Broken Phone

[Don Wiggins <dwiggins@BFSEC.BT.CO.UK>]

le poi spofu fonxa ku'o selkei

The following description is the game that I will call 'Broken Phone'.  This
will distinguish it from 'Chinese Whispers' which works on the same
principle but is the English-only.  This game allows intermediate languages
that are not English.

The initiator of the game selects a passage in English, a list of players
and the intermediate languages.  The initiator translates the passage into
lojban and sends it, along with the list of players and the languages, to the
person next on the list.  All subsequent players translate the passage into
the specified language and pass it along to the next player.  When the
last player completes their translation we compare the outcome with the
original.

When one receives the text: translate the passage, send to the next person on
the list, cc it to the initiator.  The initiator will give a summary at the
end.

And suggests allowing oneself about a week to do the translation.
Unfortunately, this game is more fragile than Chinese Whispers in that if one
person is unable to manage a translation the chain will be broken, but that is
the price to be paid for being on the leading edge.

I feel that having players translate into their native language, especially
if they are only learning lojban, will be much easier than attempting a
translation to English.  Hence, I will leave out Klingon for the time being,
unless it is explicitly wanted (I think that going through Klingon is likely
to have some very strange effects).  The task of translating non-native
language into lojban is not as taxing as the reverse process.

The players are:

Name    Address                              Native        Fluent     Other
----    -------                              ------        ------     -----
And     ucleaar@ucl.ac.uk                    English
Goran   topic@STUDENT.MATH.HR                Croatian      English
Don     dwiggins@bfsec.bt.co.uk              English                  Spanish
Chris   cbogart@netcom.com                   English                  Spanish
Iain    I.Alexander@bra0125.wins.icl.co.uk   English
Jorge   jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU                Spanish       English
Dylan   dpt@MATH.BERKELEY.EDU                English                  French
Ivan    IAD@BGEARN.BITNET                    Bulgarian(?)  English    Russian
Cyril   *                                    Russian       English

Everyone is assumed to be proficient in lojban.  One's native language is the
most desirable target for translation, followed by the fluent languages.  The
other languages are appropriate only as the source of translation into lojban.

I will initiate a round of Broken Phone at the start of next week, to start
things rolling, using this order:

1. Don            dwiggins@bfsec.bt.co.uk
     | lojban
2. Jorge          jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
     | Spanish
3. Chris          cbogart@netcom.com
     | lojban
4. And            topic@STUDENT.MATH.HR
     | English
5. Dylan          dpt@MATH.BERKELEY.EDU
     | lojban
6. Cyril          *
     | Russian
7. Ivan           IAD@BGEARN.BITNET
     | lojban
8. Iain           I.Alexander@bra0125.wins.icl.co.uk
     | English
9. Goran          topic@STUDENT.MATH.HR
     | lojban
     V

If there is anyone who is interested in joining the chain, just send me your
details (name; email address; native, fluent and other languages) and I will
re-post this information to the list at regular intervals.

co'o

Don Wiggins dwiggins@bfsec.bt.co.uk

-----------------------------------

Cyril, can you send me your email address as I haven't got it anywhere.