LEARN What, And How?

The dictionary definition of “learning” is to “gain or acquire knowledge of or skill in (something) by study, experience, or being taught.”

OK.  To become a healthy, happy, useful person, there is a lot to be learned, which we normally do, one way or another, where some ways are easier than others.  

For example, if you were going to learn another language because you want to travel to that country, read its literature, talk with the people, being fluent in that language will be very useful.  It could become imperative if you wanted to take a job there or plan to live there for any length of time.

So, how do you go about acquiring that language?

Well, for most people that means going to school somewhere where they teach that language.  And then, like a toddler learning her mother’s language, slowly that language will be pounded into you in many which ways.  Depending on the proficiency of the school, over time, you’ll pick up the language, or at least a rudimentary version which will enable you to read and write, and communicate about simple things, hopefully increasing complexity and fluidity with time.

My first job in the USA was to serve as an interpreter under the U.S. State Department.  Most of my colleagues there were highly proficient and fluent in at least three languages.  And most of them were in the process of still adding another new language to their repertoire, studying in their spare time all the time.  One of the jokes making the rounds among us was that the best way to acquire another language was to get a “dictionary with ears” in that language.  In other words, get a girl- or boyfriend in that language, and then it will be easy to go on from there.

I don’t know how many took that advice (I can’t recall a single one) but rather slogged it out the conventional way.  Yet the logic is sound.  Anyone learns best on a one-to-one basis, one teacher one learner, no distraction or side-influences.  And foremost, the teacher must be an authentic and good one, like a dictionary for a language.  These are the two criteria, in my humble opinion, which the intended learner needs to get hold of first before learning can begin:

1. A competent, well qualified, authentic knowledge source, possibly in the form of a teacher, although the source could very well be just data and historic evidence properly compiled and presented.
2. A one-to-one teaching/learning relationship to that knowledge source.  No intermediaries in between, no diluters, distorters, politicizers.

Of course, this principle does not only apply to the learning of languages, but to ALL types of learning, be it in the fields of chemistry, astro-physics, behavioral science, what have you.

That’s all.  That, of course, is quite different from how the educational world around us is working today.   Nevertheless, there is always room for a better way.  So this is one better way:

 Authentic true knowledge source, and direct connection to it.  The will to learn, and off you are to acquiring whatever the knowledge or skill.

Now, as it so happens, ONLINE is an ideal format for this knowledge transfer to work, for it easily can come from a qualified source, and be direct in the transfer.

Yes, it is true.  All this will work only if there is a will to learn by the learner, not for someone being taught against his will.    But that’s a different subject we’ll deal with in another posting.

In the meantime, here are a couple of web sites for learning which work on this premise:

https://www.goodelearning.com

https://www.dummies.com

Learning can be fun!

Online Dancing, Why Not?

Yes, you can learn all your dance steps online, at home, in school, with your friends, anywhere.  YouTube makes it possible.  Here are just three examples of what you can get yourself into, if you are curious to learn …

(Please return to this page at 

https://straube.blogspot.com

after you are finished on YouTube, to see more dance samples and for the rest of the story.  Thank you.)

20-Minute Hip-Hop Dance Class | LEARN A DANCE WITH ME!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd-Va1m4s1E

THAT exercise will keep you in shape, too.  You even won’t need a partner for doing it, although, of course, having others doing it with you will be a lot more fun.  But, maybe, Hip Hop is not what you had in mind for dancing.  So, here is an example at the opposite end of the dance spectrum, classical ballroom dancing,

Solo Waltz from the the 2018 Russian Championship:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2L5JMZtufE

Maybe, if rather conventional ballroom dancing is for you, so that you’ll be able to step on the dance floor at the next wedding party of your friend, or your own, why not start with

Slow Foxtrot, a Basic Lesson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4dpzKOcVaw

OK.  Now you got the picture.  Yet really this is only the very beginning.  The web is full with dance instruction videos for all types of dances.  Plus, of course, there is a wealth of DVDs out there giving you the same thing, like, for example, from Arthur Murray Dance Studios

https://arthurmurray.com

where, if everything fails, you can go to and have an in person dance lesson for singles or couples.  However, ONLINE is a lot cheaper, or even cost free, and available way beyond Arthur Murray’s 270 studios worldwide.

Enjoy!

Tango Your Way to Brain Health

from “Energize Your Brain” by BrainHQ Posit Science San Francisco:

Studies show that dancing reduces stress and improves mood—but also that it can improve cognitive function and reduce risk of dementia. One study compared dancing to biking, swimming, reading, doing crosswords, and playing golf, and found that of those activities, dancing was by far the best for the brain. Here are some ways you might incorporate dancing into your life:

1: Read this article from Stanford about how to make dancing as “intelligent” as possible. It will help you understand what types of dancing are best, and what you need to do to get the most brain benefits from dancing.

2: Sign up for a dance class, ideally one that’s partner-based. It can be a more advanced class for a type of dancing you already know, or a beginners’ class of a dance that’s new to you. Go to class and try your hardest while you’re there to learn the moves and respond to your partner’s moves.

3: Going to or hosting any parties? See if you can get the room dancing!

4: Dance at home! Get on YouTube or another video website and follow along with dancing tutorials, like this one for basic tango, this one for waltz, or this one for moonwalking. Keep practicing until you master a video, then move on to a new one.

Why is dancing good for the brain? 

Here’s a brief description of why dancing is especially good for the brain from Dr. Michael Merzenich: “Complex dances require you use multiple senses at the same time—sight, sound, and motion—coordinating your movements in time with the music and your partner’s steps, all while remembering a routine. That kind of multimodal activity gives your brain a great workout, in addition to the aerobic benefits of exercise.”

Reach BrainHQ at http://www.brainhq.com

Good Parenting 101

What should a “Good Parenting” course look like?

Obviously, it would need to be geared to the particular audience to be reached, which means that under no circumstances can it be ONE course.  It rather needs to be an educational program going through different levels, the last of which to be an ongoing advisory with feedbag and consultancy available, consultancy ad-hoc by real people, online and on the phone.  Services like this already exist, for instance like the telephone number 911 for a general emergency, or 1-800-273-8255 to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.  Except that as of now no national (or international) “Good Parenting” hotline exists.

However that’s what ought to be established:  A “Good Parenting” educational program which should be running day and night for all ages, essentially being available to everyone throughout his/her entire life.  Maybe its name could be different, say instead “Family and Friends” or “Human Societal Membership” or something else.  The name won’t matter, but what is being taught will:  how to grow up as a human as part of a family, a community, a world, and becoming a better human exemplar till the day of death.  All of this is truly what good parenting is all about.

So, naturally, this educational program to the very young will look quite different than already the next level up to, say, 6 and 7 year olds.  And on and on. The word “parent” will probably not even appear in the early levels of the curriculum, but rather the ability to understand what is good and bad, desirable and not desirable, will be developed.  Relationships will be made clear, and how certain interactions produce predictable results.  The different forms of “love” will be realized, such as the love of parents and child, sibling to sibling, the family, the neighbors, the town and country, other country’s citizens, and the ultimate, a romantic love partner.

I guess, at age 10 or thereabouts the word “parent” and the concept of “parents” can be introduced, starting with the love parents bring along for their offspring from the day of their conception to forever, the sacrifices they make, and what else their job is as parent to do or supply.  Plus that a lot of responsibility comes along with that task, such as protecting their kids from harm, keeping them fed and clothed, making sure they go to school and learn, and so on.

When in their teens, the “Good Parenting” studies become a lot more important, and are more likely better understood because the youngsters’ minds are fully there, sharp and bright, by then.  Actually they’ll be hungry for learning anything at that stage, and certainly all about “Good Parenting,” a world not too far ahead of them.

Yet, the educational program ought not to end when they turn 20, because “Good Parenting” is really an ongoing activity which they are going to be involved with for the rest of their lives, either as someone being parented or not, or as a parent, eventually grand parent, great grand parent …

Society as a whole, and each member thereof individually, would greatly benefit if “Good Parenting” became a national program like learning the ABC.  It wouldn’t need to cost a fortune because most of it, particularly for the higher levels, could be done ONLINE.

Parents Are the Problem

Yes, parents are key to your success in life.  Even your health, your mental well being, and whether you are going to have the right or wrong kind of friends.  And, yes, of course, there are exceptions to this by individuals who grow up and become healthy, happy contributors to society IN SPITE of their parents.  But they surely are few and far between the great majority who ARE the products of their parents, for better or worse.

We all know that we learn the most, particularly about the basics of human life and relations, in our youngest years.  We learn how to walk, to talk, to think while we are growing up, what is truth, respect, how to associate, to learn, and to love.  Or we don’t, because there are no parents, or the parents are absent, or just not parenting.  That’s, of course, a problem, which is a widespread condition in USA today.

That’s why the USA has the highest amount of juvenile offenders behind bars, many teenagers failing their high school curriculum, becoming almost unemployable ignoramuses, open to addiction to destructive ideas as well as to drugs and other forms of harmful pursuits.

I am of the opinion that the parents of those juvenile failures are as much responsible for their underachievement and the misdeeds they are performing as the affected adolescents themselves.  Actually more so, because the parents are grownups, they know the real world, they know what is right and wrong, and what needs to be done to be healthy and happy in this world, and how to succeed.  The kids don’t.  They need to learn this by the example the parents are living.

Well, therefore, according to how I see it, society as a whole, and our government in particular, has the duty and should educate its population for becoming good parents.  In my humble opinion, that should be a top educational program, an ongoing teaching course, along with learning to read and write.  At the same time it should be made available to all parents who happen not to have a clue as to what they were in for when taking on the job of being a parent.

All of which, of course, can be done ONLINE.  Thus no excuse for not being able to study and learn good parenting, for one can study on one’s phone, tablet, what-have-you.

If you want to try it out and get started, search the web for “Good Parenting” on your computer, phone, tablet, and take it from there.

Killing Time, Intelligently …

Yes, there are people who have time to kill, at least from their perspective.  For example, a while ago I was stuck in a high rise elevator, and it took them over two hours to get me out.  So what do you do with all that time to yourself by yourself and nowhere to go?  No WiFi, no phone connection either.  Well, no problem for me.  I did my Tai Chi exercises, nice and slow, and again, until the rescue crew was able to pull the elevator up to a floor and pry open the door.  I did have my iPhone with me at the time, but there was no reception in the elevator.  Otherwise I might have been online instead.

Yet there are many occasions for many people to be stuck in what could be dead time, which could be filled usefully somehow.  For example, I know retired people who, after a full professional life, are now in a totally relaxed position, free from any work demands, free from having to interact with busybodies and other keyed up individuals pursuing some urgent idea.  Actually, as some have told me, they wake up, and after breakfast they dread the empty time laying ahead for a day in which nothing is going to happen except that the usual timekillers like watching TV or watching the birds can be followed.

These empty times waiting to be filled are not only available to oldsters.  They come in different forms also for the young, maybe even more so, because they haven’t been exposed to all the multitude of world-intruding opportunities.  For example, the weather is bad and it’s not advisable to go outside and play.  All the other players won’t be there either, for the same reason.  So, what do you do?

Well here is the answer, or at least one answer, if the reception on your cellphone works, or a computer is handy, hooked up to the internet:  Go ONLINE and learn something!

Yes, that’s my recommendation.  Learning is and should be a lifelong process.  There is sooooo much to learn, much of it useful, and some of it just for the pleasure of it. So why not go for it?  If you absolutely have to, or want to, kill some time, go ONLINE, and study something,

If nothing comes to mind that you’d love to study (which is hard for me to comprehend), start with the history of your name, where it comes from, what it means, who else has it.  Then go from there finding out who those people were, where they lived, and how, what their lives looked like.  Who were their friends?  Their enemies?  What was or is their society like?  What would they look for in you, what you’d be doing and hopefully accomplishing.  Come to think of it, look at your society around you, of which you are a part.  Find out how your society sees you, what it likes to see in you and expects you to do.

That should give you a good start for subjects to examine more closely and learn about.  ONLINE all the way!  No more time waiting to be killed.  Studying and learning means and keeps you alive.  Being bored and mentally inactive means and does diminish your health.  Yet you are here to live, be healthy and happy.  That’s what it’s all about.  Why not go ahead and have fun!

Your World Expands ONLINE

In the year 600 A.D., the world average life expectancy was between 20 to 35 years, depending on where you lived. From the 1500s onward, till around the year 1800, life expectancy throughout Europe hovered between 30 and 40 years of age. Only 100 years ago, in 1919, life expectancy in the USA was 54 years. Currently it is 78 years in the USA, 80 years in the United Kingdom, 82 years in Canada. For the U.S., this is an increase of 44% in 100 years. There is no guarantee that an increase in that percentage range will continue over time. However, the current outlook is that life expectancy will continue to increase at least into the foreseeable future.

Although people live longer in 2019 and will be living longer yet in the near future, dementia and other mental diseases are making great inroads in that aging population. Alzheimer’s is one of the fastest growing epidemics in the United States, and elsewhere, affecting a growing part of that getting-older population, heavily impacting many long lives. The Alzheimer’s Association reports that the estimated progression rate of Alzheimer’s in the U.S. from 2000-2050 will increase by 193%, Plain dementia likewise.

What’s going on here? Why can’t the mind stay healthy as well as the body is able to last longer? Even thrive?

Well, it can, for Alzheimer’s as well as almost any form of dementia are not caused from the physical invasion of the brain by malevolent bacteria or the like, but are mere mental processes, or the lack thereof, which result in the brain getting calcified, Alzheimerized, or just losing its mental muscles altogether.

It’s these processes, which, however, are at the root of the problem, while really totally under one’s own control, even though one may never have exercised them or even known that we have them. If so, that then is part of the problem, for sure the beginning of the disease.

Therefore, if you want to be healthy, and have a healthy mind, it is essential to recognize that our brain is not a machine or computer which we inherited when we were born, and which will work as well as it can as long as it can. No. Our brain is alive. an organism, about 100 billion neurons that gather and transmit signals through around a trillion connections, “talking,” talking all the time, or not, if getting sick or getting otherwise impaired.

Normally, our brains are fully alive and plastic throughout. If you have any doubts about that, I recommend that you read the book “Soft-Wired” by Dr. Michael Merzenich - a world authority on brain plasticity - explaining how the brain rewires itself across the lifespan, and how you can take control of that process to improve your life. Amazon has it for you (free for Prime members): https://www.amazon.com/Soft-Wired-Science-Brain-Plasticity-Change-ebook/dp/B00EB48ZDU/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=“Soft-Wired”+by+Dr.+Michael+Merzenich&qid=1566802653&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Yes, that’s what you can do. Take control of that process and let your brain flourish. Also, that’s where ONLINE comes into the picture:

Regardless of your age, or particularly if you are advancing in age, don’t be scared by the technology of it. Using a computer, tablet, iPhone or Android is good for you, since with it you’ll be able to exercise your brain, work the processes that make it hum and blossom.

Most easily, ONLINE you can practice the mind exercises your brain needs to stay active and alive, such as produced by BrainHQ (https://www.brainhq.com), which will give you “proven brain exercises to build your cognitive resilience.”

Try it out and enjoy: