How do you learn without school?
Starting my junior fall, I used to do Ins and Outs lists weekly cleverly titled “In-n-Out but not the Burger Chain”, which I’m quite proud of (is it trademarkable or even trademark worthy?). I haven’t done one in a while so here is an unofficial list, based off what’s currently floating around my head.
IN
Long jorts
Flavored teas
Portuguese
Sundresses
Rewatching old shows
OUT
Moving away from my friends and the life I’ve known for the past four years
Mosquitos that fly directly in your face
Really thick ranch
The first out is a little depressing, can you tell I miss college and my friends? Two notes here.
1) I’m becoming obsessed with the idea of going to Brazil. A Youtuber I love named Kianna Naomi self-taught herself Spanish and is now learning bits and bobs of Portuguese after going to Brazil for three months. She used to be a vlog/fashion influencer and now mostly travels throughout the year. I try not to envy other people’s lives, but I would love the ability to travel the way she does. That, plus the insane amount of Brazil PR I’ve seen on my FYP on Tiktok in the past few months, and I’ve been slowly but surely been buying into the promise that Brazil has something I need. I also recently found Damon Dominique’s YouTube channel. From what I’ve gathered, he’s an American guy who was living in Brazil for a little but usually lives in Paris. He speaks almost fluent French and Portuguese and I’ve been watching his video on a day in the life in Brazil, which is 43 minutes long and so entertaining. I think Portuguese is a beautiful language. The sounds are so fun, and I think mastering the language would be a true testament to one’s dedication because it’s not a typically “easy” language to learn. In terms of languages I want to learn, and the order, it’s currently as follows: French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese or Igbo.
2) Piggybacking off of my first thought (good morning b-school language), I really hope my desire to learn new things is sustainable. I mean it’s up to me to make it sustainable, but I really want it to continue past this summer. I was facetiming Sophia earlier this week and she was talking about how she was previously skeptical about doing her PhD because it’s another xyz years of schooling, but she doesn’t know how to learn without school, and she likes learning. And I was like “Well, one day you’re gonna be done with school and whenever you have budding interests, you’re gonna have to self-teach without the structure of school.” I am currently at that phase. I want whatever my interests are to become actual habits of study and not fleeting thoughts that I never follow up on. I want to learn the rules of F1 and Premier League soccer (Go Gooners) and I also want to learn French. Sophia wants to teach herself R. I should probably learn some coding myself but the little I’ve had to do in school has been so horrid. Perhaps one day I’ll add it to my long list of languages I want to learn.
