The Best Thing You can do for Your Productivity

The Best Thing You can do for Your Productivity

I was recently listening to a podcast called The College Info Geek and the episode was titled "The Best Thing You Can Do for Your Productivity." So you can see where I got the title for this piece from. The host of the podcast, Thomas Frank, was interviewing Christ Bailey, author of the book The Productivity Project and of the blog A Life of Productivity. Although they discussed a lot of interesting ideas about ideas about productivity, they surprisingly did not actually say what was the best thing you could do for your productivity. Chris Bailey kept on saying that certain things were one of the best things you could do for your productivity. The basic theme was that you need to be intentional about what you do, so that might be the takeaway from that podcast episode.

But it made me think about the same question. What is the best thing you can do. Personally, I think it's this three part process:

1. Figure out what your most important goal is.
2. Design a habit that is doable every day or as often as possible that will take you ever closer to that goal.
3. Do that habit every day (or as often as possible).

Most goals that are any good are difficult enough that there's a chance that you might not do them. Some even seem impossible. For this reason, worthy goals are only accomplished through systematic and sustained effort. In fact, I think the most important part is the system part. What is a system? I would define a system as a plan, designed beforehand, for dealing with a complex or recurring problem. Trying to accomplish a goal has a lot in common with trying to solve a problem. In fact, you could consider the two things to be effectively the same thing. This allows you to use tools for both (problem solving and goal accomplishing) when faced with either a goal or a problem

Here's an example. I want to be a writer. In fact, at this point you could say that I am a writer, because I write often on this blog and on Quora. But I have bigger goals than that. I want to eventually write a book. This is a big and pretty challenging goal, but when I decided it I also decided that I was going to do things that would take me toward that goal a little bit every time I did them. That's why I started writing on this blog after not doing it for three years. This is not something that I do every day, but I'm doing it at a sustainable pace (a bit less than one blog post per week). Then I started writing on Quora with a similar purpose (and also to help grow the reach of my blog). I write a lot more often on Quora. Either way, the point is the same. Most people observing me would agree that I'm improving as a writer, which is likely taking me closer to my goal of eventually writing a book.

One last point: This "thing" or strategy that you can do for your productivity is not really original to me. In fact, it is basically what is commonly known as the Seinfeld method, made famous by Jerry Seinfeld, who would write an X on his calendar every day that he wrote some comedy. Thanks, Mr Seinfeld. Great idea.

How to Read More Books: The Lake Wobegon Method

A month or two ago, I was becoming very frustrated with myself because I couldn't seem to make any progress on the books that I was trying to read. Since I have many books on my want-to-read list and I consider reading to be an important, productive, and enjoyable activity, this was bothering me a lot.

Fortunately the reason for my problem was staring me in the face every day. Or perhaps I should say, I was staring at it. The reason I was making little-to-no progress on my books was that I was listening to too many podcasts and watching too many videos on youtube. These three activities--watching youtube, listening to podcasts, and reading books--are three of my favorite activities, so this shouldn't be too surprising.

But why were podcasts and youtube completely blocking out my reading time? Once again, the answer was clear. In my head I might have said, "I don't have time to read because there are so many videos that I want to watch on youtube and there are so many podcasts that I want to watch." Actually, this was only a superficial answer. The real answer was, youtube and podcasts were blocking out my reading time because they are endless. So I learned an important lesson:

Beware of activities that are endless.

Such activities will suck up all of your free time--if you let them.

So I set myself some new rules.

- When you want to go on the computer, first read a book.

- Alternate days between podcasts and audiobooks.

These two rules have greatly accelerated my reading pace. I've been making good progress on three books that I'm reading: The Happiness Advantage (audiobook), Designing Your Life, and a physics textbook that I want to finish before teaching physics again. This is really satisfying, because each of these books has an end that I see myself gradually closing in on, unlike youtube videos and podcasts, which are, as I said before...endless.

Lake Wobegon Method

So, what is the mysterious "Lake Wobegon Method." Actually, what I described above was an example of it. Note: I didn't invent the Lake Wobegon Method. It's an adaptation of the Lake Wobegon Strategy invented by Google (maybe). More on that below.

Lake Wobegon is a fictional town in Minnesota that you can often hear about in the Prairie Home Companion radio show. You can also read a lot about it on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon

but the part that really sticks out to me is this: "The closing words of the monologue are 'Well, that's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.' " (Wikipedia)

This "all above average" idea is the name-sake of the "Lake Wobegon effect": "a natural human tendency to overestimate one's capabilities" (Wikipedia). It's a psychological phenomenon (and kind of a problem). But the Lake Wobegon Method is where you turn this idea on it's head a little bit. Instead of an idea, the method is a tool:

Replace below average activities with above average activities.

What happens when you do this should be clear: the average value of your activities increases. This is a way to optimize your life. Thus, your whole life can be "above average."

Now for the Google part. In the back of my head while I was writing this, I new that this was similar to what Google uses for hiring. I did a quick search (on Google) and found this article:

https://research.googleblog.com/2006/03/hiring-lake-wobegon-strategy.html

which describes their strategy of "only hire candidates who are above the mean of your current employees." What's the purpose of this? To raise the average skill of the employees working there. Now this article is from eleven years ago, so probably their hiring strategies have changed, but still, it seems like it's a good strategy if you can successfully accomplish is. So my Lake Wobegon Method is an adaptation of the Google hiring strategy (which I definitely read about a while ago).

In closing, thanks for reading to the end of this long article. Go forth and raise your average.

How to subscribe to this blog

I realize that Blogger does not make it easier to subscribe, so I'm working on ways for that to happen. For now, if you are interested in following my writing, subscribe to me on Quora:

https://www.quora.com/profile/Adam-Kauk

Or send me a personal message on Quora.

PS: I welcome your questions on Quora as well. Sometimes these inspire what I will write here on my blog. If you mention the blog, I will be much more likely to answer your question.

Good books that cover (almost) all aspects of life

I was thinking of calling this list "Good books that everyone should read," but then I realized that a title like that usually annoys me, so I'm going to avoid it for everyone's sake. This is a list of good books. Read them if they look valuable to you. Disclaimer: These are affiliate links.

- Think Like a Freak
Key skill: thinking. I have always been attracted to the art of thinking, and this book, in my opinion, is the clearest and easiest-to-read guide to the subject. They have catchy chapter titles like "Think like a child," which I still remember several years after having read the book, which can guide you into reframing problems and questions so as to approach them in a better way. I read this book several years ago, and just writing this description makes me want to read it again.

- The Four Hour Body
 Key skills: staying healthy, being confident and happy. Staying healthy is so important for all aspects of our life. I personally think everyone should know about nutrition, health, and fitness. It's also vital for being happy and confident. This book is the most comprehensive guide I've found to these topics. Also, it's a fun read.

- The Millionaire Teacher
Key skills, making and managing money. Once you have your health, the next thing you want is money, right? Well, maybe that's just me, but money is super important as well. In fact, I have a hobby of learning about economics. But personal finance is much more practical. This book breaks personal finance down into easy steps. I really felt that after I read this book, I never needed to read another book on personal finance. I may want to, but I don't need to.

- Designing Your Life
Key skill: see title. This is the book that I was looking for in college and afterward. Finally, it's available and it delivers. Well, actually, I'm reading it right now, so I can't be sure about the whole book yet, but so far so good. I think everyone struggles to figure out what they should do with their life, right? This book helps answer that question. I think it's design approach can be used to answer other "impossible questions" as well.

- Seven Principles For Making Marriage Work
Key skill: being in a relationship. Before I got engaged, I asked my girlfriend to read this book with me. She never did, but I did, and I've been feeding her the information in it ever since. This has become my manual for being in a relationship, and I think its principles could be useful for any couple, whether you are married or not. Best chapters: Solving Solvable Problems, Overcoming Gridlock. Not all problems are solvable, but you can still have a happy marriage or relationship.

- The Four Hour Workweek
Key skills: being an entrepreneur, designing your life. This book has affected my thinking a lot, but I still haven't really implemented what it suggests, although this blog is part of it. Eventually, you want more than a normal job. This book is a guide for that.

- The Happiness Advantage
Key skills: being happy and being successful. This is another book that I am currently reading, but it is so good that I couldn't leave it off of this list. Being happy is something like being healthy, in that it is a foundation for other endeavors in your life. This book gives a lot of great advice on how to make that happen. Summary: meditate, exercise, spend time with family and friends, pursue meaningful goals. Then you will be happy, which can lead to being successful. There's a lot more to it than that, but you can get started from my summary.

- Letter to a Christian Nation
 Key skills: understanding the meaning of life, being able to discuss life's big questions. This might be a controversial one, because who likes to argue about religion, right? Nevertheless, spirituality is an important part of life. This book was very influential in my life, as it helped me to leave Christianity, which was unhelpful to me. I think this book is very clearly argued. It's also an easy and short read.

Every year, I write a letter to my students in which I recommend some books which will be helpful to them in their lives. This is basically a compilation of those recommendations along with a few more. I think the list covers most of the important aspects of life, but obviously it's not comprehensive. You can always think of other areas that are important.

How to use this list. My recommendation: start with one book that strikes your fancy, read it, use it, then come back for another one if the first recommendation was good. If you buy all of them, there is a danger that some or most of them will sit on the shelf forever, so a one-at-a-time approach is best.

Hopefully this list is helpful. Good luck to all.

The Information Diet: a book non-review

I while ago, I started reading a book called "The Information Diet." While I don't remember much from the book, I still think it's a great book--mostly just because of the title. I really like the idea of comparing information consumption with food consumption. These days there is an infinite amount of information available. This is pretty close to being literally true, as the amount of information available for free on the internet would take many lifetimes to consume. This means that we need some way of filtering information, or we will choke trying to swallow too much of it.

It seems that humans evolved to take in as much information as possible. Our body's are relatively weak compared to other animals, but our brains are like mutant super-versions of animal brains. This indicates that information was key to our early survival as a species. Personally, I still feel the instinctual urge to take in as much information as I can. I could sit in front of my computer all day and read or watch articles and videos on science, politics, math, parenting, self-improvement, etc. Is this really useful? Pretty clearly not, but brain always seems to say, "Oh, this next video (or article) looks really important. Don't miss that one." It's an exhausting cycle. It's also frustrating, because the information always does seem to be useful or valuable. But if you really want to know if something is worthwhile to watch or read, you can't just think about the benefit of it, you also have to think about the cost (Econ 101, right?).

So much information is free nowadays, that it often seems like there is no cost. This is why it's important to start thinking about information as analogous to food. If someone provided you with infinite food forever, when would you stop eating? If you're smart, you'll stop eating when you're full, in spite of your inbuilt instincts to keep on eating until you can't hold any more. What is the cost of eating too much food? Feeling gross, being unhealthy, feeling lethargic, and being unable to be productive. Too much information consumption may have similar negative effects. But there are also some costs for information over-consumption that are not shared with food. What is the cost of reading one more article? You spend your time, your attention, your memory, your focus. Even your memory and focus, which you may think you can stretch infinitely can be affected by taking in too much information. Are you really going to remember the most important information of ten different articles that you read?

Another negative effect of taking in too much information is that you're body doesn't clearly signal to you when you've had enough, as it does with food. This means that information consumption can consume your time, a lot more of it than food consumption can. You can only spend so much time eating in one day, right?

So how do you decide what information to actually consume? Let's go back to the food analogy. Most people can sketch out what a healthy diet looks like: a good balance of carbs, protein, fat. Use high quality ingredients, make sure there are vegetables and some fruit, cook them in a way that preserves nutrition. Throw in some variety to make sure that you are getting different nutrients vitamins and minerals. And of course you want to exercise to actually make use of the energy that you are taking in.

The following is not going to be an exact cross-over, so bear with me, but the purpose is to see how the idea of diet (continuous consumption out of infinite possibilities) can be used for information.

- High quality ingredients: this goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. Your information sources should be high quality, because this is what you are feeding your brain (actually food feeds the brain too, so that's another reason to eat high quality food. 

- Healthy cooking: This is analogous to integrating information consumption into your life in a way that enhances life, rather than degrading it. Reading from a bright screen late at night is unhealthy cooking. Listening to a podcast or audiobook while you make coffee or commute to work--that's healthy cooking, generally.

- Carbs, proteins, and fat: All of these are sources of energy, so you can think of these as different kinds of information that move you forward in life. There's no real good analogies, but you could think of them as fiction (carbs), non-fiiction news (protein), and other non-fiction (fat). Or make up whatever analogy works for you.

So the one-to-one comparison between eating and consuming information doesn't seem to work that well, but the overall concept is very useful. Both are things that we will do for the rest of our lives. It would be a good idea to create good habits around the processes.

The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption (Amazon affiliate link).

How to learn from a book before you even read it

I'm a big fan of books. It's amazing how much you can learn or be entertained by a small, portable packet of papers that you only paid ten to twenty dollars for. But I recently realized a problem with books. Because a book usually takes a significant amount of time to read, I can only read a few each year. I used to be able to read many books in one year, but now I'm pretty busy so that's not feasible anymore.

So what should I do about this? Be depressed and contemplate the shortness of life? Surely there's a better solution. And it dawned on me recently.

I've been thinking about the fact that books have an advantage on podcasts. These are two things I love to spend my free time on. But the advantage that books have is that each book has an ending. When you finish a book, you feel like you've accomplished something. And hopefully you have gained something valuable as well--like gaining useful information or having read a memorable story that will stick with you. But podcasts, in general, never end. They just keep on going as long as people subscribe. To be fair, this can also be viewed as an advantage podcasts have over books, because they can be like a long-term companion. But if you want a feeling of accomplishment, a book is a better way to get it. All this was leading me to the question: how do I balance my information consumption time between podcasts and books?

Then I thought, "Oh, there's this book I've been thinking about reading (Algorithms to Live By) that might talk about this question, or something like it." But this lead me to think, "Do I really have to read a book to answer one question?" which lead me to this insight: You don't have to read a book to benefit from it. Instead, you could ask yourself, "What will this book probably say about the question that I have?" Think of an answer, and use that answer to improve your life.

So what's my answer for the question that I had? (How do I balance my information consumption time between podcasts and books?) I realized that the answer comes from the advantages that each medium has. Books are better for giving you a sense of accomplishment. Podcasts are better companions. So we can simplify it to this question: Do you want to be getting things done or do you want more friends? If the answer is getting things done, read more books; it it's to have more friends, listen to podcasts (and maybe find more friends, if you actually have that need). There are obviously other factors that can be considered to fine tune your decisions, but sometimes a simple if-then statement can be very helpful for cutting through confusion and indecision.

So to summarize, if you feel like there are too many books to read, you can benefit from a book without even reading it by asking yourself what the book will probably say about some question, then use that answer to more forward with some decision. I may still read the book Algorithms to Live By, because it still seems like it could be valuable, but as it is, the book has helped me just by existing.

Lessons I'm learning about teaching

I have been a teacher now for about four years. Every year, I learn so much about teaching. Here are some of the things I've been learning this year...

I've been learning a lot about teaching this semester in particular, primarily because some of my classes have been complaining about my teaching. I guess you could call that a blessing in disguise, because it's pushing me to improve my craft. These are the lessons that I've come up with so far.

- First priority for a teacher is student buy-in (closely related to motivation).
- Grading equity is very important, and inequity, or even the students believing that you are being equal, can kill your rapport with the students.
- Assessment should happen as often as possible, because it gives you a solid pulse on what is happening in the class, and it gives students motivation and clear purpose.
- Students want to do things in class, such as have discussions, play games, do experiments, etc. (Maybe obvious, but it can be a good reminder.)
- Inspiring students to love a subject may be more important than actually teaching them knowledge in the subject. (Think about it. How much do students remember from high school physics? Mostly whether they like it or not, right?)

I'm not one hundred percent sure of these conclusions, but they are useful to me right now because they come from problems that I identified with the generous help of the students.

In fact, I offered extra credit for an essay giving me advice on what I can change about my teaching. I got a flood of advice, some of it pretty difficult to swallow, but it was useful--primarily just for getting an idea about what the students were thinking about my teaching. It wasn't pretty.

That was discouraging at first, but I realized that I can learn from it, and I also realized that some of the students may not have had a negative opinion of me but they were influenced to do so by the other students. Which leads into some of my lessons. Students are highly influenced by their peers. If a few students think I'm a crappy teacher, it can quickly spread to the whole class even if the rest of the students didn't have that thought in the first place. This is why establishing rapport with the students from the beginning is critical.

So I'm thankful to my students who criticized me. I will use their criticism to become a better teacher. Hopefully any mistakes that I made will not kill their love of physics for the long term.

Turning problems into opportunities

I think everyone has heard the saying "turn problems into opportunities" or, "turn obstacles into life-transforming experiences" or some other variation of that. This all seems like great advice except for one problem. How the heck do you actually do it?

I recently had a problem which gave me some insight into this issue. I couldn't download podcast episodes. This is kind of a big problem for me because I love to listen to podcasts and I do it pretty much everyday. On the other hand, I lived for many years without podcasts at all, so the problem couldn't really be considered that big. But it felt like a big problem nevertheless. After a bit of frustration, I decided that I was going to turn this problem into an opportunity. I had several podcasts that I had downloaded but never listened to. This would be my opportunity to clean out my podcast app of old downloaded podcast episodes.

I successfully did this and it was pretty fulfilling. I allowed me to listen to some episodes that I had meant to listen to but just hadn't yet. Then my problem reoccurred, because now I had no episodes to listen to at all. But this was another opportunity. I downloaded a different podcast player app and subscribed to some new podcasts. This allowed me to get out of the rut of podcasts that I had listened to for a long time and try some new podcasts, which was a refreshing change.

Although this is a small example of turning problems into opportunities, it highlights to me that any problem is some sort of opportunity. Now I want to start looking for other problems that can be opportunities.

Use gratitude to increase your fulfillment from books

I love to read. It's been a hobby of mine for as long as I could read. I also have a list of books that I'm planning to read in the future. Yet I often run into a frustrating problem. The problem unfolds like this: I'm really looking forward to reading a book--perhaps for a long time. (Remember my list of future reads.) Then when I get the book, I'm excited. But when I start to read it, it doesn't live up to my expectations. The longer I've been looking forward to reading a book, the more likely this is to happen. In other words, the disappointment that I experience is probably more from myself than from the book. During the time I look forward to reading the book, I pump it full of expectations, setting myself up for a disappointment.

One possible solution to this would be to stop having a list of books to read in the future. Every time you want to start a book, just find a book that strikes your fancy. I don't think this is a feasible solution for me though, because I'm a systematic reader. I like to finish most books I start and I like to not read too many books at a time. Also, there are many books I want to read. The list is a good thing for me.

The solution that I've decided on revolves around the idea of gratitude. I think when I pick up a book to start it, I need to start by being thankful for the book. This may sound strange, but I almost want to talk to the book, saying something like this, "Thank you for coming to me. I appreciate you for who you are. I release my expectations of you and let you be who you are. I look forward to spending time with you." Like I said, this is a strange thing to say to a book, but in a way, a book is an embodiment of the author of the book, so you can also think of yourself as saying that to the author.

Marie Kondo is a Japanese author who writes about staying organized. (See her book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.") She also writes about speaking to objects, as well as thanking them--which she does before she gets rid of any object. So I think my idea of thanking a book definitely pays a debt to her, and I'll end this post in this way, "Thanks, Marie, for your book, and for giving me ideas that came back to me in a new way."

Using a student’s native language when teaching English

It’s a common belief in the ESL community that when you teach English, you should not use a student’s native language (it is thought that their native language, also called L1, will become a crutch). Personally, I believe that this view is sorely misguided. Judicious use of a student’s native language can accelerate their learning of English and increase their retention.

               Let’s make a quick analogy. Say you wanted to learn a new language, German perhaps. Would you choose a teacher who can speak English or one who cannot? Clearly you would choose someone who can speak English. Someone who cannot speak English can pretty easily teach you words like apple, broccoli, house, cow, rain. (Anything you can see is quite easy to teach.) But what about the words for “peace,” “entropy,” or even “learn.” Of course there are ways to teach these words without translation, and in some situations it must be done because there is no other choice. But teaching through translation is definitely going to be faster.

               I’ve been learning Chinese for a few years now, and my primary method for learning is to use flashcards to add words to my vocabulary. I have a flashcard app on my phone and I also use physical flash cards. These cards allow me to connect Chinese words with English words in my mind. Over time as I use the Chinese words, they come naturally without thinking about the English words, but in the beginning, that connection is critical. For this reason, when I teach my students new words I often tell them to practice the words as a “Chinese sandwich,” which means: say the word in English, say it in Chinese, then say it again in English (English-Chinese-English). The purpose of this is to develop two connections. The first is from the English word to the Chinese word (thus why they say the English word first). This helps them to remember what a word in English means when they hear it or read it. The second connection is from Chinese to English (thus why they also say the English word last). This helps them to remember what word in English to use when they are speaking or writing. If it’s a new word for them, they will naturally think of the Chinese word first, and this connection guides them into the English word they need. Over time their mind will go straight to the English word. I believe this technique is very helpful to them for learning vocabulary.

               There’s another reason that using a student’s native language can be helpful which is more about emotions. When you use a student’s native language, you show that you are also trying to learn a language (theirs). This helps to make a connection with the student because they can see that you are going through the same thing they are, the very difficult process of learning a language. Also it shows them that you see the value in their language and culture, which can cultivate a feeling of mutual respect.

               I want to talk about ways to use a student’s native language but first let’s talk about when not to do so, because those situations exist as well:

1.      Your employer forbids it. There are quite a few employers or schools that have a policy of forbidding the native language. It might even be part of their advertising pitch. While I think this policy is misguided, if you’re in this situation, it’s better to follow the policy.

2.      Your student doesn’t want to use their native language. Sometimes your student will request that you only use English. This is a good opportunity to discuss with them the pros and cons of such a policy, but if they only want to speak English, that’s actually not something to discourage, so stick with English, even if sometimes you could go faster the other way.

3.      Your students have several native languages. Sometimes, especially in an English speaking country, an ESL class will have learners from several different countries or language backgrounds. In this situation, trying to use the native languages of all of them would be a waste of time and using the native language of one or two of them would be unfair to the rest. Best to just use English. If you teach in this environment, my hat is off to you. I know from experience that it is quite difficult. It’s like scaling a mountain that has never been climbed before. If you are looking for training on this type of situation, I found that the CELTA course was very helpful.

How to use your students’ native language

Here are some ideas for how to incorporate your students’ language into your teaching. The first three can be done by anyone, even if you know hardly any of the students’ native language, because it just means you are learning vocabulary words in their language at the same pace that they are learning English. That’s doable, right?

1.      Chinese sandwich: see above description. Adjust the flavor of sandwich to fit your students’ native language. I tell my students to use this technique to practice vocabulary, and I use an “English sandwich” to practice Chinese vocabulary myself.

2.      Vocabulary teaching and practice: When I teach some important words, I will often pass out a sheet with those words in English and Chinese. I will also include the English definition, because it’s also important for students to be able to understand and make their own definitions in English. When I am reviewing vocabulary, I will sometimes put the words in a PowerPoint. One slide will be the Chinese word and I will say, “What is this in English?” (or vice versa). Then the next slide has the word in English. Or during a class, I might mention a word in Chinese and ask, “What is that in English?” or sometimes say the word in English and then say, “What is that in Chinese?” However, if I ask someone to tell me the Chinese word, I will usually also ask them to define or explain the word in English as well, so as to make sure that they are not too dependent on translation.

3.      Tests: Usually the first section of my test or quiz is about vocabulary. I will sometimes structure the question so that it says, “Here are some words in English. Provide the Chinese translation then give a definition in English. Half credit for the Chinese translation. Full credit for the translation and a correct definition.” Or I might to a similar thing with Chinese words (but they always have to use English to define) or mix English and Chinese words.

The following two techniques require a bit higher level of knowledge of your students’ native language, but are quite useful. Use these ideas as motivation to improve your skill in their language. It’s worth it, especially if you live in a country that speaks that language.

4.      Translation practice: I used to teach a class of very low level English speakers. When they would read something, I would have no idea whether they understood it or not. So I started an activity in class where each student would read a passage in English (after I pre-teach the vocabulary from it), and then the student would translate it into Chinese. This class only had a few students so I was able to have every student do it in one class period. This technique was very effective because every student would have a chance to practice reading (and pronouncing) an English passage, and by his or her translation I would know whether the passage was understood. I would have the better students go first, which would give the very low level students I guide to follow when they did the exercise.

5.      Explanation: Although this article talks a lot about using a student’s native language, when I teach, I mostly speak in English. That’s what the students are there for, after all. Occasionally though, there might be a concept which flies right over the heads of your students, even if you explain it repeatedly. In this situation, I might use Chinese to explain what I’m saying then go back and explain it in English. This allows everyone to get on the same page without delaying the class too long. Generally, this will occur in a lower level class. For higher level classes, you can stick with explaining in English.

Those are my techniques for using my students’ language in my classroom for teaching English (or teaching another subject, if my students have a different language than the subject matter). I hope these ideas will be useful to you. If you have always held the idea that when you’re teaching English you should only use English, I suggest you take a second look at that idea. I think their native language is another tool to help make your teaching more effective.