10 Days to Building Your Life List: Day 4

August 28, 2007

Stay at home

Sometimes it’s easy to think outside of your everyday world. In fact, 75% of life lists are probably travel- or world- related. But this taste for the foreign might be able to be met right where you are. Think you want to run with the bulls in Pamplona? Why not start by learning Spanish? Focus in on your wandering spirit- it’s a great asset!- but see what you can complete from where you are today.

Read previous articles in this series:

Learn a New Language
This is one of my favorites! I taught myself Spanish a few years ago and then Italian last year. I love languages and have some sort of inner magnet for them.
Whether you do or not, it’s still doable, and making it the first step before a significant trip makes it all the easier. It’s built-in motivation.

Here’s a good way to get started (before or after you plan the trip to use the language):
Make and use flash cards. If you don’t have the time to make flash cards, you can order 1000 cards (of the language you choose) at Vis-ed for less than $15. Building up a vocabulary is awesome and speeds up the process of actually learning how to use the vocab. Once you can start to form sentences, you can pull from your huge vocab list (that’s now in your head) and talk until you get tired - or until someone gets tired of listening to you.

Have you read the The 4-Hour Workweek or heard of Timothy Ferriss? He has managed to learn quite a few languages and has some good reader-only resources at 4hourworkweek.com.

Not only this, but I highly recommend his book anyway. It has some great take-aways. If anyone wants, I’d be happy to do a review at some point. Just let me know.