For some reason, the way that my mind works causes me to view and react to the world very different than you do. As a matter of fact, if we met in person and had any serious discussions about philosophy, politics or religion, I'm pretty certain that we would have completely different understandings of the world.
This is something I have realized since at least the age of 16. Think about it, what type of weird person is into personal development? Now maybe we have that in common because you are reading this blog, though I'm sure there are other areas where we have completely different understandings.
It has been something that has baffled me since the age of 16, as to how people can believe things that seem so obviouse to me to be counter to the facts on hand. To be honest, I also realize that I also most likely hold beliefs that are counter to the facts, though at least I accept this and am open to people challenging my beliefs with logic and facts to point out where my thinking may be wrong.
I also realize that according to Dale Carnegie's advice that if we try and find the common it is more likely to make friends. OK, so let me try and find some ways that we might be a similar and then I'll find some ways that we are different.
Are you a "good" person? I mean, in general are your intentions to do the "right" thing in life? Are you a curious person interesting in learning new things? Are you open to growing, no matter how old you get? Are you fascinated by all the crazy things that people do an day? Do you like to know what other people are saying about topics you are interested in, for example reading/participating in online forums and following blogs?
If you answered "Yes" to any of those questions, then we may have that in common.
BTW, why did I start this post? I started it because I was talking with a friend about foreign languages and he said something like "I have no talent for languages." Statements like that make my blood boil. The statement is so faulty, and though widely accepted as true. What the heck did he think that he used to tell me that? It was a language wasn't it? Even crazier was that this person was not using their native language to tell me. This person is a non-native English speaker and still professing to have no talent for languages.
What he is really expressing is "The common method shoved on people around the world to study languages is painful and ineffective, and I don't like it." I propose that if you go around the world and survey schools that teach languages that 99.9% of those schools focus on teaching grammar and vocabulary. I also propose that 99.8% of the students in these school either don't really enjoy the process and have much difficulty in learning the new language.
What I can't understand is nobody learns to speak their native language by studying grammar and vocabulary, NOBODY! Grammar and vocabulary are only studied after a person if functionally fluent in a language. If this is true for everyone in the world, when they learn their first language, why do people decide to turn this around when learning the second language? I can't understand this and really don't understand why something that seem so obviously true just can't be seen by most people, around the world.
Let's get really controversial. I'm an atheist. A hard-core, there is no god, forget about it, this is a silly story thought up by humans, no different then Santa Claus or Luke Skywalker. Don't worry, I'm not militant, if you want to try and believe that Luke Skywalker really exists, to paraphrase Bobby Brown , It's your perogative.
In politics, it is clear to me that laisse-faire capitalism leads to the most peace and prosperity for the most people. There is so much clear evidence for this, that I can't understand how statism is such a popular idea. BTW, America is far from a country that embraces laisse-faire capitalism and most of the atrocities that American commits and internal problems it has are because it has adopted statism.
BTW, this doesn't mean we still can't be friends. :)
This is something I have realized since at least the age of 16. Think about it, what type of weird person is into personal development? Now maybe we have that in common because you are reading this blog, though I'm sure there are other areas where we have completely different understandings.
It has been something that has baffled me since the age of 16, as to how people can believe things that seem so obviouse to me to be counter to the facts on hand. To be honest, I also realize that I also most likely hold beliefs that are counter to the facts, though at least I accept this and am open to people challenging my beliefs with logic and facts to point out where my thinking may be wrong.
I also realize that according to Dale Carnegie's advice that if we try and find the common it is more likely to make friends. OK, so let me try and find some ways that we might be a similar and then I'll find some ways that we are different.
Are you a "good" person? I mean, in general are your intentions to do the "right" thing in life? Are you a curious person interesting in learning new things? Are you open to growing, no matter how old you get? Are you fascinated by all the crazy things that people do an day? Do you like to know what other people are saying about topics you are interested in, for example reading/participating in online forums and following blogs?
If you answered "Yes" to any of those questions, then we may have that in common.
BTW, why did I start this post? I started it because I was talking with a friend about foreign languages and he said something like "I have no talent for languages." Statements like that make my blood boil. The statement is so faulty, and though widely accepted as true. What the heck did he think that he used to tell me that? It was a language wasn't it? Even crazier was that this person was not using their native language to tell me. This person is a non-native English speaker and still professing to have no talent for languages.
What he is really expressing is "The common method shoved on people around the world to study languages is painful and ineffective, and I don't like it." I propose that if you go around the world and survey schools that teach languages that 99.9% of those schools focus on teaching grammar and vocabulary. I also propose that 99.8% of the students in these school either don't really enjoy the process and have much difficulty in learning the new language.
What I can't understand is nobody learns to speak their native language by studying grammar and vocabulary, NOBODY! Grammar and vocabulary are only studied after a person if functionally fluent in a language. If this is true for everyone in the world, when they learn their first language, why do people decide to turn this around when learning the second language? I can't understand this and really don't understand why something that seem so obviously true just can't be seen by most people, around the world.
Let's get really controversial. I'm an atheist. A hard-core, there is no god, forget about it, this is a silly story thought up by humans, no different then Santa Claus or Luke Skywalker. Don't worry, I'm not militant, if you want to try and believe that Luke Skywalker really exists, to paraphrase Bobby Brown , It's your perogative.
In politics, it is clear to me that laisse-faire capitalism leads to the most peace and prosperity for the most people. There is so much clear evidence for this, that I can't understand how statism is such a popular idea. BTW, America is far from a country that embraces laisse-faire capitalism and most of the atrocities that American commits and internal problems it has are because it has adopted statism.
BTW, this doesn't mean we still can't be friends. :)
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