Interviewed by the Queen o’ memes
August 10th, 2007So there was this interview thing going on between the various bloggers around me. You got to be asked five questions and post the answers along with the questions on your blog. The fun part is that you could tag yourself: you just had to leave ‘interview me’ as a comment in somebody else’s interview post, and that somebody would have to send you five questions for you. I knew who I wanted to be interviewed by, so I just waited until Emily was interviewed by Charlotte (who had herself been interviewed by Kit, and so forth).
But you know I can never simply do a meme: I have to make it my very own. So I decided I’d do this interview as a pencast. It takes two people to make an interview; it takes two handwritings to make a pencast interview. I therefore shamelessly asked my patient interviewer to send me her questions again, but by analog pen-and-paper mail.
You are about to discover the first pencast duet in the history of the Internet.
Your turn now: if you want me to send you tough questions (by the way, PodLily never answered my question on the speed of an unladen swallow), just let me know below. I can even re-interview people who have already been interviewed.
In fact, I am not so sure where I bought the book, but it sure was in Devon, and not far from Dartmoor.
Wonderful, wonderful answers. I wish my father (and mother), both of whom speak French fluently, had been as diligent about making their children learn French. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen, and I’m stuck with only English, because by the time the American school systems get around to teaching foreign language (I took Spanish), the language center of the brain is already fully-developed (age 14); it becomes much more difficult than it would have been if we’d been started younger, and most people don’t really learn much unless they’re really, really interested. At that age, I was much more interested in just about anything other than Spanish, and just did what I had to do to get by, so nothing stuck.
I’d like to join you when you travel back in time to live with the Indians and help them conquer the Western world. By the way, that would make a fabulous book.
I believe we need to be young to learn to speak a language, but there is no age to learn to read, write and understand a language. That said, I have not tried. Maybe I’ll try to learn mandarin Chinese and tell you about it.
If you join me for the time travel, make sure you have briefed your husband on the no-preaching requirement. We are not supposed to be missionaries.
If you know someone who wants to write books but lacks ideas for a backdrop, let me know: we’d be exactly complementary.
Wonderful, detailed answers that were a pleasure to read! It is cute that Emily mailed her written questions for the pencast duet. The questions themselves are well-chosen and unobtrusive, like a good conversation with Terri Gross.
I wish I could take part in this. Unfortunately, I am now in the midst of a major packing-and-shipping expedition. Graduation is around the corner, and Mirkwood moves east to Cambridge, MA for a job starting mid-September. I hope that when I am settled in Cambridge, there is an opportunity to do something similar.
Thanks for the compliment. Of course there will be an opportunity for you to do something similar. No need to hurry. This gives me time to read all your blog and ponder my five questions to you.
PS: I’ve downloaded your Howard’s End chapter the other day from Librivox. Now you know my handwriting and I know your voice and your accent (vich I taughd voud be tickel).
Love the pencast duet and your answers. I think encouraging children’s enchantment is a wonderful goal. I’m hoping to do the same with my three.
Speaking of enchantment, I am still hoping I will be able to hear your “I am from” podcast before I die
To me, and probably to most children, descriptions of Africa are a wonderland of enchantment (if it’s not a pleonasm).