Learn the macro from the micro
A cursory glance might show this principle to be in contradiction to another of my favs: (“Dont major in minor things.”) That’s why I love the choice of words here: major/minor - words that add color on the canvas of importance of the thing at hand; versus macro/micro - words that only comment on the size and don’t tweak the importance at all: in short, size don’t matter.
Think of the microcosm as being a miniature version of the macrocosm. Studying the microcosm will reveal all the secrets of the macrocosm.
That’s why it becomes such an important principle in learning (and teaching) anything: take a micro thing and study it deeply, drown yourself in its depths and you’ll come to understand the macro intimately. All the secrets of the ocean are perhaps hiding in plain sight within a single drop.
While learning a language, pay attention to the smallest unit of a concept: a sentence for instance. Understanding all the elements of a single sentence can help you go far in understanding several concepts of grammar thoroughly. Of course the sentence has to be an authentic one, as in one that would really get spoken or written in that way, and not just a bookish example sentence one would never utter.
Many German learners might recognise this sentence from #Aspekte #B2 : “Ich bin vor sechs Jahren aus Liebe relativ spontan nach Australien umgezogen.” From this one sentence we can learn so many concepts of grammar that would otherwise require years of painstaking effort to put together.
Of learning the macro from the micro means squeezing out the essence from the tiny unit with an eye fixed on understanding how it would work in the bigger picture. It’s not a simplistic process, but an art that demands practice and discernment. Develop it as a habit in all things you do.
Why does it work? Einstein is supposed to have said something about this: Reality is fractal in nature. It means that there is a pattern followed by things small and big, something like a DNA that knows to architect the whole structure. Think of the veins on a leaf that follow a pattern. Once you know how to ‘draw’ them, you can keep drawing more leaves. Similarly, once you know how to strum (or pick) the guitar, you can possibly do it for any song. Once you ‘get’ the knack of solving a Sudoku puzzle, you could solve many more. And once you ‘get’ the knack of making a sentence, you can be in control.
What examples of patterns have you uncovered in your language journey? Let me know in the comments below.
PS: The source of this beautiful principle is Episode #2 of The Tim Ferriss show - an interview with Josh Waitzkin. I’d mentioned in the previous post mentioned above. Do give it a listen.
