Studying Your Native Language

4 Crux 28 January 2016 07:23PM

I've spent many thousands of hours over the past several years studying foreign languages and developing a general method for foreign-language acquisition. But now I believe it's time to turn this technique in the direction of my native language: English.

Most people make a distinction between one's native language and one's second language(s). But anyone who has learned how to speak with a proper accent in a second language and spent a long enough stretch of time neglecting their native language to let it begin rusting and deteriorating will know that there's no essential difference.

When the average person learns new words in their native language, they imagine that they're learning new concepts. When they study new vocabulary in a foreign language, however, they recognize that they're merely acquiring hitherto-unknown words. They've never taken a step outside the personality their childhood environment conditioned into them. When the only demarcation of thingspace that you know is the semantic structure of your native language, you're bound to believe, for example, that the World is Made of English.

Why study English? I'm already fluent, as you can tell. I have the Magic of a Native Speaker.

Let's put this nonsense behind us and recognize that the map is not the territory, that English is just another map.

My first idea is that it may be useful to develop a working knowledge of the fundamentals of English etymology. A quick search suggests that the majority of words in English have a French or Latin origin. Would it be useful to make an Anki deck with the goal of learning how to readily recognize the building blocks of the English language, such as seeing that the "cardi" in "cardiology", "cardiograph", and "cardiograph" comes from an Ancient Greek word meaning "heart" (καρδιά)?

Besides that, I plan to make a habit of adding any new words I encounter into Anki with their context. For example, let's say I'm reading the introduction to A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume. I encounter the term "proselytes", and upon looking it up in a dictionary I understand the meaning of the passage. I include the spelling of the simplest version of the word ("proselyte"), along with an audio recording of the pronunciation. I'll also toy with adding various other information such as a definition I wrote myself, synonyms or antonyms, and so forth, not knowing how I'll use the information but by virtue of the efficient design of Anki providing myself a plethora of options for innovative card design in the future.

Here's the context in this case:

Amidst all this bustle 'tis not reason, which carries the prize, but eloquence; and no man needs ever despair of gaining proselytes to the most extravagant hypothesis, who has art enough to represent it in any favourable colours. The victory is not gained by the men at arms, who manage the pike and the sword; but by the trumpeters, drummers, and musicians of the army.

With the word on the front of the card and this passage on the back of the card, I give my brain an opportunity to tie words to context rather than lifeless dictionary definitions. I don't know how much colorful meaning this passage may have in isolation, but for me I've read enough of the book to have a feel for his style and what he's talking about here. This highlights the personal nature of Anki decks. Few passages would be better for me when it comes to learning this word, but for you the considerations may be quite different. Far from different people simply having different subsets of the language that they're most concerned about, different people require different contextual definitions based on their own interests and knowledge.

But what about linguistic components that are more complex than a standalone word?

Let's say you run into the sentence, "And as the science of man is the only solid foundation for the other sciences, so the only solid foundation we can give to this science itself must be laid on experience and observation."

Using Anki, I could perhaps put "And as [reason], so [consequence]" on the front of the card, and the full sentence on the back.

What I'm most concerned with, however, is how to translate such study to an actual improvement in writing ability. Using Anki to play the recognition game, where you see a vocabulary word or grammatical form on the front and have a contextual definition on the back, would certainly improvement quickness of reading comprehension in many cases. But would it make the right connections in the brain so I'm likely to think of the right word or grammatical structure at the right time for writing purposes?

Anyway, any considerations or suggestions concerning how to optimize reading comprehension or especially writing ability in a language one is already quite proficient with would be appreciated.

Learning Mathematics in Context

5 Crux 26 January 2016 10:27PM

I have almost no direct knowledge of mathematics. I took various mathematics courses in school, but I put in the minimal amount of effort required to pass and immediately forgot everything afterwards.

When people learn foreign languages, they often learn vocabulary and grammar out of context. They drill vocabulary and grammar in terms of definitions and explanations written in their native language. I, however, have found this to be intolerably boring. I'm conversational in Japanese, but every ounce of my practice came in context: either hanging out with Japanese friends who speak limited English, or watching shows and adding to Anki new words or sentence structures I encounter.

I'm convinced that humans must spike their blood sugar and/or pump their body full of stimulants such as caffeine in order to get past the natural tendency to find it unbearably dull to memorize words and syntax by rote and lifeless connection with the structures in their native language.

I've tried to delve into some mathematics recently, but I get the impression that most of the expositions fall into one of two categories: Either (1) they assume that I'm a student powering my day with coffee and chips and that I won't find it unusual if I'm supposed to just trust that once I spend 300 hours pushing arbitrary symbols around I'll end up with some sort of insight. Or (2) they do enter the world of proper epistemological explanations and deep real-world relevance, but only because they expect that I'm already quite well-versed in various background information.

I don't want an introduction that assumes I'm the average unthinking student, and I don't want an exposition that expects me to understand five different mathematical fields before I can read it. What I want seems likely to be uncommon enough that I might as well simply say: I don't care what field it is; I just want to jump into something which assumes no specifically mathematical background knowledge but nevertheless delves into serious depths that assume a thinking mind and a strong desire for epistemological sophistication.

I bought Calculus by Michael Spivak quite a while ago because the Amazon reviews led me to believe it may fit these considerations. I don't know whether that's actually the case or not though, as I haven't tried reading it yet.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Who are some of the best writers in history?

1 Crux 10 August 2013 09:04AM

We currently have a thread in progress concerning the greatest philosophers in history. This reminded me of a question I've been considering for a while.

Recently I realized that although I've spent a massive percentage of my time for the past few years reading, it's almost always been non-fiction, for example posts on Less Wrong, or posts on other forums or blogs, or old treatises on economics or philosophy. Although I feel as if I've stumbled onto some of the absolute best sources of insight the history of civilization has to offer, and some of the most brilliant thinkers to have ever walked the planet, it strikes me that the main optimization criteria that led to the popularity of most of these pieces of writing and most of these thinkers, and thus the reason they were visible enough for me to run into them, has been a matter not necessarily of the quality of writing style, but instead a matter of the level of insight perceived by whatever critical mass of people brought it to the forefront.

In other words, I've mostly ran into articles and books that have garnered their level of fame not by the eloquence of their prose, but instead by the insight contained within. I've ran into plenty of famous, highly insightful thinkers who just aren't very good at writing. They became famous for another reason: the ideas they brought to the table, however incompetently. This is in utter contrast to another section of the history of writing: what we call "fiction", and in some cases "poetry". Although fiction writers or poets are generally expected to bring some sort of insight to the table, or even a lot of insight, this certainly isn't the overwhelming criterion determining their fame. Most of the scientists who have become famous for their work have been at least decent at writing, or nobody would have been able to get through their stuff (though there are exceptions). In the same way, the great fiction books of history certainly have insight; it's just often not what carries them to success.

In non-fiction, the top contenders are usually there for their insight, though their writing is usually at least decent. And in fiction and poetry, the top contenders are usually there for their eloquence and writing style, though their insight is usually at least decent. There's at least one exception I can think of, where this person seems to be civilization class in both insight and writing style: David Hume. One of the greatest thinkers in history, and certainly also one of the greatest writers in history. Anybody who's read a decent amount of other famous writers and thinkers, and understands some of Hume's key arguments, would at least have some sort of sympathy for that characterization, despite the extreme level of praise I'm bestowing onto his work.

So here's my point, and my question: I'm mostly interested in insight, but I'm also interested in communicating this insight in an extremely effective way, with the most solid prose possible, and the highest level of eloquence that can be attained. For this, I can't simply limit myself to reading the most insightful, revolutionary non-fiction work, as the market test that led to the widespread adoption of this work was not necessarily one of requiring a high level of eloquence or poetic ability. I'll need to read works that became famous for their writing style. So we come now to the question: Who are some of the best writers in the history of civilization? Who should I read for the purpose of getting better at writing?

(TL;DR: I've spent a lot of time reading non-fiction books, but most of these books became famous for their level of insight, and not necessarily because of any sort of high level of competence in writing, or eloquence of style. I want to get better at writing, so although I've ignored fiction for a long time due to thinking my interest was scientific insight and not fiction stories, I've changed my mind, and realized I should probably be reading some fiction in order to learn from the masters of eloquence. So with that said, here's my question: Who are some of the best writers in history?)

Anyone live in or near Osaka?

1 Crux 13 May 2013 02:43PM

I'm currently located in Osaka, and will be here for the next few months. Anyone close enough to meet? Would be cool to meet some people from Less Wrong who live around here!

Anyone at Otakon?

1 Crux 28 July 2012 12:10AM

Perhaps this is a bit late, as the convention is already underway and those who are here may not be checking Less Wrong, but it may be worth a shot. Would be cool to get a LW meetup going on here if anyone's around.