A friend in China recently asked me how to improve her English. She’d struggled with it for years as a student, labeled herself “bad at languages,” and now wanted to try again for her career. But she couldn’t sustain her efforts. I asked how she’d been studying. She said she bought grammar books, pronunciation guides, … Continue reading To learn anything, first unlearn school
Six lessons I learned from volunteering at the Computer History Museum
Recently, I started volunteering at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View as a docent (tour guide), where I guide visitors through tours covering the past 100 years in computer history. This has been one of my most intellectually fulfilling experiences, and here are the top lessons I learned.
Beyond the AI tutor: What AI can do for language learning
I've been an avid learner of foreign languages my whole life. It's not just what I do; it's who I am. Learning English as a girl took me from a small Chinese city to Harvard. While most people consider language learning tedious, I consider it an indulgence, a hobby. I collect words like Pokémon cards, … Continue reading Beyond the AI tutor: What AI can do for language learning
Why I’m not breastfeeding (and feeling awesome about it)
A week ago, I gave birth to my daughter Sonnet. When I was pregnant, I made the decision to avoid breastfeeding entirely and exclusively feed my baby formula milk from Day 1. Like, not "let's try breastfeeding and switch to formula if it doesn't work", but "I'm not going to produce a single drop of … Continue reading Why I’m not breastfeeding (and feeling awesome about it)
San Francisco is not that bad
Recently I moved from Beijing to San Francisco. I know, I wonder why, too. I last lived in San Francisco in 2017-2018. Five years later, I was curious to see if the reports about San Francisco's death were greatly exaggerated. Cold, foggy, windy, expensive, hilly, bad, dirty, cloudy, and dead: What a great list of … Continue reading San Francisco is not that bad
Packing, unnecessary possessions, and self-discovery
Packing forced me to take a honest look at how much unneeded and unused stuff I have accumulated. And that led to a journey of self-discovery
Confessions of a book-buying addict
I'm addicted to books—not reading them, but buying them. I'm extremely good at starting books, and equally bad at finishing them. When it comes to reading, I follow a 80-20 rule: For the 80% of books I start, I fail to read past the first 20%. I have about 50 books on my shelf with … Continue reading Confessions of a book-buying addict
Musings on the eve of turning 30
Tomorrow is my 30th birthday. Here, I reflect on some of the biggest changes to my state of mind in the last few years. Overcoming FOMO (fear of missing out). Although I can't say I don't get stressed at all, I'm overall more at peace with myself and with my life. I think the key … Continue reading Musings on the eve of turning 30
My Crimson articles
My Crimson articlesArticles that I've written for The Harvard Crimson
Zara Zhang 