K S LO ENGLISH

‘What is your MBTI?’ ‘Oh… mine is ENFP…’ I automatically answer this question from a new person I just met. It surprises me how natural it has become for me to say my MBTI out loud. But is MBTI really that significant in describing who we are?

Introduction

MBTI, fully named the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, is a self-reported questionnaire that makes pseudoscientific (偽科學) claims to categorise people into sixteen ‘personality types’.

People are grouped by defining eight letters within four opposing categories. The four categories are:

• Extraversion vs Introversion

Extraverts tend to gain energy by communicating with other people and sharing their thoughts. Introverts prefer to gain energy by spending time alone and being more thoughtful before speaking.

• Sensing vs Intuition

‘Sensing’ people like to live in a more practical and realistic way; they work better with actual proof or examples. On the other hand, ‘intuition’ people (represented by ‘N’ in MBTI) like to imagine more and live in a more creative way.

• Thinking vs Feeling

‘Thinking’ people are more rational, focusing on facts rather than emotions. ‘Feeling’ people are more emotional; they seek attention and help for the community or others, and are often easily affected by others.

• Judging vs Perceiving

Judging refers to people who like to plan everything before starting. They prefer a structured schedule over random situations. Perceiving refers to people who enjoy spontaneity and remain flexible with everything.

Once you know which four letters suit you, a type (out of 16) will be presented to show you your personality.

Link to the MBTI test: https://www.16personalities.com

Problems

It seems that MBTI can help others and ourselves understand who we are, right? Through it, we believe we can find our dreams more easily and enhance ourselves. However, the problems with MBTI don’t lie in its usage, but in the personality it defines.

First, MBTI limits our thinking. With a known personality type, we tend to trust it and follow the advice to improve ourselves. But do we really 100% lean toward just one side of the personality? MBTI can only show how a person is during a recent period; it doesn’t fully reflect everything about our lives. We wouldn’t expect a test to tell us how to earn money, right?

Moreover, we frame ourselves with the simple letters provided by the test. In my surroundings, many people use ‘being an I person’ as an excuse not to communicate with others. Although everyone seems to accept this reasoning, does it really apply to all of us? No, of course not! We can’t define ourselves as purely 100% extroverted or introverted because we change throughout our lives for various reasons. It’s unreasonable to use MBTI as a shield to block difficulties from our view, let alone from reality!

Thirdly, MBTI affects our impressions of others. Through MBTI, we can work with others by knowing their type at first sight. Indeed, this can reduce the time needed to understand and adjust to each other. However, isn’t it the same as forming fixed first impressions based on MBTI?

We often say it’s not recommended to fix our impressions of others because they can change over time. But with MBTI, aren’t we repeating this exact process?

For example, Korean youths today often discuss their MBTI types. Even idols share their MBTI types with fans to help them feel more connected. While this is harmless for simply understanding or marketing purposes, the problem arises later. If an idol behaves in a way that doesn’t align with the MBTI type they presented, some fans may criticise them for being ‘out of character’ or ‘abnormal’. 

In the end, we wrongly interpret the purpose of MBTI and turn it into a restrictive label, which is totally unacceptable. We deprive everyone of the chance to change due to time, experience, or environment with just eight simple letters. But the essence of being human is that we learn and evolve. Through differences, we collaborate, adapt, and grow. MBTI, however, limits our perceptions, causing us to box in the behaviour of others and ourselves. I’ve heard classmates explain why they can’t engage in normal conversations with strangers, saying, ‘My MBTI is INTJ, so it’s hard for me to talk emotionally,’ or ‘I’m an F person, so I react in a more rude way.’ Since when did we use MBTI as a justification for our poor behaviour? It’s inevitable that we must face reality. If we only use MBTI to escape, we’ll never progress.

Claims and Suggestions

Even though MBTI leads to many problems, it remains a useful tool for self-reflection. The purpose of this article is to highlight the overuse of MBTI to handle problems. It’s suggested that we should only use it as a starting point for understanding ourselves and others.

If we can take it less seriously and instead choose to explore ourselves more freely, wouldn’t it be better to use a test as just one tool among many?

So, are you ready to put down your phone and face reality?

Situation and Introduction

‘Everyone, please remember to do your SolidMemory today! It counts towards your exam mark!’

As our English teacher reminds us, I glance at my iPad, looking at the app with dots traveling in a cloud, thinking about which five precious English words I should add to SolidMemory today.

Many of our schoolmates have complained that using SolidMemory is not helpful. Some even wrote an article discussing the disadvantages of SolidMemory and how it isn’t appropriate for it to be connected with an award (you can read the article written by 5A Ho Yui Ni Esther, titled ‘SolidMemory‘).

But today, I am not here to provide complaints or advice on whether SolidMemory is a good tool or not. Instead, I want to discuss whether forcing students to use SolidMemory for our exams really helps improve our English learning.

Before starting, let me introduce SolidMemory. It is an app that relies on AI to help students enhance their English vocabulary through memorization. All students are basically required to input five words each day, with an exercise as the minimum requirement. 

Advantages

From the perspective of teachers and the app’s founders, they encourage us to use it. Why? First, learning sometimes starts with forcing. There are always subjects that don’t get our attention, but are essential to study. For example, the twelve prescribed articles for Chinese (十二篇指定文章). Our teachers often suggest memorizing all of them to ensure we fully grasp their meaning. So why not apply the same logic to SolidMemory? Its AI system allows students to learn through spaced repetition. Through this, we can force ourselves to learn five new words a day. SolidMemory helps us take the first step toward enjoying English vocabulary. The AI reviews our previous exercises and tailors new ones to help us review words we are less familiar with, ultimately improving our vocabulary.

However, as with anything, forcing students to use SolidMemory to improve their English may have unintended consequences.

Disadvantages

From the students’ perspective, we might encounter some direct problems with SolidMemory. First, memorizing words does not always connect to actual usage. Even though SolidMemory provides example sentences, the app focuses on whether students can memorize words rather than whether they understand how to use them. This could lead to confusion when students try to use new words in writing but misunderstand their meaning. Do we want this to happen? Of course not! This is why forcing students to use SolidMemory may not improve our English but instead create confusion about word usage.

Moreover, by making SolidMemory mandatory, the founders inevitably included rankings in the app to encourage students to use it. The temptation of climbing higher on the leaderboard is hard to resist, right? But do students who aim for the top position really learn English, or are they just rushing to meet a target that has nothing to do with improving their English skills?

The ranking system in SolidMemory may create a vicious cycle where students compete for recognition rather than for meaningful learning, leading to the issues mentioned above. We must ask ourselves: is it worth it? Compare this to another popular learning app, Duolingo, which creates a fun and encouraging environment for people to learn languages without ranking them. Would this be a better solution for us?

Reasons for Different Opinions

SolidMemory will always be a subject of debate. While teachers and founders can insist on the benefits of AI, some students will continue to point out the one-sided nature of the app. Why is there such a difference? It mainly stems from our differences in learning styles. We all have our preferences for studying various subjects, and English is no exception. Our learning habits may vary due to factors like environment, peers, and mood.

Conclusion 

There is no definite solution in this situation. We can always choose our preferred learning materials or AI tools. While forcing us to use SolidMemory might lead us to take the first step in learning English, SolidMemory may not be your ideal tool. But it could still be a building block toward developing an interest in English. It would be better if the founders focused on fostering students’ interest in more advanced English. There is no definitive answer to whether SolidMemory is good or bad; what remains is whether we are willing to learn more and explore English for ourselves. Before we complain about being forced to use it, why not pause, put more effort into our studies, and find a more suitable way for us to learn English with SolidMemory? SolidMemory may not be perfect—neither the AI nor the system, and neither are we. But we can learn to be better, just as SolidMemory evolves with us.

I snap back to the app with the dots moving on the screen, deciding to add more words to SolidMemory.

Have you done your SolidMemory today?