Have you ever sat through a meeting where everyone is speaking a language completely foreign and you were totally lost with what is going on? I'm sure lots of people can relate to this especially those who have visited foreign countries or have sought to learn a foreign language. I experienced this my first semester at BYU after my mission sitting in my Econ 381 class. The foreign language was not English but Economics. Though I had studied economics before my mission and had learned the “language” of Economics I could not understand a single word my professor was saying. Those who have learned a foreign language well know that if not practiced the fluency previously obtained will fade away very quickly.
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| Bad Joke, Sorry |
Economics truly is a foreign language. Those who have taken or will take an introductory Economics class will soon come to find that their professor might be speaking English but they still can't understand what they are saying. There is a reason for this. Econ Professors spend their day communicating with those that speak their language. They perform research in their language, they study other professors research in their language and they teach upper level classes in their language too. But when the audience shifts to individuals who don't speak the language they forget (Or lack the ability) to translate things back into English. As a result, ninety percent of Econ 110 students hate Economics.
This is a sad truth because Economics really is a cool thing to study. The things that are learned are so applicable and relevant to our day to day experience. Isaac talked about what Economics really is in his post and the hope would be that people would see that and understand what studying economics could do for their lives. If there were a way for Educators to translate Economics into something that people could understand, I guarantee less people would hate their Econ 110 class.
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| No worries I don't know what it means either |
Eli talked about how Statistics is the bridge between the abstract and the concrete. Economics uses the bridge of statistics in an applied way called Econometrics. Econometrics is really where persuasion lies in Economics education. Data is collected, Econometrics is used to analyze the data, and result are found and presented in a paper. Pretty cut in dry right? But unfortunately that persuasion only works if the audience speaks the language of Economics. Go and find a real Econ paper and you will find roughly 8-10 pages of background and introduction to the paper and then the following 45-70 pages will be filled with tables, charts, mathematical equations and statistical analysis intermingled with explanations that make absolutely no sense to the typical human being. Because this is the case, the attempt at persuading individuals on important topics is limited to those that can speak the language. If only we all spoke a little more Economics.
I'm flattered by the mention. It seems all the "intermediate" communications are done in a language that's nearly incomprehensible to the rest of us. I suppose this is one way having a specialized education can be an advantage.
ReplyDeleteI've taken some intro classes to Econ, and I actually really enjoyed learning the language of Economics because now I feel a lot more literate when people start talking about global economic trends or how gas prices actually affect us or what China has to do with anything. It's kind of empowering because now I don't have to sit in total ignorance when my brother (the Econ major) and my dad (the accountant) start talking Econ.
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear economics... I immediately get stressed and I feel like it's some obscure thing I will never unserstand. Interesting that you say it's because of the lack of clear communication, dumbing it down for us mere mortals. It's something so prevalent in our day that reading this makes me think I could actually learn some if taught in the right way.
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