'pick-up lines' as a motivational strategy - why not?

by: J. Policarpio

'Pwede bang sa sementeryo nalang tayo mag-date?

Kasi patay na patay ako sayo eh...'

This is one of the striking pick-up lines delivered by Senator Miriam Santiago in one of her speeches as reported by Mark Logan on national television.

What is a pick-up line?

According to Wikipedia, a pick-up line or chat-up line is a conversation opener with the intent of engaging an unfamiliar person for romance, or dating. Overt and sometimes humorous displays of romantic interest, pick-up lines advertise the wit of their speakers to their target listeners.

Giving a speech is similar to a classroom discussion in many aspects. We are delivering an equally important message that must be absorbed by our audience. Even how important the message is, sometimes for so many factors - the audience still get bored. This is why in a classroom setting we have to device different motivational activities. Perhaps, this might also be the reason the distinguished senator injected pick-up lines in her speech - I consider it as an intelligent approach.

Come to think of this, even if the message (lesson) is very relevant or very interesting, but the listener's attention is wandering around the universe - then it would just be nonsense. The best practice is always consider our audience and consistently make it sure that we are connected to them.

In the outside world (I mean beyond the theories learned in the academe) it is not always an effective practice that students adjust to what a teacher wants. Sometimes it is also evenly effective for a teacher to immerse herself/himself to the language of the youth - this is not to lower the standard of learning, but to make the learning process conveniently more acceptable to students. As I have stated above, always maintain CONNECTION. This can be done in many ways. First, try to consider their interest, their likes and dislikes - look into what is trending to them. During classroom discussions, sometimes we overhear students talking about what's the latest about their favorite Korean Novelas. In this case, we must also be aware of that show - and we can use that as a springboard to our discussion.

Now, with regard to pick-up lines, let's consider the following...

'Electric Current kaba?Kasi nakukuryente ako sayo eh.'

'Vector kaba?Kasi you give direction to my life.'

'Solvent ka ba?Kasi nadidisolve ako pagandyan ka.'

'Dictionary ka ba? Kasi you give meaning to my life.'

'Si Bonifacio ka ba? Kasi sugod ng sugod ka kasi agad eh.'

'Magaling ka ba sa Algebra? Can you substitute my x?'

'Charger ka ba? Sayo kasi ako kumukuha ng lakas.'

'Keyboard kaba? Type kasi kita eh.'

'Sayaw kaba?Kasi napapaindak ako pag-andyan ka.'

So, is it possible to inject this to the learning process? If we are educators --- Yes.

Recall that one form of learning is when the students are able to translate the concepts to their own words and this is higher than just memorizing the definition in the book.

I have tried this in a classroom discussion and found it effective in gauging students' comprehension and misconceptions about the idea, effective for long-term retention of the concept and most of all, effective for making learning fun. As what former DepEd USEC Isagani Cruz mentioned in one of his articles that learning is FUN, that students should have fun, that the teacher should have fun, DepEd should have fun and the nation should have fun. And with due respect, let me add....... because it's more fun in the Philippines! Last year, we have observed one of our colleagues, our coordinator, who had a division-demonstration teaching. She used pick-up lines and we have observed that it's a commendable motivational activity and most of us agreed that it's a good learning strategy.

In English, pick-up lines are very similar to Figures of Speech explained. In other learning areas, this could be used as the best tool to make an analogy with abstract concepts. It is believed that the easiest way to teach such concepts is by relating them with things or processes that are known to learners.

So, sa lahat ng teachers,

BDO kaba?

Bakit?

Kasi, We find ways! 

*Special thanks to my proofreader.