Fear

I don't believe in the idea that we can develop an impervious attitude towards fear, unless your a sociopath. We all experience it, the heart thumps, our hands sweat up, and our stomachs tighten. We say to ourselves, "I don't believe in fear. I shouldn't be feeling this. Oh god, why won't it go away. I thought that I don't have fear, but now I do." The problem with this solution to fear is that your trying to circumvent those feelings. Instead one has to accept fear and face it. Take direct action, don't sit, wait, or observe. Go and do it.

Learning a Language Part I

How do you learn another language fluently as an adult?

1) Learn your native grammar. It's impossible as an adult to learn another language fluently without knowing grammar. How can you learn the French indirect object pronouns when you don't know what an indirect object pronoun even is? 

2) Focus on the most common parts of language first. It's pointless to learn obscure words like "window pane" or "microjoules" when you first learn the language. When you know "asparagus" but not "need" you have a problem.

3) Read, write, speak, then hear in that order. There is no reason to work on your hearing ability when you can't write what they are speaking, let alone know what they are saying.

4) When it gets easy, make it harder. If you can look up a Wikipedia article and find that you can understand 95% of the words, it's time to pick up a kid's novel. Likewise, if you can hear with ease an easy listening speaker (like a politician), then start listening to podcasts or tv shows.

Foundations

The beginning is about foundations. The end is about subtleties. Emulate a pro and you will find out your doing it all wrong. Instead, first work on the foundations. A dancer first learns the footwork before anything else, likewise an olympic weightlifter. If you want to be a great conversationalist, learn first that how you feel and express yourself is more important than what you say. Admire the pro's, listen to the teachers, then practice.

What You Are and What You Want To Be

Something I wrote a week ago about getting out and doing what you love:

I am sick and tired. I have lived my past twenty-two years of my life in quiet desperation. I have no excuses for what I’ve become. The person I am and the person that I want to be are two different things. It is difficult for me to do what I want to do. I am tired of this. None of my friends are helpful, they are either incompetent or lazy. They sit by and desire the same thing I want but show no initiative. That does not make them to blame, for I am just as guilty, but this will end now. I want to be on the top. Yet, every time I try, maybe once or twice every couple of months, I fail miserably. I’ll say, “Hey that was tough work.” But I never follow up on it. I never say, “Ok, I did this. Now let’s see how I can improve this.” Instead I stall, I claim I’m too busy. No more. This is a declaration of war. This is a declaration of everything I despise and hate: fear, nervousness, and a lack of momentum. Everyone else can say should have, could have, would have. I will just go out and do it. I will fail, and fail, and then I will succeed. I will prove myself, I will be the person I want to be, instead of the person I am.