Use it or Lose it Man!
Posted on 04 June 2007
Cliche I know. But oh so very true. Two instances I’ve encountered these few days that reiterate this point:
- Talking to a Spanish speaking brother. I was gambling in Reno and sat next to two Mexicans who were talking to each other in Spanish. I decided to chat it up with the guy next to me (I took up to Spanish AP in high school). Boy did we have a good time exchanging dialogue! But it wasn’t until this experience that I realized just how much simple Spanish I’d forgotten.
- Speaking Mandarin in an interview. I headed up to San Francisco today for a Chinese radio interview about my music journey. It’s been only about nine months since I came back from Taiwan and I already forgot so much. I found it pathetic!
Think about it… what are some things that you were once good at but lost the skills due to lack of practice… is it worth picking it up again? ;)
» Enjoy the read? Get free updates by subscribing to geekwhat: 
» Bonus: Check out other posts in the Think category.
» Bonus: Check out other posts in the Think category.
POPULAR
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
June 5th, 2007 at 8:39 am
Haha…is that why you were trying to chat with me online in Spanish the other day? No problem, I’ll help a compadre out…haha
June 5th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
;) Gracias mi amigo. Necesito tu ayuda!
June 5th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
haha! that’s from laberinto del fauno.
i feel you on the foreign language skills. i’ve half-picked up so many languages (chinese, italian, japanese, spanish) that i am not fluent in any of them except English. the bright side is, i know that if i go and live in one of those places where i am forced to use the language everyday, it should come back naturally (of course with a little effort). plus that gives me an excuse to travel to those countries!
so you can revise your statement to: use it or (temporarily) lose it.
in spirit of your image of the brain, i’ll preach a little about neuroscience/psych - there are two forms of learning: declarative and procedural. riding a bike is procedural, in that even if you don’t do it for a long time you will remember how to for the rest of your life (skills, not something you can explain). declarative is facts, figures, dates, etc, that you can remember for a long time as long as you rehearse and repeat it enough. i think speaking a foreign language is a bit of both. if when you initially pick it up, you learn it to the point where it becomes procedural (ie you are not consciously thinking each time… “how do i translate ‘go’ for the ‘i’ form…. ah! ‘voy’!” and it becomes somewhat natural) then you can have some faith that those skills are permanently engrained in your brain. so, no worries!
June 5th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
Yummy! Brain candy for the day! I think my procedural side is much stronger than my declarative…
“use it or (temporarily) lose it” — True dat! I just remembered in high school, when they put up those signs “Use it or lose it” referring to the 45 minute tutorial periods. ;)
June 6th, 2007 at 1:41 am
Yeah…totally true! I read part of Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping book for one of my uni courses - really interesting stuff about the brain and how it learns and how it remembers! He said that memory is about pathways, the more times the pathway is trodden, the easier it is to find the path!
June 6th, 2007 at 11:32 am
I like your last statement Fergus, very true!