The Power of Abstraction

In the book for one of my lower level classes, there are a series of activities designed to teach how to give directions in English.

The chapter is well-designed. It starts out with vocabulary of places in the city (gas station, hospital, restaurant, bookstore, etc.) Then it introduces prepositions of location ('next to', 'on the corner of', 'on -- street', 'across from', etc.) It then reintroduces the command form of verbs such as 'go', 'turn', and 'continue'. The chapter then concludes with a direction-giving activity using a map of Manhattan.

All of the preliminary sections went extremely well, but then for some reason, my students got caught up on the last activity. I asked them to locate the Rockefeller Center on the map. It was clearly labeled, a sketch of the building rising from Manhattan's grid. One or two students could give me the location, but then once I started asking them to give me directions to get to Grand Central Station (also clearly labeled), all of them froze up.

I tried two or three other approaches to the question, but all met with stony silence. Then I wrote out the addresses of the two on the board, just using the avenues and streets that intersected at the corner of each. I asked them how many avenues there were between the two and how many streets between the two. All they had to do was subtract the two numbers on the board in front of them. But they couldn't do it. So I couldn't even show them how the numbers could simply be inserted into the stock commands "go up x avenue until y street", "turn left/right on y street".

I kept trying new takes. I went back to the basics again. How does the map work? How do the numbers representing streets change? Avenues? Where are the buildings located? What commands do you give for directions? Even at the basic levels, they seemed utterly confused.

I was confused too.

I drew a rough map of Meknes on the board. I tried asking them questions about their own city. They still struggled. They didn't even know the names of the two main drags of the town, let alone the side streets. I started to realize what was happening. It wasn't a linguistic problem, but a skill problem.

Giving directions is not something Moroccans do.

That is, for the vast majority of Moroccans, giving directions with street names based on a grid system is a foreign concept. My lesson was not just an introduction to new linguistic content but to an entirely new concept.

What strikes me most strongly is that giving directions and understanding location on a grid is a skill involving abstraction--moving from the immediate experience and perspective to a larger, more bird's eye perspective.

I was also reminded of my previous experiences trying to communicate with Moroccans. As a rule, they dislike modes of communication that do not provide simultaneous response, preferring chat and telephone calls instead. Letter-writing and emails require a delay in response and a lack of presence on the part of the other person. In short, they require abstraction. And Moroccans seem to dislike abstraction.

I know there are Moroccans who can abstract when it comes to maps and communication, but most can't. On the other side of the Atlantic, there are a great number of Americans who struggle with abstraction as well. But there is a fundamental difference in mindset between the cultures that I find remarkable.

The question for me, then, as a teacher and a foreigner in this culture is: how do I meet Moroccans on their own terms with regard to communication and direction-giving? And how do I learn to appreciate this desire for presence and immediacy along with my Moroccan friends?