selectivelycurious

Greek is difficult

Posted on by Selectively Curious

Today was a relatively free day at work and didn’t have any emails coming in so I decided to start learning Greek, because well, why not?

I love languages and the culture behind each language. I feel the best way to really understand another’s culture is to immerse yourself into their language, their arts, their cuisines and so on. I have a problem with starting too many things and not really finishing anything, I feel sometimes my life is like a taster appetiser, where I try a lot of things but don’t really commit to a main dish. Maybe it’s because my passion tends to fade as quickly as it builds up.

Until today, I didn’t know that Greek was not a latin language, it’s hellenic and Greek is the only language that is hellenic. Their alphabets are quite confusing, I’ve spent a good two hours today trying to read the words, simple words and haven’t gotten around to reading it, yet. I’m ok at languages, I guess it helps that I speak two languages fluently and a few others, though I cannot speak it, my understanding capabilities is pretty ok.

I usually use the app duolingo, I’ve used it for Spanish and French, but I have some background in Spanish (which isn’t a difficult language to learn in my opinion, nor pronounce) and French so maybe that’s why touching up in these two languages isn’t difficult and it’s quite fun. Greek on the other hand, maybe I need more than just a basic app to help me read the language and better understand it. I don’t even understand the audio, when the lady pronounces the word for me to repeat it. It’s quite bizarre.

However, I am determined and within a month, I will speak basic greek. I think I will use the down time I have at work at the moment to my advantage and also touch up on my spanish, french and arabic, because I just want to. Let’s see how I progress. 🙂

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Interesting thought 

Posted on by Selectively Curious

I saw the featured image and thought “woah I can relate”.

Lately I’ve had a bit of a scattered mind, I think too much and too deeply about way to many things as one thought leads to the next and it’s a never ending chain.

This image put somethings into perspective. It’s best to finish a task/thought before moving on to the next, otherwise one might simply just get slightly burnt out.

This is something I was curious about sometime ago and coincidentally before I googled it, I saw a really interesting article about multitasking about two years ago, sadly I don’t have the link to it but I remember it saying that multitasking with devices is bad for your brain*. Scientists believe that such behaviour trains the brain to be disorganised, makes it difficult for the brain to remember/recall things as it rewires it in a non efficient way and interestingly it also releases dopamine which is the chemical in the brain associated with drug abusers.

In a lot of cases such an activity will be responsible for lowering a persons IQ. Also if you are in the habit of doing this, have you noticed that when you are watching tv and your phone isn’t around you, it makes you restless? That’s the dopamine kick you’re craving.

It’s always better to focus on one thing at a time, it’s also how law of attraction can work in your favour. Scientifically speaking, when you focus on one thing at a time, your brain is able to process and store the information better (by storing it in the hippocampus, the “library of your mind”).

Try focusing on one thing at a time, I know I will and let’s see how things change.

*this is the Link

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Drapetomania

Posted on by Selectively Curious

The title of this post means “an overwhelming urge to runaway” It’s amazing how you can take that out of context as most things nowadays. The word itself was the name of an illness which Samuel A Cartwright hypothesized to cause black slaves to flee captivity. Of course this theory was later debunked as it is outright racist.

Nowadays this word has become quite mainstream, you’ll see many people sharing it on social media because people have developped drapetomania. Living in the UAE I can say without a doubt that we have a really cushy life and it was here that I discovered the word to be more commonly used than in London, where it is not so cushy. Isn’t it ironic? (it’s like raaaaaain on your wedding dayyy). It makes me curious if it is the cushyness which makes people lazy and bored. Things can become shallow if you allow yourself to get comfortable and this overwhelming urge really does become an illness as the word was orginally intended to be used. One question that does spring to mind is that what is it that people want to run away from? Honestly, maybe I am biased, but in my opinion the UAE is the best place to live because truly it is the good life. Yet, I also find myself wanting to run away, it’s contagious and I have caught this illness at various points in my life, since I have moved back to my childhood home.

After much analysis and ponderings I have come to an unconclusive conclusion that maybe it’s feeling the motions, kind of like the notion of “misery loves company”so even though I may have this urge to run away technically its not the place I want to run away from or the life I have here, it’s the people I have chosen to surround myself with, who all suffer from this illness. The reality is that people are just unhappy, they have everything and yet they are unhappy, unfullfilled and can’t help but compare their life to those around them. It’s so easy to complain and forget the blessings they are surrounded with, it’s so easy to be negative and ask “why me” and wallow in your own hole of self pity and it’s not only addictive but the thought process can get quite contagious to those who just want to feel like they belong. Human beings are funny, we might as well be sheep. Why live like that?

After two years of being in an on and off state of drapetomania, I feel more stable and I no longer have an urge to run away. I now have wanderlust (another word that has become so mainstream) however it is not an illness, it is part of my selective curioustiy. I want to see the world I live in, I want to explore and I want to experience this world the way it was intended. It is a dream rather than a need and I like that it’s a more peaceful way to approach life. Zen for the win (pronounced as wen because I want it to rhyme). 🙂

Featured photo:https://blackthen.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/runawaye.jpeg.jpg

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