This entry is part 7 of 14 in the series Intermediate AngstIn a lot of AJATT posts I tend to give the impression, unintentionally, that I’m more courageous than I actually am. It’s what you might call a sin of abbreviation; I cut out most of the parts where I made mistakes and took wrong…
Blog Archives
Step Into the Sunlight, But Don’t Look Into the Sun
by khatzumoto
The big, central goal, the sun around which our actions orbit, can overwhelm and disorient us with its size and power and magnitude. But you can take yourself and other people to any extreme of excellence or lameness if you narrow their mental focus away from the debilitatingly magnitudinous core goal and towards productive, forward-moving, helpful minutiae. In other words: don’t even try to brush your teeth, just put the toothbrush in your mouth.
Getting There Is Also Your Life
by khatzumoto
This entry is part 9 of 14 in the series Intermediate AngstThe journey of getting used to a language is so psychologically long that it can’t merely be a means to an end. It must become an end in itself. It must become its own joy, its own reward. And this perspective, this mental state,…
Start Dirty: Why A Clean Slate Is Bad For You and What To Do About It
by khatzumoto
This entry is part 10 of 14 in the series Intermediate AngstRing the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything, That’s how the light gets in. ~Leonard Cohen So, I’m a bit of recovering perfectionist. I’ve walked that terrible path; it still comes up here and there,…
How to Stop Worrying and Accept that Learning a Language is Unfair — Going Beyond Day Trader Style Language Learning
by khatzumoto
Learning a language is profoundly, fundamentally unfair. At no time, at no point in the process, are you ever getting as good as you give. Of course, overall you will; overall, the quality and range and volume of your output shall be determined by the frequency of your input. But at any given moment, you are always either getting back much more than you give or much less than you give.
Mastery is Mastering the Basics
by khatzumoto
Your ability to explain new and/or complex ideas well, is predicated upon your ability to express simple ideas: Ironically, the newer or more complex an idea, the more it requires reference to simple, childlike, playground metaphors.