Great Language Test

One of the best ways to gauge how far you've gotten along in language studies is to speak with someone that either doesn't speak your native tongue, or speaks so very little of it, they really can't help you very much.

I just finished a conversation with my very first language partner, a Colombian man I credit with giving me a solid start in Spanish. We'd get on MSN messenger or the phone and I would listen to him talk about politics or science or food or whatever. I understood precious little of what he was saying, but the listening was great ear training. All he asked in return was that I teach someone else English. Fast forward five years, and he's gone on to study Russian and Italian while I've been focusing on Chinese. Still, Spanish is the only language we share, so we conversed entirely en Español.

Any speaker of any language will tell you that if they don't practice, they lose their skills. I have a friend, native-born in the Republic of Georgia who, after living for well over a decade in the US and spending time with Russians, says that his English and Russian are now better than his Georgian. Also, a few weeks ago, I  interviewed the first full-blooded Chinese player in the NFL, Ed Wang. He was born in the US but raised in a Chinese speaking home. I asked about his fluency in Chinese and he said that after leaving his parents' home, it fell off some, but that it returns after spending some time around them.

This conversation that I just had a few minutes ago...it made me realize that I'm frequently too hard on myself on the gains I've made in any language. I haven't studied Spanish actively for a while, but I can't discount the fact that I can have a 30 min conversation with a non-English speaker with no aids whatsoever.

What HAS suffered though, is my vowel pronunciation. Since speaking more Mandarin, they've become entirely too throaty for the relatively shallow Spanish pronunciation, which definitely slows me down some.

It also made me realize that my retention rate may be higher than I know.A year off Spanish and my conjugation is a bit slow, but I still flow decently.

People have accents. Get over it.

The subject of accents came up in a discussion I had with my mother today.

She teaches English and literature at a career college. Their student demographic has shifted greatly lately, and the majority of the students are Latin or Haitian with a few Asians and Americans sprinkled in. She has one coworker that's complained about the "behavior" of his students before, and this time, was complaining that students had accents so thick he couldn't understand them. Kind of ironic since he's not American himself and I'm sure has had exposure to heavily accented English.

This is a complaint I have precious little sympathy for. Why? I'm American born with parents that speak standard American English. Sure, there was a relative here and there with a thick Southern drawl or Bahamian lilt, but nothing that would classify as "thick" or exceptionally foreign.

I think back to my high school trigonometry class. Our teacher was Ms. Vadakara. She taught quickly and with a heavy Indian accent. When I first started, I was scared that I'd never pass because I couldn't understand her...but guess what...after about two weeks, her words sounded less and less strange. I began to understand her with no effort. I sat through those two weeks because I had to to learn. I cared about getting through that class. 

And that's the key. You have to actually care about what someone is trying to communicate with you to take the time to sit down, focus, and listen through an accent. Even now, I work with a lot of developers from India, partner with a lot of Chinese speakers and go to a gym with a lot of native Spanish speakers. (I've been called in at work to conference calls to "translate" through an accent multiple times.) I listen because I care what they have to say.

What does this have to do with self and alternative education? One of the biggest changes going on in the environment of education right now is a rapidly...I mean it...RAPIDLY shrinking globe. Anyone who does not have the patience to take a little time to not even learn a foreign language, but simply get used to hearing their native tongue spoken with a new accent will undoubtedly miss out on a world of opportunities. 

中文 setbacks

I made some changes to my Chinese learning in 2010...all in all I can say they weren't very productive. I've gotten more involved in Chinese culture-related activities, but that's chipped away a bit (just a tad) at my study time. On a positive, it's helped me connect with other people that have learned the language successfully.

Surprisingly, the weekly discussion group I've been heading up has, overall, not contributed much to my learning. I've helped other people learn, but (as was an issue in learning Spanish), the more time I spend around people at lower skill levels, the more I have to fight "against my environment" to improve. So, sure, I'm studying grammar more and am glad to help other people get over that painful initial hurdle of Mandarin, but I'm also spending much more time listening to incorrect tones, initials and finals. Fighting to keep that out isn't easy.

I've continued listening to Chinese radio at work, which is a GREAT way to cement what you know and already recognize. For words and phrases I picked up in say, the first year or two of my study, they register on my brain as clearly as Spanish does with no need for translation.

Going into 2011, I'm going to go back to more private study and work with native speakers. If I do teach, it will be in a more formal environment, where there is less "feedback" that won't help me grow. 

Data Mining

So my job is changing once again...my industry is pretty loose (health care) on the non-clinical side, so when problems crop up, there's a lot of creativity involved. I'm starting to inch more into the world of data mining and am thinking about picking up a course/book to get me better at what I do. I found a pretty good list of books at Thearling where I think I'll start my search.

I also found a course at MITs Open CourseWare offerings.

Big Questions

I did half my MBA online and half in person. Both methods of learning had their pros and cons of course, but telling people that fact, I got a good earful of the cons people perceive in online learning...most of them being centered around the "solitary" nature of learning online.

• "It's not a real education." Basically, you can't learn as much in an online environment as you can in person. My guess is that this is true mostly for those that are not self directed learners. Also, both online and in person programs come in the "fluff" variety.
• "If I took a class like that, I wouldn't do my work." I think...no...I KNOW I did more work in my online classes. Part of this was because there was simply more work to do, butt mostly, this was because there were fewer boundaries on "in class" work, so I pushed more.
• "No class? That must be nice." A good clue into what they saw as the primary benefit of online learning. I classify that as a con.

There's a lot of insight into the attitudes of those who aren't naturally self directed learners. Most seem to have the view that learning under one's own supervision is either less effective, or simply easier. These are the people I wonder about. I wonder if they are, or ever could be candidates for self directed learning. Can they be taught to teach themselves or does that have to be developed at a very young age? How much motivation can be "grown" and how much is innate? Can courses be modified to accommodated these learners?

Self Directed Learning Evaluation

I just found a great resource for evaluating your personal status as a self directed learner.

http://www.guglielmino734.com/

Stay tuned for feedback.

Great sale on GreatCourses!!

There's a good sale going on over at GreatCourses. It's one of my favorite resources for learning alone.

I think I'll check out Thinking Like an Economist: A Guide to Rational Decision Making first.

Why should you care about an education revolution?

So there’s all this talk going on about revolutions in education, explosions in online courses, edupunks, OpenCourseWare, edupreneurship and…yeah…Honestly though, aside from some very good books and forward-thinking leaders, is there any actual reason to pay attention? People could just be inciting fear to make a few bucks, couldn’t they?

Well, here are my reasons why everyone (students/workers, young/old) should care, and why I personally, am devoting even more attention to something I've been doing my entire life.

• You might not be able to afford to go to school-No, really. Our average student loan load is cracking $25K, and I'm not just talking Americans. We're seeing riots in England and the rest of Europe over tuition fees and the economy. Not every degree is worth the job it gets you to (I'm not just talking financially), and even if it is, you may not be able to get your hands on the money or the move or the time. 
• Fun-New approaches to learning are more fun. Online classes, dummies books, continuing education, private tutoring...whatever it is, you get more control over what you learn and when and how. It transforms the entire learning process.
• Education isn't a one-stop-shop-This includes high school on down. You just can't learn everything you need for life in school and the gap between the two is getting wider. I studied hospitals in undergrad. Business in grad school. I help hospitals with their business processes. I work in an industry that's constantly changing and I'm expected to innovate and solve the new problems that come up. Very little I learned in school nine years ago is still applicable. I'm guessing I'll be able to say the same about the MBA in a few years too. 
• It allows customization of your life-Maybe you're like me and like being able to make your own schedule. Maybe you have kids or are taking care of an aging parent or someone that can't live on their own and flexibility is key. Regardless, if you want to learn, you need wiggle room.
• Schools might not provide what you want, or even need-I studied international business in graduate school. I think language education should be a core part of any globally focused program. My university didn't offer those options as part of the degree and wasn't willing to work them in as electives, so I learned on my own. Sometimes you have to work on your own to create your target education.
• It can be a good way to deal with stress-My first job out of undergrad was so bad I was losing hair. I just wasn't cut out for advertising. I started taking cake decorating classes to give myself something positive to look forward to in the week. I didn't study entirely on my own, but a lot of the course was self-guided and I definitely didn't get any marketable paperwork in return. The happy spots in my week alone were worth it...not the mention the fact that I can now pipe roses on demand.  
• Jobs, they are a changin'-Think jobs being sent overseas just means that there are fewer jobs here? Nope. It also means the jobs that remain here will expect deeper thought and broader skill sets from their employees. 
• Schools might not know what's up-Some schools do a great job of staying in contact with what's going on on the "outside". Business and medical schools are especially good at this. Some other fields? You'll be lucky if anyone's set foot out of academia in the last 20 years. 
• It can be cheaper/more effective-You're likely not covering a dean's salary, classroom light bills, the perks of somebody's tenure package (I'll definitely be writing more on this later). 
• You'll learn about yourself-The farther away you get away from traditional, ed-in-a-box, the more opportunity (and necessity) there is to mold goals and learning processes to who you are. You'll begin to see yourself in the subject matter and vice versa.

There are more...a lot more. Changes in education come in so many different forms that the benefits really are going to boil down more personalization, added value and better alignment with personal goals. My hope is that one day, we'll get back from our education what we invest, and then some.

MIT Open Courseware

After running across it on Seth Godin's blog, I started reading DIY U. It should really be required reading for high school students...if not the whole book, at least a couple chapters. There are a lot of misconceptions about higher education being passed around.

 

The main reason I I ordered it is that I've spent the last nine years or so pretty deeply immersed in the world of self-directed education. I started with a class on interior decorating on www.universalclass.com. I'd finished my bachelors degree and was working full time. I'd always been interested in interior design and figured it was a good time to learn about it. The class was a great introduction to the history of textiles and furniture, color theory and room design. It also kicked off my appreciation and respect for non-traditional education.

 My MBA was partially online, I finished a distance certification in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin and I've been teaching myself Mandarin. The book mentions MIT's OpenCourseWare, which I've known about since it was released in 2001, but honestly had forgotten about. I started the Mandarin program about a year ago, and it's great...and not just because it's free. It's got a really solid mix of language instruction, cultural and historical notes. I need some structure to clean up some holes and this should go nicely along with the weekly discussion group through Meetup. 

Of all the things I do...

I've been kicking around ideas for this blog for a while now...thinking back on everything I've done since finishing undergrad...thinking back even farther than that, back to when I was young, with stacks of encyclopedias sitting next to my bed. 

I realized if there's anything I've been doing my whole life, it's teaching myself. I've been getting deep into the "edupunk" movement, headed up by Jim Groom, fueled by books like DIY U and manned by anyone frustrated with traditional education and those of us that just do it naturally. 

I'm really...feeling this. I've often wished I were born into a time pre-formal education where people just learned and experimented on their own.

I've been kicking around ideas of how I can contribute to this change and develop my own use of the process, because I genuinely believe in it.