Balancing language interests with other left-brained interestes

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zenmonkey
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Re: Balancing language interests with other left-brained interestes

Postby zenmonkey » Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:33 pm

alaart wrote:
zenmonkey wrote:So how would you fill out the sentence: I'm a language-learner and a ____________?


Better to be a language learner than a sandwich turner.

While identification might drive you to certain activities, it also can limit you to try new things with which you don't identify with. So I like to be flexible and don't want to fill anything in.


I like sandwiches. We are talking about habits here in the last posts and how one activity can negatively impact others. But I know that the title of the topic is interests. I'm having a hard time seeing how certain identities can influence how you might be open to other new things - unless the identity is exclusionary? "I'm vegan, thanks, I don't want to try your leatherwork class?" Is that what you are talking about?
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Re: Balancing language interests with other left-brained interestes

Postby dEhiN » Thu Jan 13, 2022 8:20 pm

Wow, I got busy for a few days and come back to so many responses! Thank you all for the input. I'm not going to quote anyone specifically, but I like the point made about it being more time than a head-space thing. It's true, when I'm spending time on one thing, that's who I am in that moment and the thought of stopping and doing something else isn't appealing at best and is difficult to fathom at worst.

I didn't recognize it when I created this thread, but I fell into boxing "left brain" and "right brain" activities, when the reality is more complicated. There are aspects of both language learning and production/communication that probably involves both hemispheres as well as aspects of music or drawing/painting that does the same. I'm also pretty sure I saw some documentary once about brain mapping studies now showing that those areas typically associated with one hemisphere are now showing as involving different sections of both hemispheres.

I guess the thread title should really have been balancing language interests with others.
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Re: Balancing language interests with other left-brained interestes

Postby alaart » Thu Jan 13, 2022 11:47 pm

zenmonkey wrote:
alaart wrote:
zenmonkey wrote:So how would you fill out the sentence: I'm a language-learner and a ____________?


Better to be a language learner than a sandwich turner.

While identification might drive you to certain activities, it also can limit you to try new things with which you don't identify with. So I like to be flexible and don't want to fill anything in.


I like sandwiches. We are talking about habits here in the last posts and how one activity can negatively impact others. But I know that the title of the topic is interests. I'm having a hard time seeing how certain identities can influence how you might be open to other new things - unless the identity is exclusionary? "I'm vegan, thanks, I don't want to try your leatherwork class?" Is that what you are talking about?


I like this sentence you quoted:
Your self-identity drives your activity.


But it also gave me a lot to think.

Focus, on anything really, is often seen as a positive thing. But I'm not sure if one thing is negatively impacting the other. In my life I feel it's more and more beneficial to not focus and not over-identify with something. Sure, if you are in a rush and want to do something like getting outstanding results fast - or you have some sort of goal you want to reach fast - ok, stay focused. But if you have the time, what's wrong with not staying focused?

Take your example of identifying as a runner. So that means you will now probably run 3 times a week after you made that choice. But that means you are maybe less likely to go swimming now.
And maybe something you would have learned while swimming (about breathing rhythm, posture or movement fine tuning) would have actually made your running better too.

Habits are great to be productive time wise, but new ideas might come up while one is doing different things - and often when one is having a break and just thinking, which in term can improve your output long term.

I tend to jump around a vast amount of interests, much worse then what's stated in the opening post. In the past I also would feel guilty and disappointed with myself for not staying focused. But actually in retrospect, I think the things I learned while I was "distracted" might have made the language learning (and other things) better. Also if you have some distance, you have a fresh mind, new ideas for old problems etc.

That's what I was thinking.

Another thought that just occurred, this identity as a polyglot we (sometimes) have. It might have been harmful to many of us, in my case it would be even so bad that I would neglect important things in life just to feed this identity. The identity influences us, and this can also delude us and lead us astray.
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Re: Balancing language interests with other left-brained interestes

Postby dEhiN » Fri Jan 14, 2022 12:26 am

alaart wrote:I tend to jump around a vast amount of interests, much worse then what's stated in the opening post. In the past I also would feel guilty and disappointed with myself for not staying focused.

I can relate - in my teens and 20s, I used to call it the interest of the week. Although, in retrospect, it wasn't literally that I had 365 new interests over the span of a year. It was more that I had a bunch of different categories of interests and within each category, there could be new things that took my fancy. I still did have (or felt I had, at the time) the problem of focus and part of me hated myself for seeming to jump around. Another analogy I used was seeing myself as someone with fingers in many pies.

Now, in hindsight and with a lot more maturity, I can say that some of the jumping around was due to deep fears of success and stuff - basically, I would only let myself pursue anything so far even if I had interest and aptitude to go deeper. But some of it was just me trying to find myself or me trying to explore all the facets of my psyche at the time.

alaart wrote:But actually in retrospect, I think the things I learned while I was "distracted" might have made the language learning (and other things) better. Also if you have some distance, you have a fresh mind, new ideas for old problems etc.


I've witnessed this in myself over the recent past - where I'm thinking about something else, or maybe even not specifically focusing on something in my head, and suddenly a problem I'm trying to solve, or an anxiety or worry that's been plaguing me I'm able to see in a new light and shift my perspective on.
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Re: Balancing language interests with other left-brained interestes

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Fri Jan 14, 2022 5:56 am

alaart wrote:And maybe something you would have learned while swimming (about breathing rhythm, posture or movement fine tuning) would have actually made your running better too.


Schoolmates tended to have one hobby per day - some were into sports and still did a couple of them. They may have had a "major" interest, but still did, say, football a few times per week, tennis some other day etc. Some combinations of musical instruments are helpful if you want to learn a third. There are some alpine skiers who are fairly successful in slalom, giant slalom super G and downhill - not despite the "cross-training" but rather because of it.

alaart wrote:I tend to jump around a vast amount of interests, much worse then what's stated in the opening post. In the past I also would feel guilty and disappointed with myself for not staying focused. But actually in retrospect, I think the things I learned while I was "distracted" might have made the language learning (and other things) better. Also if you have some distance, you have a fresh mind, new ideas for old problems etc.


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Re: Balancing language interests with other left-brained interestes

Postby dEhiN » Fri Jan 14, 2022 6:24 am

jeff_lindqvist wrote:Welcome to the world of scanners. You are among friends now.

The link in your linked post was very interesting. I wonder if I'm a Scanner. I feel like I may have been at one point, but have slowly taught myself to be less so from societal pressures? I'm smiling to myself now because I remember back in 2014 sitting at a diner early morning and writing out a wish list of all the languages I desired to learn. I believe my list numbered somewhere in the sixties? I've also tried studying 20 languages at one time, through a rotational system which ultimately I couldn't stick to. Heck, back as a teen, I used to program in QBasic and I had many unfinished or half-finished programs. My usual pattern then was to think of an idea, become interested in it, start creating the program but then expend mental energy on planning it and 'programming' in my head while I was away from the computer. I would do this so much that eventually I would lose interest. It was like I had already created it fully, even though that was only in my head and in real life, it was half-finished.
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