I have a big birthday coming up next week. I’ve made it to one of those numbers that many people I’ve known in my life, including my own mother, didn’t get to see. So in honor of this occasion, my husband organized a family vacation to Canada, a place with a likely chance of having a cool and comfortable climate this time of year. Included in this excursion are three 20’s something grandchildren, my son, and son-in-law, and the almost 7 year old granddaughter who are all helping me to celebrate.
Like any grandmother, the pleasure of my grandchildren’s company is more than enough to put joy in my heart. But having achieved this advanced age, I know that you give a gift to someone when you allow them to give one to you. So nobody’s asked me yet, but if they do, I’ve got a great idea for a birthday present that each of my grandchildren, including the almost 7 year old, could give to me. It’s something that could make a tremendous difference in my life going forward. For them, it would involve somewhere between a half hour and an hour of their time. This variation in the time frame is dependent on my ability to concentrate, not theirs.
You see my grandkids grew up in a land where I am a foreigner. They speak the language of technology fluently as natives, while I struggle each day to accomplish, what to them, are the simplest of tasks. In pursuing this notion that becoming fluent in technology is similar to learning a foreign language, my son referred me to a Tedx talk by Chris Lonsdale, who claims you can learn any foreign language in six months. He suggests 5 principles of quick learning that revolve around the concepts of relevance, meaning, attention, and memory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0yGdNEWdn0Rather than immersion in the new language, which I have experienced these past ten years, he suggests “comprehensible input” as the key. Once you understand the language you will acquire useful words and actions unconsciously. He suggests getting what he calls a “language parent” who, like parents do with babies learning to speak, creates a safe environment for curiosity and experimentation to flourish.
Here are a few recent examples of what I need help with –
1) The management of passwords and other systems for accessing accounts. The online banking app for the non-profit I operate has qualifying questions. “What city did you enjoy visiting when you were a child?” The answer, (and since it’s my life I know the answer) is “%@#!*!.” That was one of the choices, but when my friend who is helping me with the finances put that answer in, the system rejected it.
2) My drop box account – I’m involved with two, one for the non-profit and one for me. I had a photo shoot the other day and the photographer put the photos in a shared drop box account so I could view them. After untold hours of clicking and Googling, asking friends, and on-line chatting with the Drop Box guy, I learned that the photographer had to click an upload button on her screen so that when I click the download button on mine, it works. After all this I finally have learned the difference between uploading and downloading.
3) Organizing and accessing my documents on my computer – My computer, even this morning, keeps giving me the message – “You only have 13.67 GB of storage. Save space by optimizing storage.” How do I do that?
4) Accessing Wifi in different locations – When should I do it, and when is it not worth it? On a plane? in a hotel? Visiting a friend? And how do I access it on my phone, my ipad and my computer?
This birthday present I am requesting from my grandchildren would involve their acting as my “language parent,” as I was for them many years ago. Or rather, as we sit together in the presence of my Apple Mac Book Pro computer, my iphone, and my ipad we might call them my “tech coaches,” providing what Lonsdale calls, “comprehensible input,” and a safe environment for me to connect the new language with the one I already know.
In this role reversal of teacher and student, my grandchildren would be doing what thousands of children of immigrants have done throughout the ages – translating for their parents and grandparents the language of the new culture that their elders didn’t grow up in, but that they find themselves surrounded by, and expected to operate within. Hopefully, these acts of loving generosity will confirm for my grandchildren what I already know about them, how smart and skillful they have become.
Hope you are enjoying time with loved ones this holiday. What unusual presents have you given or received in your family?
Sheila
