A Revelation

[bloodyrosemccoy]

I think I’ve finally put my finger on just what, exactly, feels so wrong about my having joined a liberry teen-focus group: lack of understanding of the basic goal of getting teenagers to read.

All I’m saying is, I was the teenager who inspired whole panels of teachers, counselors, and parents to convene in order to figure out how to get me to stop reading.

I may be out of my depth here.

Comments

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I also identify rather strongly with Tiffany Aching: She'd read the dictionary all the way through. No one told her you weren't supposed to. Both because of her tendency to read anything that gets in her way, and her later difficulty in pronouncing the words she'd only read.

[hrhleia.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have that problem all the time. There are tons of words I know the meaning and use of, but the way I would pronounce them in my head is not correct. Unfortunately, I usually only discover this when I say them wrongly in front of people. If they are feeling generous, I only get a funny look and correction instead of laughter. It would happen more often, but most of them aren't used in daily conversation.

I didn't usually get caught up in the dictionary, but I did in the encyclopedia every time. The only reason I haven't fulfilled my goal of reading the whole thing is a lack of time, and that they aren't as portable as most novels.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention "island"--that's one I learned from video games, actually. I was very small when I started playing Super Mario World, and in charge of reading the text to my smaller siblings. Mom happened to walk by just as I authoritatively read, "Yoshi's Is-land," and she explained to me that it was "island," which is spelled funny.

I took a college freshman seminar on science fiction once, and we spent the first week on the subject of How To Pick Up What A Sci-Fi Word Means Using Contextual clues. I was surprised that this needed explaining, but then I treat sci-fi words like any word I don't understand--and it's something that doesn't even happen consciously at this point.