NancyLebovitz comments on Language Learning and the Dark Arts. - Less Wrong

8 Post author: Lemmih 06 April 2015 11:33AM

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Comment author: Lemmih 06 April 2015 03:01:01PM 6 points [-]

Hm, I like this. Perhaps an automated email, sent once per week, saying something like:

My goal is to pass the Chinese proficiency exam by 2017. I have X days left. In the last week I've spent X hours practicing.

I want to learn Chinese because:

  • I want to work in Singapore/China/Taiwan after I finish University.
  • I want to prove that I can learn a foreign language.
  • I want to speak with my SO in her native language.

I fear that I would start ignoring the emails after a few weeks. It feels similar to Tony Robbins' advice to keep telling yourself why you do what you do everyday. Sounds good on paper but I can't for the life of me implement it in my daily routine.

I'll give the emails a try and see what happens. Thanks.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 08 April 2015 12:03:30PM 0 points [-]

I want to speak with my SO in her native language.

Should you be including some work on hearing and speaking Mandarin as well as reading and writing?

Comment author: Lemmih 08 April 2015 07:43:34PM 0 points [-]

I'm heavily constrained by what I can test/grade. Writing code to grade the correctness of my Mandarin pronunciation is hard.

Listening exercises are easier to grade and they are definitely on my TODO list.

Comment author: Aleksander 12 April 2015 05:12:29AM 0 points [-]

Can't you ask her to tutor you?

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