📘 Part 3: Imagination

This episode's vocabulary

Hallmark (noun) - a typical characteristic or feature of a person or thing.

To stave off (phrasal verb) - to stop something bad from happening, or to keep an unwanted situation or person away, usually temporarily.

Cutting-edge (adj.) - the most modern stage of development in a particular type of work or activity.

To think outside of the box (idiom) - to think imaginatively using new ideas instead of traditional or expected ideas.

Breakthrough (noun) - an important discovery or event that helps to improve a situation or provide an answer to a problem.

In your mind's eye (phrase) - in your imagination or memory.

The heavy lifting (noun) - most of the work involved in something; the most difficult part of a task.

Terminal (adj.) - (of a disease or illness) leading gradually to death:

Mundane (adj.) - very ordinary and therefore not interesting:

Two-pronged (adj.) - having the stated number of prongs. For example: A two/three-pronged plan involves two/three different ways of achieving the same aim.

To set an example (phrase) - to behave in a way that shows other people how to behave.

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Questions and Answers

Maria: Rory, let's talk about imagination, shall we? Is imagination important to children?

Rory: I think having a well-developed imagination and blurring the lines between reality and fiction has all the hallmarks of being a child. Well, are they mentally and cognitively speaking? They need it to develop games, their understanding of the world, their friendships, and stave off boredom. So it's pretty crucial, I'd say.

Maria: What subjects are helpful for children's imagination?

Rory: Well, anything that involves languages, since this is how we communicate our ideas and access those of others. So in Russia, I suppose that would be Russian and any foreign language since their ideas present in other languages, which there aren't in Russian and vice versa, art classes probably give them a chance to experiment with creative expression as well.

Maria: What kinds of jobs require imagination?

Rory: Well, being an English teacher, for sure, given the varying circumstances, we often find ourselves in anything in the creative sphere like performance art or writing seems fairly obvious. Very less obvious areas might be cutting edge fields of mathematics and computer science or technical industries somewhere where you have to think outside of the box to make the next leap in logic to have the next big breakthrough.

Maria: Do you think imagination is essential for scientists?

Rory: I suppose that depends on what they study, really, doesn't it? It's well, it's looking at patterns in nature or physics. And there's little to imagine since you could also argue that the way scientists come to their conclusions about such things requires little creativity.

Maria: Which requires more imagination, reading or watching cartoons?

Rory: If you think of imagination as creating original ideas and images in your mind's eye, then it seems reading requires more imagination because cartoons have, well... cartoons have done most of the heavy lifting for you, haven't they? I suppose one could argue that you have to use your imagination to suspend disbelief or critically evaluate a cartoon, but it doesn't seem as difficult as creating a whole show in your head from a written text like you do with reading.

Maria: What games require children to use imagination?

Rory: Oh, they all do, don't they? Especially if it's the first time a child is playing the game. Then they need to imagine how the application of the rules will affect how the game goes. And then they need to imagine how the game will play out too. Probably a more obvious set of examples comes from the games that children make up themselves when they're bored, and that requires a great deal of imagination.

Maria: What games can develop imagination?

Rory: I suppose any that involves some sort of information gap like, well... Pictionary, where you have to express an idea in picture form without telling your partner what that is. Um, you know, to get pretty creative there, don't you?

Maria: Should young children use and develop imagination?

Rory: Can't imagine a circumstance where that wouldn't be useful, to be honest, all of the problems we face in the world require a degree of original thinking to solve. If you think about, well, applying for a job, for example, you have to think how to gain an advantage over other candidates. Or if you want to cure a terminal illness, you'll need to think of and try things that have never been done before. Even with the most or at the most mundane levels, like having a boring job you have to think of ways to cope with that. That's indispensable.

Maria: How can teachers encourage children to use imagination?

Rory: I suppose it's a two-pronged thing. The first is by setting an example or at least providing examples of imagination, their own ideas and pictures and models. And the second is by providing the opportunity. So you say to kids, here's what I can do. What do you think you can do? Or can you do any better? And children respond to that kind of challenge. They produce some really unimaginable things.

Maria: What's the relationship between creativity and imagination?

Rory: Well, the way I see imagination is like what is unreal and takes place inside your head and creativity is how that translates into the real world. So you imagine solutions to problems and you use creativity to put them into action. It's like the relationship between the thought of moving a finger and actually moving the finger

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Discussion

M: Wow, that was imaginative and creative.

R: Thank you.

M: You're welcome.

R: So kind. Should we talk about the imaginative and creative vocabulary?

M: Yes, absolutely. Let's jump into it. First of all, we can have a well-developed imagination.

R: You can have a poorly developed imagination.

M: Yeah, poor developed imagination. Yeah, we talked about it in the previous episodes so we can have a great imagination, a vivid imagination. And...what? Creative imagination, by the way. What about hallmarks of being a child?

R: Well, a hallmark is just like a sign, pretty integral sign, to be honest with you. So it's like an important sign that something's happening. So a hallmark of a language teacher is, well, usually they're able to speak the language they're teaching.

M: What about a hallmark of a podcaster?

R: They have the technical equipment to do that, or they're at least engaging to listen to a successful podcaster is that.

M: So like having a well developed imagination is one of the hallmarks of being a child. Mm, band nine. Go home. Then you talked about different like classes, art classes, which develop children's imagination and give them a chance to experiment with creative expression.

R: Yeah, creative expression is just how you use your imagination to bring ideas into the world.

M: And when we talk about different jobs, Rory used very specific, super cool vocabulary. Like cutting edge fields of mathematics. OK? Or computer science or technical industries require imagination.

R: So a couple of collocations there. Cutting edge is like the...

M: Super modern.

R: Well, maybe even more than modern. They're not used in the mainstream. And then computer science is a collocation and technical industries is also a collocation for, well, anything involving technology.

M: Really careful with your pronunciation. We say technical, not technical, technical. Like technology, technical industries. And the way we talk about imagination, we are talking about thinking outside the box.

R: We are. And if you think outside the box, it means you have ideas that, well, are outside of what's normally expected.

M: You think big, you make breakthroughs. Do you make breakthroughs?

R: Mm hmm.

M: Yeah, good.

R: You can make breakthroughs or have a breakthrough.

M: Yeah. So breakthrough meaning some innovative discovery.

R: Yes.

M: A breakthrough. So people make breakthroughs, have breakthroughs, and for that, we need to think outside the box or we can create original ideas. And again, these are all synonyms related to like imagination, being creative. So original ideas, creative ideas or imaginative ideas. And then Rory said something "in your mind's eye".

R: Yeah, in your mind's eye is just like how you see things.

M: Your mind has an eye?

R: Well, basically, how you see things in your head.

M: So you can create ideas and the images in your mind's eye.

R: Unless you're watching cartoons, because they've done most of the heavy lifting for you.

M: Oh, I like that.

R: Heavy lifting is a euphemism for they did all of the really hard work of imagining what characters look like because you can see them on the screen.

M: And can I use it with people? For example, oh, you've done the heavy lifting for me.

R: Yeah, like if someone...

M: You lifted my piano up the stairs.

R: Well, or someone did like a really complex task for you , and now all you have to do is add something to it. Hmm.

M: So, for example, like our Vanya does all the heavy lifting for us. Does the editing.

R: All we do is talk. Look at him nodding his head in agreement.

M: Hmm. OK, cool. Different synonyms for imagine to imagine to make up something. Right. So children make up things or they make up games themselves. Do they do these these days? Because we have like computer games, apps. Do children make anything up these days, Rory? You work with children. Tell us. Tell the world, we have no idea. Oh, now he's deep in thought.

R: Well, I'm thinking about it. How would you know really? Um, because you are not there all of the time. And you see the drawings that children make, and they do that with their own hands, so I don't know. I think there's cause for optimism despite all of the technological age that they have. Technological aids that they have, sorry.

M: Well, some children make up games and then become millionaires when they are like 11.

R: Exactly.

M: You did give us some good examples what develops our imagination? So curing a terminal illness develops our imagination. That's a precise collocation to cure an illness. A terminal illness is an illness which can't be cured.

R: Well, a terminal illness is. Yeah, it's gonna kill you.

M: Deadly, deadly disease.

R: Yeah. So this is why having an imagination is important.

M: And then if you do have a creative imagination, you can gain an edge over people.

R: So if you gain an edge over people, then you have an advantage.

M: Can we say we are indispensable? You are indispensable.

R: You two are indispensable.

V: We are all indispensable. Stop it.

M: So what is indispensable? That's a good one.

R: If you're indispensable, it just means something cannot function without you. For example, if you have a battery operated electric toothbrush. The batteries are indispensable because you need them for the thing to work.

M: Yeah, and people can be indispensable or something can be indispensable or this laptop is indispensable. So you can be changed for something else. On mundane levels, mundane levels.

R: Mundane is just like ordinary and boring.

M: Yeah, mundane life. There's also a very good adjective mundane life. Mundane routine?

R: Yeah, I don't know what that looks like.

M: So even at the most mundane level levels, we do need our imagination. So go ahead and use this adjective. One more good phrase is "it's a two pronged thing".

R: Yeah. Which is just means there's two elements to the approach.

M: Is it the same as a double edged sword?

R: No, a double edged sword is something that has an advantage and an equal disadvantage to much. A two pronged approach is something that requires two elements in order to function effectively.

M: So the question was, can teachers encourage children to use imagination? I suppose it's a two pronged thing. If children are super imaginative, they can create truly unimaginable things. Unimaginable things that cannot be imagined. The are so cool.

R: You should see some of the pictures that the kids make at school.

M: So they're unimaginable? There are some unimaginable monsters?

R: They're entertaining.

M: Mhm. And this is how their creativity is put into action. OK? Put your creativity or put your imagination into action. Ta-da. Rory, would you like to say anything else about imagination?

R: I don't know. I think we've given people enough imaginative vocabulary.

M: Indispensable vocabulary.

R: Indispensable and imaginative.

M: Yeah. That's the word of the day, imaginative and indispensable. And you can be imaginative and indispensable the same way as Rory is. Thank you so much for listening and supporting us on our premium!

R: We'll see you in the next episode. Bye!

M: Bye!

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