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Greetings, people of the past! I send this missive from three days in the future! *cue creepy music*
I would like to claim that I have taken advice offered to me regarding overwork, and stepped away from blogging in order to focus on work. I would like to claim that, but the simple truth is that I have been busy with work and not had a chance to write anything. I still do not have a chance to write anything! Such is the way of things.
In the meantime, I have some pieces of Australian news for your thoughts and condemnation:
Sean the Blogonaut notes that the tax-payer funded recruitment drive for the Catholic Church (World Youth Day) came in AU$64 million over budget- and considering that the original budget was AU$20 million, that is quite remarkable. My government -whom I supported- paid $AU86 million so that the leader of an organisation responsible for millions of AIDS- and forced pregnancy-related deaths could come to Australia and go a-recruitin’.
PharyngulorZ Master noted the other day that creationism may be allowed in some Australian curricula. I obviously have strong opinions on this, but it is not as though it is about to be in science classrooms. That would be bad. Instead the non-science is to be taught as an aspect of social studies, where it actually belongs. I actually applaud this, so long as it is approached properly, and John Wilkins has some good points on how that could be done.
In other news of my country being fucked-up, we have the Royal Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists hopping on board the bandwagon that America abandoned quick-smart: they want to legalise female genital mutilation. Oh, they claim it will only be a little ‘ritual nick’. I do not give a fuck what they call it- it is slicing into the skin of children for no good reason. Whatever happened to ‘first, do no harm‘?
I wish I were able to write at length on all these topics, but instead the best I can offer is my comments section. Unless someone would care to write a guest post? That would be nice.
EDIT 6/6/10: It turns out that the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists absolutely does not condone any form of female genital mutilation. It appears that I was wrong. This news is thanks to PodBlack Cat who also has several other interesting things to say on the subject.
I spent the past few hours trawling around linguistic and language blogs, the result of which means that I am all excited about studying my dead languages some more. Given that I have two Beowulf papers to write and a paper on the Völsungasaga to edit, I would say that this is awful convenient. Sort of. In the sense that inspiration is convenient; not in the sense that spending two hours roaming the blogosphere and wasting time is a wise plan.
To start, a year-old post at Living Languages discusses the growth of Modern Irish teaching in the United States. Apparently a New York radio station has a weekly broadcast in learning the language, while a growing number of universities offer courses. Neat. It ought to be noted that the University of Sydney offers a brand-new course in the language in our Celtic Studies Department.
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On the subject of language learning, Confessions of a Language Addict raises an interesting question. Discussing conlangs such as Tolkein’s elvishes and the Na’vi language from Avatar, he points out that many language-learning tools are heavy on grammar and vocabulary and light on fun. This is especially problematic for conlangs, which only exist to be learned for fun. (Or because you are a crazy person.) On the other hand, the Na’vi language site features a fun (apparently) little workbook with crossword puzzles and the like.
It made me pause. I have at least begun to learn Latin, Old English, Old Norse, and Old Irish. Of these, Latin had the most available resources for obvious reasons, being commonly taught at university and even in some few Australian high schools. This latter means that Latin crossword puzzles, ridiculous cartoons, and silly adventures are available for translation. The first Latin text I encountered was the simplified version of Plautus’ Aulularia (an hilarious slapstick comedy) in Jones & Sidwell’s Reading Latin. For the other medieval languages, the work was much more serious, focused on translation of progressively more difficult texts.
I actually prefer to learn my languages this way. I enjoy slowly translating, becoming faster as the grammar becomes natural and the more common vocabulary starts to sink into the mossy bog which is my brain. I wonder if it would be difficult to come up with methods that are less… I’m not sure. Less focused, I suppose. Especially for Old Irish, which is extraordinarily difficult.
How do you prefer to learn languages (whether living, dead, or reviving)?
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Finally, I offer a poem from the High Plains Drifter:
Hringas þríe þéodnum Ælfa,
allra ældestum, ofer eormengrunde.
Hringas seofun innan sele stænnum
Dwergdryhtnum. Derc heara hús.
Hringas nigon néote Moncynn,
hláfordas méra mégas déaðfæge.
Heolstres Hearra hring ánne weardað
in dryhtsele dimmum on dercan þrymmsetle
þér licgað scedwa in londe Mordores.
Hring án gewalde, hring án gefinde,
hring án gebringe, hring án gebinde
þéoda swá þéowas in þéostrum tógedere
þér licgað scedwa in londe Mordores.
Some readers may recognise a Modern English form of this poem from Professor Tolkien’s translation of the Red Book of Westmarch. This version was found on the manuscript known as St. John’s College Library, Cambridge, MS. B 971. A MnE translation and commentary on the poem can be found here.
I am a little busy today, so how about some unfiltered internet? Straight from my browser to your eyes.
- A pile of Muhammad portraits from yesterday. Some of these are as offensive as I would have liked to be with mine.
- Science has created life. God, but I love living in the future.
- Aardvarchaeology describes some amazing Bronze Age rock art.
- On repairing the dishevelled nature of Iron Man 2. How? By using the Fisher King myth.
- You may have already seen this, but it is still amazing: the tale of a missionary’s deconversion:
