Just because you’re not stupid doesn’t mean it’s trivially easy for you to correctly pronounce a word in a foreign language after hearing it once spoken at a normal speech rate.
As a person who had to adjust to life in the United States after moving over from Russia…
There are three English phrases that a foreigner must know to learn English quickly, so long as they are willing to LOOK stupid (an important art in a world so obsessed with being serious).
“Where’s the Bathroom?” Apart from its obvious uses, it is is essential to one’s survival to know where one may hide to plot one’s next move. Given the creative responses I sometimes received, I suspect it is also useful for learning profanity.
“I don’t understand.” It is the most useful phrase in the English language. People will generally make an effort to communicate on a number of levels after this is used. Excellent for new words and concepts.
“Please help.” Not all technology will have clear instructions printed on it. Getting lost is also unpleasant when you cannot read the signs. So, asking for help early and often helps one avoid all kinds of trouble (such as accidentally setting a classroom on fire because you don’t know how a Bunsen burner works). Many learning opportunities are missed when one figures something out with no input from a person used to the tech...
Perhaps phrases similar to these exist in every language—by using them, one can learn the rest of the language quickly, if clumsily.
Or, if one of the kids is Eliezer Yudkowsky, you can write Maxwell’s equations and say “simple”, then write a program simulating Thor and say “not simple”.
I imagined myself explaining “simple” and the very first thought was the phrase “not complex”. Oops.
Just show them examples of small Turing machines until they catch on.
“Alright kids, can you say ‘computation’? Repeat after me: COM-PYOU-TAY-SHON...”
“Foreign” does not mean “stupid”.
Just because you’re not stupid doesn’t mean it’s trivially easy for you to correctly pronounce a word in a foreign language after hearing it once spoken at a normal speech rate.
As for the “kids”...
As a person who had to adjust to life in the United States after moving over from Russia… There are three English phrases that a foreigner must know to learn English quickly, so long as they are willing to LOOK stupid (an important art in a world so obsessed with being serious).
“Where’s the Bathroom?” Apart from its obvious uses, it is is essential to one’s survival to know where one may hide to plot one’s next move. Given the creative responses I sometimes received, I suspect it is also useful for learning profanity.
“I don’t understand.” It is the most useful phrase in the English language. People will generally make an effort to communicate on a number of levels after this is used. Excellent for new words and concepts.
“Please help.” Not all technology will have clear instructions printed on it. Getting lost is also unpleasant when you cannot read the signs. So, asking for help early and often helps one avoid all kinds of trouble (such as accidentally setting a classroom on fire because you don’t know how a Bunsen burner works). Many learning opportunities are missed when one figures something out with no input from a person used to the tech...
Perhaps phrases similar to these exist in every language—by using them, one can learn the rest of the language quickly, if clumsily.
Math works well with the kids. I write “1 + 1 = 2” and say “simple”, then write the quadratic equation and say “not simple”.
Or, if one of the kids is Eliezer Yudkowsky, you can write Maxwell’s equations and say “simple”, then write a program simulating Thor and say “not simple”.
So, simple is a type of equation?
Jokes aside, that’s an excellent answer.
I see nothing wrong with this. You may have to go through complex to get to simple.