Eric is a self-proclaimed nerd, entrepreneur, coffee lover, jiu-jitsu fighter, music lover, and all-round awesome dude from South Texas.
Eric co-founded Lifely, Twitters obsessively, thinks too much, and wants to travel the world. He also does other stuff. Thanks.
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I need a break.
I’m going to SPI tonight with good friends and new friends.
Should be fun.
Learning a new language is a daunting experience. If you take the wrong road in your learning experience you may be tempted to quit altogether. Lately, I’ve been learning Brazilian Portuguese and want to share with you some of the resources and ideas that may help you in picking up a new language.
1. iTalki.com
iTalki is a social network for people that want to learn a new language. It is meant to help connect you with people that speak the language you want to learn and that want to learn the language you speak. You can browse profiles and filter results by many options such as Language, Age, Gender, Location, and more. On the site there are also wiki-style courses made by the users themselves. There is an embedded messaging client ala Myspace and also a built-in instant-messaging/voice-chat feature. The best way to practice and learn is to actually start talking to people.
2. translate.google.com
You will find this to be an invaluable tool to quickly translate back and forth between languages. Be careful with sentence fragments and punctuation. Adding a period at the end of a sentence may change the translation.
3. Rosetta Stone
Mainly my experience with Rosetta Stone was with version 2. Now, I have version 3 and it is great. My main gripe with version 2 was that it was way too slow and boring. In version 3, the experience is great. The software tries to teach you a new language not by translation but by association. You pickup a new language the same way you picked up your first. Built in voice recognition quizzes your pronunciation of words. This is the best software you will find for learning a new language. At first it may seem that it becomes boring, but you realize it is because you progress very quickly and want to go even faster. Not a bad thing!
4. Frequency Lists
It is important to apply the 80/20 rule to language learning here as well. By learning the most common words of a language, you quickly have a strong base for applying context clues to derive meaning of words you may not know. Remember there is a difference between frequency lists of written words and frequency lists of spoken words so be sure to utilize both!
That is all for now
The Flip Mino HD looks awesome. Small HD camcorder that can fit in your pocket. 720p. ::drool::
Who’s getting me one?
-Parkinson’s Law
Many times we try to acquire or hone new skills but find the task to be quite daunting. Parkinson’s law states that we will adjust the amount of work in relation to the amount of time we have to complete it. If you have a month to complete a task, the task will magically increase in complexity to fill a months worth of work and stress. Yet, if you gave yourself a week to finish that same exact task you may notice the amount of work and stress was dramatically reduced.
This is partially due to the fact that our society firmly believes in working harder rather than working smarter and faster.
When learning new skills we can use the psychological effect of Parkinson’s Law to our advantage. Upon delving yourself in the study of a new skill, you should also set some way where you can benchmark your progress. Aim very high. It is best if this benchmark process is governed by someone other than yourself such as a competition, certification exam, etc.
If you are learning a new language, aim to be able to text chat with a native speaker in two weeks. Then, try to set a date for when you can hold a quick conversation with a native speaker. External judges are key and in this case verbal comprehension is the judge, jury, and executioner. You will find by setting these kind of external benchmarks you will greatly improve your effort, drive, and skill.
If you are learning a new technical skills, see if there is any way you can prove yourself by implementing those skills as soon as possible. If you are learning programming a new programming language then set a deadline for your first application in that language ASAP. If possible, when learning technical skills check to see if corresponding certification exams are available and strive to become certified in that area.
Humans are motivated by approaching deadlines and fear of failure. Figure out how to harness your psychological triggers for fear and anxiety by setting deadlines and high expectations to perform. You will find that more than likely you will be able to achieve the goals you set out to achieve and even if you fall short you probably went further than you would have originally. Competitions against other people are the ultimate way to learn a new skill. Not only are you driven by interest, you are driven by fear of personal failure, fear of failure in public, social pressure, competitive instinct, and the “deadline” factor. Hopefully you will be able to implement these techniques to learn and master new things.
-Lose 20 lbs
-Take 1st place at a Jiu-Jitsu Tournament
-Video Blog
-Read more
-Fund my life through my small business
-Drink more water
-Make an iPhone/iPod application
-Create more software for fun
-Try exotic coffees
-Learn Muay Thai
-Travel more
Eric is the co-founder of Lifely. There’s a more detailed bio available.
Eric works at Lifely, LLC. An online marketing company that helps businesses gain targeted prospects and increase their web presence.