Not Chris Brown. Not what you're thinking... Kiss, or K.I.S.S. stands for, Keep It Simple Stupid! This is a design principle adopted by the US Navy in the 1960s. The idea is simple really… Simple things, work better. All I can think about while writing this is my football games in Wilhelmina park in Utrecht. I used to play with some guys (all ages, 16-75) around noon on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I was pretty bad at the game, some might even say hopeless. But, I liked it, the guys were chill and eventually, yavaş yavaş, slowly slowly, I got better. One of the older gentlemen, Erik, was quite the spectacle. He was fast, nimble, and 75. He couldn’t run far, but he knew the game well enough to not have to run. Let’s just say, if he wanted the ball somewhere it would get there. When I had the ball, Erik was constantly on my neck shouting “Speel simpel! SIMPEL!” (Play simple! SIMPLE!). I would look down, focus on the ball, try to dupe others through some complicated movement and screw things up. What I should of done is what Erik said: play simple. 90% of the time, this meant, pass the ball.
“An idiot admires complexity. A Genius admires simplicity. An idiot, the more complicated it is, he will admire it.”
For those of you who don’t know Terry Davis, let’s just say he was quite an interesting character. Long story short, he was a programmer with schizophrenia and single handedly developed an Operating System called TempleOS. Here's a documentary, if you're interested in internet rabbit holes... He was wrong about a lot of things, but in programming, he was at his best. I think, which his quote on simplicity, he was on to something. Did ever hear the anecdote of the USA spending millions to develop a pressurized pen that could write in space, while the Russians used pencil? This is just a myth, but it really illustrates the point.
Kiss in language learning
When I face a hard problem, I always write down what my goal is. It helps me a lot because sometimes, I might start something without a clear idea in mind. For me, that doesn’t work that well. To give you an example, the goal of football is to score goals. Usually, the simplest, fastest way, to get the ball in the net, is to pass it closer to your opponent’s goal so your teammate can shoot. Analogously, if you try to accomplish everything at once with language learning, you’ll run into some difficulties. Remember when I tried speaking Turkish after 3 weeks of studying?
I look back, and while I did accomplish something, it wasn’t the simplest, structured way to learn. I had a plan, but it was too much, all at once, for a language, I knew nothing about. It was also the wrong plan. I was convinced I could memorize phrases like I’ve done for French, Spanish, Portuguese, and similar languages, but I had no basis. The simplest solution would have been to study basic grammar first, and then memorize phrases. That being said, here are some ways I am experimenting with in language learning kiss.
Figure out what your language learning goals are
Make a simple plan
Stick with it
For me it was learn to havea basic conversation in Turkish after 3 weeks. 2) Make a simple plan. Don’t include too many things, don’t try to do everything all at once, in the long term, it’s not sustainable. The last thing, really is the simplest thing I can say. Your plan might suck, like mine did. But if you stick with it, if you might have enough confidence to pull it off, you just might... Pull it off. This is key. It’s better to have a mediocre plan with commitment than a good plan and half-assed morale.
What are ways you keep things simple? Let me know in the comments if you want!
calypso
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