British School Offers Elvish Lessons

Adair writes "A school in Birmingham, England is offering its students weekly after-hours lessons in Sindarin, a conversational form of Elvish invented by J.R.R. Tolkien and based on Welsh sounds." It won't be long now until the Klingon to Elvish translation books are produced.

Comments

if women like liv tyler go there

[phaetonic]

i'll be there as well.

Re:if women like liv tyler go there

[beamin]

More likely a bunch of unwashed geeks in funny clothes...

Re:if women like liv tyler go there

[Nimloth]

I don't see who could've been better, except maybe Natalie Portman...

Re:if women like liv tyler go there

[Ganennon]

I wouldn't agree with "stupid", except I saw her hair in the Oscar-thingy. Sad.

Re:if women like liv tyler go there

[turgid]

Tyler makes me think "heavy," "slow" and, forgive me, "stupid."

Quite. Just look at her father. I'm surprised she isn't more ugly. And another thing: isn't he just Mick Jagger with an American accent? Like Janet Jackson is just Michael dressed up as a girl?

Re:if women like liv tyler go there

[nehril]

we are fast approaching the day when we can dispense with the traditional engineering/comp sci stepping stones and skip straight to a degree in Modern Geek.

Next year: "Role Playing Dice Combinatorics" and "Galaxy-Class Starship Design and Trivia"

Re:if women like liv tyler go there

[slipgun]

Like Janet Jackson is just Michael dressed up as a girl?

Isn't Michael normally dressed up as a girl anyway?

Re:if women like liv tyler go there

[MartinB]

Like Janet Jackson is just Michael dressed up as a girl?

Well have you ever seen them in the same room together?

Re:if women like liv tyler go there

[CTachyon]

Like Janet Jackson is just Michael dressed up as a girl?

Whoa there! Just whoa! Janet Jackson is actually Michael in disguise? That's just sick and wrong.

I mean, everyone knows it's *LaToya* who's actually Michael.

Re:if women like liv tyler go there

[wideBlueSkies]

>>Next year: "Role Playing Dice Combinatorics" and "Galaxy-Class Starship Design and Trivia"

How about a series of expert taught classes in Light Saber design? :)

wbs.

Re:if women like liv tyler go there

[Frogbert]

Well some of us don't think about things like that.
</roadtrip>

Brum

[RobertTaylor]

With the dodgyness of the Birmingham brummie accent do they really need / want to be doing this?

I am Robert Taylor. I AM the President.

Re:Brum

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

With the dodgyness of the Birmingham brummie accent do they really need / want to be doing this?

Perhaps it's a practical joke, English humour can be quite obscure and hard to understand for non-British people.

Given that this new language involves Welsch in some form, I'd say there's a fair chance it's a joke actually...

Re:Brum

[randomblast]

The Beeb?
Make a joke?
Hah!

Re:Brum

[turgid]

That reminds me of a joke.

Noddy Holder goes to a tailors to buy a new suit. The tailor says, "Good day sir, what can we do for you?"

"I'd like a new suit please."

"Very good sir, we have something here that might be to your liking. How about these nice purple velvet flares?"

"Super, says Holder.

"And sir, how about a nice purple velvet jacket, with flares lapels to match?"

"Excellent."

"Now, here I have a nice frilly, lacey white shirt. What does sir think of that?"

"Just what I'm looking for."

"Kipper tie, sir?"

"Oh, thanks mate, milk and two sugars please."

Oh my god

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Elvish invented by J.R.R. Tolkien and based on Welsh sounds

Does it mean it has no vowels?

This just in...

[Anonymous Coward]

Entire class beaten to near death on first day as jocks create a fake class that teaches "elvish" in a secluded barn. Pictures at 11.

Re:This just in...

[Anonymous Coward]

Entire class beaten to near death on first day as jocks create a fake class that teaches "elvish" in a secluded barn. Pictures at 11.

The battle for middle earth continues...

Zainab Thorp?

[Anonymous Coward]

Zainab Thorp, a special needs co-ordinator at Turves Green Boys' Technology College in Birmingham, is offering after-hours classes, where pupils struggle through vocabulary and verb tables.

Zainab Thorp? It that her elvish name?

So in other words...

[ruronikenshin83]

So in other words, they're offerring bullies a central location for all their dork-pummelling needs?

Oh good!

[Atzanteol]

It's about time the Elvish language is recognized internationally! Too long have the elves been scorned by western nations.

Re:Oh good!

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be eastern nations. The west no longer exists in our world.

Then what counterbalances the east and prevents the world tipping over?

So now....

[rasafras]

We'll have a legitimate excuse for not understanding what the brits say :)

Re:So now....

[starling]

The American education system?

Re:So now....

[IainMH]

If you can't understand the English speaking English, I rather think that's your problem. ;)

Geek Scale

[l810c]

We're all reading Slashdot and I imagine that we all rank pretty high on a Geek Scale of 1-10.

But these guys who learn Klingon(Add now Elvish) are out there, a solid 12 or more.

Re:Geek Scale

[fishbonez]

But these guys who learn Klingon (Add now Elvish) are out there, a solid 12 or more.

I think Gencon is probably the only place where there may actually be a need for Klingon-Elvish translators. It's a Klingon that speaks Elvish. It's an Elf that speaks Klingon. It's a hellish creature made in the darkest depths of geekdom. Run away!

Really?

[moronga]

From the article:

"The reason I'm offering the lessons is to give the boys, some of whom have special educational needs, something to boost their self-esteem."

How does getting beaten up everyday improve your self-esteem?

That quote is from the teacher, Zainab Thorp, btw. Which sounds more like a Harry Potter name to me. Maybe she should be teaching parseltongue?

Re:The secret code 8)

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

No worries Alan, I was just making fun of the Welsh because it was an occasion to do so, and if I didn't do it, somebody else would have :-)

I am in fact aware that Welsh has vowels, especially since I got a friend from Wales to read me the welsh version of that giant sign on the M4 (westbound) that used to say "welcome to Wales, please dump your rubbish in England".

What it comes down to ...

[ProfMoriarty]

is that you don't get the full effect of the "Lord of the Rings" without reading it in it's native Elvish.

Re:What it comes down to ...

[Epistax]

You're wrong. You need to read it in the original Klingon.

(/most nerdish comment, ever)

What?

[Moderation abuser]

Nah. All the other countries should learn to speak english. We can always just speak louder and slower at them when they don't uderstand.

So...

[iminplaya]

(Foster Brooks voice)Elvish has left the building?

ugh

[laurent420]

i think i need another raktajino, what kind of p'tach would want to learn elvish?

Re:ugh

[Cyno01]

Raktajino is barely Klingon, its a bastardized pujmoH federation version of the drink, which is as much "klingon coffee" as a starbucks frappuchino is earth coffee. Now prune juice on the other hand, there's a warriors drink...

Re:Fair enough.

[bj8rn]

Well, it's not as if they'll ever have to use any other language but English anyway. Everybody speaks English, even all those evil Russians in James Bond movies speak almost perfect English (usually with a terrible Russian accent). And if all Chinese speak English, then you may just as well study Sindarin instead of Chinese.

So what's elvish for

[ReadbackMonkey]

I've never kissed a girl?

Re:So what's elvish for

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no words for "I've never kissed a girl" in Elvish... it's the normal condition of all Elvish speakers, so there's no reason to discuss it.

Re:Wow

[Xpilot]

Wow, shouldn't schools concentrate on teaching real languages, that could be useful in life?

Who says Sindarin isn't useful? It's great to be able to communicate in a language few people understand. Write down confidential information in Elvish, and then minimize the damage caused if it's accidently discovered by someone else (what are the chances that someone speaks Sindarin?)

Or if you're a programmer, write down all your comments in Sindarin. That way if they fire you they'll have a headache trying to hire a replacement that also knows the language :)

Maybe it will catch on like Esperanto

[intertwingled]

Maybe Sindarin will replace Esperanto.

Elvish Kings

[Doc Ruby]

Languages like Quenya must be learned outside, among Nature. That's why the mobs go nuts when we hear the phrase "Elvish has left the building".

Re:Fair enough.

[bangular]

No it can't. It will make them really weird and widen the gap between them and reality.

Doesn't anyone remember those kids who walked around high school speaking Klingon?!? Can't we learn from history?

Re:The secret code 8)

[Anonymous Coward]

"Never ask for directions in Wales Baldrick, you'll be washing spit out of your hair for a fortnight."

Re:Klingon

[Anonymous Coward]

Elvish is better if you want to pick up babes. (Have you even seen Klingon women? Shudder. )

Re:Klingon dates me?

[Anonymous Coward]

Spartans had a lot of Klingon-like ideas and warrior poetry.

Umm, I think you mean to say that the Klingon concept has borrowed a lot from Spartan society.

The sorry state

[t_allardyce]

Im a geek, but yet i pitty them and just hope they find some girls soon.

Re:Tolkien and friends

[No. 24601]

Apparently Tolkien and some other friends used to come to his Granpa's for Sunday lunch and in the afternoon they would then sit, smoke pipes and speak to one another in a "strange language that wasn't spoken any more".

I'm there were very special leaves in those pipes.

shouldve learnt it before the movie

[xot]

it would have been more fun if the kids had learn it before the movie, then they could understand all the censored (elvish) horny talk between Aragorn and Arwen.

Re:The secret code 8)

[mlush]

even if "cwmtwrch" initially looks as terrifying as Polish.

The nice thing about Polish is that not only can you read eye charts you can also pronounce them

Re:Wow

[E_elven]

>Or if you're a programmer, write down all your comments in Sindarin.

Too late. Found in actual source ca. 1997

// tehse var is teh x taht is usaed in teh
// computeations taht is maked in teh outher
// parts of tihs porgramm mainly. in teh
// scalear vectoreis its' very godd taht teh
// var is checkd to makeing sure its not a
// worng size
void do_draw(int, int, int, float)
...

.

LOTR with Klingon subtitles?

[legomad]

yay? or not?