“Thus your memory is not a product of what you want to remember or what you try to remember; it’s a product of what you think about. (p. 53) ”
You remember what you think about.
I have always cursed my memory, blaming drugs or genetics, but my thoughts are the problem. I like to think about other things. Girls and pizza still make me smile. Sports and friends bring back faint images, like the one where I reached and trapped the football with the very tips of my fingers, stumbled, turned, and landed square on my feet, the ball still locked in my grip, right before Mike wrapped his burly arms around my waist, and twisted me to the ground, laughing in disbelief, “No fucking way.”
Living life was always more interesting than reading about it in a textbook. And the life in a Japanese textbook sucked, filled with wooden characters having static conversations, “Nice to meet you” (初めまして 道蔵よろしくお願いします). Thinking back on these pages still twists my stomach up in knots. It felt like such a waste of time, but I still put in my hour each day, every day, for months. All I needed to do was slog through the dreaded subject for one hour and then spend the rest of my day occupied with people, food, and movies.
On multiple occasions, I quit studying Japanese after a few months.
I still remember Mike tackling me to the ground that day and the slice of pepperoni we had afterward that filled my mouth with the sweet salt of victory, but the only Japanese that still rocks around my thick head is “Nice to meet you.”
Japanese never stole away my focus. It was more like a prison sentence, requiring my attention when I was chained to a desk. My brain would not go willingly either, often drifting away and outside the window to the trees, the people, the buildings, the opportunities that awaited.
If you don’t want to think about something, it will be very hard to learn about it. As Willingham points out in Why Don’t Students Like School, “…for material to be learned (that is, to end up in long-term memory) it must reside for some period in working memory — that is, a student must pay attention to it. Further, how the student thinks about the experience completely determines what will end up in long-term memory,” (p.63).
So, Josh, there are two questions you have to answer, one as a teacher and the other as a language learner.
Teacher Josh: |
Q: How can I create lesson plans where students want to think about the material? A: Remember that questions are far more compelling than answers. |
Student Josh: |
Q: How can I create a study plan where I want to think about Japanese? A: Merge your studies with your interests. |
1. Questions are far more compelling than answers
Questions are far more compelling than answers… nothing earth-shattering. The mystery genre wouldn’t exist if we all wanted to be spoon-fed. George RR Martin, the writer of the Game of Thrones series, once said that his mantra while crafting a story is, “Ask the next question.” And how long has Game of Thrones occupied your mind? The characters flitting about while you ride on the subway, the carnage of last week’s episode squinching up your countenance while fellow commuters dart sideways glances and scooch away from the weirdo.
High school English isn’t Game of Thrones. Tits and ass and blood and guts are prohibited, but don’t fall into that trap. It is foolish to think entertainment and education can not meet. Martin crafts one hell of a story based around a simple question, Who will be the next king? You can do the same, you are just in the wrong environment, Josh.
You suffer from the Google mindset. You think people want quick and easy answers. Sometimes, they do. The job you have right now, teaching TOEFL on Youtube, has forced you into this way of thinking. Students want you to get to the point so they can move on with their life. And if you don’t do it, someone else will. In this context, you want to be direct and to the point. A classroom is different. Students are forced to listen to you. You have them for 40 golden minutes. Big companies kill for that kind of attention. Identify the question, pose it to the class, and create interesting activities that lead students towards the answer, enjoying the journey along the way.
And everyone agrees your answers suck anyway. You are just some middle-aged white guy. So stick to making the lives of others more entertaining and interesting by asking better questions. You are starting a new Youtube channel. Don’t fall into the teacher-answer trap. Pose questions, tell stories, and share a few insights along the way so life is a little less difficult for those who gift you their attention.
“The material I want students to learn is actually the answer to a question. On its own, the answer is almost never interesting. But if you know the question, the answer may be quite interesting. That’s why making the question clear is so important. But I sometimes feel that we, as teachers, are so focused on getting to the answer, we spend insufficient time making sure that students understand the question and appreciate its significance.” (p. 75, Willingham)
2. Merge your studies with your interests
I’m an old man now. 38. The images rattling around my head have changed. Pizza has turned into a low-carb diet, friends to kids, girls to my old lady, and sports to required physical activity, but I have always liked stories (who doesn’t). I can recall my six-year-old self cradling The Look-It-Up Book of Presidents and bringing it into show-and-tell. John Quincy Adams’ dour portrait, Abraham Lincoln’s log cabin, and the dramatic tales of 40 other historical figures through time still enthralls. History stole my attention in high school and anthropology in college, the ladder containing more stories, more history, more ways of looking at the world. Other cultures have a way of revealing how silly you are. Everyone, myself included, melted into caricatures of people who have already existed, with just a few tweaks to fit our time and space. I liked that idea.
All right Josh, where are you going with this?
The point is that you have certain interests and you must merge them with Japanese. Willingham writes, “How can we get students to remember something? The answer from cognitive science is straightforward: get them to think about what it means” (pg. 75). Some people may want to think about grammar and how the pieces of the language fit into one another like a puzzle, but you do not. Rubik’s cubes piss you off. And a foreign language 101 class is all about precision. Vocabulary is squeezed into neat definitions and verbs must be conjugated based on textbook directions. You are terrible at these tasks. Understanding the gist and looking at the big picture is where you shine.
| Learning Preferences | |
|---|---|
AVOID |
EMBRACE |
Grammar translation |
Reading books |
Textbooks |
Watching TV shows |
Mind mapping (drawing) |
Sentence flashcards |
Lists and definitions |
History and culture |
You will have to take tests where precision is crucial. Prepare for them, but minimize these tasks because they will kill your spirit. Make flashcards based on stories whenever possible and let your natural tendency to occupy characters seep into the language learning process. Surround yourself with stories that steal your attention and enter your subconscious. Here are some stories to look forward to: Hayao Miyazaki’s films, Kursosawa’s films, Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, Japan during the Warring States period, and all the Japanese people who are waiting to meet you.
Josh, if you are reading this, you probably feel lost. If you were content, you would be drinking wine or watching something far more entertaining than this chicken scratch, but here you are, lost. Perhaps feeling lost is not all that bad. It has brought you to these words, to these thoughts. Drinking and watching is vapid, writing and exploring is where you can find something real interesting. You like to explore, it reminds you of how little you know about the world. Through your exploration, the language will trickle down and in. And to feel inspired to search you must be looking for the answer to a question. Japan brings up more questions, and the questions you ask are far more interesting than whatever answers you think you have.