Advices Flashcards
How to learn something new?
get into the thick of the subject; not only ready books - learning by doing, learning from other people who are experts
How to keep paying attention, during something like a boring lecture?
It’s not easy. But asking question may help you be focused to ask the proper question. Also questions give rise to discussions that are a lot more interesting. That’s the way of active engagement rather than passive listening
What’s the best way to get into diffused mode thinking?
I find that when I’m jogging, or out getting exercise, that it’s a wonderful way to get the mind disengaged, from the normal train of thought. And I find that it’s very very possible to to sort of come up with new thoughts, new ideas. And it’s almost as if your brain goes into a new mode, you’re running along, things are passing you by. And you start thinking about what’s happening. For example, things that, that your brain has been working on, your out of conscious thoughts bubble to the surface. And often new ideas that are going to be then helpful to you later on. The only problem I have is remembering all those great ideas. Because when I get back and take a shower, then a lot of them have evaporated. And that’s why I, I like to take a little notebook along with me, so I can take notes and remember what it is that I was thinking about.
Is it possible to do two things at the same time?
Not really, not consciously, as they can easily get mixed up and can’t be done efficiently. It’s rather the ability to switch back and forth - context switching. It’s hard, but can be trained
What are those wrong reasons, and what have you discovered is a more motivating factor for learning languages?
The best is to get interested in that language, embrace the culture around it, make connections with people using it.
Reasons like showing off, passing exam doesn’t work
How do children have advantage in learning (languages)?
Children do not worry about making mistakes. They practice, speaking and not overanalyzing spoken words. Adults often use dusty grammar books, trying be so perfect that are blocked with speaking. It’s okay to say “bathroom, where” instead “excuse me kind sir, could you direct me to the nearest bathroom please”
What is self-fulfilling prophecy?
That’s happen when you tell yourself “I am are too old, I can’t learn that” or “i don’t have talent for that, I won’t learn it”. If we follow those, we naturally won’t learn anything as we don’t put enough effort.
Successful people learn despite challenges. What does it mean?
When we see someone who succeeded or simply is great in something, we think it was easy for him. Maybe that’s because his natural ability, maybe he could afford private teacher, could travel that helped him get taught. The fact is people face a lot of challenges, and majority, if not all, came across serious challenges (two day jobs, family support, impairments, natural disability) to be where they are now
What would be an advice for failures in learning?
Failures happens and it’s natural. There’s many ways of learning, and difficult part is to find one working for you. Try different approaches, but when it comes to languages, best advice would be to speak from the very first day of learning. Also, if you plan to visit a country and want to learn its language, it’s better to do it prior the visit to have more time in the country to live its culture
Study hard means no breaks?
Breaks are necessary and inherent to the learning process. If you feel saturated, fatigued, you need break. It applies to short(mins/hours), mid (days) and long term (weeks). It’s like Pomodoreo technique distributed in different timeframes. E.g one day in a week of total break, one weekend in z month, etc
Are words repetition helpful in learning language?
They are, repetition is part of learning new language. But repetition is often asymmetric. When you repeat “tisch (German)-table” 1000 times, there’s connection so that when you see/hear the word “tisch” you know what’s is it. But the other way around, when you speak and want to remember how “table” is in German, there’s no connection. So best is to use two techniques (could be mixed):
- spaced repetition
- mnemonics (tisch would be imagined as table made from tissues, you put a drink on it, everything collapses, you need to tidy up). great advantage is that it glues the word to your memory well if you used that technique for a word only a few times
How to deal with criticism?
Criticism is a different view point on you / your thoughts or acts. It’s okay to be criticized as that’s often the way to progress with getting better. Accepting and getting used to some degree of discomfort is great skill that can be taught over time. No pain - no game
Agreeable vs disagreeable. What pushes to be more creative?
Research found that counterintuitively people being disagreeable are more creative. Being agreeable is a nice trait but often doesn’t help being creative. When you disagree, it means you either don’t understand the idea or understand well and see a room for new concepts around it
What may be helpful in learning?
- changing approaches (e.g verbal, with images)
- power of ten. It’s about changing perspective. Zoom out ten times until your in the space, then zoom in to subatomic world. How and where the thing I learn apply in that zoomed out/in world? That’s probably what the brain does during a sleep as well
What may be helpful in writing?
Here we also have focused (editing) and diffused (writing) modes. We can’t use both at the same time.
While writing:
- mind mapping. Take the paper sideways - that helps trigger diffused mode, liberates the brain, you can co off in any direction. Having the paper in standard, it makes the brain think that you need to write a list or outline (that’s mistake!)
