To the Chennai-Philadelphia
videoconference project's front
webpage.
To the project's texts
and recordings webpage.
To the project's program
webpage.
Thoughts about last year's,
and this year's, Chennai-Philadelphia
Videoconferences
about Tamil Children's Songs-chants-dances-games, and Language Learning.
This year's
videoconference (with live webcast) is
scheduled for 11am-12:30pm (Philadelphia
time), Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005.
_________________________________________
Sunday, Sept. 25,
2005
An incomplete version of the Oct. 15 program is
posted here.
The Oct. 15 videoconference -- which can last for up to
90 minutes -- is scheduled to consist of
two halves:
The first half will consist of
peformances of, and discussions about, the childrens'
traditional songs-games.
The second half of the videoconference will consist of Tamil language
practice, especially
in the form of question-and-answer, back-and-forth exchanges.
There will be opportunities here for puppet-play and play-acting.
In last year's videoconference, we in Chennai did not have the chance
to perform all 14 of the song-games that we have collected; this time
we would like to perform all 14. Links to the words and video
recordings (from the village) of these activities are posted on the texts
and recordings webpage.
These recordings are of the children in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari
district. This year the children on the Chennai side of the
videoconference will be a mix of Kanyakumari district children, and
Chennai children, so the dialects of the games we show from Chennai
might be a little easier to understand.
Regarding the word-games/exercises that we will practice in the second
half of the program:
The real test for a word-game is whether-or-not the children can easily
learn it, and if they like to play it.
Perhaps explain some of the proposed word-games/exercises to children
in your community, and see if they like them. They might suggest
some
changes to these exchanges, so as to make them easier and more fun for
them to play. Also, they might tell about other
word-games
(in Tamil or English) that they already play. Please tell us
about such games!
In general, please tell me which of the activities that are listed on
the second
half of the program webpage you especially like or
dislike, or if you have any suggestions for modifications or
additions. If you like, your comments will be posted here.
One reason that I am so interested in using word-games to practice
Tamil, is that I am such a slow language learner myself. I am
trying
to help to discover and develop language-learning and
language-practicing word-games that could be helpful to anyone,
including myself!
A central hypothesis of my dissertation is that children's songs-games
can help with language learning -- so I am trying to demonstrate this
as much as possible.
Alli has kindly suggested two variations of the collected traditional
word-games.
One of these we are calling, Enna
veendum? -- its words can be seen here.
This game is similar to 4) Chanthanum
(Sandalwood paste) and 5) Enna panni?
(What pig?). Therefore, perhaps Enna
veendum? could be performed before or
after these games in the
first half of the program.
The other game is a variation of what is spoken in the 3) Oru kudam thanni mondu game,
after the hands come
down and a child is caught --
> Maram kotthi kuruvi (wood pecker).
> En, en kuruvi? (what do you want?).
>
> Thalaya valikkuthu (i have a headache).
> Thalaikani pottukko (use a pillow).
>
> Vertilai vendum (i want beatle leaf).
> Veppilaya thinnukko (eat some neem leaves).
>
> Sunnambu vendum (i want white calcium paste).
> Suthi, suthi odivaa (run around and around).
The pattern here seems to be: the person on side A says what she wants,
and then the person on side B tells her what to do to get it.
This could also be performed in the first half of the videoconference,
after the first part of 3) Oru kudam
thanni mondu.
Both of these variations could be performed on the Philadelphia side
alone, or back-and-forth between the two sides. Once I get back
to Chennai two weeks from now, I will see if I can
prepare some children there to perform these and other word-games
back-and-forth
with children in Philadelphia in the videoconference.
It would be great if the children on the USA side might also once again
perform some of the traditional children's songs-dances-games that they
already know -- whether in Tamil, English, or a combination.
If the Philadelphia and Chennai versions of Tamil songs-games are very
different (in dialect, melody, action, etc.), perhaps people on one
side could show their version first, and then people on the other side
could show theirs.
If the children could perform any of the traditional games together --
like they
did last year with 3) Oru kudam
thanni mondu -- that would be wonderful!
It would also be great if the children (and parents?) on the
Philadelphia side might again demonstrate some songs-games that are
partly or fully in English, such as Ring
around the rosie, and Head
and shoulders, knees and toes.
Last year, Ring around the rosie
worked very well with the people on
the Philadelphia side saying the words, and the people on the Chennai
side acting out those words. This activity also gave a good
display of the time delay: the people in Philadelphia saw the childen
in Chennai falling down a second-or-two after the line had been spoken
in Philadelphia.
Also last year, Enna biscuit, enna
jam? and some Tamil (or combined Tamil and English?)
finger-counting games were done on the Philadelphia side.
It would be great if all of these games could be done again by people
on the Philadelphia side this year. We would have to decide upon
where in the program they would appear.
Perhaps particular Philadelphia children could plan to lead and
demonstrate certain songs-games, and teach them to us in Chennai.
For example, I think that the Chennai children would be interested to
see and learn any hand-clapping games.
As the children on the Chennai side of the videoconference will all
know spoken Tamil, in the second half of the videoconference I guess
the children in Chennai will be in the role of language
coaches, or practice-partners -- but if we can come up with good games,
perhaps it will also be a challenge for them to play the games.
For at least part of the time, I think it would be good to again use
the method of keeping the camera focused on a central place, and having
the children who wish to speak move into, and sit down in, that
place. Moving into that central space would be like raising one's
hand, indicating that one wants to take a turn.
The children seemed to like the animal puppets last year -- the tiger
in Chennai, and the lion and bear in Philadelphia. If the
children in Philadelphia might like to use, or make, other puppets
also, that would be wonderful! If this is done, please keep me
posted, so I could get the children in Chennai to make corresponding
puppets.
Likewise with costumes -- please let me know if you are developing any,
so we in Chennai could prepare play-puppet-costume-characters that
would naturally interact with yours in Philadelphia.
In summary, in both the first and second sections of the
videoconference, I am hoping that there can be a lot of back-and-forth,
give-and-take interaction -- both visually-physically, and in terms of
spoken and sung words. I find most videoconferences I see to be
very boring, with one person on one side speaking for a long time, and
people on the other side just sitting there without speaking or
moving. I am trying to help show that videoconferencing does not
have to be
boring in this way, that it can be more conversational.
By the way, I am hoping that some people are going to watch the live
webcast of the event this year -- and that they might send in some
comments and questions by e-mail (which could be read aloud in one or
both
of the videoconferencing rooms). The link to the live webcast --
and the e-mail address for comments -- will be on the program
webpage.
_________________________________________
Sunday, Sept. 11,
2005
Dear Parents of Tamil-USA Children in the Philadelphia area, and Others,
Hello!
If you might have comments to add, please communicate them
to me -- Eric, emiller@sas.upenn.edu, 646-301-6735 -- and I will
most gratefully post them on this webpage. By the way, I am
scheduled to be here in the Philadelphia area until the end of
September, and then go to Chennai.
As a reminder: The medium we are
using in the October 2004 and 2005 events is a combination of two
processes: we are doing 1) two-party non-Internet ISDN-line
videoconferences, 2) which are webcast live onto the Internet through
this website (and recordings of these webcasts are available here for
later viewing).
As Vasu R. has kindly reminded me: A goal of discussion on this
webpage
is to determine the agenda for the upcoming Oct. 15 videoconference --
that is, to actually make a list of
activities for the event. This
would help
to train the children in advance, and also to avoid wasting time in the
videoconference itself. "The idea of relay singing,
combined play activity (like we did with tower-making for Oru kudam
thanni), storytelling, question/answer discussion etc., are some
of
such items" (e-mail, Sept. 1).
Towards this end, I am finding it interesting to compare how some of
the 14
song-dances were performed in the village in Tamil Nadu (in June 2004),
with how a version of the activity appeared in last year's
videoconference (October 2004). Two examples are:
a) Activity #3, Oru
kudam thanni (One
bucket
of water).
Here are links to the video
recording (86 sec.), and the written words,
of this singing game as
performed in the village.
Here is a link to a video
recording (35 sec.) of children from the two sides of the
videconference performing a version of this
activity collaboratively. (The left side of the screen is from
Chennai, the right side is from
Philadelphia.)
b) Activity #5, Enna
panni? (What pig?).
Here are links to a video
recording (21 sec.), and the written
words, of this question-and-answer chant as
performed in the village.
Here is a link to a video
recording (53 sec.) of one
child from each side of the videoconference holding up a hand-puppet
and engaging in a question-and-answer exchange that uses some of the
words from the Enna panni?
chant. The questions are coming
from
the Philadelphia (right) side, the answers are coming from the Chennai
(left) side. There is
coaching from adults on both sides.
A general question I have regarding the upcoming second videoconference
on this topic is: How
can each of the 14
traditional Tamil songs-games (and others) be best presented?
Can
we find more ways to facilitate: 1) collaborative performances (as
in example a, above); and 2) back-and-forth exchanges (as in example
b, above)? -- both for presenting the original activity, and also
for
using
aspects of these activities for Tamil language practice
exercises?
Might anyone have any suggestions about this?
In
the questionnaires that a number of you kindly filled out some months
ago, someone mentioned that we might
try to
do something along the lines of "relay singing," as in the Tamil TV
show, Paattukku Paattu.
Relay patterns involve successive
statements repeating parts of, or in
some other
way responding to, aspects of the previous statement.
Perhaps we could find, or make up, some relay word-games (in Tamil, and
possibly in English also) .
One way to begin developing such games might be to consider some simple
Tamil question-and-answer exchanges, such I have posted here.
Then maybe these questions-and-answers could be improvised with.
Also, might anyone know any riddles?
Activity #4, Chanthanum
(Sandalwood paste) -- village video
recording (67 sec.) and written
words
-- is a rather complex question-and-answer riddling chant. It
utilizes a
relay form.
The first line asks, "Does this action go with [actor A]?" And
the second line answers, "No, for this action, one needs [actor B]."
Then the next segment asks, "Does this other action also go with [actor
B]?" And the answer is, "No, for this other action, one needs
[actor C]." And so on.
However, it is probably not practical to seek to have a
child on the Philadelphia side try to perform this exact chant with a
child on
the Chennai side -- in part because the Tamil dialect of the chant is
from the western mountains of Kanyakumari district, and thus contains
numerous
ancient words, some of them from Malayalam language. (By
the
way, this year on the Chennai side we are planning to have a mix of
children -- some from last year's group from Kanyakumari district,
some from a school in Chennai.)
Might there some sort of riddling game in Tamil that would be
simpler?
Many thanks,
-- Eric
***
General notes:
Here is a link to the texts
and recordings webpage, which contains links to the written words,
and
video
recordings, of each of the14 song-dances, as they were performed in the
village.
Here is a link to the video
recording of last year's entire videoconference (97 min.). As
mentioned above, two highlights of that videoconference were: Oru kudam thanni being performed by
children from the two sides together (35 sec.); and a
back-and-forth verbal exchange with the puppets that began with the
question, "What do you eat?", and then used some words from the Enna panni? chant (53 sec.).
Two software programs that can be used
for this project are: 1) Realplayer (for
receiving video streams); and 2) Adobe
Acrobat reader (for viewing pdf files containing written Tamil). If one
doesn't already have these two free
programs on one's computer,
one can download them by clicking on the program names in this
paragraph.
A broadband Internet
connection is best for viewing (and listening to) the live and recorded video streams.
Please contact me if you have any difficulty receiving any of this
material.
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