March 2005

Apparently, I am a car

by Suw on March 30, 2005

No, really.

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Weithiau

by Suw on March 30, 2005

Weithiau, dw i eisiau dweud rhwybeth yn gyhoeddus fy mod i ddim yn gallu dweud yn gyhoeddus. Dw i ddim yn gwybod pam. Efallai mae 'na angen i gyffes dwfn yn fy nghalon fi. Dw i wedi sgwennu tri o flog dienw, ond roedd 'na ofn arna i, ofn y sai rhywun yn eu darganfod nhw, felly stopies i nhw i gyd. Mae neb yn ddienw ar y we, nid yn wir. Mae 'na un dal i fynny, rhywle, ond dw i ddim yn postio yna bellach. Yn lle, dw i'n sgwennu negeseon yn Ecto, a dw i'n eu cadw nhw ar fy nghyfrifiadur. Felly dyddiadur personol cudd.
Ond, weithiau, dydy hynny ddim yn ddigon da i mi. Beth wedyn? Be' fedra i wneud wedyn? Mae 'na betha yn fy mhen bod rhaid i mi fynegu rhywle, ond dw i ddim eisiau unrhywun i'w ddarllen nhw. I fod yn mwy drachywir, mae 'na bobl penodol mod i ddim eisiau eu ddarllen nhw. Dyna'r drwg yn y caws.
Felly dyma fy nghyfaddawd. Blogio yn y Gymraeg, fy iaith cudd. Dim ond fi a thi a hanner miliwn o bobl eraill sy'n gallu darllen y peth. Dw i ddim yn siwr os syniad da ydy o ond, wel, 'na ni.
Nawr 'te, beth yw fy mhroblem? Ti'n cofio'r cân Y Teimlad? Dyma fy mhroblem. Dw i wedi cwympo mewn cariad, a dydy o ddim yn hawdd. Dydy cariad ddim yn hawdd erioed, wrth gwrs, ond ar hyn o bryd, mae'n mor annodd, mor stressful. Dw i wedi bod yn siarad â fy ffrindiau am y peth, ond dydy hynny ddim yn helpu. Un dydd, dw i'n hapus, dw i'n sboncio o gwmpas fel Roo, mae'r haul yn sgleinio yn yr awyr clir glas. Y ddydd nesa mae 'na boen dwfn yn fy nghalon, mae 'na ddagrau yn fy llygaid ac dw i'n teimlo'n ddiflas fel Eeyore.
Rhaid imi ddweud, ar ôl cael ei sgwennu fel hyn, mae'n swnio mwy … normal. Heh.
Gwela, dyma fy mhwynt. Pan dw i'n siarad am y peth efo fy ffrindiau, mae 'na ormod o emosiynau arna i, dw i'n colli fy nghydbwysedd. Pan dw i'n sgwennu, mae'r hollol peth yn swnio mwy normal, llai emosiynol. Rhaid imi agor fy nghalon yn gyhoeddus, achos mae'n rhoi persbectif i mi, ond fedra i ddim sgwennu yn gyhoeddus yn y Saesneg achos bydd o'n gweld. Mae'n lwcus fod o ddim yn siarad Cymraeg, eh?
Eniwei, diolch am dy amser di. Dw i'n teimlo'n well nawr.

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I've been meaning to get a new domain for a while now, so that I can bring all of my webbishness together in one spot. I have blogs, portfolios, Welsh sites, various profiles and footprints and god knows what else out there, scattered across the intarweb, and I thought it was about time I tidied it all up a bit into one big heap.
So I started looking for domains, ideally suw.something. It turns out that despite the received wisdom that all three letter domains have long since gone, that is not the case. None of the suw domains are being used by a company. Most of them are simply being squatted by opportunistic wankers who want to make $400 out of anyone stupid enough to pay. Almost all my TLDs are being squatted – .biz, .com, .info, .net, .org, .us, .co.uk – and the exotic TLDs like .cc or .be are too expensive for me right now. I had considered suw.me.uk, but along with suw.us, it doesn't sound quite so good when you say it out loud.
Ergo, I present to you, my new acquisition suw.org.uk. I can't do anything with it until I get back to Dorset so the space is essentially empty, but it's mine, and I own it.
In the meantime, I shall be hoping that the cybersquatting bottom-dwelling pond-scum who have nothing better to do than try to wangle money for nothing have a nasty fall and then develop gangrene. I hope they rot in this life, because I'm too impatient to wait for them to arrive in hell.

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Grammar – it's not that scary really

by Suw on March 28, 2005

There are two sorts of grammar, two ways of learning grammar and two sorts of people when it comes to grammar learning. Which does make it all far simpler than you might believe.
Sorts of grammar
If you've read any linguistics books, such as Words and Rules by Steven Pinker, then you may already be familiar with some of what I'm about to posit.
Despite the variety of grammatical styles you can come across when learning different languages, e.g. whether you use endings or auxiliary verbs to create tenses, there are only two types of grammar that count, which we can think of as explicit and implicit.
Explicit grammar is the sort you learn at school, the set of sometimes arbitrary rules which tell you how you should construct the perfect sentence. This is the sort of grammar that most of us hate. You know: don't split an infinitive; never end a sentence with a preposition; never kick a man in the goolies unless you can do it really, really hard. Oh, wait, that last one's something different.
Implicit grammar is the grammar you learn without thinking about it when learning to talk as a wee bairn. This is the grammar that's really important – it's what allows you to make sense of 'cat chimney up' or 'he tea make' even though those sentences get a definite F grade insofar as your English teacher goes.
The reason that sentences which pass the implicit grammar test but fail the explicit grammar test work is because implicit grammar is all about how your brain processes language. 'Cat chimney up' contains enough information for your brain to make sense of it. The data that is missing – like the words 'the' and 'is', and correct word order – are just the icing on the cake, they just refine or confirm the basic meaning.
Basically, you can break explicit grammar rules and till have a sentence that makes sense, because it doesn't break the implicit grammar rules. Break implicit grammar and you're stuffed. In some languages, implicit and explicit grammars are very similar, but English, for example, is particularly flexible, allowing you to totally murder 'proper' grammar and still be understood.
Two ways to learn grammar
There are two basic ways to learn grammar – through rules and through examples.
Most books use rules to teach grammar. You know: add '-ing' to form the continuous present tense; add '-s/-es' to form a plural; add vodka to melted chocolate to form a chocolate martini. Oops. There I go again.
Anyway, what happens with rule-based grammar teaching is that you memorise the rules, then every time you recognise that a rule needs applying, you remember the rule, apply it, and that helps you create your phrase or sentence. This means you have to both remember the rule and be able to recognise when you need to apply it. Eventually, your brain assimilates the information and you start applying the rule subconsciously, which is the point at which you've really properly learnt that bit of grammar.
Rule-based teaching depends upon explicit grammar.
Example-based learning skips the rule-learning stage and goes straight to assimilation stage. When we were children, we learnt language by the example of those around us. Admittedly our brains were wired for learning and we sucked up all the data without really thinking about it, but even as adults we can still benefit from child-like learning habits. The more examples we see of a given grammatical point, the easier we find it to learn, the more instinctive our understanding. (This is all tied into the way that memory works too, but that's a topic I am going to have to come back to.)
Example-based teaching depends upon implicit grammar.
Most language courses will give you the minimum number of examples that they think they can get away with, primarily I suspect, because it's easier not to have to sit down and think of them. My experiences with Get Fluent, which teaches through providing lots of examples alongside grammatical explanations (so that you know what the examples are illustrating), and the very positive feedback I had from people about this methodology emphasised that this was a good way of helping people get to grips with grammar.
Two types of people
In the years I've been running the Clwb Malu Cachu Welsh discussion group, I've seen two basic types of people when it comes to learning grammar: grammar fiends and grammarphobics.
Grammar fiends love grammar, they love rule-based learning, they love having everything set out in a net and tidy way that they can categorise and memorise. Fiends get on very well with explicit grammar.
Grammarphobics hate grammar, hate memorising rules and find explicit grammar to be scary, unwieldy and a major hurdle to the learning of languages. Grammarphobics prefer example-based learning and depend upon subconsciously learning implicit grammar.
It's very, very important that you know where on the fiend-phobic continuum you are, because that will influence which methodology suits you. Often grammarphobics feel overwhelmed when they try to learn through rule-based systems and grammar fiends feel disappointed with 'fuzzy' example-based systems.
In reality, we're all a bit fiendish and a bit phobic, but understanding how your mind functions will help you to create a set of learning techniques which work best for you.
Note: This post was updated after the discussions in the comments and on IRC helped me refine what I was trying to say. See, I love this blogging lark – I get to tell you what I think, and you get to correct me!

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Oh ate for too free

by Suw on March 28, 2005

One of the easiest things to do when you've just started to learn a new language is learning your numbers. They're useful to know and submit well to chanting out aloud (and doing that will help you with pronunciation too).
So in the spirit of keeping your learning relevant to you, may I take this opportunity to suggest that you go through your address book, translate your ten most important telephone numbers into your target language and then memorise them. You can do that by chanting them out aloud, writing them down in your address book, and/or leaving notes by the phone and reading them out as you dial. Remember to memorise numbers in groups of five or less – it's easier on your grey matter that way.
And of course, the benefit of this is not just linguistic – if you lose your mobile phone or address book or adress book, you'll have at least ten numbers safely committed to memory.

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Too damn right

by Suw on March 28, 2005

Talking to Trav on IM just now:

Why does God give us the internet before teleportation? That's some cruel shit right there. “Here, you can talk to and love anyone on the planet, but you can't go anywhere. Good luck, fuckers!”

Nail. Head. Bam!

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Arundel

by Suw on March 27, 2005

This is post is for Derek and anyone else who needs to know how to pronounce the placename 'Arundel', where I am staying at the moment. Hint. It's not 'ah-RUN-dell'.

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Transparent screens

by Suw on March 26, 2005

Came across the most fantastic set of pictures on Flickr today of Macs with 'transparent screens'. Some of them just look amazing, particularly this gorgeous one of a cat:

So, me being me, I had to have a stab at doing my own. It's not brilliant, because I was running out of battery on my camera and I have those nasty lines on my Tibook screen to contend with, but it's mine and I did it:
A stab at the transparent screen trick

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Home

by Suw on March 25, 2005

It's weird, sometimes, when people ask me where I live. I really don't quite know what to say. Like when people ask me what I do – how do you explain 'blogger' to people who don't know what blogs are?
But the home question is odder. Most people have a home. Technically, I do too – I have a place where all my stuff is, a place where I live when I am not away, but I find myself hesitant to call it home, because that confers too permanent a status on it. When the business went pfft a year and a half ago, I had no choice but to go stay with my family, but although it's where I live, and I get on just fine with my parents so there's no issue living there, it's not home. I am spending increasing amounts of time not there, and the more I'm not there the more it becomes clear that it's not my home. It's not where my heart is.
Right now, I don't know where home is. I've been quite nomadic since the summer of last year, with two solid months and various short stints in London, weeks in Arundel, trips to the States and Canada, and the more I move about the more I realise that I am homeless. Not without housing, but without a home. It doesn't matter too much – so long as I have my laptop and my internet connection I can get 95% of my work done, and I'm trying to get rid of that irksome 5% that requires resources currently located in a small room in Dorset.
I'm not even sure I know where I want home to be. I used to want to move back to London but that seems impossible now. The rents are too expensive and my intention is to be spending time abroad this year, although to what extent I can realise depends upon factors beyond my control.
Part of me likes this rootlessness, part of me hates it. Eighty percent of my belongings have been in boxes for the last 18 months and I have, frankly, forgotten what I own. You could torch the lot, and I wouldn't know what had gone up in flames. That, in itself, feels odd. Every now and again I think about buying something, only to realise I already have it. Somewhere. In a box.
One good thing in all this is that I do know where my heart is. Unfortunately, my body has been unable to keep up. Maybe that explains these current feelings of discombobulation.
UPDATE: Kevin just said 'Your home is here. Online.' I guess he has a strong point.

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KIRS: Keep It Relevant, Stupid

by Suw on March 22, 2005

Back in school, French lessons were based on what might possibly have been one of the most tedious language courses known to man. I remember that it followed the plights of a French boy called Xavier and his family. I also remember wondering why I was supposed to give a toss about him as he was a boring, annoying little shit with all the personality of a brick.
Latin was slightly better, because at least there was a bit of mystique around the Roman Caecilius and his exploits in the Forum. Maybe it was down to the intonation in the voice of Mr Briggs, my erstwhile Latin teacher, but there always seemed to be a hint of some dirty little secret in the goings on at Caecilius' house. I never knew quite what the puella was up to in the culina, but I had a feeling it was something that innocent country girls should probably read up on.
Almost all of the course books I've seen since – and trust me, I've seen a lot – concentrate on a cast of characters in order to try to fake some sort of everyday life, to put what you're learning into the context. They all fail, because it's clear to anyone with half a brain cell that these scenarios are about as contrived as it is possible to be. Any American man who starts chatting up a Japanese woman, uninvited, at an airport these days more is likely to find himself clapped in irons and shipped off to an uncertain fate than talking about whether or not he can speak Japanese.
Maybe I'm just being cynical. But what I do know is that you absolutely have to bring your new language into your life, to give it context, to make it relevant. Relevance is essential. Do you really care whether or not the monkey is in the tree, under the table, or in the oven with an apple in its mouth, roasting slowly at Gas Mark 6 in a pan of olive oil with a rosemary garnish?
No. You care about being able to ask your friend if she wants a cup of tea, or finding out how to get back to your hotel, or telling someone that you can't understand a word they are saying and could they point to the phrase in the phrase book please. Even more importantly, you care about which phrases will be most effective in getting you into your dearly beloved's pants. (Pity me – I'm having to learn American for that.)
When I started writing the Get Fluent worksheets, everything revolved around the concept of giving people exercises to do which they could make relevant to their own life. Learning Xavier's sister's name is pointless. Learning that your own sister is your 'chwaer' and your brother is your 'brawd' is far more likely to stick.
Over the coming weeks, I am going to repurpose as many of the Get Fluent exercises as I can for you to take away and do on your own. In the worksheets as they originally were written, I set everything up, ensuring you had the vocabulary you needed, the grammar, all that stuff, but as I have no idea which language you're trying to learn, I'm afraid you're going to have to do all that work on your own. Don't fret – it'll be good for you.
One word of caution about digging up new vocabulary from your dictionary – make sure that the vocab you learn actually means what you think it means. If possible, find a fluent speaker, maybe a friend or someone on a mailing list, who can double check any words that you're unsure of. I have many times been told 'oh, yes, but that's a dictionary word. No one really says that.' So be careful. No point memorising a word that's archaic or doesn't mean what you think it means.
Keep your eyes peeled for Exercise 1 – it'll be coming your way shortly.

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Vitamin D manufacturing

March 20, 2005

Some years, spring creeps up on you, silently sneaks past, and it's not until you look back that you realised it's started already. This year, however, spring has arrived with a poke in the ribs, a giggle and a pinch on the bottom. Friday, finally, the sun came out, butterflies spiralled in pairs, shagging on […]

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Eastward ho!

March 19, 2005

I'm off this afternoon to go stay with Kate and Steve in Arundel for a couple of weeks. Not a holiday, you understand – far too busy for such luxuries – but a change of scenery. Hopefully I'll be as productive as last time.

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Telling your Gibberish from your Swahili

March 18, 2005

If you come across a website in a mystery language, try Linguid. Maciej Cegłowski's site is a “statistical language identifier” which requires “at least 20 characters of UTF-8 encoded text” in order to attempt to guess the language. It picks up Welsh, no problem at all.

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The last day of virtual Etech

March 18, 2005

It's amazing what casually throwing someone's name around in the blogosphere can get you. Mentioned during an Etech presentation, for example: Danny: One thing about 43 Folders is what crosses over from the first adopters to the world. Not everything makes it. Take text-editors: a blog entry on Corante by Suw talked about how in […]

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More virtual presence at Etech

March 16, 2005

I really like having this virtual presence at Etech. The wifi's been much more reliable today, so I've been able to have a pretty consistent vidchat with Kevin again, and have been in some sessions and am currently at lunch. The difficulty of clear audio at both ends of the video link remains, though – […]

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