Hello, I'm Emiko.H.

Today, I'd like to talk about schemas.

Have you ever watched the telephone game on TV?

Or perhaps you've played it yourself
at school or at work.

In this game, a message is whispered
from one person to the next.

By the time it reaches the last person,
it often becomes completely different.

You might think,

"Someone must not have been listening carefully." 

But that's not always the case.

Our brains don't simply record
what we hear like a voice recorder.

In psychology, there is a concept
called a schema.

A schema is a mental framework
built from our experiences and knowledge.

Whenever we receive new information,
we use this framework
to understand its meaning.

As a result, when part of the information
is unclear or missing,
our brains unconsciously fill in the gaps
using what we already know.

That's one reason why the message changes
during the telephone game.

However, schemas don't only affect
the telephone game.

They also play an important role
in our everyday language activities,
such as reading, listening, and speaking.

For example,

I have a cold.

When you're just beginning
to learn English,

you might associate the word cold
only with low temperature and think,

"Do I have something cold?"

However, as you become more familiar
with English,

you develop a new schema:

"I have a cold"
means
"I'm sick."

Once that schema has formed,

you no longer think about temperature
when you hear the sentence.

The same thing happens
when listening.

Even if you don't catch every word,

you naturally predict
what the speaker probably said
from the context.

In other words,

we don't listen only with our ears—
we also listen with our brains.

Of course,
schemas aren't always helpful.

Sometimes they lead
to assumptions,
misunderstandings,
or misheard words.

Even when we believe,

"I understood exactly what I heard,"

our brains may actually have filled in
the missing pieces
using our own schemas.

The process of understanding English,

reading a passage,

or even misunderstanding someone
in everyday life—

all of these
are influenced by schemas.

Since I began studying psychology,

I've become much more aware that

we don't understand the world
exactly as we see or hear it!

Instead,

we interpret it
through the mental frameworks
we've built from our experiences.

Thinking about it this way
has helped me see misunderstandings
with other people
a little differently.

As we learn more vocabulary,

our language schemas
become richer, too.

If you're interested in English,

why not try
my asynchronous lesson?

I'll send you
five Japanese kanji.

First,
write a short sentence in Japanese
using all five characters.

Then, look up the English words you need
and try expressing
the same idea in English.

Don't worry
if you can't write a complete sentence.

Even writing down
the English words you found
is perfectly fine!

I'll give you feedback
on natural expressions,
grammar,
and vocabulary.

Let's enjoy expressing ourselves
in both Japanese and English,
one word at a time!