Hello. So I want to take on a more intellectually fulfilling hobby than video games. I think I've narrowed it to three. I can only do one because of time constraints. Becoming really well read (like reading a book a week), becoming really good at playing the piano (I took five years of piano lessons about a decade ago and I still do some singing so I have a strong foundation of reading music), or becoming fluent in a foreign language (like Mandarin)? Which would you choose?
Help me pick a new hobby
- Thread starter Goku9000
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You could just read books with Mandarin piano music.
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The piano. You're using your mind, which helps with your "intellectually fulfilling" requirement, and your hands, which gives you the craftsmanship part that I think all good hobbies should have. I really believe a good hobby should engage everything you have; a real present moment activity.
Don
Don
Become fluent in German and begin a lifelong journey through German writings! Some of the worlds greatest thinkers wrote only in German and very little of the best material has been translated.
And then study and master the great German piano masters!
And then study and master the great German piano masters!
You've already learned to play the piano, so that's not really new. If you're first language is English, Mandarin Chinese is going to be the most difficult to learn (with Spanish, Italian, and French the easiest). Reading a book a week without any direction is simply information consumption with no purpose.
I'd take a step back here and ask yourself why you want to do any of these things. Is it just to have something to fill a few hours a week? The best hobbies are born from a deep desire. I know someone who's hobby is creating sculptures out of wood. It fulfills his desire to create - and allows him to forget about the rest of life's woes for a while. Another person I know is learning French because she loves the food and culture. She gets to meet a lot of similar minded people, and speaks French often in meet ups.
I'd take a step back here and ask yourself why you want to do any of these things. Is it just to have something to fill a few hours a week? The best hobbies are born from a deep desire. I know someone who's hobby is creating sculptures out of wood. It fulfills his desire to create - and allows him to forget about the rest of life's woes for a while. Another person I know is learning French because she loves the food and culture. She gets to meet a lot of similar minded people, and speaks French often in meet ups.
Do some volunteer work.
Soup kitchen / Neighborhood watch / Teaching adult literacy / Social activism / Big Brothering / etc.
Soup kitchen / Neighborhood watch / Teaching adult literacy / Social activism / Big Brothering / etc.
Durolingo language program. Learn German, French or Some other language of interest.
DE shaving.
Agreed. If I had the money I would pick up a piano. The other thing about piano is once you can play it most other instruments are easy to pick up on.
If you can only sit to the piano for 30 minutes a day, the returns over a lifetime are just so phenomenally good for mind and spirit. You might find you still have time to be serious about one of the others.
No, no no, the culinary arts are the way to go. A braised short rib in red wine or a steak kissed with the flames of hickory wood along with a twice backed potato finished with a mini apple pie topped with cinnamon ice cream.
Piano.
Or, violin, if you really want to be challenged.
Or, violin, if you really want to be challenged.
The music route, whether the piano you've already begun or another instrument. It's all encompassing, physical challenge, mental challenge then there's the emotional challenge of expressing yourself through the instrument and the music, your own or others. A pursuit that could last lifetimes, music all the way although i do like to cook and eat...
dave
dave
Why not just get married and have a couple of kids?
Then you won't have to agonize over what to do with your "spare time"....
Then you won't have to agonize over what to do with your "spare time"....
I'd like to add that it's something you can share with others, whether it's accompaniment from other musicians or by entertaining listeners. Music is an experience designed to be shared in every way.
Of the three, two involve getting help from others (piano & 2nd language) ... and they involve a steep and obvious learning curve. There is a risk of discouragement early on when you do not speak Cantonese like a native, or play the piano like Horowitz. On the other hand, you can (I assume since you wrote the OP) already read, so all you need is a credit card and Amazon (sorry bookstores) and you are good to go. Nobody knows if you "suck at reading" unless you actually hold the book upside down, so little chance of public embarrassment if you are not "up to snuff" in the beginning, and little chance of you getting discouraged by listening to yourself be a total n00b ...
Poor kid, who'd put that on Youtube for him. Well, I hope he's kept at it and is much better now.
Don't get me wrong, persevering through the "boy, I suck at this" stage is a great life lesson in and of itself.
Poor kid, who'd put that on Youtube for him. Well, I hope he's kept at it and is much better now.
Don't get me wrong, persevering through the "boy, I suck at this" stage is a great life lesson in and of itself.
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Agreed. I play piano every single day, sometimes for 5 minutes and sometimes for hours. Good for the soul.
Piano
