So- I’ve listened all the way to the end of a seemingly endless 30-minute Pimsleur language class— with due amount of skipping. The last two sentences, too, were spoken by this rolling voice…

…a voice with depth, low and rich tones that resonate in the chest and throat; a resonant quality that gives the voice a full, rich sound, an even timbre without breaks or sudden changes in pitch. A voice with slow, deliberate pace, with a sense of gravity and weight to their words, and yet with expressiveness: despite its slow pace, the rolling voice is powerful, conveying a sense of authority, gravitas, and emotion. In short: the staple voice of all audiobooks nowadays. It went like this:

Pimsleur courses work most effectively when done consecutively and on a daily basis. For best results please continue with the next unit tomorrow.

“Hear, hear.” I heard myself saying. Pimsleur®, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., they sure know all the tricks in the book. In the highly competitive market of language courses good marketing and suggestive messaging sure is their businesses’ first, second and third pillar.

The audience retention of my Youtube videos is typically around 20%, and I typically lose around 50% of viewers within the first 30 seconds (something wrong with my face, maybe?)

Therefore- if I would put such a suggestive marketing message at the end of my videos I would reach only around 10-15% of my viewers. “Viewers” in quotation marks—at this point I may already call them my “students”, because only viewers with real interest and dedication in my teachings will watch to the end.

On one hand this would mean that I would be preaching to the converted. But on the other hand Pimsleur units are also only listened through to the end by the most dedicated of students. So instead of just saying, “Thank you for watching, and see you in the next video!” I could double down with something like:

My lessons work most effectively when done consecutively and on a daily basis. For best results please continue with the next video tomorrow.

But then- this conflicts with my pedagogy. I leave it completely up to you when you watch my videos, and in which frequency. You feel something is good for you? Take more of it. For me, myself, movement learning is a bit like reading. I like to self-select my reading materials. I like to choose where I read, for how long I read, and how I read (some texts I prefer to read out loud.)

Well, something to think about. Thank you for reading, and see you in the next one :)