📘 Part 3: Learning and education

This episode's vocabulary

To reflect (verb) - to think carefully, especially about possibilities and opinions.

Famine (adj.) - a situation in which there is not enough food for a great number of people, causing illness and death, or a particular period when this happens.

Rampant (adj.) - (of something bad) getting worse quickly and in an uncontrolled way.

Strife (noun) - angry or bitter disagreement over fundamental issues.

To constitute (verb) - to be or be considered as something.

Universal (adj.) - existing everywhere or involving everyone.

Abstract (adj.) - existing as an idea, feeling, or quality, not as a material object.

Concrete (adj.) - clear and certain, or real and existing in a form that can be seen or felt.

To fine-tune (verb) - to make very small changes to something in order to make it work as well as possible.

Spectrum (noun) - the set of colours into which a beam of light can be separated, or a range of waves, such as light waves or radio waves.

Self-sufficient (adj.) - able to provide everything you need, especially food, for yourself without the help of other people.

To compromise (verb) - to accept that you will reduce your demands or change your opinion in order to reach an agreement with someone.

To pick up (phrasal verb) - to learn a new skill or language by practising it rather than being taught it.

Utility (noun) - the usefulness of something, especially in a practical way.

To take up (phrasal verb) - to start doing a particular job or activity.

Questions and Answers

M: What qualities should a good learner have?

R: I think there are as many lists as there are learners, to be honest, but I think some common ones are being able to organize and reflect effectively on their learning so they can build on it further.

M: What skills should children learn?

R: Oh, I think that's entirely dependent on the context and the culture, don't you? I mean, what's important for one group of people might not be in another. If you live in a country where there's famine and sort of rampant economic strife, then you're probably not going to need people who are good at building cars. You will need people who can farm.

M: And what about skills that all children should learn? Are there any like basic skills that everybody should learn?

R: I don't think there are, outside of social skills. But what constitutes good social skills and bad ones is something that is socially determined. That's not something universal.

M: What are the differences between the things adults learn and the things that children learn?

R: Well, probably nothing too great. I suppose, if we divide it up, then adults would learn more abstract and specific things, and children would focus on more concrete and general things since their understanding and awareness isn't quite as fine-tuned as adults. But there has to be some progression in that regard. So it's more of a spectrum, really, than a hard divide, now I think about it.

M: Why are some people not willing to ask for help from others while studying?

R: Well, asking for support is potentially quite hard. Especially if you're a proud person, and you pride yourself on being self-sufficient. Well, it could compromise your self-image. The other thing is that you might need to work things out by yourself, even though it takes more time. You might feel more certain and satisfied if you come to a conclusion by yourself, rather than having one handed to you by others.

M: Do you think it's important to learn new things?

R: If it's necessary to learn them, then yes, but if it's just learning things for the sake of learning them, then no, because there needs to be some purpose behind it. You don't just randomly pick up information. It doesn't make any sense. It has no utility.

M: And why do you think some people enjoy trying new things and learning new things?

R: Well, they need to do it, or they're learning it for a purpose. So they might want to do it in order to be able to do something. So you might take up acrobatics in order to become an acrobat. So it's not just like learning for the sake of learning. There's a reason behind it, and that reason might be to have a particular skill to sell or to have something to show off to people.

M: And does technology have a positive influence on the way people learn things?

R: Well, it could have. It depends on how it's used. So if it's used in order to organize information, like on a spreadsheet or something like that, then it will have a positive effect, because the information is clearly displayed. But if it's misused or inappropriately used, like you, don't know, you access something completely unrelated to what you're supposed to be learning as a distraction, then that will not be helpful. So it's not a one-choice or the other. It's just... It's dependent on the use.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers! Hey!