About

This blog is mostly about the slow, unglamorous parts of getting better at things: learning languages, building habits that survive a bad week, figuring out work, and paying attention to what's happening around me. I'd rather write honestly about a process still in progress than pretend I've arrived somewhere.

What I'm working on

Languages are the long project. German first — I studied German Studies at Wheaton College — and Cantonese more recently, which has been humbling in a way German never quite was. I keep an Anki habit going most days and read slowly in both.

Outside of that: guitar, a fairly stubborn reading list, and an interest in politics and organising that mostly shows up here as writing rather than punditry.

Background

BA in German Studies, Wheaton College (2022), with coursework in political science and computer science alongside it. I've spent time working with students and in residential settings, which is where most of what I actually know about helping people came from.

Elsewhere

If you're here for language learning specifically, that work now lives on its own site: linguacommons.com. It has the guides, vocabulary sets, and spaced-repetition material that used to be scattered across this one.

Get in touch

The contact form reaches me directly. If you'd rather just get new posts, there's a newsletter — no schedule, no spam, only when something's worth sending.