Food, Home and Style

My Free Edumacation

I am a secret self-improver.

There is a stash of relationship books in my apartment, tucked where my boyfriend is unlikely to stick his nose. One of my favorite vacations ever was to Canyon Ranch, where I spent five hours a day running between yoga and cardio workshops (and hoped nobody saw me in the bongo class). Over the past several years I have enrolled in French, Chinese, guitar, tennis, and cooking classes. No, I still can’t cook. Thanks for asking.

One of the bummers about being unemployed is that I don’t have the dough to finance my “personal growth.” And even though I like the idea of being an autodidact, I don’t have the discipline to teach myself stuff from books. But these days, you don’t need money or good study habits—there are plenty of classes available for free, both online and in person. In fact, I’m now tempted to spend the next few months in my own personal summer school. Feel free to crib my curriculum:

To fill in my gaps in business knowledge, I’ll check out the online classes offered by the Small Business Administration. The SBA has instruction on writing business plans, getting loans, accounting, creating websites, and more. There are sessions on running a business in a down economy. What a coincidence—I’m in a down economy!

If my current enterprise doesn’t work out, I hear you can make a fortune selling crocheted goods online. Etsy Labs holds Craft Night in Brooklyn and online, where you can learn how to make paper puppets or fake flowers. Very useful!

I used to speak French well enough to fudge my way through a literature class, and as soon as I got laid off I started fantasizing about doing an apartment swap in Paris. To prep, I’ll listen to the DailyFrenchPod lessons I downloaded on iTunes. And Freelanguage.org has tons of resources, including broadcasts from Radio France International—spoken slowly enough that even I can understand them. If I get tired of talking to myself, I can hit Craigslist and see if anyone wants to barter French tutoring for help with English.

Then again, French may not be the most practical language these days. If I want to be more employable, maybe I should consider learning Arabic or Chinese. Then at least I could work for the CIA. If I lived in Little Rock, I could take free Arabic classes at the University of Arkansas, but I don’t. Sites like Conversational Mandarin Chinese Online and Madinah Arabic will get me going, even if the audio can be maddeningly slow.

I love my apartment, but every time I look up from my computer I see the same sofa, the same throw pillows, the same bookshelves and lamps. I’m itching for a change. Interiordezine.com has an ecourse on interior design, and Home Depot offers free DIY classes all week long—nice.

But what about the bigger world? Health policy and energy are hot topics right now, so I’m going to bone up at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and MIT. Like many other top universities, they’re offering information online. Sometimes that’s just class notes; other times it’s videos of lectures, exams, and course materials.

So far the curriculum is all about me, me, me. Giving back is a good thing, so I’m going to re-learn CPR. The American Heart Association offers courses for free at various points, or I can get the basics online from the University of Washington School of Medicine.

The one glaring problem with my online schedule is that there are no upperclassmen to develop crushes on, which means fewer reasons to go to class. Good news—I went to Columbia University, which lets graduates audit classes at no charge. Many other colleges do too, so check with the alumni relations office. That is, if you want to be as edumacated as me.

Tags: education, Food, Home and Style, frugal living, The Unemployed Life