h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello
I am really sorry to trouble you, but you seem to be the right person to ask a question about Wiki. I would be grateful if you could give us some of your time, provided you are not too busy these days...
My students are doing a project on the use of the Internet for language learning purposes. There is a point about using on-line encyclopedias, the most popular one at the moment being Wikipedia. What both fascinates and puzzles me about Wiki is how it manages to remain a reliable source of information given the fact that every entry can undergo another change every minute. Without having to repete what Wiki says about itself, do you think you could share some first-hand experience and vision of the day-to-day editing and 'maintenance' process?
Thank you very much.
Elena.

I hang around Wikipedia occasionally, and do a little enditing there (mainly clearing up ungrammatical sentances), but I spend by far the most of my time here.

You'll find some of the information you want at A918434, and more at Wikipedia itself.

Of course, a wiki is a type of website, and there are many wikis on the web. Wikipedia itself is just the most famous. It is more reliable than you might expect. Far more reliable, in fact. But still, I'd be cautious of it.

Meanwhile, I too am using the Internet for learning a language: http://pacujo.net/esperanto/course/.

TRiG.

h2g2 Language Thing: A1145477
h2g2 Languages & Linguistics: C37

I owe you one
The language thing, however, doesn't seem to work for us, at least the EFL department (where our interests are...)Pity.
I thoroughly enjoy the British English thread

Do your Esperanto studies have any practical applications?

I've been told that learning Esperanto first makes it easier to learn another language later.

Application 1.

Whenever I tell people I'm learning Irish Sign Language and they reply, "Shouldn't there be just one sign language around the world? Wouldn't it be better if there was just one sign language?" I grit my teeth and talk about signed languages being real natural languages which arose independently. But it would be fun to reply in Esperanto. After all, someone who thinks there should be one sign language around the world must surely also support the Esperanto movement, no?

Application 2.

(By the way, my sister has TEFL qualifications, and spent three months teaching in Thailand.)

TRiG.

I'm giving a lesson to a couple of kids right now
Hope to enjoy more of this conversation later...
Kind regards to your sister - is she still teaching?

She's back home now, and is teaching maths and physics to school students who need extra help in those subjects. One-on-one private tuition. In this country, we call it 'grinds'.

I'm giving maths grinds, too, as well as cleaning windows. I should be cleaning windows today, but I have a sore back.

TRiG.

Hello again
When you give grinds, do you have to go to the kid's place, or do the students come to yours?
A sore back is something I am unlucky to know too well - but at your healthy age?! Hope it isn't serious. (It's regular exercise that keeps an old ruin like me on 'me' feet.) What's your dream job, if I may ask?

Elena

PS You have a world-famous namesake (not sure about the 'have a namesake' collocation, sorry) - a little funny green alien called Trig, who is a central character in my favourite English Grammar for children series by Jennifer Seidl ('Grammar'OUP). He speaks Triglonian. I owe him the pleasure of meeting you

/To have a namesake/ is perfectly acceptable English.

I'd not heard of your Trig, though I do know that Wilma Neanderthal calls her husband Trog.

I few years ago I had a couple of students I cycled to, but this time round they come to me. Or don't. I have only one student now. A very poor Junior Cert Ordinary Level girl. Last year followed the same pattern: an initial burst of enthusiasm, mainly female, but whittling down to one Junior Cert Higher Level lad. He was a good learner, though. It's too long since I've left school, so I don't teach Leaving Cert Higher Level.

I'm too tall, and have a weak back. It's been playing up all week. It doesn't take much to set it off. It wasn't that painful this morning, but I knew that a day spent cleaning windows would not be a good idea.

And sympathy to you for your back, too. Thanks!



Dream job: I don't know. I'm trained as a chemist, so I'm looking for lab work and also for office work. I want a job that won't take over my life. When I was working in a school library, I loved the fact that I could walk out of the door at the end of the day and completely forget about the job until I came back in the next day. And it wasn't that I didn't like the work: books and computers, what more could you ask for?

I enjoy teaching, but I wouldn't want to face a class. I think I'll keep up the maths grinds even if I do get a proper job.

I enjoy writing, but I think I have the talent or enough application to sustain a career in that field. It's a dream, but not one I take seriously. I'd be working at it a lot harder if I did. I have enough free time at the moment to work on a novel.

The thought of following my mother to college and training to be an ISL/English interpreter is appealing. I love the little ISL I know, and I think that, with a lot of training, I could make a good interpreter.

TRiG.

Morning, Trig
It's a pleasure to get your letters, I can only hope they don't distract you from work on the novel !
In my job, I find myself in a really weird position of someone with a very limited experience of a certain language and culture being a kind of representative of this language and culture in a foreign country.
(Even in business terms - as I use British teaching materials with my students and thus promote them!)
I'm trying to understand, to learn, (that's what brought me to hootoo, for example), but one can only get glimpses of this huge, largely different, world. I can best approach it through real people, if only cyber correspondents. Television, books, films seem to distort reality too much...
I, too, wouldn't face a class - I feel most confident with groups of two to six students.
Are there jobs for ISL interpreters?
As a (would-be) novel-writer, which writers do you admire?
(Are you exercising?- It's plagiarism: a researcher who seems to work as a dentist features 'Are you flossing' as the central message on her PS )
with your job, your back and your novel!
Elena

We're told that the country is crying out for ISL interpreters.

We were also told that it was crying out for chemists.

Ah, well.

Your English is excellent, Elena.

I like Arthur Ransome and Rosemary Sutcliff, both now out of print. I like Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. I like Cynthia Voigt and Anita Shreeve (I've read only one of A.S.'s books: The Pilot's Wife). I like Richard Adams and Dick Francis.

TRiG.

Hello, Trig
How are you these days?
I hope you don't mind both my silence and my talking...Do you?
How many people use ISl and where do the interpreters work?
In my country we used to have the TV news followed by a translation for some years, but that was a long time ago. The deaf don't seem to be integrated into our society. What about Ireland?

Elena

There's News for the Deaf on TV every day. It would be better called News in ISL. That's what it is. And hearing people can get the news from it too.

And there's a program called Hands On once a month, I think. I don't have a TV. That has more news from the Deaf Community itself.

A Deaf Community does exist. Deaf people tend to socialise with other Deaf, and will often travel across the country to attend functions.

It's hard to estimate how many ISL users there are. It depends on how you define the language. What about the people who prefer signed English? (Messy, that: the hands move slower than the mouth, so signed English is slow and awkward, but some people like it.) I forget the latest estimate I read. I could look it up for you.

Interpreters can work in all fields. Anna Mindess' book Reading Between the Signs is an absoulte eye-opener in the field of intercultural communication, and also gives you a good idea of the range of work an interpreter can do.

TRiG.