Tough Readin'

[Torrere]

This morning, I picked up a Calculus textbook and tried to start going through it. It was somewhat uncomfortable, and I didn't feel like I was going anywhere, and I put it down after some fifteen minutes to go read something else.

I am very embarrassed about that, and I am now determined to go through the entire book.

I believe that the very language of the book put me off. In reading it, I was trying to read something which I have not put much thought to in quite a while (far too long).

When I was trying to figure out how to do something in Perl a few months ago (easy stuff; renaming and re-organizing files), I tried to read the documentation and felt continually rebuffed: I didn't know enough of the technical language that the documentation was written in to be able to find the document which contained the information that I was looking for. I eventually found it with Google, because Google could find documents that used, or at least contained, the language that I was using.

[Speaking of which, the way to find something you don't know much about using a search engine is to crawl. Start off with a seed that you are aware of, and search for that, read the documents it finds, learn new ideas and the words which represent them, search for those, and eventually you will find either what you're looking for, or something more interesting.]

On a similar note, remember the teenage girl who turned up just after April was kicked out? Not only was that in a particularly xenophobic time, but she used a different language (perhaps I should tone this down to 'dialect'?) than we did. Several people reported that it was painful trying to read her posts. She wrote in the inane new cellphone SMS/IM language her friends used.

I could read them easily, but a few months before she showed up I spent some time communicating with people who wrote in the same way that she did. It was initially painful to read their writing, and had I not had both personal incentive and known that they were notably intelligent when speaking, I probably would have given up very early.

I recall my French textbook, which mentioned an event in French history where someone declared that the court (perhaps it was the church) would henceforth speak in vulgar French*. At that time, I didn't understand how there could be two varieties of French spoken at the same city, differentiated by the class of the people that spoke them.

Now I might -- w.e have several different varieties of English, differentiated by the professions of the people who speak them: common American English, politician-speak, legalese, tech-speak, academican English, etc. They can be differentiated by the lingo that they use, by how they are attempting to speak (politician-speak, for instance, tries not to say anything while remaining verbose), what they're talking about (religious fanatics use words like "wrong" or "Truth" with irritating frequency), etc.

Aside, on the subject of the evolution of language
According to a rhyming dictionary (from the insensitive 1930s) which I bought at a used bookstore several months ago; poetry lasts longer than prose: he specifically claimed that most prose will last 50 years before it starts to become uncomfortable to read, and poetry will last 100 years. The author encouraged the reader (myself) to write poetry in the living tongue that people speak in the streets: that way, at least, you were not writing in a dead language ("twas", "whence", "betwixt" -- I have a bad habit of using archaic words in poetry). He demonstrated exceptional poetry by quoting a passage of Shakespeare: several stanzas (an entirely monologue?) wherein not a single word would sound out of place on the streets today.

[novice]

wh3r3f0r3 4r7 7h0v g01ng w17h 7h1s ?

[Torrere]

1 5t4r7ed wr171ng 4nd d15tr4ct3d my53lf. 1 h4d m0r3 m4t3r1al wh1ch r3l4t3d t0 th3 c0mm0n th3m3 of 5p1nt3r1ng 4nd 5p3c1al1z3d 14ngu4ge, bu7 br3v1ty m4d3 4 l45t s74nd. 5h0u1d 1 h4v3 0rg4n1z3d 4nd c0mp0s3d th1s?

[novice]

alt.venus.co.uk/weed/writings/poems/amthcm.htm - 3k -

I like the way this one transcends time. It gets down to business unmistakeably but in a nice way

[novice]

Sorry about that. Just Google Andrew Marvel and select "To his coy mistress.
I'm pretty sure it was written about 1620 and was immediately banned.

[Slartibartfast]

All internet newbies should be issued a copy of the Jargon file, the authoritative dictionary of net-speak.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/index.html

w00t!

[SteveDallas]

All Internet newbies should be issued a clue. A clue and, if needed, a brain. Most of em just need a clue, but every once in a while they prove to be lackingthe brain as well.

[dar512]

Whenever you learn a new language you are essentially building a new map in your brain. The map gets built as you learn to think in the new language.

Also, to continue the analogy, it is easier to learn the new map if you are familiar with the territory around it. I am a software engineer. Most computer languages are similar to each other, so learning a new one is relatively easy. It's harder, though, when the language contains new concepts because that's 'foreign territory'.

So if calculus is new territory for you, you have to learn to think in the mathematical language that describes the concepts. This is not an easy thing, so don't get discouraged.

On the perl subject, I am not surprised. The perl documentation is not that great and not particularly well organized. Get yourself a good perl book.

On poetry - I think poetry lasts not because the language is easier to read, but because the themes and concepts are timeless; love, loss, anger, pity - every generation can understand these. So, you don't have to make a new map.

One of the earliest known english poems - and one of my favorites is called Westron Wind

Westron wind when wilt thou blow?
The small rain down can rain.
Christ that my love were in my arms,
and I in my bed again.

The only thing you need to know to appreciate that poem is that, in England, the only good weather comes from the West. Anything else is bad weather (in this case drizzle).

[wolf]

That sounded familiar, and then I realized why ... I listened to Steeleye Span singing that night before last ... I have two of their CDs loaded in my car.

You're right ... pretty much timeless.

[hot_pastrami]

Originally posted by Torrere
[Speaking of which, the way to find something you don't know much about using a search engine is to crawl. Start off with a seed that you are aware of, and search for that, read the documents it finds, learn new ideas and the words which represent them, search for those, and eventually you will find either what you're looking for, or something more interesting.]

Well, there is a better way. The mighty Google provides the tilde ("~") operator. Place this character before a given word when searching, and Google expands your search to include synonyms to that word. For example, a search for the term "~beverage" also contains results for "Alcohol," "Drink," etc. This handy little operator helps to knock down the jargon-barrier a little.

Also, the "Groups" section of Google is a goldmine of information, especially when searching for information on topics one knows little about, because it contains questions from both everyday people, and jargon-slinging geeks. I've found answers to complex Perl and Java questions there, as well as instructions on how to fix my broken furnace. Good stuff.

Google kicks all kinds of searching ass.

[xoxoxoBruce]

All the subcultures is this country have there own language. But I've been exposed to an awful lot of them and found much of it is just unique slang for things that already have a name in common English. Sure, new technologies create new terms, but a lot of it is fluff.