Friday, November 06, 2009
Yes, I want you to give me your candy.
There were 6 of us in total, and we played through "What is that" to fluency, and then poked and stumbled through "Who/Whose is that?" and "Want, have, give, take." It was a lot of fun, and by the end of the evening, we had people using the game to trade around the bag of caramels.
"I want my candy."
"That is not your candy, that is my candy."
"That is my rock. I will give you my rock."
"Yes. You give me your rock, I will give you my candy."
"Perfect!"
We talked about the game a bit, both before and after, and discussed some of the techniques, and the viral, open source nature of the game. One aspect of that which came up in particular, is that I talked about the roadmap using Technique: Language Ladder instead of Technique: Travels with Charlie, and after the game was done, I talked a little about the why's of that, and how the game allowed and encouraged that kind of thing. I also talked about some of the Techniques we didn't use, because we didn't need them (Everybody Plays, Lunatic Fringe) with so few people.
The game will spread from here; two of the participants were already talking about bringing it to other people this weekend, and I'm going to show it to my brothers at a family dinner this Sunday as well; they're both teachers, and I think they'll quickly see the potential of it.
I'm going to try and get something going on a monthly basis, probably using a facebook group for organizing things. This would just be for teaching and spreading the game, and the hope is that people will spin off of this, and hunt down native speakers in their target language, and spread the game even further.
I really need to figure out how the built in camera works in my laptop.
James
Labels: WAYK
posted by James at 2:38 PM
3 Comments:
James:
You are clearly rocking the HOUSE! Congrats on your first WAYK get-together.
I'm really excited especially you felt free enough with the game to create a new/alternative technique name for "Travels with Charlie". Evan and I do have specific reasons for using "Charlie", but it's almost more important that you feel at liberty to play with the structure of the game.
In the end, it's all about acceleration - how fast (while dwelling on each step to fluency) can you go? Can you go faster this time? Even faster? Even faster yet? So if "Language Ladder" helps you to go faster in the beginning, of course, use it.
Good luck on your next gathering. I can't wait to see video!
Hi Willem,
I know that Travels with Charlie has other techniques tied into it later, like "Sorry, Charlie" and perhaps others I don't know about, but I figure I'll adapt as I move along.
I'll get more into it when I figure out how to record with my laptop's camera, but in a nutshell, it's because outside the US, Charlie Rose isn't a household name. Lots of people don't know who he is, and the people who do recognize the name have a reaction like "He does interviews, or something, right?"
James-
You'll eventually need to choose an iconic interviewer common to your culture, that fits in at that level, and switch out charlie rose for him.
This is exactly why I'm happy that you went ahead and tweaked with it; you have to be comfortable customizing the game for the community you play with.
An Uzbeki wouldn't get the "Sorry, Charlie" reference either - it helps to have a common language for those spreading the game to speak, but once you understand the game, you have to customize it for your people.
Anyway, I should probably have this kind of conversation at the WAYK blog so other folks can benefit. Feel free to ask any questions there!
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