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Think William Shakespeare is hard to understand? Try attending a Japanese Kabuki play! But wait, you say, Shakespeare’s supposed to be in English! So why is he so hard to follow?

Two reasons. One, Shakespeare wrote plays like Romeo and Juliet about 400 years ago, when people talked funny. Two, you haven’t watched this Recap.

Video Transcription:

60 seconds isn’t enough time to give you a full translation of this play, but it is enough time to give you a few hints that will make Romeo and Juliet way more readable. Stay tuned …

Here are three tips on understanding the language in this play:

First, while Shakespeare’s wording and turns of phrase may sound like jibberish to you, even the “common folk” of his time could understand it—because it was full of the expressions they were familiar with. (That’s why footnotes are so helpful: Check them out.)

Reading Shakespeare for you, then, would kind of be like a person of Shakespeare’s time trying to interpret one of your text messages.

So speaking of interpretation, here’s tip two: Romeo and Juliet’s language, in particular, can seem convoluted and super-flowery. But their speeches on love are the worst of it. A lot of the action of the play is spelled out in plainer language, and with a little work, you should be able to decipher it. (Again, footnotes are helpful here.)

Last, if you’re feeling confused about the chatter between Mercutio and his pals, the best way to think of it is as locker room talk. Seriously. It’s a little gross, has some sexual references, and there’s lots of teasing about girls.

And now, here’s your bonus tip: Perseverance helps, too. The more Shakespeare you read, the easier it gets.