The Imitum Method Principle

The Imitum method starts at the other end of teaching from what is taught in schools or typical language courses. Rather than learning a foreign language by single words with which you later compose sentences and larger segments, it is much more effective to understand a segment (a phrase, a sentence). It is just like a puzzle – you work faster if you know what the final picture will look like. In this way you use logical memory which is much more effective than mechanical memory (memorising). In higher ages the logical memory prevails over the mechanical one.

Logical memory works so that it saves individual words in the context of phrases, sentences or simply in connection with a certain theme. Meaningful sentences and logical units, as well as information with emotional aspects, are more easily saved in the logical memory.

The text material for the Imitum method includes only complete sentences. The sentences are not isolated – they are incorporated in dialogues and wider contexts (in a restaurant, in an office, entertainment or with friends etc). With these you learn to understand and later to imitate the sentences used in everyday conversations. In these sentences you learn the vocabulary and subconsciously absorb the grammar.

You not only hear the sentences, you also see them on the monitor for better memory, since most people remember (source: Wikipedia):

  • 10 % what they read
  • 20 % what they hear
  • 30 % what they see
  • 50 % what they hear and see
  • 70 % what they say
  • 90 % what they do

The purpose of the Imitum method is to learn to think in a foreign language (without translating into one’s mother tongue).