Comments on: Are you a specialist or a dilettante?

By: Travel Videos

Travel Videos — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:00:57 +0000

Horizontal growth is definitely the best option.

By: The Indie Explorer

The Indie Explorer — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:12:54 +0000

Interesting little article, hope it helps people.

By: agricultural land in bulgaria

agricultural land in bulgaria — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:10:05 +0000

You stopped playing the piano for FOUR years because of this?

By: tampa-bankruptcy-attorneys

tampa-bankruptcy-attorneys — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 07:08:10 +0000

i agree with Philadelphia

By: orlando criminal defense lawyer

orlando criminal defense lawyer — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:57:40 +0000

I like the article u posted

By: divorceattorney

divorceattorney — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:43:15 +0000

None of the above

By: Richard X. Thripp

Richard X. Thripp — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:37:11 +0000

Thanks Earlobe Repair! It’s all about doing what you enjoy…

By: Philadelphia Earlobe Repair

Philadelphia Earlobe Repair — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:23:12 +0000

I guess there’s nothing wrong for being a dilettante. It’s your way of being with respect to your passion or inclination to something. It doesn’t mean that you are less professional when your are dilettante. Being true to one’s passion is something more than being professional in every field as it express more of your freedom, and just to be true to yourself. you can’t be great in everything at the same time.

I was entertained with this post. While you consider yourself a dilettante, pretty well that I consider you a professional writer. This is a job best done! Keep it up!

By: Richard X. Thripp

Richard X. Thripp — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:27:57 +0000

Wow, your blog is “Spanish Dilettante,” which is very relevant! I’m sure you’re right. In English we often put the adjective first, i.e. “red house,” while in Spanish I think it would be “house red” (casa rojo or something). Most people wouldn’t think about that unless they studied other languages. But not everything can be done in school… some things are better researched on Wikipedia or YouTube on your own time.

By: Spanish Dilettante

Spanish Dilettante — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:38:57 +0000

Interesting piece. Your dedication to the English language is commendable. And I think you’re right that there are many students out there who need a stronger foundation in their native or first language before trying to branch out into a second one. (The misuse of “literally” also drives me crazy!) However, I can also say that nothing has taught me more about English grammar and usage than learning foreign languages. Often our native language is so familiar to us that we don’t think critically about it. For some like me, only when we have something to contrast it with (inflection, idioms, cognates, preposition usage, etc. in a language that varies from our own) do we truly understand things as basic as tense, direct vs. indirect objects, and so on. But perhaps, as Ursula suggests, this training should start well before high school. Thanks for the great read! SD

By: Richard X. Thripp

Richard X. Thripp — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:31:00 +0000

Thanks Luis. A lot of words in English are borrowed from Spanish, French, Greek, Latin, etc… English is a melting pot.

If I wanted to invest in coins I’d buy a one-ounce gold Krugerrand. But that’s over $1000 now! I’d prefer a new lens for my camera, a new computer, or something else I could use now.

By: Luis Mathews

Luis Mathews — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:45:03 +0000

I like these lines of your post “If you want to learn a whole bunch of languages, it’s best to become an expert in your country’s language first. Start out with a solid base of vertical growth before expanding horizontally.” and i agree with your idea. Nice informative post…In the situation when you want a more stable solid investment in coins then of course you struggle looking at habitual gold coins… You have found the best place for the information on undated 20P coins

By: Richard X. Thripp

Richard X. Thripp — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:12:21 +0000

I understand! I fixed your previous comment.

By: Richard X. Thripp

Richard X. Thripp — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:11:42 +0000

Thanks Ursula! Children can pick up many languages if they’re around family who speak them a lot when they grow up… for us older folks, no such luck.

I tend to shift interests a lot like you! The past month I haven’t taken up any new interests (except a new job). It’s been hard sticking to my guns with photography, music, blogging, and college, but I’m doing it and spending fewer hours mindlessly reading Wikipedia articles. Though that is fun.

There is another problem with separate sites… many people only go to one of your sites! If I was starting over I’d probably still pick a single site, though it’s not as good from a professional standpoint.

If you need help with HTML / CSS / PHP / MySQL / JavaScript email me! I have experience as I developed this site (WordPress). I know our blogging alliance hasn’t gone anywhere… at minimum it’s just commenting on each other’s blogs. I do that occasionally.

By: Ursula

Ursula — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:33:49 +0000

Meant to say here and there, not here in and there… it’s late and I’m tired - don’t mind my unedited comments! heheheh

By: Ursula

Ursula — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:32:46 +0000

Love this post - and you’re absolutely right! Actually, initially when I first visited your blog, I was also confused as to what your blog was about… I know it’s a hassle to have multiple sites/blogs to manage, but in the long-run, it’s definitely better for traffic and monetization.

This article is definitely an excellent segway into specialization, and by the way, I agree with you completely on the points you made!

1. People definitely need to learn to use apostrophe’s more appropriately!
2. People should become experts in their primary language before learning another one (unless you’re a child - children pick up on languages much more quickly than adults, and are able to learn the grammar rules for multiple languages simultaneously).
3. Dabbling here and there does not make you an expert on anything, but choosing your specialization is not always easy; you really have to analyze and decide for yourself what you enjoy doing and go from there.

I do a bit of dabbling myself (part of the reason I have 3 blogs at this point - potentially 4 in the future), but I try to keep them separated from each other… this also means that I have less time to concentrate on them all - I usually go through phases where I’ll work on one for a while (currently my web/blog design site) and sacrifice another for a time (my music blog/site/composing/etc.), but then my interests will shift again. I think you’re a little like me in that you’re able to learn relatively quickly and pick up on a variety of different things, which makes it even harder to stick to one thing… in this type of case, I recommend specializing in what you enjoy the most and go from there!

I really would like to teach myself some more html, css, php, sql, etc., but finding the time for it is quite challenging for me, so I’m admittedly not an expert in those areas, but I’m learning slowly as I go.