Stay Curious, Stay Young: The Power of Lifelong Learning.

Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here.

Today I wanna talk about something important, uh, maybe more important than

language learning, and it's learning, learning throughout our lives, learning as

adults, learning as people who are growing older, learning as a major driver of

health, of, uh, happiness, uh, of success.

And the reason I'm talking about that is I just finished listening to an audiobook

in German by my favorite, uh, German neuroscientist, Manfred Spitzer, uh, where

he speaks with another gentleman whose name was Norbert Hershkowitz, and they

talk about ... how adults think and learn.

And there are three books and the last one in particular ... living

throughout your life, uh, 60 years plus ... like how old people think.

And there's a lot of very interesting information there.

I'll leave a link to the book, uh, if you want to find it, if you understand

German, but it got me to thinking about this whole issue of learning.

In fact, I, I focused my discussions here on, on language learning and then

my interest in language earning and tips that I have based on my experience.

But you know, I realized that that learning I is a huge

issue in our lives today.

Governments spend a fortune on education and health.

Those two items typically account for 20% of, uh, GDP in most developed countries.

Uh, learning though is something that depends on the individual,

not on how much money the government or other people spend.

I should add in, in terms of this whole learning thing um, when I see

the, the amount of student debt that people accumulate, especially in the

United States, it kind of puts them at a great disadvantage, although

statistically they'll end up earning more and, uh, probably have other benefits.

So learning is a major issue and never before has it been

so easy to learn things.

I mean, people have always learned.

They've learned by watching people do things.

They've learned by trial and error, doing things themselves.

But reading and listening, like the audio book that I just mentioned is a very

quick and easy way of acquiring knowledge.

And whenever we're acquiring knowledge, our brains are changing

and growing and remaining young.

And, uh, so it is important to take advantage of these things.

The ability to take advantage of these things relies on our curiosity.

Uh, again, Manfred Spitzer, uh, in his, uh, audiobook, he references

Einstein who said, I have no more talent than anyone else, is just

that I am passionately curious.

So curiosity is the driver.

Curiosity is why I have so many books behind me.

This is only one of seven big bookshelves that I have in my house.

I'm interested in things and it's important to remain interested in things.

Sometimes when people talk about learning, they overly complicate things.

So I did some research, uh, using Google, uh, and I just punched in there

how old people think and learn, uh, learning and aging and so forth, and a

lot of the sort of advice that's given is, you know, over complicating, like

older people, they prefer repetition.

Well, repetition has its place in education, whether you're old or young.

Uh, older people are more self-directed, says one.

I don't see that necessarily as being the case.

Um, again, it is not clear who they mean by older.

Uh, there's reference to the number of neurons we lose.

Obviously there's a sort of an evolution in our brains.

But, uh, Spitzer points out, we have so many neurons that we can

afford to lose quite a lot of them.

We do lose some over time.

It doesn't really affect anything.

Uh, perhaps we have, you know, uh, weaker memories at a certain point.

But the point is, if you continue learning, you will strengthen

all of those cognitive functions.

But here again, one of these articles that I came up with, uh, I might leave

these if you're interested, I can leave some links to them, sort of applies that

a college education is very important to your mental health as you grow older.

Implication being that someone who has had a college education

has learned so many things.

Perhaps they're more curious about things, they will continue learning.

They've got a base that's gonna help them, but nothing prevents a person

who doesn't have a college education from being equally curious and, you

know, reading and listening, and keeping their brains stimulated.

Spitzer also makes the point that it's not just a matter of keeping your brain

active, like doing Sudoku, because Sudoku is not bringing anything new in,

and it's very important, I've seen this elsewhere, that you bring in things that

are new, you discover new things that change you in a way, and that by, you

know, processing this new information, then, uh, you are maintaining the, the

youth and the, the activity of your, of your brain, uh, which is very important.

Uh, of course, other things...

being active is very good for your brain.

Uh, jogging is good for your brain.

So many things are good for your brain, but it, it, I don't know that we need

to think of it always in terms of doing it because it's good for our brains.

If we are genuinely curious, then we derive tremendous satisfaction

from learning about other places.

Learning...

travel is a form of learning about other places.

Learning languages, of course, which is what I'm doing now, learning

Polish because I'm going to Poland.

I mean, I did have some previous exposure to Polish.

Uh, so it's this curiosity rather than how many years we've spent at school.

And also, again, in some of these, um, articles, I found there was a great

reliance on these theories of, uh, different kinds of learners that older

people might be more visual learners or might be more kinetic learners.

And, of course that whole theory of different types of learners has

largely been debunked, and I think we're guided more by our curiosity.

Uh, some people don't like to read, uh, which is fine, but the way the brain

learns is essentially the same, uh, with all people, and that's more or less become

accepted as the fact and these efforts by educators to categorize people as this

kind of learner or that kind of learner.

Or if you're a young learner, then it's this way and if you're an

older learner, it's some other way.

Uh, I'm not, uh, impressed with those.

I think, uh, I prefer the simple position that I may have lost some neurons, but as

long as I'm curious, if I keep discovering new things, learning new things, reading

books, learning languages, it's gonna keep my brain as young as it can be,

given the fact that I'm 77 years old.

So, there you have it.

I just wanted to sort of broaden, because I always talk about language

learning, but actually I'm learning i, I'm interested in education as a whole.

I read quite a bit on the subject and I think it's a vital part of

being, you know, fully engaged as human beings, uh, at whatever age.

So there you have it.

Just a little bit of a digression from language learning.

I hope you found that interesting.

I look forward to your comments.

Bye for now.