Bryan Murphy's Blog - Posts Tagged "murphy-s-law"
Ghazal
From Snakeskin's blog:
http://snakeskinpoetry.wordpress.com/
Poetic Phonetic
August 21, 2012
I’ve just received an interesting submission from Snakeskin poet Bryan Murphy. He has sent in a ghazal (“Whatever Can”) in syllabics – seventeen syllables per line. Since syllable counts don’t always come out the same in different accents, he has sent the poem in the phonetic alphabet, to demonstrate how it sounds in his (Southern urban British) accent. Here it is – those who can’t manage phonetics will have to wait till the September issue, to read it in more orthodox orthography:
bʊlz aɪ ɔn diː nəʊ tei ʃən jʊː fɪks ðɪː ʌn də miː nɪŋ pəː fɪkt staːt
ðɛn trænz leit mɔː feil tʊː ɜː lɪ tə reit ðʌs bɪ trei jɔː pəː fɪkt aːt
kʌt fæb sez ðə bɔs jə nɔt ʃʊə hɪːz dʌn rəʊlz ðə nekst siːn fæb ə gɛn
jə feis jə ɪm ɪdʒ ɔn scriːn krɪndʒ ət ðə hæm nɛ və jə pəː fikt paːt
brænd njuː stjuː diə jə vɔis swɪŋz wɪð ðɪː ɪn strəː mənts tʃaimz wɪð ðə kaun təz
ðei kɔːl jə bæk rə zʌlt ə mɛs tɛk mɪs teiks smæʃt jə pəː fɪkt bəʊ gaːt
naʊ jɔː ðə dai rɛk tə jə æk təz ə greit straik ɔːl jə lɔŋ sɔːt nəʊts
ðə friː zɪŋ θɪə təz ɛmp tɪ nəs hɪts jə ai laik ə pəː fɪkt θrəʊn daːt
ɛ pɪ də məl ɛks tə sɪː dʌv tei lɪŋ maindz dʒɔi ɪn fɔː ɪː tʃʌ ðə
ðɛn jə wəːd aut əv pleis sɛts bæk hə səːtʃ fə jə faː frəm pəː fɪkt haːt
jə əʊn wəːdz nau jə kən duː ɪt diː nəʊ kɔ nəʊ ə lɪt bʌt kliː ʃei
məː fiːz lɔː sʌn miːnz jəl nɛ və wrait wɛl ɪn ʌf fə ðis pəː fɪkt aːt
http://snakeskinpoetry.wordpress.com/
Poetic Phonetic
August 21, 2012
I’ve just received an interesting submission from Snakeskin poet Bryan Murphy. He has sent in a ghazal (“Whatever Can”) in syllabics – seventeen syllables per line. Since syllable counts don’t always come out the same in different accents, he has sent the poem in the phonetic alphabet, to demonstrate how it sounds in his (Southern urban British) accent. Here it is – those who can’t manage phonetics will have to wait till the September issue, to read it in more orthodox orthography:
bʊlz aɪ ɔn diː nəʊ tei ʃən jʊː fɪks ðɪː ʌn də miː nɪŋ pəː fɪkt staːt
ðɛn trænz leit mɔː feil tʊː ɜː lɪ tə reit ðʌs bɪ trei jɔː pəː fɪkt aːt
kʌt fæb sez ðə bɔs jə nɔt ʃʊə hɪːz dʌn rəʊlz ðə nekst siːn fæb ə gɛn
jə feis jə ɪm ɪdʒ ɔn scriːn krɪndʒ ət ðə hæm nɛ və jə pəː fikt paːt
brænd njuː stjuː diə jə vɔis swɪŋz wɪð ðɪː ɪn strəː mənts tʃaimz wɪð ðə kaun təz
ðei kɔːl jə bæk rə zʌlt ə mɛs tɛk mɪs teiks smæʃt jə pəː fɪkt bəʊ gaːt
naʊ jɔː ðə dai rɛk tə jə æk təz ə greit straik ɔːl jə lɔŋ sɔːt nəʊts
ðə friː zɪŋ θɪə təz ɛmp tɪ nəs hɪts jə ai laik ə pəː fɪkt θrəʊn daːt
ɛ pɪ də məl ɛks tə sɪː dʌv tei lɪŋ maindz dʒɔi ɪn fɔː ɪː tʃʌ ðə
ðɛn jə wəːd aut əv pleis sɛts bæk hə səːtʃ fə jə faː frəm pəː fɪkt haːt
jə əʊn wəːdz nau jə kən duː ɪt diː nəʊ kɔ nəʊ ə lɪt bʌt kliː ʃei
məː fiːz lɔː sʌn miːnz jəl nɛ və wrait wɛl ɪn ʌf fə ðis pəː fɪkt aːt
Murphy's Laws
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Even when you live in a country where the language is spoken
Failing completely to learn a foreign language need not be an impossible task, especially for adults. Close adherence to the following ten precepts will give anyone a good chance of succeeding in failing:
*** 1. Opt to stay mono-lingual
*** 2. Choose a hard language to learn
*** 3. Grow as old as you can before you start to learn it
*** 4. Minimise your motivation
*** 5. Develop avoidance strategies
*** 6. Limit input
*** 7. Avoid instruction
*** 8. Develop coping strategies
*** 9. Do not persevere
*** 10. Get the hell out
Let us now look briefly at each of these in turn.
[to be continued] Please share.
Even when you live in a country where the language is spoken
Failing completely to learn a foreign language need not be an impossible task, especially for adults. Close adherence to the following ten precepts will give anyone a good chance of succeeding in failing:
*** 1. Opt to stay mono-lingual
*** 2. Choose a hard language to learn
*** 3. Grow as old as you can before you start to learn it
*** 4. Minimise your motivation
*** 5. Develop avoidance strategies
*** 6. Limit input
*** 7. Avoid instruction
*** 8. Develop coping strategies
*** 9. Do not persevere
*** 10. Get the hell out
Let us now look briefly at each of these in turn.
[to be continued] Please share.
Murphy's Laws
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 3. Grow as old as you can before you start to learn it
The decline in ability to pick up foreign phonology with age is well known (Oyama, 1976).
It is partly compensated for by better developed cognitive skills and potentially greater extrinsic motivation, which may explain why adults can learn faster than kids initially.
Indeed, White and Gennessee (1996) have found that adults can achieve native-like competence in a foreign language, and even I learnt pretty fluent Portuguese and Italian as an adult. However, in failing to learn much Bulgarian, I discovered that the declining capacity of my 47-year-old memory was a factor, and laid part of the blame for my trouble with words on the preponderance of long words in that language. However, just a few months later, I fared no better with the mainly monosyllabic words of Thai.
Back in the 'Seventies, the results of a psycholinguistic experiment reached even the British tabloid press when Guiora et al. (1972) showed that pronunciation of a foreign language improved after a drop of booze. The researchers attributed this to alcohol's ability to diminish inhibition and foreign language anxiety.
It is less well known that the foreign language in Guiora's experiment was Thai. In Thailand, I drank mostly with English-speakers, but I noticed that my foreign language anxiety had increased with age, even though I was much more aware of how harmful it could be to language-learning.
According to Spolsky (1989, p.114), “Up to a point, an anxious learner tries harder; beyond this level, anxiety prevents performance”. Yes, indeed: let anxiety stop you!
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 3. Grow as old as you can before you start to learn it
The decline in ability to pick up foreign phonology with age is well known (Oyama, 1976).
It is partly compensated for by better developed cognitive skills and potentially greater extrinsic motivation, which may explain why adults can learn faster than kids initially.
Indeed, White and Gennessee (1996) have found that adults can achieve native-like competence in a foreign language, and even I learnt pretty fluent Portuguese and Italian as an adult. However, in failing to learn much Bulgarian, I discovered that the declining capacity of my 47-year-old memory was a factor, and laid part of the blame for my trouble with words on the preponderance of long words in that language. However, just a few months later, I fared no better with the mainly monosyllabic words of Thai.
Back in the 'Seventies, the results of a psycholinguistic experiment reached even the British tabloid press when Guiora et al. (1972) showed that pronunciation of a foreign language improved after a drop of booze. The researchers attributed this to alcohol's ability to diminish inhibition and foreign language anxiety.
It is less well known that the foreign language in Guiora's experiment was Thai. In Thailand, I drank mostly with English-speakers, but I noticed that my foreign language anxiety had increased with age, even though I was much more aware of how harmful it could be to language-learning.
According to Spolsky (1989, p.114), “Up to a point, an anxious learner tries harder; beyond this level, anxiety prevents performance”. Yes, indeed: let anxiety stop you!
Murphy's Laws
HOW NOT TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 6. Limit input
In addition to what you learned in Step 5, avoid radio and TV in the target language.
The Internet and cable or satellite TV can keep you informed and entertained in your own language.
If you make the mistake of watching your favourite programmes dubbed into the local language, your knowledge of programmme format will make situations easy to predict; this will help you to guess the meaning of the language, which, unfortunately, might cause you to learn some of it.
Be canny: for instance, English football fans in Thailand could watch live Premiership matches on Indonesian TV, so that the language and language awareness they pick up would not be Thai.
Read a good deal, but only in your own language. Bangkok, astonishingly, has three English-language daily newspapers, as well as English-language libraries and bookshops.
Talk shop while socialising. This will prevent the people you talk to from giving you information about the target language and culture.
If you must talk about such things, try and do it only with people whose language awareness is low.
Try to hang out with people who, if they are aware of the local culture, do not like it.
This will further help to keep your integrative motivation usefully low, always providing you can stand such people.
In Ten Easy Steps
Step 6. Limit input
In addition to what you learned in Step 5, avoid radio and TV in the target language.
The Internet and cable or satellite TV can keep you informed and entertained in your own language.
If you make the mistake of watching your favourite programmes dubbed into the local language, your knowledge of programmme format will make situations easy to predict; this will help you to guess the meaning of the language, which, unfortunately, might cause you to learn some of it.
Be canny: for instance, English football fans in Thailand could watch live Premiership matches on Indonesian TV, so that the language and language awareness they pick up would not be Thai.
Read a good deal, but only in your own language. Bangkok, astonishingly, has three English-language daily newspapers, as well as English-language libraries and bookshops.
Talk shop while socialising. This will prevent the people you talk to from giving you information about the target language and culture.
If you must talk about such things, try and do it only with people whose language awareness is low.
Try to hang out with people who, if they are aware of the local culture, do not like it.
This will further help to keep your integrative motivation usefully low, always providing you can stand such people.
Discussion
Which theory of history best explains the triumph of market fundamentalism? Have your say on The Write Room Blog http://www.thewriteroomblog.com/?p=2301
Murphy's Law and the Two Theories of History
Have you read Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine? If you are in the USA, you may have seen the Public Service TV series called Commanding Heights, which was based on it. It’s a marvellous book, I’ve just finished it, one that shows you things that were in front of your eyes but you had not noticed, or had noticed but not paid due attention to. It is about the rise of market fundamentalism and the disasters which that has unleashed upon the world since 1973, the date of the violent overthrow of democracy in Chile, which, by coincidence, is also the year in which my novel-in-progress opens.
When I lived in Africa in the 1980s, the crimes of the international financial institutions on that continent were no secret: basically forcing countries in debt to sacrifice their children by denying them health and education so that bankers could sleep easily at night secure in the knowledge that the bad loans they had made would be repaid at any cost. That, it seemed to me, was in the nature of bankers; what seemed more scandalous was how little anyone outside Africa was bothered. People in Europe would care very deeply when famine hit Africa, and fork out enormous sums to alleviate the suffering it caused, but were oblivious to the suffering meted out by human institutions. Well, as you know, what went round came round, and since 2008, when many of the less rich countries in Western Europe got into trouble over their finances, international financial institutions have been forcing market fundamentalism on them in return for debt relief. And guess what? The people in those countries do not like it.
Now, I live in one of the affected countries, and boy, do people moan. About the loss of their jobs, their children’s future, decaying public services, you name it. Quite right, too. But they do not actually do very much, here in Italy. Klein’s book was published in 2007, before “disaster capitalism” turned its attention to Western Europe, but she would accurately have predicted people’s initial reaction here: they were shocked into inactivity. Klein details how, in Latin America, it took over 20 years before governments started to stop taking the medicine that was killing them. People in Europe, with more hindsight available to them, may swallow less before they say “We’re not going to take it!” I hope I live to see that day.
One useful way of seeing history is that it offers us two main theories for why things go awry (Murphy’s Law, no relation): the balls-up theory and the conspiracy theory. The latter says that things go wrong because tightly-knit groups of politically or economically motivated men cause them to do so for their own ends. The former says that people would like things to work to everyone’s benefit, but we are just too incompetent to make that happen. Klein is clearly in the conspiracy camp; I’ve always been in the balls-up camp, which is a hard place to be in Italy, where mafias and politicians traditionally feed off each other out of public sight. I had thought that Italy was exceptional, in this as in so many other ways. Maybe it is not.
It is irresistible for a science fiction writer to imagine where market fundamentalism will lead us, if it manages to continue its current dominance unchecked. Unfortunately, I think we have already seen the answer, in the cult classic film Zardoz, in which the rich live a genteel life inside a high-tech bubble which physically excludes the poor, whom the rich continually urge to renounce sex and kill each other. It is the ultimate gated community, although in the real thing the bubble will have to be opaque, because transparency helps people to see not just into fundamentalism, but through it.
When I lived in Africa in the 1980s, the crimes of the international financial institutions on that continent were no secret: basically forcing countries in debt to sacrifice their children by denying them health and education so that bankers could sleep easily at night secure in the knowledge that the bad loans they had made would be repaid at any cost. That, it seemed to me, was in the nature of bankers; what seemed more scandalous was how little anyone outside Africa was bothered. People in Europe would care very deeply when famine hit Africa, and fork out enormous sums to alleviate the suffering it caused, but were oblivious to the suffering meted out by human institutions. Well, as you know, what went round came round, and since 2008, when many of the less rich countries in Western Europe got into trouble over their finances, international financial institutions have been forcing market fundamentalism on them in return for debt relief. And guess what? The people in those countries do not like it.
Now, I live in one of the affected countries, and boy, do people moan. About the loss of their jobs, their children’s future, decaying public services, you name it. Quite right, too. But they do not actually do very much, here in Italy. Klein’s book was published in 2007, before “disaster capitalism” turned its attention to Western Europe, but she would accurately have predicted people’s initial reaction here: they were shocked into inactivity. Klein details how, in Latin America, it took over 20 years before governments started to stop taking the medicine that was killing them. People in Europe, with more hindsight available to them, may swallow less before they say “We’re not going to take it!” I hope I live to see that day.
One useful way of seeing history is that it offers us two main theories for why things go awry (Murphy’s Law, no relation): the balls-up theory and the conspiracy theory. The latter says that things go wrong because tightly-knit groups of politically or economically motivated men cause them to do so for their own ends. The former says that people would like things to work to everyone’s benefit, but we are just too incompetent to make that happen. Klein is clearly in the conspiracy camp; I’ve always been in the balls-up camp, which is a hard place to be in Italy, where mafias and politicians traditionally feed off each other out of public sight. I had thought that Italy was exceptional, in this as in so many other ways. Maybe it is not.
It is irresistible for a science fiction writer to imagine where market fundamentalism will lead us, if it manages to continue its current dominance unchecked. Unfortunately, I think we have already seen the answer, in the cult classic film Zardoz, in which the rich live a genteel life inside a high-tech bubble which physically excludes the poor, whom the rich continually urge to renounce sex and kill each other. It is the ultimate gated community, although in the real thing the bubble will have to be opaque, because transparency helps people to see not just into fundamentalism, but through it.
