So it's been a while since we were last here together. Asked whether you come here often, you would unfortunately have to answer 'no', holding back the tears all the while as we consider our time apart. Truth is that I've fallen out of love with a lot of things recently due to work and the passing of another year at university - sadly blogging was one of those things. We've been here before though so I'm not going to bore you - any more than I need to anyway. Today's post, which is being written from a rather wet Salzburg, it about learning or, more specifically, re-learning the easily forgotten art of learning.
First of all let me tell you why I'm in Salzburg to give you a little bit of context. I'm currently on an intensive learning course in the form of a European private law summer school. The structure is simple: a series of lectures introducing various legal systems from Europe and beyond along with some workshops. I'm coming to the end of the first week and I've spent plenty of time in the lecture theatre - our first full day was 9 hours to give an example. In short, the information has been coming at us thick and fast and we've had little choice but to learn a lot.
I had forgotten how much enjoyed surfing the information waves as they crash towards me. In had also forgotten how much I enjoy the lecture format as well, having bid farewell to my own university lectures over a year ago.
So what have I learned so far about learning in this manner? First of all, as I've just said, I really enjoy being talked at. I should place a slight qualification on that by saying that I enjoy being talked at by engaging people - bad lecturers are bad. On a similar note, I much prefer lectures to seminar/tutorial models of teaching - I will return to this below. Most of all I have learned that the art learning has to be consciously practised. This being an intensive learning course, I've had plenty of such practice over the last few days.
I should probably say that you can't really 'forget' how to learn but you can lose the ability a little. I managed to learn a lot last year but approached it in a way that I wasn't enjoying myself. Going back to second year (i.e. the fabled days of lectures for law students) I really enjoyed my education back then. That was something that was just missing last year and something that I hadn't realised that I had lost until the start of this week. Thankfully I can feel myself re-learning, learning again - it's nice to be back.
I guess I must be in a bit of trouble then. After all, my last year at Uni is the same as third year with seminars and essay writing being the order of the day - not a lecture theatre in sight. Thing is, I've got an idea of how to approach that kind of learning based an the perceived mistakes that I made last year. I might not enjoy it as much as being fed information but I'll still put everything into it.
I'll finish by telling you the real reason behind this post. I feel that honesty and transparency are the two fundamental principles that uphold this blog. Sorry, I mean self-deprication and dourness. The truth is this: I don't like the sound of my own voice; I don't like the way I explain things; and I don't like the fact I don't know stuff to the extent that I can open my mouth and say it. In a lecture you don't need your voice, in a seminar you do - my feelings towards the two of them become self-evident when you find this out.
So I've found that my learning style involves having information chucked at me while I don't enjoy giving other people information. It's a sad conclusion but one that I'm going to live with before I start making conscious move towards change. The silver lining is that I'm a good listener a least but my silence might be perceived as being arrogance. Even the silver lining looks a bit greyer than it should.
So I'm in a bit of a funny place just now - mentally, not in Austria - but I'm going to enjoy the next week or so and deal with this new lesson I've learned at a later date. It's going to be a challenge next year but I also think it's going to be a great one. It is with that optimism that I move forward with a smile on my face, or at least in my head.
Thanks for reading and I hope to write more over the comings days between classes.
Martin
