fandomhigh | Summer Session 2, Scoobying Workshop #4, Afternoon 8/01/2006 (Main Campfire)

[Roster]

Xander is standing in front of the unlit campfire holding up a book in one hand. He's being careful not to get soot on it because yo, Tev'Meckian/English Dictionary. In hardback. Plus it was a present.

"Hi, my name's Xander and I'm -- prepare yourselves -- a geek. But despite the huge pains I take to hide that fact, I felt I should confess it today for the good of studentkind, since sometimes it actually comes in handy."

He coughs, then says in a gravelly voice, "Pef trom grabthar, kep mok frutwux!"

"Okay, a real Tev'Meckian would totally laugh at my accent, if there were real Tev'Meckians. But who else besides them or a bunch of Questarians -- who are pretty rarely evil -- are gonna have a clue what I just said?"

He waves the book. "This is a totally invented language, which means the speaking population is limited to... well, geeks. That makes it really useful for talking in front of people you're pretty sure aren't. Real languages are great too, if you happen to be lucky enough that your whole team speaks one that most people around you don't, but the made-up ones are a lot easier to come by.

No, I'm not gonna make you learn Tev'Meck. It's three hundred pages long and just reading a translation of The Cat In The Hat almost gave me laryngitis once. But there are other invented languages that are a lot easier to learn, and I've got a worksheet for you on one of them.

It sounds simple, but when you speak it fast enough it's pretty much just, well. Gibberish. Except to you and whoever you're talking to. If you practice enough, you can rattle off an entire conversation in front of your teacher without her realizing you're planning on sneaking out to giant irradiated Kep Mok blood ticks during the filmstrip --- which, uh is bad and you should totally not do mm'kay -- and if they start to catch on, at that point you'll probably be good enough at it that you can invent your own."

Xander grins. "So today you can spend the whole workshop yakking to each other about anything you want to yak about -- but the catch is, you have to do it in Gibberish."

__

[Open! Posted early because I'll be afk all morning teaching stuff that is sadly less fun.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sakurazaki flushed a little as she answered, although she really wasn't sure why. No shame in not knowing Chinese, right?

//"Not in the slightest..."//

"Me neither," Parker admitted, "Although it's on the list. After Arabic. But that's another year or so off, while I get the Russian under control."

Sakurazaki chuckled a little nervously, eyes falling away. Parker was leaving her feeling rather impressed, but embarrassed. "I think I'm just going to focus on English for the moment."

"Really? Yours is very good,I wouldn't have thought it was giving you any trouble." Parker's so used to Liz and Rory, and Dr. Jackson, that Sakurazaki's reaction is utterly opaque to her. "When did you start to learn it?"

Another blush, but this time because perhaps Parker did have a point. Her spoken English wasn't too bad. "Just last year, really, but I had an excellent sensei. And I think I definately picked up the verbal part rather well, but my written English is embarrassing."

"If we were having normal classes, you could be studying that. Our last teacher was Geoffrey Chaucer-- several of my friends had him as a teacher, and thought he was great. I don't know who's teaching English this coming semester, though." Parker smiled. "And that *is* pretty impressive. Although I'm sure the fact that maybe only six people on the island speak Japanese probably forces you to keep up with the English."

Summer Session 2, Scoobying Workshop #4, Afternoon 8/01/2006 (Main Campfire)

Re: Talk Amongst Yourselves

Re: Talk Amongst Yourselves

Re: Talk Amongst Yourselves

Re: Talk Amongst Yourselves

Re: Talk Amongst Yourselves

Re: Talk Amongst Yourselves