Go check out x..k...cd? xckd?
It's only when I go to use some words out loud that I realise how ridiculous they sound. How silly it is when you try to say them rather than type. I've been reading English for over sixteen years now, and although there are some words in the langugage I struggle to pronounce, they are few and far between. But when typing and reading, it's a different situation, as I do use words that simply are unidentifyable by the convention of pronunciation. These little acronyms have been created to make typing life easier, or more quirky.
If I see xkcd on a page, I know immediately what it means, and similarly with bbtmn. That is, I know what it refers to, but I don't know what the letters stand for, if anything, and since they are devoid of vowels or any sort of phonetic construction, to try to speak these outloud without spelling them is virtually impossible.
If I see xkcd on a page, I know immediately what it means, and similarly with bbtmn. That is, I know what it refers to, but I don't know what the letters stand for, if anything, and since they are devoid of vowels or any sort of phonetic construction, to try to speak these outloud without spelling them is virtually impossible.
Once you get past the reading-out-loud stage of education, it's hard to describe or understand the concept of exactly how people read in their heads. Do you read each word or do you recognise it? It's possible to grasp the meaning of a phrase without having to dissect the sentence word for word. Often, you can't see a word you know and not read it, it's a learnt reaction, which is one of the ideas behind this experiment.
Having seen this programme advertised, along with spending time reading with children under eight, it's interesting to see how people learn to read. Reading and writing are abilities that come so naturally to most adults that it's not easy to imagine how a person could not be literate, or that five million people in the UK have a reading age of less than a 12 year old. It's only going back to primary school and struggling to recall my ah, buh, curly ker phonetics that I can appreciate that although my aye, bee, see comes easily now, learning the alphabet and how to spell had to start somewhere.
"How do you spell tissue?"
"T..i..sh..oo...?"
On the jukebox: Jackson 5 ~ ABC
I think perhaps the easiest way to comprehend it is by being exposed to a language that uses a different alphabet to ours. I went to Greece last summer, and suddenly big epsilons were no longer used to denote the sum of something but were actually capital Ss in words that I had to spell out!
ReplyDeleteI agree, Lucy - being in the presence of another language certainly helps.
ReplyDeleteThis brings back memories of the time I started learning English...I had such trouble learning how to write and spell!
It's interesting this - I've come across a few children in school who unlike the rest of their class mates struggle to read as well as they 'should' be at their age. I asked one child if they'd like to read just a sentence to me and they replied 'I can't' and despite my attempts to get them to read for me.
ReplyDeleteI can now more easily understand why some people struggle to read and some find it almost impossible to. It's hard to spend enough one on one time with a child in school that time is needed at home - getting them to read aloud. So many parents don't bother to do with their child, it's quite outrageous. 15minutes of reading at home a night or every two days would make all the different.
I'll get off my soap box now ;o)
xxx
Also did Dickie ever tells us what bbtmn means? I remember asking him but I seem to remember he refused to tell us...unless I'm wrong.
ReplyDeleteYou know xkcd and bbtmn aren't acronyms, right? :-p
ReplyDelete@mia: I gather English is not your mother tongue? When did you start learning it?
ReplyDelete@hannah: it is partly that which made me think, though I mainly had experience with fairly competent readers, it's still weird finding some struggling with something that seems so obvious to others. I agree - whether kids read at home makes a lot of difference.
One of my friends couldn't read until she was seven. She used to think that reading was memorising the books and then repeating them. How can a child get to that point? She is most intelligent and linguistically able now, which makes it all the more bizarre.
@dickie: Did I say that they were? :P
And yes, please do enlighten us on the reason behind bbtmn...
You're right - it isn't!
ReplyDeleteI started learning it at the age of seven - a whole ten years ago now!
Tbh I didn't like it at all in the beginning, I could never get the letters right...
"Today, I have used an acronym.
ReplyDeleteGo check out x..k...cd? xckd? "
It's implied, surely? :-p
"or that five million people in the UK have a reading age of less than a 12 year old"
Are they all less than 12 years old? :-p
Anyway, pedantry/awkwardness aside, I really don't know why more people don't read. But then, I've always been into books and reading (Mum started teaching my brothers and me before we started school. The Cat in the Hat ftw!)
Yes, the implication was there, but my trusty motto stands: never assume, which is why I was careful to use "words" rather than acronyms for the subsequent examples. The acronym referred to in the first sentence, albeit not by direct statement, was in fact "es-tee-em-tee-em" which is an acronym :D
ReplyDeleteFurthermore "These little acronyms" refer to uses such as TFW FTW! or momsm or ttoyf which are all useful on a day-to-day basis ;)
You got me on the people thing though. Insert adults instead :P
Also, if you're in for the pedantry, it never stops "my brothers and I", should it not say? :P
ReplyDeleteI like to read. Probably not a surprise, given how much I write on here.
I do count myself lucky to have a beach in my city. When I got my job and learned that it was right next to this city I KNEW this was where I wanted to live :)
ReplyDeleteAs for how we read, you're right. Current theories say that by adulthood normal readers recognize most words. They only sound out words that they have never encountered. And even then, it's not letter by letter. You chunk it, like stearamidopropyl registers something like stear-ami-do-propyl. Msot audlt raedres can raed snetenecs eevn wehn teh lettres of teh wrods are miexd up bceuase the shpaes of cmomon wrods bcecmoe so fmaliar to teh mnid.
Of course with children, they are learning HOW to read, so it's not that simple. Some of those chunks are still foreign, so they have to fall back on sounding out each letter. And of course in English, each letter might have several different sounds, so it becomes a guessing game without direct teaching of those chunks. And if they try to read something that has more of those foreign chunks than they are ready for, that's how they get frustrated.
--Amber
Also, if you're in for the pedantry, it never stops "my brothers and I", should it not say? :P
ReplyDeleteNope :P You wouldn't say "Mum started teaching I", so it's "my brothers and me" or "me and my brothers".
...and that's why should I should stick with science...
ReplyDeleteme and my brothers
ReplyDeleteI think.
Now look what you've started off, Dickie..!
On a totally unrelated note, Flix...your "if you can find me, you can add me" thing referring to FB, which I was purely being nosy at, is now driving me up the wall. I presumed ages ago that Flix was not your real name (I'd guess Felicity or something...?!) but then a while ago you said something that suggested it actually was. And there's one Flix on Facebook that could be you, but she has no friends, and that seems...odd.
ReplyDeleteTo break from the grammar fun for a second...
ReplyDeleteMy parents used to read to me before I could read and read to them afterward. I know I recognise words rather than read themm, unless they are long and need breaking up. If there is something like a sign with a couple of short lines on it I'll read the whole sign in one look, without looking at words at all.
I can't do the same with Dutch reading (my other language) as I was never taguth to read Dutch. I have to read and then 'speak' each word in my head to get the sentence to fit together, and it's very slow in comparison to reading english. I can understand why people who couldn't 'recognition-read' would have a hard time overcoming the frustration of having to use reading reading to learn from.
I also think the mixed up letters in words is very interesting. as long asd the first and last sounds are the same as the original word, it pretty much doesn't matter what order things are in in the centre of the word. Dyslexics, I belive, find it easier to read mixed up words than normal ones. Correct me if I'm wrong.
They did a timed colours/words thing in the neuropsych tests on Everest as part of determining cognitive function, so it's obviously an indicator of something. Couldn't tell you more though, except I find it unreasonably hard!
@ Dickie: Why was the forum bbtFn (I think it was that anyway) if there is not some kind of acronym-type meaning to things?
Claire, I noticed that little addition to the page as well!
ReplyDeleteMakes me realise that with all the information I have put into blogs over the years, someone *could* probably find me on Facebook pretty easily, even though I took a load of stalker-susceptible information off my site a year or so ago. This was after someone, albeit with my knowledge, stalked me remarkably efficiently...
But hiding your name, not explicitly giving out location information, and not having any 'real-life' friends on the blog probably helps!
Seeing as my blog name is my name, anyone could find me easily, but oddly it doesn't really bother me! The 'block' function is a good one.
ReplyDeleteLucy, I could find you, but only because I know your surname thanks to being friends with Callan.