Making definitions fun!

Learning definitions of key terms is important in Economics and it is often difficult to emphasize to students the value of being able to do so. The following activity is great, not because it necessarily helps students to learn the definitions but because a) it’s fun and b) allows you to spend a bit of time actually talking about definitions in a way that is not a complete turn-off!

The “Bad Translator” translates a sentence back and forth between English and other languages, up to thirty-five times. Because it translates literally and word for word, the result can sometimes mean that the final result is nothing like the original.

I use this by splitting the class into groups and getting them each to agree on a definition of an important term. I then feed each groups definition into the translator and we see which definition remains closest to the original. Often (but not always) the best definition will still retain some of the original meaning but this doesn’t really matter as it allows you to discuss what is right or wrong with each groups original definition in a way that will maintain their interest for longer than if you were just discussing it on its own!

Here are a couple of examples…

1) Definition of price elasticity of demand

The responsiveness of quantity demanded to a change in price becomes “Sensitivity to price changes on the volume”. How much demand changes when price changes becomes “If you want to change the price rarely change must”

2) Definition of negative externalities

Spillover costs to a third party from consumption or production of a good becomes “Excessive consumption or a good expenditure to a third party” Bad side effects to others when using a good becomes “Another good page”

In this case, Bad Translator really knows which is a better definition! I would also probably point out something along the lines of how it kept the idea of a “third party” because it knew how important that was to a good definition of externalities! But as I said, it doesn’t really matter what the result is, as long as you are talking about the definitions, which must be a good thing!