Ultralearning: how to master hard skills

Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career

by Scott H. Young

I read this book August last year and found it a very good book. It lays out why and how we can learn and pick a difficult skill quickly and effectively.

With that, I had wanted to learn a computer language but I didn't follow through with it. 

I thought about it again today and felt that I need to start right now or I will never ever do it.

And looks like I need to read the book again.

pearlie

How to manually sort rows in a pivot table

When I need to figure out how to get my Excel working the way I want it to, I'd Google but today I YouTubed.

I wanted to manually sort rows in a pivot table. 

I checked Help in Microsoft.com. 

No help there. 

It's frustrating when all they do is describe what you can see for yourself when you click this or that, but not explain how to do it. 

I finally found it in this YouTube vid. And there is not only one way to sort pivot rows but three. And the third one is just brilliant. 

Will be tough for me to explain it in words. Just watch it here:

pearlie

I started a learning journal

I started a learning journal and have been recording what I learnt for the day every day for the past week.

I got this idea when I attended Deloitte's seminar on the latest HR trends. 

Among the things I picked up was that we need at least 100 days of learning in a year to remain relevant. 

With that, I wanted to learn something every day and I thought it'd be a good idea to start a journal to record what I learn on a daily basis. 

I downloaded Diarium, a journaling app and I have been doing it for a week now. Some days were hard whilst other days I have loads to write about. 

Since I kept it a point not to miss even a single day, some days are quite forced, but I would still write something, however irrelevant or trivial that learning item is. 

And it's a good thing because by the end of the day, if I have nothing to write about, I had better go do something useful before the day is out. 

pearlie

Two and a half years, two languages

I wrote Five Interesting Things about Learning a Language and that was way back in February 2017.

Wow, how time has travelled. 

I wrote about these 5 things:

1. There are five sets of people on language acquisition: monolingual, bilingual, trilingual, multilingual and polyglot

2. There are five categories of languages on amount of time required to acquire them

3. We desire to learn a new language based on the prestige of the speaker

4. What it takes to acquire a new language to an intermediate level

5. Chinese is the hardest language in the world, in absolute terms, even for the Chinese themselves

Check it out here for the details. 

While I read the article again today, item 4 stood out for me. That section was about the length of time you need to acquire a new language and exactly how much time you need to invest on it.

And I said that, "I will only be able to dedicate an hour a day, at best, and (with that) it will take me three years to learn a new language."

I did not mention then that I was trying to learn two languages at one go - Korean and Mandarin. (I didn't want to say it for fear it will not last.)

I know some Mandarin, but I can't read or write it. 

And I know next to nothing when it comes to the Korean language. 

That was two and a half years ago, not yet three, and how do you think I have fared?

Not very good but not that bad either.

I can read some Mandarin, but still can't write. I blame it on the pinyin keyboard. And I still have not picked up the habit of speaking to my friends and colleagues in Mandarin. I am still sticking to what I'm comfortable with, English and Cantonese, and some Malay sometimes. 

I can understand what my Korean friends text me in simple Korean and I would reply them, in what I think that would sound weird to them. But what's important is that they actually understand me.

Not too bad, eh?

Two and a half years, two languages. 

pearlie

Developing a Learning Mindset

I was feeling a bit tired at the end of the day at work today and thought it may be a good idea to watch some videos in LinkedIn Learning. 

I looked through my saved list of courses for a light one and decided to watch Developing a Learning Mindset that is only about 30 minutes long. 

I am no beginner in learning but I thought I would still learn something from this beginners course. 

Yes, I certainly did. 

What Gary Bolles said here in the course really resonated with me. 

One of the exercises he recommended was to build my own Learning Inventory. I took time to fill up this sheet provided and I'm still thinking of what I can still add on to it. 

Someone asked me what's the reason for doing this. 

I told her that I agree with Gary Bolles when he said that we always underestimate what we have learnt and what we know. This exercise will show the immense knowledge and experience each of us has. 

The other thing is that we always don't see how unique we are. We all know different things and have different experiences. We need to be proud of who we are and the learnings that we have uniquely accumulated in all those years.

And with that, we continue learning even more. 

Would you also complete your own Learning Inventory and share it with me. 

pearlie

I'm now PAPI 3 certified!

For those who know me well, they'd know of my deep interest in personality tools. 

I've spent many years delving into the 16-type theory and love watching people using the 16 types. And I was so intrigued by Carl Jung's theory on the shadow archetypes. Still am. 

But I didn't have the opportunity to be MBTI certified. Hope to be soon though unlikely. 

Then came the Gallup Strengths. When I first started working in U Mobile, there was a presentation on it by Gallup Singapore organised by Berjaya Group and we were invited. 

One thing led to another and I became Gallup-certified. One of my proudest thing. Still is. 

Then comes Cubiks PAPI 3. I have quite a history with this tool. I have used it many times with our clients when I was in KPMG under the tutelage of my colleague who's certified. 

And I have recently developed a Succession Planning framework and we began looking for personality tools to help identify potential employees and out of the many that we have seen, we settled with Cubiks. We like its capabilities and flexibility. 

Though we had a tough time getting through the legal side of the acquisition of services but it finally went through. 

Nine of us went through an intensive training session, both theory and practical and we are all certified as of today. 

Good work guys!

pearlie

Hiatuses can create new insights

I have been facilitating the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for three and a half years now, and after a break from it for about three months, I am teaching a class yesterday and today. 

And I realise that sometimes a long break is good.

I did think to myself that I have watched those videos so many times that I would have already milked them thoroughly for lessons and applications. 

I was wrong. 

As I was watching those videos again today, I am getting new insights. And I did use them quite well in my debriefs. 

Except that I can’t remember them anymore for me to include them here. What I need to do the next time I do it is to pen down my thoughts for I trust that I will get those insights again, or at least I hope I will. 

And that will be in the next month, in my next session. 

pearlie

EdX’s Introduction to Big Data by Microsoft

After hearing so much about big data this and big data that, I thought it is high time for me to dig a bit deeper into what it is all about and that’s when I found edX’s Introduction to Big Data. 

I started on it couple of weeks ago and it’s only at the final week 4 that it goes into what big data is. 

The first three weeks is spent on the fundamental concepts of data i.e. data formats, encoding, storing, types of databases, database warehouse, data stores. 

And with that, Big Data is after all just a form of data, just that there is a lot of it, it would come in many different formats and varieties, and it may come in a high velocity—the threes Vs: volume, variety and velocity of data. 

It’s just a taste of what big data is and it doesn’t get too technical though there are sections which I chose to just scan through, but it does give me a very good introduction as to what it is all about.  

At least now I have a fair bit of understanding when people talk about big data. 

pearlie

Be brave enough to live life creatively

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. 

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others. 

~ Ayn Rand

Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been. 

~ Alan Alda

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. 

~ Steve Jobs

pearlie

Time to get back to my language learning?

I have been so busy getting my son ready for college and with the travelling and all, I have put my language learning on hold...for a bit too long though. 

My record has always been quite good until now. This is my flashcard review graph for the whole year and I have been progressing very well, until the past few weeks...

...where I have not reviewed my cards for more than 20 days resulting in a huge gap in my monthly review count. And I have never missed it for more than one day before. 

And as I have said many times, language learning is one of the most difficult things that I have done. And I have been asking myself if I should give it up. 

It’s so hard. 

I am still not speaking anything but English, Malay and Cantonese. 

A big part of me refuse to give up and so I’m back to reviewing my flashcards.

It is hard. I have forgotten so many of the Chinese words I have learnt. And now I have to slowly pick them up again. 

And with the harbinger of new technology that may very soon result in wearable language translators, we may not even need to learn a new language but I still find being able to speak a different language a really cool thing to do. 

But it just take so much effort. Is it worth it?

pearlie

The problem with learning a new language

I am really finding it so hard in my language learning recently, especially when I feel I am not progressing at all and being fluent seem so distant it’s beginning to feel impossible. 

It’s so frustrating. 

And I found this article that says that I am not only hitting one wall but nine!

1. My vocabulary is too basic to hold a conversation. And isn’t that so true. 

2. When I learn a new vocabulary word, I still don't understand it when a native uses it. I can only understand bits and pieces here and there. 

3. I can't speak fluently, even though I understand the language when I hear it. Not a wall I’m facing yet since I don’t understand much of what I hear. 

4. I don't know how to stop making the same mistake over and over again. This is what has been frustrating me lately. I keep mixing up words and grammar rules. 

5. I can understand the language, but I just can't speak it. I can only understand bits and pieces and obviously can’t speak it at all. 

6. The language I'm learning has too many words that all mean the same thing. And the same words with many, many meanings. 

7. I want to sound smoother, more native and more eloquent. But I just sound weird. 

8. I learned a new language in school, and I just don't sound like a native speaker. At least I think I don’t have a problem with the languages I learnt in school. 

9. I've been learning a language for years, but I'm not getting anywhere. I’ve just been at it for a year and I’ll not get anywhere even after a few years? 

Oh dear...maybe I should just give up?

pearlie

When we still hang on to yesterday in our work today, we can forget about tomorrow

I had the privilege to attend a learning session with ADAX on Data Science for Executives, Towards a Data-Driven Organisation. It boils down to an introduction of analytics for the non-analysts. 

We were first asked to rate our knowledge and exposure to this subject from a 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest and I rated myself a low 1. 

But as the class went on, I don’t think I’d be more than a 1.5 at the end of it. There is just too much. 

And at the end of the day, I have a brain overload but amongst the takeaways for the day are these two important things:

Always begin with the right questions: something I always tell my classes when I am training myself and it is a good reminder to take with me all the time. 

And in relation to asking the right questions, always begin with what’s the problem statement: it’s funny we are told not to use the word “problem” anymore, but to substitute it with “challenge” and “objective”, but with the two latter words being too overused, it’s high time we call it what it is, a problem. 

And what I like and found so true is this comparison of our changing world between yesterday and today. 

Except that most of us are still using a yesterday mindset at work. 

And isn’t it sad that when we hang on to our yesterday at work today, we can forget about progressing to tomorrow. 

pearlie

Microsoft’s AI app to learn Chinese

Today my hubby sent me a very interesting article and link: Microsoft’s AI language app will give you a friend to practice Chinese with.

I downloaded the app and it is very promising. It isn’t much at the moment with very limited lessons but if Microsoft continues to build on it, it will be a very useful tool. 

The AI allows you to be flexible with the responses required from you and thus giving you more freedom in answering the questions in ways that are more relevant to your context. 

The beginner level only has four short sections which I completed in less than 20 minutes, and I have just started on the intermediate level where keywords are given for you to use in the reply required. 

It’s worth a try and it’s free anyway!

pearlie

These Chinese words are driving me crazy

I have these words in my Mandarin HSK deck where I get terribly confused when I get them. They all look alike and when I am tired, I will almost always get them all mixed up. 

苹果 菜单 
开始 并且 

打扰 讨论
才从 双

结束 结果 结婚

王主生住往注姓谁 
生活 生命 生病 

生意 注意 主意 愿意 
意见 意思 

休息 消息 信息

I hope by grouping them like this would help. And this list here will surely grow and grow to a larger and larger set as I move along in my HSK deck.   

pearlie

Am I wasting time learning a new language?

I spent the whole afternoon revising my language flashcards and I suddenly found myself asking this pertinent question: am I wasting time learning a language I will never master or use?

I know I have been very fervent about languages lately and I have been learning Mandarin for the last eight months and Korean for the last eleven. I would spend at least 30 minutes a day initially but as I move on to more complicated parts of the languages, I am now taking at least an hour or two every day to complete the flashcards. 

That is a lot of time on a daily basis, and so I do wonder now if I am wasting my time.

I am quite happy that I am progressing well with my Mandarin, compared to the times when I struggle so hard to learn it but never got beyond just knowing a few common characters. But I still could not think or speak freely in Mandarin, and I still find reading anything in that language difficult. For example, when I had dinner with my mother-in-law yesterday evening, I was helping her with her iPhone settings. But I could not make out what was what when Chinese was the default language. 

More so with Korean. I can now say and write really simple sentences but what on earth am I going to use it for?

The one reason I will not be stopping though is because I already invested so much time in them. 

And my current take on it is this: Chinese is suppose to be my so-called mother-tongue and with it being so widely spoken here, I shall persevere on with it. 

As for Korean, I shall take it as a hobby and what more, I am making really good friends with several Korean language partners and so I’m sticking on with it, for now. 

And I’ll never know, something good may come out of in the future. 

pearlie

The dreaded triplets of hanyu pinyin

In my attempt to learn Mandarin, my colleague recommended me to use the pinyin keyboard rather than the writing one. 

The good is that I type much faster but the bad is that I take the lazy way and not really want to learn how to write. 

But the other problem though is this: I can read, listen and understand the words and I can say them quite accurately but I could not for the life of me spell them in the correct pinyin symbols. 

Especially these nine sounds that comes in three triplets: z, zh and j; c, ch and q; s, sh and x. 

So I thought if I can memorize nine common and familiar words, I could slowly figure out which is which.

I came up with these:

zū 组 zhū 猪 jù 句 (rent, pig, sentence)

cù 醋 chū 出 qù 去 (vinegar, out, go)

sù 诉 shū 书 xū 需 (tell, book, need)

I then realized that the u sound of the last triplet of each set is not pronounced the same as in the first two. The first two are always pronounced with an oo sound whilst the third is always with an ü sound. 

I need memorize them in these two sequences:

1. 组 猪 句 醋 出 去 诉 书 需

2. 组 醋 诉 猪 出 书 句 去 需

It's a good thing as long as I don't look in the mirror. 

And for the other vowels and diphthongs, I found these useful tables from Chinese Pronunciation Wiki:

pearlie

Growing up in a musical culture

I have this playlist in my Apple Music which I can't remember when or why I've created it. 

It's a list of songs by 4Men, a South Korean R&B group. Every time I housekeep my lists, I would want to delete it but after listening to the opening of one of their songs, I'd like the sound and end up not deleting it. 

I wanted to listen to something different today and thought I'd check the list out. 

And now I know why I still kept it. They are really talented, with excellent voices. 

I read somewhere that songs and singing is deep in the Korean culture. They are exposed to it from childhood and they never stop singing into adulthood. 

And so far I've heard a few good voices. 

This is one of their best songs. The person with that awesome voice is the one is the middle, 신용재 Shin Yong Jae. 

I am glad I grew up with music in my family though I wish I have been more serious about it then. 

But I am glad that by the grace of God, I grew up in faith communities that gave me the opportunity to serve in the music ministry, in the little ways that I am able. 

pearlie

Excel and PowerPoint Productivity Hack Training

I spent the last two days attending an excellent training called the Excel and PowerPoint Productivity Hack. 

I know I will have lots to learn in Excel because I really think it's one of the most powerful and useful tool we have. 

I wasn't so sure about PowerPoint. I have taken the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Certification before, albeit a very long time ago, I thought there wasn't much to it anymore. 

I was so wrong. 

The training was at just the right level. Not too basic and too advanced. Most of the ones I have attended before were either too boring because I already know what was being taught or too complicated and not relevant for use. 

This one is different. The trainer gave us many useful tips and gave me answers to questions I have had all along with the vlookup function and especially pivot tables. 

Then she taught us how to link Excel with PowerPoint where we can use pivot tables with the slicer (slicer? I've heard of slicers in my life and they are awesome!) in Powerpoint, and that with realtime control from Excel. 

I learnt so much and gained access to many resources I never knew about. 

Since I can't begin to teach the "hacks" here, you could try searching YouTube on how to replace the vlookup function with the index and match functions. They work much better than the infamous vlookup. 

And the trick to manage pivot tables is to setup your table using CTRL + T, after which you don't have to worry about editing or expanding the table. Your pivot tables will still work. 

Go google it. 

pearlie

Why are things called 东四 dòng xi (east west)?

I have been using the Decipher Chinese app everyday since I found out about it and I'm happy with it even though I have not paid to subscribe, which I don't think I will. 

This is because I'm quite invested in using Anki and I don't need another SRS app to complicate my learning of the language. What I need to do now is to figure Anki out a bit on its technical side and use it more effectively. 

For example, now I can add words and phrases from Decipher to Anki and reposition it to appear first without having to wait until I reach the 6000th card!

Decipher does have some interesting articles, like this one. I wondered before why are "things" in Chinese called 东四 dòng xi or literally east west, and not 南北 nán běi or south north. 

It is because of the Chinese 五行 wǔ xíng, which is the five phases of Chinese philosophy vis-à-vis wood, fire, earth, metal and water, the five elements that are believed to represent everything on earth. 

And these elements are represented by the directions: east being wood, south fire, west metal and north water. 

And because the only two items that can be held are wood and metal, things are therefore represented by east and west, hence 东四 dòng xi. 

pearlie

Decipher Chinese: a HSK-based reading app

I had another serendipitous (this is fast becoming my favourite English word) find: an excellent Chinese reading app called Decipher Chinese. 

It is a service that provides HSK graded articles written by Mandarin teachers through a learn-as-you-read activity that you can do on a daily basis with their  new articles posted everyday. 

I think this would work better than the HSK-based books I found earlier, which I have not purchased any yet. 

This is how the app looks like today:

I am still using the free version and therefore, I do not get access to all their articles. Each article is marked with the HSK level, which you can choose to attempt reading. 

And this is one of the articles I was reading today. Each word is marked with the HSK level and as such I should know all the words in grey and green, which is from HSK1-3 and some of the words in yellow, which is HSK 4. When you tap on each word, you will have its meaning, pinyin and audio. 

I am also able to add words into a vocabulary list that can be used as an SRS-based flashcard deck. 

But alas, as it is with free apps, there are limitations to it. Articles I have read will become inaccessible after a few days and I have a limit of only 30 words in the vocabulary list. 

Subscription is at RM20.90 per month, which isn't too bad but I think I will try it out further before I decide. 

pearlie