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shminux comments on Learning languages efficiently. - Less Wrong Discussion
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Speaking from experience: there is no substitute for immersion. You can pick up a simple language like Hebrew in a couple of months if you are OK with languages in general. Also, IDF has a lot of experience getting foreigners to speak Hebrew really really fast, ever since the early 1990s. Failing immersion, you can try Rosetta Stone, which is generally considered the best language-learning software out there. Also, Scott Young of "all of MIT CS in one year" fame has been discussing his experience learning Portuguese and now Chinese on a very accelerated time frame on his blog and has a bunch of pointers. Also, what others said: memorize songs, sample conversations, repeatedly watch movies/shows.
Oh, and unrelated, do you really want to serve in IDF? I can't see anyone except a committed zionist doing this voluntarily, given that you are likely to be called on to threaten or shoot at people who hate your guts and would rejoice in having you and your family dead. Is your identity that large?
Rosetta Stone? I've heard that the experts don't seem to like it that much. And the fact that it's like $300 doesn't help either.
I am an extremely committed Zionist. But it's hard to get a career in Israel without first doing my three years, anyway.
That doesn't seem to mesh well with rationality, so feel free to elaborate at some point.
Ah, but being a True Rationalist of course requires being above nationalism, and shouldn't think it's anything as low as "politics" if he asks like he's reviewing my doctoral dissertation.
What's your definition of Zionism?
Well, there is the standard definition, that Jews are entitled to a state some place described in the Old Testament. Why are you asking?
That is not the case.
Zionism, in the broadest sense, refers to the concept of creating a Jewish homeland in the region of Palestine. This encompasses everything from Kahanism to Poale Zion. I'm not religious and don't expect to become religious, at least not by living in Israel.
If you are not religious than why is this a priority?
Three years of your life is a lot of time and it might be worth to spend it on more pressing issues such as defeating aging or preventing the world getting destroyed by an UFAI.
Well, I'm no fan of death, but (A) I have personal reasons for going as well, and (B) I have zero talent or interest in the topics I would be required to know.
Jews can be considered members of a religion or an ethnic group (obviously). A secular Jew might feel a certain draw towards establishing a homeland in the Palestine just in the same way that a secular American might have felt a certain draw towards Manifest Destiny.
Yes, but I think when you go down and think about how much utility those projects have you will find that there are things that are more important.
Sorry, I misunderstood your question. I thought it was asking about secularism rather than lack of consequentialism.
I think even conditional on someone posting on LW, questions along the line of "why are you spending resources on X rather than preventing UFAI" are not a great way to spread the message, in my opinion.
... I don't see how our definitions differ...
Well, for starters, Zionism doesn't have to claim that the Jews are uniquely 'entitled' to land, any more than the Germans have a right to East Prussia. If your claim that Zionism doesn't "mesh well" with rationality isn't grounded in Zionism being religious, then why doesn't it?
OK, though this seems like splitting hairs.
I was referring to your identity being both too large (include a lot of people most of whom are not like you, don't know you, don't care about you, have different customs and ideas from you, and probably genetically are quite different from you) and too small (why not include the rest of humanity, if you are casting as wide a net?).
Not at all. I'd say there's a big difference between the two.
As for my identity, I don't see why not. I identify as Jewish more than anything else. Israelis, granted, are genetically diverse, but their customs are very much the way I was brought up, and Jews (for the first time in 2,000 years) have a shared reference that isn't merely mythological. The fact that I'm a product of a Sephardic-Ashkenazi marriage doesn't hurt my ability to understand Israeli society, either.
A lot longer that that.