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Doing my own thing...
Jun. 21st, 2009 05:00 pmHave you ever noticed how the world seems determined, with a single-mindedness that supasseth all understanding, of having you follow the One True Way?
And here, I'm not talking about just the religious aspect of our lives, but pretty much everything. I was in boot camp when I took my first real notice of the phrase, "There are two ways to do this... my way, and the wrong way!" (Though, of course, in the Marines, the choice was generally between the Marine way and the wrong way.)
To be sure, this quest for a simple, 1-2-3 recipe to accomplish what-you-will is very attractive, but eventually, if you attempt various kinds of what-you-will, there comes a time when you notice that some approaches work better - and hence, some worse - than others.
One of the hallmarks of the Michel Thomas approach to language learning is an insistence on not consciously memorizing anything (and here, I suppose what is meant is the kind of mind-numbing recitation that was popular even before my time), or even writing anything down.
That goes à rebours, so to speak, in the way I approach learning. Sure, I have been able to learn oodles of information simply by listening to it repeated often enough, but I've learned a lot more by looking at it, too. Assuming there is anything to the phrase "I must have gotten it from" that I must've heard a million times during my upbringing, then I must have gotten it from my mother, whose mode of learning involved tons of writing.
And not of the same phrase repeated some number of time, but once. Looking at her old notebooks, I can see a pattern to the writing, almost as if, by having written something down once, she embedded it in her mind.
And so it is that I've been listeneng to a fairly interesting course, in Spanish, that mimics the Thomas method better (IMO) than the Thomas course in Spanish. As a review aid, I've been writing down each new word and concept introduced. Yesterday, however, when I found myself with some time to listen to another segment or two, the list was nowhere to be found.
I found that annoying. After looking for the list, fruitlessly, I jammed my finger a few lessons down the list and resumed listening, and started a new list. Bulgakov may have noted that "manuscripts don't burn," but for sure lists consolidate.
* * * In other news, folks in our neck of the woods seem a bit perturbed that, in a down economy, during a year when something like two houses were sold in the county (and both for less than the asking price), our property assessments have gone up sharply.
Complaints seem to have fallen on deaf ears. One explanation for the situation is that monies must be raised for the county's budget (which has prompted some to wonder why, given the economy, etc., the government doesn't do what we citizens are doing, e.g., cut spending).
The most recent explanation is that the county's hands are tied, and that higher assessments have been ordered by TPTB in Denver (which has prompted some to wonder why senior county officials collect such large salaries if their decision-making authority is roughly akin to that of a junior clerk at Wal-Mart).
Life continues to be interesting.
Cheers...
And here, I'm not talking about just the religious aspect of our lives, but pretty much everything. I was in boot camp when I took my first real notice of the phrase, "There are two ways to do this... my way, and the wrong way!" (Though, of course, in the Marines, the choice was generally between the Marine way and the wrong way.)
To be sure, this quest for a simple, 1-2-3 recipe to accomplish what-you-will is very attractive, but eventually, if you attempt various kinds of what-you-will, there comes a time when you notice that some approaches work better - and hence, some worse - than others.
One of the hallmarks of the Michel Thomas approach to language learning is an insistence on not consciously memorizing anything (and here, I suppose what is meant is the kind of mind-numbing recitation that was popular even before my time), or even writing anything down.
That goes à rebours, so to speak, in the way I approach learning. Sure, I have been able to learn oodles of information simply by listening to it repeated often enough, but I've learned a lot more by looking at it, too. Assuming there is anything to the phrase "I must have gotten it from" that I must've heard a million times during my upbringing, then I must have gotten it from my mother, whose mode of learning involved tons of writing.
And not of the same phrase repeated some number of time, but once. Looking at her old notebooks, I can see a pattern to the writing, almost as if, by having written something down once, she embedded it in her mind.
And so it is that I've been listeneng to a fairly interesting course, in Spanish, that mimics the Thomas method better (IMO) than the Thomas course in Spanish. As a review aid, I've been writing down each new word and concept introduced. Yesterday, however, when I found myself with some time to listen to another segment or two, the list was nowhere to be found.
I found that annoying. After looking for the list, fruitlessly, I jammed my finger a few lessons down the list and resumed listening, and started a new list. Bulgakov may have noted that "manuscripts don't burn," but for sure lists consolidate.
Complaints seem to have fallen on deaf ears. One explanation for the situation is that monies must be raised for the county's budget (which has prompted some to wonder why, given the economy, etc., the government doesn't do what we citizens are doing, e.g., cut spending).
The most recent explanation is that the county's hands are tied, and that higher assessments have been ordered by TPTB in Denver (which has prompted some to wonder why senior county officials collect such large salaries if their decision-making authority is roughly akin to that of a junior clerk at Wal-Mart).
Life continues to be interesting.
Cheers...
