Dumb/Smart Questions:  This one comes from Dwight Gradin of the PILAT training course and is one I really love.  I love it for a couple of reasons.  First, it has no limits.  You can use it any where, anytime, with little preparation and at any level of language learning.  Second, it gives you the chance to hear a lot of different ways to say the same thing.  We all realize that too often we learn a set phrase for a situation and then use it to death.  Dumb/Smart questions offer the possibilities of hearing the many ways native speakers might answer the same questions.  In many ways, dumb/smart questions are a “live” version of ‘narrow listening’ as featured on this site.  So how does it work?  Basically you start with a question you already know the answer to.  Then ask a native speaker the question and listen to their answer.  For example:  Walk down the post office.  Walk around the corner from the post office and then ask the first person you meet, “Excuse me, but could you tell me where the post office is?”  Thank them and then pretend to go in that direction.  Then find your next victim.  Ask them the same question.  Listen to their answer.  Now go to the other side of the post office, or further away.  Repeat it over and again, listening to how people answer. Are there basic patterns?  Some special expression that is routinely used?  Another way to use dumb/smart questions is in strategic shopping.  I needed a new watch about a year into my time here.  I gave myself an extra half an hour and then stopped at every store that sold watches as I walked home, asking the same questions to each merchant.  By the time I stopped and shopped for a watch at my sixth or seventh store, I was feeling much more confident and had a better understanding of what was going on, the names of watch parts, and how sales people sell watches. 


In the initial stages of your learning, this can really help boost your listening comprehension.  Later, it can be a way to widen the scope of the language you use.  I have been stopped and asked directions twice in the last week.  Both times I felt like my Tarzanca was on full display.  This week, I plan to head out with my PAN notebook and ask directions a lot and write down the many ways that people give them to prepare myself for giving directions next time. 
 

Other topics:  a common known fact in the nations history; how something (that you know about) at the Pazar works;  reactions to current world events; a recap of the match (the one you watched last night); about procedures at your child’s school (to other parents);

 
Dumb/Smart questions do what I think we need to work hard to do in all of our language learning – they give us a chance.  When the pump is primed, things flow more smoothly, quickly and it sticks.  Good luck!

 


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