Long being envious of swimmers gliding through water, the last two years of my attempts to learn swimming has remained an attempt only. Given my early morning preoccupation with gym and TT, and my love for long walks in the evening, finding time to swim is a challenge. Or is this lack of time due to absence of talent?
Analyzing my swimming pool experience, I see swimmers at different stages of learning: novice learners like me, the accomplished artist, the enthusiastic and well-meaning teachers, and finally the silent pros.
Retaining this lens, not just in swimming but in other aspects of my life too, I could gradually spot the different stages of a learns journey by analyzing their Ask-to-Tell ration. Were they asking more questions or were they telling me more of their experiences.
- Low Ask-Low Tell: A novice or early-stage learner is fully focused on observing and often has a low ask and low tell behavior. Their entire energy is concentrated on seeing. Seeing and contemplating to internalize what they see and build their self-confidence.
- High Ask-High Tell: As the early-stage learner starts to master one task after another, they often have a high tell for validating their experience and an equally high ask to get to their next goal faster. Their high chatter level is an indication of their desire to learn more, faster.
- Low Ask-High Tell: In almost every field you find competent people with a desire to help the learners. Prompted by their love for the subject or the learner, they proactively share their experience and offer unsolicited suggestions. They even go out of their way to help learners acquire the skill. Leveraged dispassionately, they are a learners’ best accelerator in mastering a skill.
- High Ask-Low Tell: The champ, the master-pro, gliding through the water like a fish responds only when asked. And more often, their response is a question as their answer. Their questions help you discover the answers yourself makes it memorable and internalized learning.
I realize that at a given point of time I am in the first three levels of learning in different spheres of my interest. This awareness and sensitivity should hopefully make me a better learner to someday move to the fourth level of mastery. By the next year, if I am an accomplished swimmer even at level two swimming multiple laps and enjoying it like my long walks, I believe I would have become a better learner that I am today. I hope writing this down is the first step to make it happen.
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