Introduction
The Growing Participator Approach (GPA) is a method used globally for people wanting to learn another language and culture in a conversational, relational and effective way. The language learners using this method are called Growing Participators (GPs) as they are growing as participators in another langua-cultural world. We call the world of the GPs' target language the host world.
In GPA, those who help nurture these participants into a new host world are called Nurturers. This term is intentionally used in GPA rather than calling them GPA Teachers because again, "it is not a language to be learned, but a life to be lived." This common GPA phrase represents the idea that growing into another language and culture is about becoming a new person and being raised up into being able to function in every way in another "world." The person who gently and patiently creates a space for the GP to enter into that world and helps them "take their first steps" is not just teaching them their host language. They are nurturing them into a whole new way of life- so they are called Nurturers.
Train Your Own GPA Nurturer or Use a Nurturer Trained By Someone Else
The Growing Participator Approach is designed in a way that can be done in a variety of contexts with the GP training their own Nurturer. Language centers/businesses like Launch India take on the role of training Nurturers for you and managing schedule and contracts with the Nurturers so that you can really just enter in and focus on growing in your host language/culture without needing to train and manage the process at the same time.
Either way- whether you are training your own Nurturer or using one trained by others- not all local speakers of your target language make equally excellent Nurturers. They are all surely equally amazing people worth knowing, respecting and loving. But there are certain people and certain qualities of a Nurturer that will help you grow into the new language and culture with fun and effectiveness.
Qualities of a Great GPA Nurturer
Patient and Encouraging
It takes making thousands of mistakes to learn to function in a new language and culture. A Nurturer who can patiently listen to you speak like a child day after day as your brain tries to sort out the correct patterns and fill those with the right vocabulary words- this Nurturer is gold. Not everyone has the patience required to help a learner grow through especially the early phases of GPA. But the Nurturers who are generous with praise and can help carry the emotional load for a GP as they struggle through the process - these Nurturers are of so much value.
For this reason, patience and encouragement are the primary qualities we look for at Launch India in hiring and further developing a Nurturer for languages like Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Telugu or Marathi.
Friendly
Nurturers are the first people with whom learners form deep relational connections that
can open up the door to broader relationships in the host world. A Nurturer who is friendly will graciously and eagerly help open those doors and encourage increased connection to their host world. Friendly people are also just generally more relationally inclined which is key in an approach like GPA where relationships and conversation are a primary driver for growth across all areas of language and culture.
Teachable
GPA follows a specific method that is more conversational, more relational, and more contextual than traditional book-driven language learning methods. Nurturers who are willing to learn this more playful method and be coached into new ways of doing things will be more helpful for the learner long-run than those who insist upon their way of teaching the language.
We at Launch India have actually found that we prefer to hire people as Nurturers who do not have prior teaching experience. As the saying goes, "you can't teach an old dog new tricks." There are certainly exceptions to this rule, however in general, those who simply bring a teachable attitude and respond positively to feedback and coaching will grow as a great Nurturer more easily and more quickly than those who are resistant to learning new things or adapting to the unique needs of each learner.
Creative Storyteller
Phase 2 of GPA requires the Nurturer to create stories based on wordless picture books as the main content of a language session. The more interestingly a Nurturer can create this description, the stronger the encounter with new words the GP will have. When interviewing a potential new Nurturer at Launch India, we always have them try to create a creative description of a picture story book to see how natural they are at this. If you are hiring your own Nurturer, you will want to invite someone else to evaluate this skill as obviously you won't be able to understand what they are saying until you are past Phase 2.
Phase 4 of GPA is all about the Nurturer telling their life story as the primary content for language sessions. Nurturers who are more able to creatively remember details and tell their story with enthusiasm will do a better job of naturally drawing GPs into their heart, into the culture, and into the worldview of others in their host world.
Creative in Describing Meaning
Learners using the GPA method will quickly become comfortable with the phrase "Ye Kya Hai?/Iska matlab kya hai?" or the equivalent way of asking "What is this?/ What does this mean?" These phrases are learned and practiced in Phase 1 and then applied from Phase 2 onwards as long as you are growing into this host world.
In each Phase of GPA, learners listen to recordings and stop those recordings each time they hear something they do not understand. Excellent Nurturers not only exercise patience and encouragement in these moments as described in number 1 above. But excellent GPA Nurturers also demonstrate creativity in helping GPs understand the meaning of new words using only the host language and other non-verbal cues. Basically, you want a Nurturer who is would be good at party games like Charades, Catch Phrase, or Taboo. Check out the photo here on Negotiating the Meaning of a Word or Phrase for a list of helpful strategies a great GPA Nurturer might use to effectively describe the meaning of a new word using only the target language.
Good Listener
One of the most foundational skills a GP must develop in learning a new language and culture is that of Listening and Understanding. So yes, the GPA method for good, research-based reasons- focuses a lot on having GPs listen to recordings, clarify them, and re-listen to those recordings for review. But one of the common misconceptions about GPA is that learners do not speak at all. This is not true! While the first several days are set aside for GPs to really focus on just listening well (out of ideally hundreds and hundreds of days of learning) - GPs start speaking early in Phase 1 and have speaking activities built into every day and every Phase thereafter. Speaking is obviously a crucial skill in learning to be understood in another language and culture! And it is not easy!
A great Nurturer understands that speaking in a new language is no easy task! GPs are taking brand new words and trying to use new sentence structures to communicate their own real ideas and thoughts. GPA believes in giving learners the tools and adding more and more tools for them to generate and communicate their own thoughts and create their own stories and responses. It is a very playful and collaborative method with GPs doing their best to communicate ideas and Nurturers doing their best to understand, clarify, correct and respond appropriately.
A great GPA Nurturer will be a careful listener. They will limit distractions in the learning space and tune into what their GP is trying to communicate. They will listen closely and based on the context of what is going on, do their best to put themselves in the learners' shoes to figure out what they are trying to say. They will learn to respond not only by fixing the GPs mistakes as they speak, but also to the meaning of what the GP just shared. This is not an easy balance, but a crucial one in both building a meaningful relationship with the GP and in helping the GP grow their skills in speaking.
Positively Corrects Mistakes
While it is always going to be uncomfortable to make mistakes, it is also entirely normal that a GP will make thousands of mistakes as they learn to speak their new language. A great Nurturer knows how to remain encouraging while positively correcting the mistakes a GP makes in speaking. This is a tricky balance. Again, GPs make a lot of mistakes as they speak. This is totally normal. GPs do want their mistakes rephrased and corrected so that they will begin to use correct sentence structures in their own speech and sound more and more like a local.
A Nurturer disservices their GP when they ignore the mistakes their GP makes because they understand what the GP is trying to communicate. On the other hand, a Nurturer can discourage their GP if they interrupt the GP mid-thought or mid-sentence to make a correction to their speech. So, of course, there is a balance to how to handle this correctly. The best GPA Nurturers will let a GP finish their thought, respond to the meaning of what the GP said (keeping the relationship and conversation primary) and then remember to circle back and correct the mistake(s) in how the GP communicated that idea.
Good Representative of Your Host World
Occasionally there are GPs who are learning a new language simply for the joy of learning and therefore they are eager to learn both on the Hindi and Urdu side of the spectrum of this complex, mixed language. More often, GPs already know that they will be working professionally with a certain type of speaker of their target language. It therefore makes the most sense for that GP to learn from a Nurturer who is culturally and linguistically a good representative of that desired host world.
GPA is about more than just learning vocabulary and grammar. It is about learning the culture of those who speak these languages. It is about building relationships. So yes, it can be a huge benefit (especially in Phase 4) to be extra intentional about taking GPA sessions with a variety of different speakers from within your target host world. But it is also important that each of these speakers represents the kind of people you ultimately want to imitate. You will grow to understand and sound like your Nurturer(s). If your Nurturer is missing teeth, or has a unique lisp, or somehow isn't a representative of the host world into which you desire to grow- they may still be an excellent conversation partner- but they may not make the most helpful Nurturer in helping you reach your goals.
Professional
GPA is about building relationships with real people who have real lives and real stuff going on in those lives. So of course it is natural that any Nurturer will occasionally need to take some days off from language sessions. But in general, great Nurturers will be relational as well as professional. They will demonstrate reliability- showing up for each session- prepared and on-time and inform in a timely manner when they are unable. They will put their phones away and limit distractions so they can give their full focus to the GP. Great Nurturers will take care of themselves as best as they can so that they can come to each language session with good energy.
This can all be a lot for a GP to manage especially when their language ability and cultural awareness in their host world is limited such as it will be in Phases 1-3 especially. It is good to seek the help of people who better understand the language and culture to set the expectations clearly from the start and to help correct if the standard starts to slip. GPA can be an incredibly relationally rewarding way to enter into a new host world. But as in any situation, if the time and attention is being taken away from growth into the host world by dealing with unprofessional behavior, the GP's window of tolerance to deal with these additional stressors may quickly be overblown and progress severely impaired.
Does NOT Speak English
You may initially think that Nurturer who has good English would be helpful to helping you more quickly understand your target language. After all- how are you going to learn your new language without English? Well, one of the unique qualities of GPA is that it is designed to be conducted 100% in the local, target language from day 1 without English. This may sound absurd and impossible and ineffective, but it is rather an approach based on research of how our brains actually learn new languages well. For more on this topic, check out our blog on 4 Reasons to Learn Hindi Urdu Without Using English.
Nurturers who either don't know English or intentionally choose not to use English during their language sessions with a GP will need to use some of the more creative techniques for helping explain the meaning of words to you. These examples will certainly be stronger encounters with the words than a simple translation into English. It takes a lot of discipline for a GP to learn a target language without themselves switching into English or trying to consider the English translation for each concept. If the GP is aware that their Nurturer knows English, it will be tempting to switch more often. If the GP knows that their Nurturer either won't understand English or will just simply choose to not respond to English, then it is more likely the GP will endure the necessary struggle to stay in the target language while using the target language.
Bottom line: A Nurturer who does not know English but knows how to use the GPA method and who displays these other qualities listed here is an incredible asset to a GP entering well into a new target world.
Conclusion
The qualities of your GPA Nurturers can make or break your experience in learning a target language and culture. It is not easy to learn Hindi or Urdu and takes a huge amount of time, energy and resources. Of course, the more resilient the GP, the more likely they will be to succeed in learning their target language regardless of the qualities of their Nurturer. But it also goes without saying that there is immense value in a Nurturer who really takes to heart the task of lovingly, patiently, helping you grow up into their world.
Launch India is located in Delhi, India. This city is incredibly diverse- made up of native speakers of many different languages and cultures. The languages available here are not just limited to North Indian Hindi. The surrounding countries are all represented here as are the Southern States of India. We take great joy in finding Nurturers in this city who exemplify the qualities listed above and pairing them with the learners who specifically are looking to grow into the langua-cultural world of that Nurturer. We also love to train and develop these Nurturers regularly for however long they serve with our company so that they are positioned to give the best experience to each learner who comes to our program.
So we hope this list can help you whether you are looking to hire and train your own Nurturer or you are looking to join an established program like Launch India to work towards your language goals. Reach out today for more information!
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