Re: Broken Phone

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

I have initiated the broken phone game.  Paulo has joined us and I have
re-arranged the order.  Things would obviously have been to easy to have Jorge
translating into Spanish :-) so I have put him to translate out of Portuguese
(I hope you don't mind, Jorge).


1.  Don            dwiggins@bfsec.bt.co.uk
      | lojban
2.  Paulo          barreto%velahf@eccsa.tr.unisys.com
      | Portuguese
3.  Jorge          jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU
      | lojban
4.  And            topic@STUDENT.MATH.HR
      | English
5.  Dylan          dpt@MATH.BERKELEY.EDU
      | lojban
6.  Cyril          slobin@FEAST.FE.MSK.RU
      | Russian
7.  Ivan           IAD@BGEARN.BITNET
      | lojban
8.  Iain           I.Alexander@bra0125.wins.icl.co.uk
      | English
9.  Goran          topic@STUDENT.MATH.HR
      | lojban
10. Chris          cbogart@netcom.com
      | English
      V


|
| lu spofu fonxa li'o cmene le 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   slobin@FEAST.FE.MSK.RU              Russian       English    German
|                                                                      Esperanto
| Paulo   barreto%velahf@eccsa.tr.unisys.com  Portuguese    English    German
|                                                           Spanish    Italian
|                                                           Esperanto  French
|
| 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:

<See above>

| 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
|