You get 1 year to dedicate yourself to learning something new...

[CHONGS]

...what do you teach yourself?  Imagine you don't have to work, no distractions and access to any materials you need.  What 1 subject/craft do you teach yourself and why?

I have been thinking about this a lot lately and I think I would like to learn how to play the piano, but then again it would be really useful to learn how to carpenter things really well (not like that farmers market garbage, I mean good stuff).

[steve dave]

language(s)

[ednksu]

are we talking practical skill, life enrichment, or just enjoyment?

[CHONGS]

language(s)

well which one(s) hombre?

[GCJayhawker]

language(s)

I think languages would be the most useful/helpful for me, but I would really want to become badass at playing musical instruments.

[CHONGS]

are we talking practical skill, life enrichment, or just enjoyment?

you decide, this is YOUR year

[EllRobersonisInnocent]

Astronomy

[steve dave]

language(s)

well which one(s) hombre?

german then french then portugese then spanish. I used to think it would be most helpful to know mandarin but a guy in my office from china said that I'd be wasting my time and it would take tons of years for anyone from china to understand what I was trying to say because the language is hard as crap.

[CNS]

Spanish.

[pissclams]

i think i might do carpentry as well - i've designed a table and want to construct it

i've spent the last year learning photography

also would like to learn spanish and mandarin

[Institutional Control]

voodoo

[ben ji]

Language would be a good one, took 2 years of german in high school and would love to just be dropped in germany for 1 year.

Carpentry is a good answer as well but sounds like it would take alot of work.

What about sports? I'm thinking that with an entire year to train I could probably take a crap ton of steriods and POSSIBLY get good enough to be a 5 Heart special teams player for the cats.

[The Tonya Harding of Twitter Users Creep]

martial arts

[Winters]

Extreme couponing

[scottwildcat]

carpentry would be good.

becoming amazing and competition level BBQ cook/smoker would also be pretty fun way to spend a year.

[Kat Kid]

getting in to gardening a little bit.  I have a green thumb mentor who is bringing me along.  Good family activity, pretty relaxing.

[j rake]

spending a year learning a language? eff that.

[SkinnyBenny]

getting in to gardening a little bit.  I have a green thumb mentor who is bringing me along.  Good family activity, pretty relaxing.

gardening is the worst and I will forever resent my mom for making me pull weeds with her through the years.

I would really love to dedicate myself to learning all forms of slide guitar (especially pedal steel )

[Emo EMAW]

martial arts

This.

[chum1]

Backcountry telemark skiing.  Why?  Because if I have a year off, eff sitting around and studying. 

[RickRampus]

golf

[Rams]

guitar.  I keep threatening to do this but never take the leap. 

[SkinnyBenny]

guitar.  I keep threatening to do this but never take the leap. 

Guitar has a really steep learning curve and usually has results that are almost immediately gratifying. You should try it out.

[lopakman]

Auto mechanics. Would be awesome to be able to restore an old car. 

[ChiComCat]

Golf would be good.  Maybe Curling so I could make the Olympics