Essay

Yearn to learn

By Samantha Loong

I had a host mother in Osaka who, at age 63 and retired for three years, was infinitely busy. On any given day, she could be found volunteering at a preschool, attending English conversation classes, or learning Japanese traditional dance. When I asked her one evening over dinner how she does it all, her ever-sunny disposition suddenly became serious. She lowered her voice and said to me: "You know, when my friends retired at 60, one by one so many of them suddenly dropped dead — you're not going to see me go like that!"

She explained how she was pretty sure her friends' untimely passings were because they were no longer working, and so their brains were no longer challenged in the way they used to be. Whether it's manual labor, organizing spreadsheets or doing presentations, all these activities force us to use our brains — to keep ourselves learning new things.

I particularly like learning about how people learn. During my first few months as an English teaching intern, there was a student in my class, "H," who refused to do any written work. She would immediately develop a glazed look and go to sleep at her desk. Her spoken English was good, so at first I thought she was acting up because she was bored with the class. Then I wondered if she perhaps had a learning disability. If she was dyslexic, she would probably have difficulty dealing with exercises that involved a lot of reading and writing.

To test my theory, I got all the students to do an activity which involved running up to the board to match a picture with a word. To my delight, instead of falling asleep like she usually did, "H" fully participated in the lesson, running up to the board numerous times. I was excited to have tapped into a learning style that worked for her.

A learning disability is often seen to be a detrimental, negative thing. I prefer to see it as meaning "I'm not learning in a way that suits me." Some people learn best by reading. I learn best by observing, listening and doing. I find it virtually impossible to concentrate when I'm forced to only listen, which happened recently when I was on a telephone conference call. Not being able to see who I was talking to frustrated me to no end. Perhaps "H" learned better not when reading, but when listening and doing.

My favorite way to learn is to have a laugh while doing it. I used to create silly little stories to help me remember certain kanji like, "If you don't bathe for a MONTH, your ARMPITS are going to have a POWERFUL smell" (waki).

It might sometimes take a little more time, but think of it as an investment. A little extra effort spent to learn something in a way that suits your learning style means you're working smarter, not harder. And judging by my Osaka host mum, continually learning things can also keep you looking and feeling younger.

Shukan ST: June 17, 2011

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