📘 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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