Swinging for the Fences
September 5th, 2006 by MarkMaking modest goals doesn’t work. They just don’t motivate me enough to make real progress. I find that the results I get from setting several relatively easy goals are usually worse than those I get from setting none at all. Small goals aren’t exciting enough to give me the drive to actually achieve them, yet they are enough to sap my motivation when I don’t achieve them.
A perfect example of this would be the difference between my experiences learning Japanese in college and learning Chinese in Taiwan. When I went back to college after saving enough money to put myself through, I basically poured all of my energy into it. I went from knowing no Japanese at all, save the words everybody knows such as “ninja”, “Toyota”, and “Sony”, to getting a degree in Japanese as one of the top undergrads in the department in only two years. Previously, I’d had no foreign language studying success in my entire life; I’d been horrible in my high school French class. By marshalling all of my resources though, I was able to get to the point at which I could watch Japanese TV and understand most of it, and do so without ever having studied in or even visited Japan.
My experiences learning Chinese have been an entirely different story. The entire time I’ve been in Taiwan, I’ve been working as an English teacher. The results haven’t been that impressive. In three and a half years here, I’ve achieved a lower level of Chinese proficiency than I did with Japanese in two years of studying in America. It’s true that I’ve forgotten a great deal of Japanese over the last three years and that it’s become worse than my Chinese is. There’s no kidding myself about my Chinese skills, though. While I can get around and talk to people just fine, there’s a ton of stuff on TV I can’t understand. The problem with the approach I’ve taken is that even while I was a student at Shida for nine months, my energies have never been completely focused on learning Chinese. In fact, I’d say that while I was there, I was not only unsatisfied with my learning, I was also unsatisfied with my teaching at my part time job. By trying to chase two goals
The way I see it, trying to steer your life in one direction or another is a HUGE undertaking. Taking baby steps doesn’t work… at least not for me. It’s like those people who go on half-hearted diets and do 20 minutes of cardio three times a week. Let’s say they started out 40 pounds over weight. They lose 5 pounds in six months, during which they’ve been lugging that extra 35 pounds through all those cardio sessions. Needless to say, the process is a constant drain on the willpower and most give up. People who go all out, on the other hand may really suffer for six months, but lose the entire 40 pounds, feel motivated, and have the emotional stamina to maintain their exercise habits.
I’m sick of making a half-hearted stab at this and that, every now and then. I’d rather hold back until the time is right and then go for it with all I’ve got. Like everything else, it’s just like poker. You don’t go splashing a few chips into this pot and that pot. No. You wait until you an edge, and then you bet the limit.
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September 5th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Hey Mark, I agree that just doing one thing properly is hard enough - and doing something intensely on a near daily basis is the only way to improve. But then you have to cope with the doubts of all the things you’re not doing, or doing slap-dashly.
September 5th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
You got a bachelor degree in just two years? And aside from oral language you also learned multitude of ideographs to achieve fluency in reading? Your degree is in Japanese literature, right? So it means that within these two years you read whole bunch of literature in your second languge? They say that language can not be separated from culture. So probably you figured out all cultural references without ever living in Japan. In this case you are definetely a language prodigy.
September 6th, 2006 at 1:43 am
Vitaly, slow down! You made quite a few assumptions and I think you’ve over-estimated how much is expected for someone with a B.A. in Japanese Language and Literature.
I did learn a multitude of characters (not “ideographs”), and thousands of words. I also learned a bit about Japanese culture in the course of my studies. However, the literature part of the degree was done in translation. When I graduated, I could read online newspapers with the assistance of Rikai, and I could mostly understand movies. There’s no way I could possibly have read the literature we studied in the original, though.
I did all the required major classes within two years. Since I originally entered college at the age of 13, studied math for two years before going to high school, and then returned for two more years of college starting when I was 18, I had nearly double the number of credits required for a degree when I graduated. It was only the Japanese classes that I did over the span of two years, not the entire degree. And, no. I’ve never been to Japan.
September 6th, 2006 at 1:52 am
One more thing. I’m NOT a language prodigy. Foreign languages have always been my worst subjects. I took Latin for two years in middle school, and French for four years after that. I can’t speak either at all.
September 7th, 2006 at 12:07 am
Japanese literature in translation? Pretty cool. What about Japanese poetry? Probably also in translation. It’s even cooler. What would you say about the idea of learning English literature in translation? Do you know how ‘Catch-22′ or ‘Catcher in the rye’ sound in translation? They sound completely different to say the least.
About understanding movies. Sometimes I understand what all that they are saying but I don’t understand the movie at all. For example ‘Napoleon Dinamite’. Aren’t those ‘nerds’ supposed to have good grades, go to unveresity and become a middle class whereas their bullies become ‘trailor trash’. But in this movie those nerds are trailor trash. And how come this movie is so popular in States? Does it mean that so many people can assosiates with those characters. America is enigmatical country…
The concept of this movie is elusive to me as much as concept of “two years BA” or “learning Japanese literature in translation”. They say that when foreign professors come to American universities to teach English literature to American students, they professors are shocked that those students never heard about, for example, Faulkner. But probably it’s not a true story, just insinuations.
September 7th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
I agree with what you’re saying about learning (not too sure about the weight loss.) I’ve been taking patternmaking/sewing lessons on a flexible basis for a while now (I buy a certain number of lessons and just turn up at the workshop whenever I want). Of course, since I stopped working, I started going a lot more intensively, and my improvement since then have been dramatic. I’ve had no time to forget anything I’ve learnt, and my overall understanding has been getting a lot deeper since I finish a project much faster, giving me a better sense of how all the steps fit together. I think I’m getting a lot more out of this course just by taking it in a shorter span of time.
I don’t quite agree with you on the weight loss because of the yoyo effect, which afflicts a lot of folks who try to lose too much weight too quickly.
September 8th, 2006 at 2:05 am
I think yo-yoing is from losing muscle during the initial “diet”, and then gaining more fat than muscle on the upswing due to a lowered metabolism. The effect doesn’t seem to be a problem for body builders, who often shed more than 50 pounds in their “cutting” phases.
My idea for an “all-out” diet isn’t losing 20lbs a month; it’s losing about 5-10 (depending on your weight), and losing very little fat in the process. In other words, building up to about 40 minutes of cardio 5 times a week, weightlifting 3 times a week, and cutting calories to about 10% less than maintenance. I could be totally wrong, but at the very least, I’ll be entertaining. I’m going to start such a diet soon, and I’ll be posting my results on the blog!
September 8th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
have you found a gym yet? Maybe I could join the diet with you. Expand the control group so to speak.
September 8th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Yeah, I’ve got a membership at California Fitness.