[2022-11-21] Virtuous circle of learning
Perhaps inspired by my efforts to learn Portuguese, Chris decided to learn some American Sign Language, starting with finger spelling the letters of the alphabet. I thought this was brilliant. With the help of Chris and Mel (who took ASL in her university linguistics program), today I learned to sign the letters (though I haven't yet committed them to memory). As we were going through the alphabet, I created silly associations to help me remember the sign for many of the letters. For example, the sign for the letter x makes me think of the Olympic stadium in Montreal, which makes me think of EXPO '67, which makes me think of the letter x. It's a virtuous circle of learning.
The associations we make don't have to make sense to others; they just have to make sense to us. For example, I've created a mnemonic device to distinguish between the Portuguese words for grandfather (avô) and grandmother (avó). I won't explain it here, as it's a little naughty, but, trust me, it works.
Learning something is interesting when we're on our own. It's rewarding when we can share what we're learning with other people. And it's inspiring when others join us, making us want to learn and share even more. It's another virtuous circle of learning.
