Today I am studying for an Arabic exam that I have tomorrow morning at 9:35. I am spending a lot of time on it, but I also like to take breaks every hour to let things sink in a little and to make sure that I still know the stuff after sufficient distraction.
Two of my distractions today were the MySQL and HP websites. They were both very awesome and interesting to me, and they both left me with a similar feeling that was probably conceived during my Arabic studies... I learn at too slow a rate. I want to learn so much stuff, but I am impeded by lack of discipline, of course, but also by a limited supply of time, energy, and resources (which pretty much translates to money.) It is frustrating to know that things aren't out of reach conceptually -- just by time, energy, and money!
This thought started with the notion that I pick up the terminology of games infinitely faster than I do the terminology of the different classes that I take or even the many terms/words of Arabic, Latin, Spanish, ancient Greek, or whatever other language I'll try to learn next. 'Why is this?' I asked myself.
Well, for one thing, I am interacting with people when I play games -- usually. The second issue is that I am having fun, and I am much more willing to devote long hours to a pursuit that I am thoroughly enjoying. The third thought I had was that I spend a great deal of time learning things well so that I can use the information as quickly as possible, because most games have an element of timeliness to them. Either you want to be the fastest; you want to figure out your reaction before a computer or you want to react before your adversary gets impatient with waiting for your turn to end. So, usually I end up knowing the information necessary to play games well, and I can access it nearly as quickly as I can access natural language.
(Side thought: This reminds me. When I'd travel to Spanish-speaking countries when I was a kid, I'd often find other guys who were playing either soccer or basketball. When I'd play with them I'd pretty much need to communicate and it would have to be in Spanish. I noticed that I always spoke a lot quicker and more coherently when I was playing a sport and shortly after than I did in everyday speaking. I think this is a somehow related and explainable phenomenon.)
So, this brings me back to wanting to have some sort of game or even a suite of games that would help me absorb information quickly and enjoyably. I can't help but imagine how well I'd know Arabic (and how well I'd do in this Arabic class) if I could just come home and play some learning Arabic game. That would completely erase the discipline aspect of studying, because the game would, of course, be enjoyable, and I'd have a richer knowledge of the language because I'd be using not just my sight to learn, but also my ears and my hands.
I would want this game to be somewhat customizable too -- especially if it is hard to program new ones. Then I could swap out Arabic and put in the information that I need to memorize from another class.
I think that making learning more immediately rewarding would likely result in encouraging more people to learn and encourage those of us who already are interested in learning to learn ever more information... perhaps at a faster rate too.
Anyway, back to studying Arabic. Perhaps in an hour or so I’ll continue this thought some more.