Common Expression :: Keep It Simple, Stupid = KISS

The teacher then told the class to listen to the facts of a story and write a lead.

"Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new teaching methods. Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret Mead, Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, the present of the University of Chicago, and California governor Edmund 'Pat' Brown.”

Each student quickly tried to explain the who, what, why and when of the story as simply as possible with their lead.

But after reading things like "Margaret Mead, Maynard Hutchins and Governor Brown will be speaking..." and "Next Thursday, the school faculty will go...", the teacher said, "You're all wrong."

The lead of the story really is: "There will be no school Thursday."

You can see why this would be the story's most important point, especially for the students.

Instantly, Nora heard this and understood the importance of getting to the point, quickly and simply.

This idea is commonly expressed as KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid), to remind us all not to make things more complex than they need to be.

And this is especially important for us language learners...

The communication of non-natives is almost always longer and more complex than it needs to be because traditional lessons teach you to say all the facts, rather than just express the main point, like natives do.

Obviously, natives also use longer, more difficult sentences. But if you can't yet express yourself using even simple words and phrases, then there's no reason to worry about saying things that are more complicated.

And each of these discoveries makes me think and speak a little bit more like a native.

Here's an English example...

A non-native says: Could you please tell me what time it is?

A native says: Know/Have the time?

See how native speech is smart to learn because it's easier to remember AND makes you sound much more natural?