Re: PM’s French Re-entry into the Matrix - Phase 1: 500 Hours Extensive Reading

[PeterMollenburg]

Warren Buffet (super rich investor, look him up if you don't know) once gave someone advice about priorities. Warren told him to list the top 25 priority achievements he wanted to accomplish in his life. After a lot of thought the man finally picked 5 priorities to work on. Warren told the man that he now had two lists. One list of priorities than he needed to focus all his life and energy on, and a second list called the "avoid at all cost" list. Nothing goes on the top 5 list until one of them is done, then you can replace it. You might want to do the same thing, because it seems you've already filled 3 slots? But what about health, family, or other hobbies?

He who chases two rabbits will catch neither.

Ummm, yes I know who he is. For my health... who cares, I’d rather put more time into Cantonese.
Family, nah screw them they don’t teach many any new languages, assholes.
Other hobbies? You mean more languages, right?

In reality, for the last 5 years I’ve aimed for a few hours of French learning each day. Now 3 languages share that spot, so each has less time than French alone had. But still overall, there’s no overall increase in total study time. Can I progress on an hour of each a day? French, yes. Dutch, yes. Arabic, somewhat/ a little.

As for other things, I’ve not really taken great care (by my standards) of my health recently, nor had enough time with family. Ironically, Riyadh will provide me with more time for both! The real question is, where are we going to move after Riyadh in order to study 30 languages concurrently?

[rdearman]

where are we going to move after Riyadh in order to study 30 languages concurrently?

eeerrr.... While I appreciate the offer.... I'm going to have to decline.

[PeterMollenburg]

where are we going to move after Riyadh in order to study 30 languages concurrently?

eeerrr.... While I appreciate the offer.... I'm going to have to decline.

But you’re still coming to Riyadh, right?

Dammit I went a little too far. Gently PM, you can’t win him over in a post or two. Add Setswana to your list and you might be able to woo him. See how cool I am? Now where’d that other rabbit get to?

[Ogrim]

He who chases two rabbits will catch neither.

We actually have three rabbits, and every evening I have to chase them from the living room back to the kitchen and into their cage for the night. It's a tough fight, but usually I manage by chasing one rabbit at a time.

Now how do you translate that image into language learning?

[PeterMollenburg]

I find it intriguing that I have been censoring myself here on the forum. This isn't a go ad administrators, policies or the forum itself. It's more of this... Well if I'm censoring myself because I don't want to lose what I have here, how is it that we continually sell out a little to keep the status quo? When you consider the potential direction we are headed will be filled with more and more electonic communications, then we are really headed down censorship lane to the max. People are doing the work for the system.

And for those who do not believe that a conspiracy could be that big (i.e. 'global'). Think again. The heirarchy that is human economics and power structures is the perfect control system. The digital age is bringing language editing and behaviour modification into real time, or close. If you work as a CEO of a bank and you know you want a shit load of money this year, you're going to be pretty cut-throat in your approach to improving the bottom line. If you're a teller and you need to pay your bills, you're going to toe the line so you can get that next pay cheque/check. If you're a nurse who's come to realise the the very structures of western medicine are dominated by giant corporations who will go to any lengths to protect their interests, but you have a family and house payments and dreams and aspirations, are you going to say much? Not really. You won't have a job pretty soon. If you love learning/reading about others approaches and thoughts on language learning but you've a tendency to rant about so called conspiracies (they are not), politics etc and you also consider the fact that all this information is recorded somewhere and that it often brings more trouble than it's worth, because people prefer not to rock the boat... well are you going to eventually shut your mouth? More than likely. We do, indeed almost all of us, sell out to some extent.

But that's okay I think. Negotiation is probably normal, it's probably tribal, natural, animal-like, native instinct. But in a world in which so much is interconnected (particularly information and transactions), access to material goods and experiences are seemingly unlimited if one has the money, and the human population is HUGE, and corporations are multi-national super-powerful, if we all act this way, where will we end up? I don't think the fault necessarily is outside of ourselves either. We have handed our power over. We all play our role. So if you think that a global conspiracy is too big. Think again, because each and (almost) every one of us is actually going along with this some consciously and massively, others hardly at all consicously or unconsciously. This isn't about blame, i'm just analysing. It is worth being honest with ourselves and realising we are not perfect. But do not, I'm not a fan of blame, despite being judgemental on frequent occasions (a character flaw?).

And here's a piece of truth. I'm writing this because I think my vanity has said, what's going on with my log. It's not attention grabbing enough lately. I realised I stopped being so controversial/interesting. I'm not saying I want to stir things up, but it's worth at least rambling a bit over. Judge me if you will, I do.
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So, I am really really tired lately. I am still suffering because I find it so difficult to switch off. I believe I have screen addiction and adrenal fatigue, but I'm still managing to function pretty well. I'm dabbling in both French and Dutch lately because I'm either tired, distracted or fanatical about organising language learning material (see below).

I've been scrambling to rip language CDs, organise language files, language books and so on. And it takes forever because I am such a perfectionist about it (and computers are just blood fiddly!). We've only perhaps 7 weeks until moving and SOOOOO much to do, and of course all I can think about (selfishly) is how I can get all my language material finally digitised as much as possible (some CDs remain in German that I'm not likely to use for the next 2 years if not 5 or 10). I just want that crap out of the way, done! Finished with! So that when we go to Saudi, I don't think, oh, I still need to rip that audio from that German program Fokus Deutsch one day.

Now I've said it before, but I think I need to step away from the forum for a little break, maybe I'll catch you guys again in Saudi (provided I can access the site okay).

[Skynet]

I find it intriguing that I have been censoring myself here on the forum... When you consider the potential direction we are headed will be filled with more and more electonic communications, then we are really headed down censorship lane to the max. People are doing the work for the system.

And for those who do not believe that a conspiracy could be that big (i.e. 'global'). Think again. The heirarchy that is human economics and power structures is the perfect control system. ... you're going to toe the line so you can get that next pay cheque/check. ... you've a tendency to rant about so called conspiracies (they are not), politics etc and you also consider the fact that all this information is recorded somewhere and that it often brings more trouble than it's worth, because people prefer not to rock the boat... well are you going to eventually shut your mouth?

PM, have you ever heard of a Panopticon? Jeremy Bentham in the 1780s theorised that one could modify the behavior of inmates if the institution had its own Barad-dûr centrally elevated position from which they (inmates) could be monitored by a single watchman. Logically, it is impossible for Sauron a watchman to be omnipresent, the inmates cannot know when they are being watched or not being watched and default to auto-censoring and self-behavioral adjustment.

Fast-forward 23 decades later and you see that we live in a society where people will self-censor because they think that they are being watched. I highly doubt that someone is sitting behind all 200 million CCTVs in China or the 4.5 million in the UK (even with the AI offerings from Amazon Rekognition et al). Just the mere thought that you might possibly be under surveillance is enough for you to act, say and ultimately think in the way Big Brother wants you to.

...in Saudi (provided I can access the site okay).

I will send you a list of VPNs that you can use to circumnavigate any pesky KSA filters.

[Ani]

I find it intriguing that I have been censoring myself here on the forum. This isn't a go ad administrators, policies or the forum itself. It's more of this... Well if I'm censoring myself because I don't want to lose what I have here, how is it that we continually sell out a little to keep the status quo?

How about considering it "choosing the right kind of communication for the environment"? Courtesy isn't a conspiracy of the globalist machine.

I've enjoyed having you back around. I'm sorry you feel that you can't limit your topics here & stay true to yourself. I think it's safe to say everyone understands your opinions at this point. Their frequent appearance here (even when you claim you're holding back) makes me hesitant to post even about learning related topics.

Oversharing hot button topics alienates people, even people who are willing to accept you knowing there is a difference of opinion or world view. By their nature, we will never all agree on divisive issues. We may have similar opinions on some and not others. Putting polemics aside so that we can come together on shared interests and shared humanity.. that's just decent human behavior.

[Expugnator]

It's always better to read about "conspiracy" than the round of "multiple-languages-learners'" bashing that was the previous page of this thread. And we hadn't had such a session for a long time here at LLORG.

I feel sorry for Norwegian but I'm not jealous of you and Ogrim becoming BFF. Not at all.

iguanamon never managed to convince me of anything. He didn't try that hard, though. I think at my early HTLAL months Serpent managed to convince me that multiple language learning is legal, ethical, eco-friendly, kosher, halal and the likes (sustainable was a claim of my own )

Anyway, just some food for thought: if I had a globally attractive career and were willing to relocate, I wouldn't have any problems in France, Norway, Germany or Georgia. I'd struggle to get a piece of paper that proved that, but in practical terms I'd definitely be way above the tourist level in any of these languages (not mentioning Spanish-speaking countries and Italy that go without saying).

[Xmmm]

It's always better to read about "conspiracy" than the round of "multiple-languages-learners'" bashing that was the previous page of this thread.

We need to split off and make our own board: "Mono-Lingual Multi-Language Learners", mlmll.org. Instead of "We talk languages", our motto could be "Noi cinnte говорим ენებზე, lan!"

[PeterMollenburg]

I find it intriguing that I have been censoring myself here on the forum. This isn't a go ad administrators, policies or the forum itself. It's more of this... Well if I'm censoring myself because I don't want to lose what I have here, how is it that we continually sell out a little to keep the status quo?

removed by PM