Re: CHAT: Relays, Link 1

The thing to remember about the surprises one gets in this relay is that
there really are two tasks going on:

1:  How clearly you are able to explain your conlang to someone who may
have never seen it before--if it comes out of a step very differently than
how it went into the step, don't necessarily blame the person doing that
step.  Some of us are attempting to translate out of a language we have
never seen before, dealing with transcriptions that are idiosyncratic, and
are forced to go entirely upon the information given to us without any real
context beyond what is supplied.  If that information is unclear, then the
translation may be surprising.  What qualifies as "unclear" may not be
self-evident to someone writing instructions.  As a biologist, I have to
compose instructions to be used by a variety of people, some of whom may be
in Japan or the People's Republic of China, only using their "school
English".  If they can't follow my instructions, it's my responsibility to
ensure they can.  Instructional writing is a skill that is very rarely
taught and is usually only accidentally learned--anyone who reads computer
manuals already knows this.

2:  How well the person knows his or her own conlang.


These relays are not like Ss. Methodios and Cyril going to the Slavs for a
decade and learning their language, then translating Greek into
Slavonic.  It's more like a couple of Englishmen wandering around the Ohio
valley asking random Indians "what's that thing called" and naming every
other animal a variation of "which thing do you mean?"  They're still a
great way to get experience with your conlang and with explaining your
conlang.  Indeed, I encourage everybody who thinks that he or she is "not
ready yet" to participate in the next one.  In comparison to many of the
participants, I was certainly "not ready".  Vocabulary and grammar had to
be invented as needed in some cases. Orthographical decisions (punctuation)
had to be made.  I will say that having a fictional culture behind the
conlang definitely helped.

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