You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

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

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

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (30)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

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: [deleted] 06 April 2015 03:11:36PM 2 points [-]

Those are good reasons (especially the last one). Keep it up.