The best way to learn the WAYK techniques is to see them in action, but this chart shows a few of the major techniques and how they contribute to the broader system.
Click here to start in the middle and work your way out! For extra fun, hover your mouse over technique boxes to show more info.
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The fundamental technique of the WAYK system is the concept of having techniques—any trick-of-the-trade which can help people teach and learn their target skill faster. From mimicry to repetition to bringing carrot sticks, anything that accelerates the group toward the long-term goal of fluency is a valid technique. By highlighting effective strategies and encouraging players to discover more, technique "Technique!" fosters communities that constantly seek out new and better ways to teach and learn.
WAYK players constantly ask, "how can we make this game faster? What if we tried..." When players have a new idea, they call "Mad Science!" and test to see if it accelerates the acquisition process. Through "Mad Science," WAYK collects the insights and discoveries of teaching methodologies all over the world, bringing them together into one powerful system.
When a round of "Mad Science!" uncovers a new technique, players "contract" it by assigning it a catchy, memorable name and a hand-sign. These contracted names and hand signals create a jargon of learning, enabling players to quickly and efficiently discuss the learning environment even in the middle of a game. Hand signals allow players to suggest improvements to the game silently, even from across the room, without interrupting gameplay.
Human beings are great at adapting to their environments. By carefully crafting the learning environment, WAYK players set each other up to acquire skills instinctively and automatically. By devoting immense thought and care to designing everything from the room to the game table to the clothes they wear, WAYK players rig the game for fast acquisition.
Technique "Obviously" is borrowed from the Total Physical Response concept of "comprehensible input." In an ideal WAYK language-learning setup, the game is designed so that it's perfectly obvious what everyone is saying, even if you aren't familiar with the actual words they're using. Through outrageous pantomime and unambiguous props, players avoid having to explain things in English by letting the setup do the talking instead.
We learn from experience, drawing on past experiences to imagine future ones. For WAYK language learners, this means imagining as little as possible, focusing instead on creating vivid experiences that can fuel future imagination. Ideal WAYK setups never require players to imagine anything—they create real-life situations for players to learn from.
Every WAYK setup targets a very specific facet of the target skill, rather than trying to teach multiple facets at once. In language learning, this means prioritizing fluency over proficiency—it's more important to learn the structures the language uses to talk about things than it is to learn long vocab lists of nouns or adjectives. Once players have learned to talk about three nouns fluently, new nouns can be added quickly and easily.
WAYK players are perfectly comfortable with eating elephants, because they excel at identifying tiny but crucial aspects of the target skill that can be isolated and learned one at a time. Whether it's a new twist on a familiar word or a helpful way to grip a golf club, bite-sized pieces make learning easy and fast.
With the right setup, acquisition is easy and pain-free. WAYK games are designed for maximum clarity and simplicity so that everyone, not just linguists and rocket scientists, can play along effortlessly.
The human brain is hard-wired to mimic, so copy-catting is an easy, instinctual, yet profoundly powerful tool for learning. In WAYK games, new players mimic veterans until they can fluently wield the focal aspect of the target skill.
In traditional classrooms, it's against the rules to copy your neighbor's answers. But for WAYK players, acquisition is a cooperative process—especially when learning a language, which is a fundamentally cooperative skill. Players are always ready to share answers with each other, "angeling" each other through each step of the learning process.
One of the beautiful things about community-driven learning where sharing is encouraged is that no one has to remember everything so long as everyone remembers something. Skilled groups of WAYK players divide information between themselves for safekeeping so that it can be spread through the community at an easy pace.
No one expects a child's first painting to be Michelangelo. WAYK players recognize that reaching perfection takes time, and they don't need to wait until then to push forward. For language learners, this means skipping pronunciation drills and diving straight into communication, knowing that perfect pronunciation will come with time.
For generations, teachers have recognized the importance of "learning by doing." For WAYK players, this means it is always better to do (or in the context of the game, play!), rather than explain. Even the best explanation will leave gaps that first-hand experiences can fill, so WAYK players explain concepts with their hands by setting up situations that show ideas in action.
From the very beginning, WAYK language learners never "kill language fairies" by translating the target language into English. Instead, they translate words into objects and situations using obvious setups. This allows players to immediately begin thinking in the target language and dodges the problem of words that have no good English translation.
When you eat too much, you puke; when you learn too much, your brain pukes. Rest is a vital part of learning, so WAYK players learn to monitor their personal "full level" (and that of other players), taking into account factors including tiredness, hunger, and the amount of new information their brains can process at once in order to identify when they need a break. When players call "Full," they step away from the game to relax and "unfill" so that they can come back engaged and ready to learn.
Inspired by Benjamin Zander, players call "How Fascinating!" everytime someone has a "eureka!" moment, figuring out or accomplishing a new piece of the target skill. "How Fascinating!" works just as well for doing things successfully or incorrectly, since finding what doesn't work is as much a discovery as finding what does. This way, it's impossible to lose the game in WAYK—so long as you play, every mistake is yet another win.
"Travels with Charlie" is WAYK's method for measuring players' progress toward full, fluent proficiency. Based on the American Council for Teaching Foreign Languages proficiency scale, "Travels with Charlie" divides gameplay into four levels: Tarzan, Mr. Rogers, Larry King, and finally, Charlie Rose, who lends the technique his name. The "Travels with Charlie" scale allows WAYK players to quickly identify their current skill level, so that games can be designed accordingly.
As players progress, they design "same conversations" to solidify and further their mastery. A "same conversation" is a defined, familiar real-life interaction that can be done over and over again—like weaving a basket, or ordering coffee with sugar and cream—through which players practice their skill and explore its boundaries in a safe, accelerated environment.
Learning happens fastest when it finds the perfect balance between advancement and familiarity. As WAYK players track their individual skill levels, they learn to identify when material is over their heads and call "Sorry Charlie!", quickly signalling other players to back up to the level that will help them the most.