It is remarkable that in 150 years of mainstream education, there has been little serious investigation into how the human brain learns. An exception is the work of Bulgarian scientist Dr. Georgi Lozanov, who began studies and experiments in the 1950s.
Dr. Lozanov is currently in Tokyo, based at Tokyo's Junior/Senior High School attached to the Musashi Institute of Technology, observing one of his disciples, Lupe Escamilla, from San Diego, conduct a two-week-long Spanish course for 12 beginners, three of whom are Japanese. Afternoons he is training a group of teachers from Japan, the United States, Britain and Brazil in the systematic methodology called Suggestopaedia-Desuggestopaedia.
Since his work first became known in the West 40 years ago, many educators have claimed associations with the teaching system. I talked with Lozanov and his associate on the first day of the course.