[lg policy] UK: 'Klingon' helps Milton Keynes man deal with dyslexia

[Harold Schiffman]

'Klingon' helps Milton Keynes man deal with dyslexia

Fan at a Star Trek convention Klingon was described by Mr Brown as a
"very straightforward" language


A Milton Keynes man has revealed how translating "Klingon" has helped
him deal with dyslexia.  Jonathan Brown, 50, of Furzton spent 12 years
learning the fictional language of the alien race from Star Trek
films. Then, after being appointed as the lead "linguist" on a CD for
others wanting to learn it, he found a different way of dealing with
words. He said: "It helped me identify my problem and found a way of
working with my dyslexia." Their language was invented by Marc Okrand,
for use in some of the films.

But rather than just inventing a few words to make them sound alien,
he devised a complete language, with its own vocabulary, grammar, and
usage. Mr Brown, who is married with two children, said that he always
loved the original TV series and first became interested in the
language after discovering there was a Klingon dictionary. "I had to
buy it just to see what was going on. Then reading it and learning it,
it was just so much fun.

"There are no niceties in Klingon, I think that's why a lot of people
like it, it's very straightforward." translated scripts A member of
the Klingon Language Institute, he translated all the scripts for the
CD and was then involved in the recordings. He explained how he has
always had difficulty with reading and also has what he describes as
"name blindness" but while doing this work he realised that he could
use a different part of his brain.

"Dyslexia is not something you get over, you live with it. It's not
necessarily a hindrance, you just learn different ways to pick things
up.
"Working on the translation has helped me understand where I've been
having problems all my life with languages, I realised I'd been trying
to remember the words in the name part of my brain and because I can't
remember names, I can't remember the words.

"With the Klingon language games used on the CD, I tended to put words
into a different place and it went into my long term memory.
"I've still got a long way to go to speak it fluently, but there are
many people who do."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-15122597

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents.
Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal,
and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message.
 A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman,
Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list