophy, namely Tao itself, the course of nature, Wu Wei, not forcing, the watercourse character of the course of nature, and Dei, the seemingly magical power that comes of following the watercourse way and taking the line of least resistance.

Following the watercourse way argues always for a high order of intelligence, for it is more intelligent to sail a boat than to row it, even though sailing is the lazier way of doing it.

Technologically, it is easier to use the wind than to work against it. But in the West, we haven't really awakened to the fact that it would be much more intelligent for us to use the sun, the wind, and the tides as sources of energy rather than using fossil fuels.

And so, we live in a state of foolish ignorance. Alan Watts I love this metaphor from Alan Watts. It is applicable to a wide range of life experiences. In fact, it is this Alan Watts quote that inspired the name Effortless English.

I originally wanted to use the name Effortless Effort to capture the seeming paradox of the Taoist way, But I thought that effortless effort English was a little too long and clumsy.

The idea of sailing instead of rowing is that you follow nature instead of fighting it. With language learning, it means you follow your own nature, the nature of your brain, the nature of your temperament, the nature of your current life.

You don't fight against these. You don't struggle. You don't try to force yourself to do something you really don't want to do. The idea of effortless English is that you do what your brain enjoys.

Instead of forcing it to memorize lists of vocabulary and grammar rules, you instead seduce it with interesting stories, conversations, games, etc. Instead of creating anxiety by trying to speak before you are ready, you relax and focus on tons of understandable input, reading and listening.

Instead of getting stressed by tests and teacher corrections, you relax, take your time, and enjoy the process. This is the way to sail to English mastery.

Some students love to argue with me. They tell me that memorized grammar rules and vocabulary lists can also be effective. I agree. If you want to cross an ocean, you can certainly row the boat and you will get there eventually.

But you will spend a lot more energy, will get much more tired, and will arrive much later than if you'd simply raised a sail and let nature take you there.

So too with learning English. In this case, interesting, authentic, understandable content is your sail. Repeated listening and reading is your wind. Use them to your best advantage.

Find the most interesting content possible and listen to it often. Alan Watts is right. It's more intelligent to sail a boat than to row it. Okay, that completes today's article.

The next section, the vocabulary section, will follow in the follow-up podcast. As always, if you would like a learning guide for this podcast, join the Effortless English Club at www.effortlessenglish.com.

Okay, I will see you next time. Bye. Thank you.