It\u2019s okay to learn slowly.<\/p>\n
That might sound funny from a guy who is known (perhaps even notorious) for trying to learn things faster, but it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n
My motivation for doing the MIT Challenge<\/a> was (a) to see if I could do it and (b) if I could, hopefully help other people imagine self-education goals that they\u2019d like to pursue. The same was true for the year without English<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the intention was never to make people feel inferior if they don\u2019t decide to take on all the exams for an undergraduate degree in one year, or don’t try to learn four languages back-to-back. Indeed, given that it takes me almost a year of planning and I work hard, more than full-time, during the challenges, it\u2019s absurd to feel that the takeaway of those challenges is that everyone should try to do exactly the same thing I did.<\/p>\n My intention was that people might take inspiration, or even some methods, from my, admittedly, extreme examples, and apply it to a project that fits their own lives.<\/p>\n Many people have done that. I\u2019ve heard from people<\/a> who have taken on subsets of the MIT Challenge curriculum at a slower pace and have learned semesters\u2019 worth of courses for free, entirely on their own. I\u2019ve heard from people who have started using the no-English rule to try to reach the next level in just one language they care about.<\/p>\n But occasionally I get emails from people that seem to miss the point.<\/p>\n An interesting one was from a father of two, working full-time, asking me whether he could complete the MIT Challenge in his spare time in one year.<\/p>\n Now, I\u2019m not one to quickly jump to saying certain accomplishments are impossible, but my guess is that if he had the stamina and intelligence to do that, he wouldn\u2019t have to ask me.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to dismiss the previous example as someone who either didn\u2019t read anything about my challenge (where it\u2019s clearly posted the hours I worked<\/a>), or is simply overly optimistic. But I have gotten other, more nuanced misunderstandings of my message, which I think do deserve an actual clarification.<\/p>\n My principle Korean teacher is in her forties and three years ago started learning English. Comparing linguistic ability with different languages is problematic, but her level of English is definitely better than my Korean and likely better than my Chinese. It would be harder to compare against the European languages I know, but that\u2019s not really fair since they were easier to learn.<\/p>\n She spoke with me candidly about her thoughts on people like myself and Benny Lewis<\/a> claiming to reach functional levels in just a few months. She said it disagreed with her experience. Languages, in her view, take years to learn to fluency, not just a few months.<\/p>\n The truth is, I agree with her. But I also agree with Benny Lewis and my own experience that a language can be learned in a short time. Isn\u2019t that a contradiction?<\/p>\n The reason for the seeming contradiction is that the question is ill-posed. \u201cHow long does it take to learn a language?\u201d isn\u2019t a meaningful question.<\/p>\n Yes, languages do take years to learn. This is particularly true of so-called \u201chard\u201d languages (Chinese, Korean) compared to \u201ceasy\u201d ones (Spanish, French).<\/p>\n My teacher already speaks English well enough to sustain full conversations and read books. But what she really wants to be able to do is speak with excellent English, without the tell-tale mistakes of grammar and pronunciation that plague non-native speakers. She also wants to be able to read works of literature in English like Woolf and Joyce.<\/p>\n I speak Chinese well enough to have one-on-one conversations about most things and I can read intermediate texts. But I\u2019d like to be to read books like the Dao De Jing<\/a> and modern Chinese novels. I\u2019d also like to be able to give presentations in Chinese and have question-and-answer sessions about topics I\u2019m knowledgeable in.<\/p>\n Those are both goals which will take years of continued practice to realize.<\/p>\n However, yes, languages also can be learned in a matter of months. After three months of immersion in China<\/a>, I was able to have full conversations about Tibetan politics, differences in cultural attitudes between the East and West and recreational drug use with people who can\u2019t speak English. In Spanish, due to its relative ease, three months was more than enough time to be able to discuss essentially any topic and read most books.<\/p>\n The problem isn\u2019t that my Korean teacher has an ineffective method for learning, or that people who claim to learn languages quickly are charlatans. It\u2019s simply that different goals take different amounts of time. Sometimes learning \u201cslowly\u201d is best and sometimes learning \u201cquickly\u201d can be more efficient.<\/p>\n Why does it have to be the complete curriculum, including classes that have nothing to do with computer science? Why focus on passing exams instead of building real-world applications? Why does it even have to be MIT instead of a coding bootcamp?<\/p>\n The answer of course is that there is no reason. I simply picked what seemed compelling to me at the time.<\/p>\n Just like the decision to challenge a language over three months or three decades depends a lot on what you want to accomplish (and, indeed, the two aren\u2019t mutually exclusive), the decision of how to learn computer science also has considerable flexibility.<\/p>\n If I wanted to learn programming in order to land a job as a developer, I\u2019d probably join a coding bootcamp. That way I\u2019d know I\u2019d be learning the most current technologies and have access to referrals for employment later.<\/p>\n If I was already a programmer, but wanted to have a stronger background in theory, I might do the reduced MIT curriculum<\/a> I mentioned here, which omits all the non-computer science courses I took as part of the challenge.<\/p>\n If I simply wanted to experience a world-class education that would cover not only computer science, but physics, economics, biology, chemistry, logic, philosophy and be taught at a level that doesn\u2019t dumb down for its students, I might take on the entire challenge.<\/p>\n But even those goals don\u2019t presuppose the pace I took. It\u2019s perfectly reasonable to take it over four years or forty, to skip the ones that don\u2019t interest you or spend your time lavishly on the ones which do.<\/p>\n I like looking at outliers. Achievements that seem to break my model of what is possible, so that I can question some of my own methods. I do this for a lot more than just learning.<\/p>\n I\u2019m fascinated by cases like Tim Ferriss gaining muscle quickly<\/a>, or Ramit Sethi<\/a> building a blog into an empire in only a few years. Even if I decide not to follow their particular methods, there\u2019s usually something I can learn from studying those unusual successes.<\/p>\n But that doesn\u2019t mean I need to go at the same pace, or that if I don\u2019t, I\u2019m somehow a failure. I\u2019m fine with going to the gym over several years, steadily improving my fitness. I\u2019m fine working on growing my audience and business at my own pace, making regular improvements.<\/p>\n Sometimes I can\u2019t follow their pace because I lack the resources or abilities they have. Perhaps Tim\u2019s extensive self-knowledge about fitness and previous athletic experience make gaining muscle unusually quickly something that works for him but not me. Perhaps Ramit\u2019s incredible business growth is due to an uncanny business intelligence, mentors or focus.<\/p>\n Sometimes I don\u2019t follow their pace because it isn\u2019t the best strategy for my goals. My fitness goals are more modest, so going slower and having more sustainable improvement matters more for me, even if it sacrifices speed. My career and life goals aren\u2019t the same as Ramit\u2019s so I\u2019m content to reach my own milestones in keeping with them.<\/p>\n I would offer the same advice to the people who have shown an interest in my own unusual endeavors. That I hope you can gain some interesting ideas to apply to your own learning, or perhaps even consider learning goals you hadn\u2019t before. But that you\u2019ll pursue them at the pace which works for you, and if you can\u2019t or don\u2019t go quite as fast, that it\u2019s certainly nothing to be ashamed of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s okay to learn slowly. That might sound funny from a guy who is known (perhaps even notorious) for trying to learn things faster, but it\u2019s true. My motivation for doing the MIT Challenge was (a) to see if I could do it and (b) if I could, hopefully help other people imagine self-education goals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,680],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-goal-setting","7":"category-nc-productivity","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDo You Need to Learn a Language in Three Months?<\/h2>\n
Why Does the MIT Challenge Have to be Done in 12 Months?<\/h2>\n
When Should You Learn Slowly?<\/h2>\n