Freddish: The Special Language of Mr. Rogers

In June 2018, the documentary biography "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" about the life and work of Fred Rogers was released.

The "Kottke" website runs a fascinating article on how the language of the show was crafted and edited to minimize ambiguity.   While the setting here is speaking to five year olds, there are some tips and insights that apply to any communications, including business presentations and strategy.  The right word, or the simplest phrase, matters.   The order that three phrases come in, also matters.

Note especially that the point isn't to immediately produce Freddish (Step 9.)  It deliberately starts with Step 1, following its own rules and intentions, and works slowly from there to produce the result in Step 1.   Your goal is also, in a sense, the statement in Step 1. 

I've clipped the article here.

https://kottke.org/18/06/freddish-the-special-language-mister-rogers-used-when-talking-to-children

Freddish, the special language Mister Rogers used when talking to children

posted by Jason Kottke   Jun 11, 2018

Maxwell King, the former director of the Fred Rogers Center and author of the forthcoming book The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, shared an excerpt of the book with The Atlantic about how much attention Rogers paid to how children would hear the language on the show. For instance, he changed the lyrics on Friday’s installment of the “Tomorrow” song he sang at the end of each show to reflect that the show didn’t air on Saturdays.

Rogers was so meticulous in his process for translating ideas so they could be easily understood by children that a pair of writers on the show came up with a nine-step process that he used to translate from normal English into “Freddish”, the special language he used when speaking to children.

1. “State the idea you wish to express as clearly as possible, and in terms preschoolers can understand.” Example: It is dangerous to play in the street.

2. “Rephrase in a positive manner,” as in It is good to play where it is safe.

3. “Rephrase the idea, bearing in mind that preschoolers cannot yet make subtle distinctions and need to be redirected to authorities they trust.” As in, Ask your parents where it is safe to play.

4. “Rephrase your idea to eliminate all elements that could be considered prescriptive, directive, or instructive.” In the example, that’d mean getting rid of “ask”: Your parents will tell you where it is safe to play.

5. “Rephrase any element that suggests certainty.” That’d be “will”: Your parents can tell you where it is safe to play.

6. “Rephrase your idea to eliminate any element that may not apply to all children.” Not all children know their parents, so: Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play.

7. “Add a simple motivational idea that gives preschoolers a reason to follow your advice.” Perhaps: Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play. It is good to listen to them.

8. “Rephrase your new statement, repeating the first step.” “Good” represents a value judgment, so: Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play. It is important to try to listen to them.

9. “Rephrase your idea a final time, relating it to some phase of development a preschooler can understand.” Maybe: Your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play. It is important to try to listen to them, and listening is an important part of growing.

These are boss-level communication skills. 

Steps 6 & 8 are particularly thoughtful. Using language like “your favorite grown-ups” instead of “your parents” is often decried these days as politically correct nonsense but Rogers knew the power of caring language to include as many people as possible in the conversation.

You can also see Rogers’ care in how he went back and fixed problematic language in old shows.

...As the years would go on, he would find things that had happened in old episodes that didn’t feel current, where maybe he used a pronoun “he” instead of “they” — or he met a woman and presumed that she was a housewife. So he would put on the same clothes and go back and shoot inserts and fix old episodes so that they felt as current as possible, so that he could stand by them 100 percent.

Fred Rogers understood more than anyone that paying attention and sweating the details is a form of love. It was never enough for him to let you know that he loved you. He made sure to tell you that he loved you “just the way you are” and that made all the difference.

Worth Revisiting: Philip Seymour Hoffman's "Zen Master" Parable from Charlie Wilson's War

It's been ten years since the 2007 movie, CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR, in which Tom Hanks played a Texas senator who wanted to raise interest in protecting the civilians of Afghanistan in their war with Russia.    In the movie, Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a savvy yet comic foil in the role of a CIA agent, "Gus."

A couple times during the movie, Gus refers to "the story of the Zen Master" but never gets to tell it.  He does finally get to tell the story near the end of the film.   The exchange takes place at night on a balcony outside a party.   You can see it on Youtube here.

"There's a little boy.

On his 14th birthday, he gets a horse.  Everybody in the village says, How wonderful, the little boy got a horse!   The Zen Master says: We'll see.

Two years later, the boy falls off the horse and breaks his leg. Everyone in the village says, How terrible! And the Zen Master says: We'll see.

Then, the war breaks out and all the young men have to go off and fight, but the boy can't, because his leg's all messed up.  And everyone in the village says, How wonderful."

Tom Hanks:  "And the Zen Master says, We'll see."

Gus:  "So you get it."

Hanks:  "No.  [shakes head]  'Cause I'm stupid."

Gus:   You're not stupid, you're just in Congress.  Rebuild the roads, restock the schools...

Hanks (interrupts):  I'm trying...

Gus:  Well, try harder.

Hanks:  I took support from $5M to a billion.  I got a Democratic congress in lockstep behind a Republican president...

Gus:  Well, that's not good enough, because I'm gonna give you some confidential information.  The crazies are rolling into Kandar like it's a f--g bathtub drain.

Hanks:  Jesus, Gus, you could depress a bride on her wedding day.

Gus takes Hank's drink out of his hand and pours it on the balcony.

Long silence.

Gus:  Listen to what I'm telling you.

Tense silence.

Hanks leans forward and gives Gus a short hug.  "You've done a hell of a job for the son of a soda pop man."

Gus:  ..We'll see.


###
A reviewer has noted that around this time we hear a jet over the Washington night time skyline, which may be meant to symbolize the future 9/11.

There is a scene yet to come where Hanks does, in fact, talk to colleagues about post-war financing for humanitarian aid in Afghanistan but his colleagues shy away from any allocation of budget.

June 22, 2018, would have been AML's 102nd birthday.

In memory of Philip Roth, I got a library copy of his novel The Plot Against America, in which Charles Lindbergh displaces Wendell Wilkie as the 1940 Republican candidate, and beats FDR.

It's told from the perspective of a teen Jewish boy in NJ.   It creates a fictional echo of the experience of a teen Jewish boy in Berlin seven years earlier in 1933.

Roth includes an afterward about his non-fictional sources.  

Anne Morrow Lindbergh was born in 1906 in NJ in a wealthy family (father was partner in JP Morgan and a Senator).  She got a BA in 1928.  Her father was Lindbergh's financial advisor and she married CL at age 22 in 1929. 

Lindbergh himself had catapulted to fame at age 25 in 1927.  They lost a child through kidnapping in 1932.

AML published her first travelog book, North to the Orient, in 1935.   In 1938, she published a second book, Listen! the Wind! which was marked by antisemiticism and Jewish booksellers refused to sell it.  Undeterred, in 1940 she publishes The Wave of the Future, a pro-fascist screed that was a commercial flop.  (Los Angeles Public Library doesn't even have a reference copy of it, but it can be found on Amazon for $10).   

Later she publishes a novel or two that didn't do well.   Nonetheless, Wikipedia opens her bio by branding her "an acclaimed author."  However, further in Wikipedia's own bio, they state:

"The Roosevelt administration subsequently attacked The Wave of the Future as 'the bible of every American Nazi, Fascist, Bundist and Appeaser,' and the booklet became one of the most despised writings of the period."

June 22, 2018, would have been AML's 102nd birthday.

__
Contemporary review here and here.
In Lindbergh's 1930s/1940s diaries, she talks about going to a mass rally against Intervention at which her husband spoke, and going with TR's daughter Alice Roosevelt Longfellow.

Other Books

Very grim views of the collapse all about them are shared by Lindbergh's The Wave of the Future as above, and Dutch historian Johan Huizenga's 1937 In the Shadow of Tomorrow and the 1935 British collection The Frustration of Science (here).  Both of these books from the mid-30s describe the fall of the West as it was occurring in real-time, one from a continental and the other from a UK perspective.

Earlier, Leland Stowe's 1934, "Nazi Means War," was later viewed as prophetic but was disregarded by most contemporaries. He was a journalist who detailed German society as of late 1933.  See here.

See also the 1934 (transl.) book, "Germany Prepares for War," essentially an academic German author's war plan for all of WW2 published 5-6 years before the invasion of Poland.  This is "German viewing Germany."   For "Germany Viewing Europe," see Johannes Stoye's book "The British Empire" 1936.  

To me, with reference to Lindbergh, I take the contemporary quote that this was "the Bible of every Nazi appeaser" seriously, but her 1940 pamphlet (30pp, 6000 words) seems mostly like foggy drivel to me (here).

Studying Italian

BEGINNING ITALIAN FROM A COLD START (ALL AUDIO)

If you've never studied Italian (and never studied Spanish) I recommend you start with Pimsleur courses.   Typically the first level is Units 1-30 (which is 15 hours).  These are expensive courses, but Pimsleur all-audio courses will hammer about 10 words per half hour into your head whether you want to learn them or not.

Pimsleur proof:  I used Pimsleur courses (Units 1-30) to learn basic Hebrew and basic Greek.  This proves that if you're starting from scratch in a very foreign language, here is a course that actually works if you just spend the time and listen to it.

REFRESHING OR LEARNING SOME ITALIAN (ALL AUDIO)

I had several years of Spanish in my teens, and as an adult I used that to learn some basic Italian and French.   If you have some basics in a Romance language, here come are my recommendations.   The courses in Italian below really work, at least, if you know some basics.   If you are starting completely cold, refer to Pimsleur above, first. 

- EITHER (A) MARK FROBOSE OR (B) PAUL NOBLE

These courses are fairly similar and fairly inexpensive.   The're both long (around 15 hours).

Using an English guy to explain everything, you then hear phrase after phrase, or sentences, from a native speaker.  The Frobose courses come with snappy high energy titles ("Accelerated Power Italian!!"), but the content of Frobose and Noble audio courses are not that different.

• Mark Frobose, Power Italian Accelerated, Levels 1 and 2 (2 x 8 hours).
• Paul Noble, Learn Italian, Levels 1,2,3 (3 x 4.5 hrs).

- Another All Audio option at Audible is "Italian Survival Phrases," which is two levels, each with about ?30 lessons in vignette format.   For example, you might get a four or five minute lesson using 3 or 4 sentences to buy a train ticket.   At Audible, you can buy "Learn Italian, Survival Phrases Italian, Vol. 1 & 2" which comprise lessons 1-30, then 31-60.  Each volume is about 2 1/2 hours of listening.  The publisher is "Absolute Beginner."

I've already bought the above, so Audible doesn't show me prices, but they were fairly inexpensive.

Short Stories

I really like short stories for boosting reading skills, but they are often deadly boring or just drivel.

I found two short story ebooks that are available BOTH on Kindle and on Audible, although the two don't sync automatically. 

Olly Richards, Italian Short Stories for Beginners.  This includes several short stories, each divided into short chapters.   They are around the fourth or fifth grade reading level.   In the first one, David and Julia visit Armando in Rome.  Jetlagged David falls asleep on a bus and wakes up in Naples with a dead cell phone.   Each short chapter is followed by a bilingual word list.

Olly Richards, Italian Short Stories for Beginners, Volume 2.   This is the same format as above.  In the first one, Detective Morgan investigates a case.   The reading level is not that different that the first volume.

Note that "Olly Richards" writes introductory readers in a range of other languages too.  Like Mark Frobose and Paul Noble, he seems to be a real guy (here).

There are a lot of other options for simple Italian stories on Amazon, but I find alot are drivvel.

Simple Paperback Textbook

A simple paper back conversational textbook for beginner's can be nice. 

I have a beat up old copy of Teach Yourself Beginner's Italian, An Easy Introduction.  Used copies are $3 on Amazon.  There are many other options.   In Greek I once had "Conversational [Language] in 7 Days," that is a good inexpensive paperback series too.  Just so you don't think you'll really learn "Language X" in 8 hours or 7 days.


Quirky Book

I went to college in the 80s at Stanford and later learned there was a Stanford psychiatrist, C. Peter Rosenbaum, who made an adult avocation of learning Italian as well as possible.  He left behind a 1985 book, "Italian for Educated Guessers, Shortcuts to the Language" which I have an old out of print copy of.   $20 used on Amazon.  He gives you long lists of cognate words, false friends, shortcuts to reverse engineer the sometimes-large spelling changes between Italian and English, and so on. 

My Column on Improving Your Spanish
Here.

Favorite PUNCH Cartoon, British, 1950s: The Chicken Endeavor

Click to enlarge. 
"So we bought a couple of hens and I was to write
 a humorous best seller about our misfortunes -
but it didn't work out."