Session 6 Neo (Hao Qiang)

Storytelling-Power of analogy

I work in a language training school for three years, and the school hires new teachers every year. Sometimes there is need for new teachers to explain sth highly abstract to their students, and no matter how carefully they prepare their instruction; they will find that students are either bored or confused by the instruction. In such situation, I think an analogy is usually helpful illustrating their ideas and keeping students interested. The following story is what I communicate with them before:

Most language teachers know that reciting passages in foreign language is painful, but highly worthwhile exercise, and students should go through such an experience anyway if they want to improve from the entry level to an intermediate level, but how to make students understand the necessity of reciting? That’s an abstract topic confronted by most language teachers.

Here is what I do:

Every time when I mention reciting passages, students usually express their reluctance, saying: “No, I do not want to do it. It is painful.”

Now suppose you are a student, and I am the teacher; here is how I usually talk to them:

You like to say “you are unique human beings and you are smart”, but how smart you will be if you would even feel uneasy about reciting a 300-words passage?

Anyway, your brain’s storage ability is bigger than a flash disc, right, if you are that smart? Suppose the flash disc has 300 Mega Bytes. Your brain’s storage ability is at least 1 Giga Bytes, right?

Then let’s calculate how much space a 300-words passage would consume your storage:

One English letter takes one bit

1 Byte is equal to 1024 bits.

Let’s assume the average length of all words of that passage is 5 letters long, then how much space a 300-words passage would consume? About 3 KB.

If you are that special, that smart, why do you hesitate in front of a 300-words passage? Or maybe your brain storage ability is less than 3 KB, and that is the true reason. Are you really that smart as you claimed?

Every time students will smile and feel somewhat embarrassed, and accept my suggestion on reciting passages more naturally.

This is an example of analogy. If you meet sth similarly abstract that has to be explained, you can try some more particular and detailed analogy that can easily arouse people’s empathy.