I’ve decided that I don’t want to stop learning in retirement, so I’ve assigned myself an hour each day, five days a week to go to “school”. Here “school” can be anything as long as it’s some sort of learning for me; it could be watching a documentary, taking an online course, practicing guitar, etc. Continuous learning and adding some structure to my days is, I believe, important to a successful retirement!
For my first school term, I’ve planned out a 7-week course to learn just enough Japanese and Korean to hopefully better survive and enjoy my upcoming trip to Tokyo, Osaka and Seoul this spring.
My plan?
First, I’m using Pimsleur language tapes (well, they’re audio files now and not tapes, but I can’t help myself!) on most days because I like their focus on conversational speaking instead of grammar, reading, and writing. Seven weeks is a very short amount of time, so it’s going to be important to just start speaking right away, and these Pimsleur courses do exactly that. I’m going to try to listen to them while taking a walk outside — but only when the weather is reasonable! It is so cold in Canada nowadays! — so I can get in some vitamin D as well. There’s one exception to the speech-only focus: I learned that the Korean alphabet is actually designed to be learned in a single day! So I’ve added a day to the curriculum to learn Hangul!
Second, I’m (of course) going to use AI to monitor my progress, keep me on track, and also generate quizzes and flashcards that are customized and matched to my curriculum. Interestingly, AI can also have conversations with me, listen to my pronunciation and give me feedback. It’s remarkably good at this, and that I can customize the scenarios to practice conversations in is super powerful.
I’ll report back on my progress and share what I learn about making this retirement school routine stick, as well as my language progress!
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