Re: Presentation on Language Creation

bn writes:

>  --- "Douglas Koller, Latin & French"
>
>  > I lump it
>  > together with the
>>  "study music so you'll be better at math and
>>  science" ads that have
>  > been running recently in the US.
>
>but i don't think there's any harm in getting more
>people on board ( i've been doing music since i was 4,
>and i don't think i was too concerned at that time
>about maths ( which was probably counting bananas ) or
>science ( playing with sand and water ), but it
>_might_ work as a ploy. all the same, it might put
>lots of people off . . . ' eeeurgh, i don't want to do
>maths, i just want to play my guitar ' )
Perhaps my personal prejudices are showing. As a "specialist" at my
school (by which means foreign languages, music, art, library skills,
and physical education), I have to sit through mind-numbing and
endless parent/teacher conferences, where parents will talk ad
nauseum about math and science, 'cause they want their moppets to
become highly paid doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Nothing wrong
with wanting your kids to make a decent living, but if any of the
aforementioned 'specialist' topics are touched upon at all, it's
merely as an afterthought.

So, yes,  while there is certainly no harm in bringing people on
board, one might wish that music wasn't dangled out there as a means
of honing one's math and science skills (and thereby landing the
big-paying jobs) rather than a means in and of itself. Still, though
I am not a parent, I can appreciate the abject terror that a sentence
like, "Dad, I want to be a musician/actor/artist in Soho." might
invoke.

>  > "Is there
>>  a real/imagined parallel between coming out as a
>>  conlanger and coming
>>  out as a homosexual?"
>
>hmmm. interesting that one. i'ld say telling a new
>acquaintance i was gay was pretty straightforward (
>most of the time ), whilst explaining that i liked
>playing around with language structures would probably
>get me funny looks
See, I found both experiences to be remarkably similar. Both
pre-coming out experiences were extremely scary and involved Angst
about rejection from friends, family, and acquaintances (considerably
more daunting than funny looks); both après-coming out experiences
were big gusts of relief and eventually involved self recognition,
realization,  and acceptance as well as a "Yeah, this is the way it
is, so deal with it as you will"-attitude to others (so if you want
to throw me a funny look, that's your business). I see a definite
correlation between the secrecy of the secret vice and the closet,
and I see it as no coincidence there is a growing number of people
eschewing both.

>i suppose it boils down to the 'ick' factor ( because
>of course gay people have nasty dirty sex whilst
>straight people have lovely lavendar-smelling happy
>sex )
Well, bully for us then. :)

>against the 'urgh' factor  ( because someone who
>likes playing with languages must be socially
>incompetent and unable to express themself normally .
>. . that's why they have to make up their own
>languages surely )
I wasn't afraid of being labelled a dweeb; I was more concerned about
being labelled looney tunes, à la Emily Dickenson stashing furtive
poems under drawer liners and peeling wallpaper.

>anyway, i'm freewheeling . . . probably the
>aftereffects of the hangover/food poisoning which laid
>me out yesterday
Vive la freewheel! And grab a Bromo.

Kou

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