March 24

An idea on my way to work led to a long, demanding conversation with AI about investing and languages. For language study, I now have a clearer picture of the purpose, the time frame, the stages, and what to focus on in each one.

I do not want to persuade everyone that another language is useful. I can, though, say what improving my English reading has done for me. I now open posts I once would have scrolled past. Sometimes I finish one and realize, excitedly, that I understood more than I expected. Programming feels less intimidating too. I visit project pages on GitHub and read their source. Alongside AI, knowing more English terminology helps me examine suspicious claims instead of taking praise at face value.

This came from roughly ten English books and about a thousand hours of focused practice over four years, mostly in reading. I wonder what improving listening, speaking, and writing would open up. At the moment I still struggle to follow an English video even with subtitles. That keeps pulling me back into a Chinese-language information bubble. I want to return to the other skills rather than keep missing chances to learn.

Whether I follow through feels like an important choice about the person I will become. Continued practice has already helped me question self-styled experts and feel less intimidated by people I once placed on a pedestal. AI gives me more ways to act on that curiosity. I increasingly think imagination needs a partner: standards of judgment and taste. Tomorrow I will keep working on both.