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teaching a study technology in China
By Ronald Kule
In 1987 I was hired as a volunteer to develop and present a marketing seminar in mainland China to fifty-four managers of "light industry" factories, many of whom had 1,000s of workers below them.I had been approved by the government agency in charge of overseeing my planned seminar delivery to teach new ways for reaching out and working with western businesses for the first time. Having been trained in a special study technology - a method for teaching students how to study so they can apply effortlessly what they have learned - and seeing that there was an obvious language barrier despite my translator, my first task was to make it easier for my seminar attendees to be able to learn new concepts.
For example, while we in America and in other western countries take it for granted that we understand what the word, "BE" means, I found there was no concept of "be" (as in, "I AM") among the chinese; their idea was that be meant China, the motherland. More than one generation of chinese had become indoctrinated into "self" as actually meaning the country! In other words, country came first entirely - you lived for the motherland.
My students struggled to grasp this concept of "be" as one's self. Their confusion represented the effect of the most fundamental study barrier possible: the "mis-understood word."
A word in any language is a symbol for a concept or idea. Sometimes more than one concept is defined by that word. Take the word, "BAT" for example. To be hit in the head with a bat could mean a wooden stick suitably used for hitting baseballs or it could mean that live flying object that just buzzed by you in the dark of night.
Symbols can be confused; that's the lesson.
If words are symbols for concepts, and concepts can be confused, inability to grasp whole subjects of study based on those concepts can result. In fact, it has been proven beyond doubt by educators worldwide that the inability to APPLY comes immediately from bypassing a word, or words, studied but mis-understood.
In China we had to give several examples of "being" before seminar attendees grasped the concept well enough to be able to formulate questions for an important survey about their factory product lines. In order to be able to make products that would be needed and wanted by western businesses, this basic idea had to be fully grasped or my chinese managers were not going easily sell their products!
To recap, words represent concepts. When concepts are understood well the ability to implement follows; conversely, not understanding a concept breeds inability to learn and to apply.
The mis-understood word IS the most basic barrier to study and application.
Postscript: Here is a test you can do for yourself. Recall the last book or article you read...now try to remember what you just read on a page. If you cannot recall what you read, or you cannot apply what you read, there IS a mis-understood word in the area right after the last part you DO recall and CAN apply.
Go back earlier to where you know you understand and can apply...and then come forward looking for the word you have not grasped well. Look up that word's definitions with a good dictionary and make up sentences with each definition's use in them...until you have certainty that you have understood the concept of each definition for that word. Then look at the background source for the word.
Having done the experiment, go back and read the passage where that word exists...and you will be able to recall and APPLY that passage earlier forgotten.
It sometimes hits people like "magic" that this works, but it does.
There is no substitute for understanding the words you read, if you want to be able to apply what you have learned...and not feel so blank.
There are also two other basic barriers, but they are subjects for another article.
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Contributor's Note
Note: The way to fully establish for your self whether this study technology works for you is to apply it correctly, to test it for yourself...and decide if it works for you. I have found it invaluable for me for 42 years.
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http://studytechnology.org
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