[Week 5] Essay - Ease of Reading

My notes for the Ease of Reading exercise:

1. 2/10 (no punctuation and improper capitalization)    7. 1/10 (caps, proper punctuation)

2. 2/10 (no punctuation, no capitalization, run-on)        8. 1/10 (no caps, proper punctuation)

3. 6/10 (no spaces)                                                          9. 7/10 (like #6 but with periods)

4. 2/10 (caps, no punctuation)                                        10. 4/10 (no spaces, every word is capitalized)

5. 4/10 (no spaces, caps each sentence)                         11. 3/10 (all words capitalized, no punctuation)

6. 8/10 (caps, no spaces, words continue to next line)     12. 4/10 (no spaces, punctuation)

(Japanese text from Wikimedia Commons)

                Number 6 was by far the hardest joke for me to read. The combination of all capitalized words, no spaces, and text that wraps around to the next line without any indication (like a dash) was brutal to my eyes. As someone who tends to skim too much, not having a visible word boundary almost makes it impossible for me to read. I don’t really mind the capitalization, though. With numbers 4, 7, and 11, I had little trouble reading because of the caps, regardless of whether or not punctuation was used. By far, the easiest texts for me to handle were the ones that had either spaces or punctuation (or both).

                I find it interesting that I have so much trouble reading text in English that doesn’t have spaces. As I’ve said in my blog several times, my second language is Japanese. It’s a language that is written in two different syllabaries (similar to an alphabet) with Chinese characters thrown in, and spaces aren’t used in writing. Sometimes I have trouble figuring out where Japanese words end and begin, but in general I can read quickly without trouble. I think this has something to do with the differences in writing systems. In Japanese, the first syllabary, Hiragana, is primarily used for grammar. The second, Katakana, is used for loan words and onomatopoeia. Chinese characters are used for nouns, adjectives, verbs, and basically anything that isn’t a conjunction, part of morphology, etc.

                English, on the other hand, has one alphabet for everything. When things run together they just look like a jumbled up mess of consonants and vowels instead of actual text. Although it’s difficult at times, maybe having three ways of writing in Japanese helps the brain quickly distinguish between parts of speech which makes reading without spaces easier. I’m taking a Chinese class right now and I can’t wait to become more advanced so that I can see if reading in Chinese is difficult despite having one writing system and no spaces. 

[Week 5] Storytelling - What Happened in the Well

Author's Note: I had trouble getting inspiration from the Turkish Tales unit, so I decided to try to rewrite a bit of The Imp of the Well from the wife's perspective. For those of you who haven't read it, the story begins with a man being followed by his wife after he tries to hide some money from her to buy himself a rope. The wife is unhappy and follows after and ends up falling into a well. The man tries to save her by dropping a rope down but he ends up pulling up the imp instead. 

(Illustration by Willy Pogany)

                A rope? A rope?! All of this happened because he wanted to buy a stupid rope?! I’m sitting at the bottom of a well, arguing with an imp, because my good-for-nothing husband was hiding money from me to buy a rope. Thankfully the imp keeps this place stocked like a normal home. There’s a kitchen of sorts with enough produce and salt to make a decent meal. A little bed made out of straw, and a shelf full of junk displayed like knick-knacks. How he got these things, I don’t know. Seeing as how I managed to trip into this well, I wouldn’t be surprised if people’s possessions fall in here all the time.

                You may be wondering why I’m arguing with an imp. Well, I did happen to land on him when I fell into the well. He’s fine, though, I barely hit him. Just crushed him a little bit. With my entire body. So he’s a little bit upset about that. But that wasn’t even my fault, it was my idiot husband’s fault. I also told him I’d cook up the veggies he’s been collecting down here for a nice dinner. He seemed appeased until he actually ate my delicious masterpiece of a soup. Complained that it’s too salty. Rude little shriveled up creature. We’ll see if I use any salt next time. He’s just like that husband of mine. Who, by the way, has yet to show that he even cares that his lovely wife is stuck at the bottom of a well with a terrible, hideous beast.

                Oh! A rope fell right before my very eyes from the opening of the well. I could faintly hear my husband shouting for me to grab hold of the rope. He didn’t forget me! He’s not entirely useless, I suppose! I try reaching for the dangling life-saver, but the imp slaps my hand away.

                “You crushed me, you used all of my food to make a disgusting, salty soup, and you think you deserve this chance at freedom?! I don’t think so. You’re just a miserable old hag, anyway.” The imp screamed at me as he got his grubby little fingers around the rope.

                I grabbed his entire body and threw him to the floor. “That’s my husband up there calling for me, not you! I’m a young, beautiful, talented maiden who doesn’t deserve to be trapped in a dark, dank, hellhole like this!”

                I must say my one and only flaw is my fiery temper. That’s what drew my husband to me in the first place, I think. Nobody can resist such a rebellious, independent woman. I would never even have thought of it as a flaw before, had this very interaction with the imp not taken place. I squeezed my eyes shut and stomped my feet while I ranted and raved at the little thing. When I finally open my eyes and took in my surroundings, all I saw was the faint figure of the imp being pulled up by the rope to freedom. Oops.

Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos, with illustrations by Willy Pogany (1913).

[Week 5] Reading Diary - Turkish

Notes from the Turkish Tales unit

Fear

-A boy searches for fear. Along the way, he runs into terrifying situations but he doesn't feel fear. Maidens drink to his health for his courage.

Fear (cont.)

-The boy is rewarded and declared shah but he still wants to search for fear. The people thought that he would be dead by morning, but found him in good health. During the morning celebration, a bird flies out of his soup bowl. He is startled and is told that that is fear.

The Wizard-Dervish

-A wizard gives a troubled king an apple to help him have a child. He says the child will belong to him (the wizard) after his 20th birthday. On the prince's wedding day, the wizard comes and takes him away. He follows the instructions of a girl who takes the form of a dove and is then married to her.

The Wizard-Dervish (cont.)

-The boy and the maiden keep putting on disguises to dodge the boy's mother. They get to an inn and the boy somehow returns to the palace and is reminded not to forget the maiden so he gets a cart and takes her back to the palace and they are wed.

The Fish-Peri

-A young man catches a fish that he deems to beautiful to eat or sell so he puts it in a well at his house. He discovers that it can come out of its skin and become a beautiful woman, so he burns the skin and marries the woman. A king falls in love with the wife at first sight and tells the man that unless he can build an impossible palace for him, he will take his wife and make her his own. The wife isn't worried and tells the man what to do.

The Fish-Peri (cont.)

-A palace, bridge, and a feast are made for the king. Now, he wanted to see an infant who was a day old but could speak and talk. A speaking baby is brought to the king and it hits him. The king gives up and lets the man have his wife.

The Crow-Peri

-With the help of a crow, a boy catches a beautiful bird and sells it to the king. The king's lala suggests putting it in an ivory kiosk but the king doesn't have ivory, so he demands that the boy get it for him within 40 days. The crow helps again by having the boy kill elephants for their ivory. 

The Crow-Peri (cont.)

-The boy is tasked with finding the bird's original owner. The crow helps the boy by telling him to get a ship to bring the fairy queen who owned the bird to the king. The king and queen meet and fall in love and are married, but the lala is mad. The queen falls sick and the king tasks the boy with getting her medicine, which he gets from the fairies. The crow turns out to be the fairy queen's former servant and is married to the boy.

Patience-Stone and Patience-Knife

-A bird comes to a woman three times while she's home alone and tells her that her kismet is with a dead person. She and her mom are disturbed, but one day the girl goes out with friends who promise not to take their eyes off of her. The girl gets trapped in a wall in which a door appears. There is a man who says if she fans him for forty days and prays, she will find her kismet.

Patience-Stone and Patience-Knife (cont.)

-The girl fans the man and sees an Arab girl. She asks her to take over for a while and in that time the man wakes up and declares the Arab girl his wife. The trapped woman is used as a cook. She asks for a patience stone and patience knife and the man goes on a journey to find them. She uses the knife and stone to retell her story. The Arab girl dies and the bird returns and tells the other girl that she has found her kismet.

The Imp of the Well

-While following her husband, a woman falls down a well. The man goes to the well intending to rescue his wife with a rope but instead ends up pulling up an imp. The imp is angry because it was disturbed when the man's wife fell onto him, and now he's thankful that the man pulled him out. The imp says he'll get the sultan's daughter sick and gives the man the cure to give the padishah in exchange for money.

The Imp of the Well (cont.)

-The man forgets his wife. He gives the padishah the cure for this daughter. The sultan's daughter is married to the man. While on his way to help another princess, the man runs into the imp who threatens to take his new wife away from him if he helps this other princess. The man lies and says the woman from the well is his wife and she got out and is following them. Then imp runs away and the princess is cured.

The Soothsayer

-After seeing how the wives of soothsayers are treated, a woman tells her husband that he must become a soothsayer. He pretends to be a hodja and tells the chief soothsayer's wife where her missing ring is (it was planted for him). She loses her ring again when a slave steals it and tells the man to find it. The slave is afraid and tells him she has it. The man tells the slave what to do with the ring and has it planted in a goose, which he tells the king to kill to find the ring inside. He becomes a famous hodja.

The Wizard and his Pupil

-A boy becomes apprentice to a magician. The magician changes himself into animals and tells the boy to sell him but to keep the rope he has tied to him. The boy does so but ends up running away and turning himself into a bath house. The magician buys the key to the "bath house" from the mother. The boy changes into a bird and the magician chases him to a king's palace, where the boy eventually kills the magician. The boy is appointed grand vezir and is married to the king's daughter.

The Liver

-A girl is sent to the market to buy liver but a stork steals it. It tells her that it needs barley to give her the liver but the farmer needs her to pray for rain to get the barley. Next, she needs incense to pray. It continues on like this with the girl having to do different tasks. She ends up getting the liver back. 

Madjun

-A boy asks his mother to go to the padishah to try to get the princess for him. The padishah says he will let the boy marry his daughter if he can gather all the birds in the world together in one spot. He meets a dervish who tells him how to gather all the birds. Next, the padishah tells him to grow hair. In the meantime, the princess is betrothed to someone else. The boy freezes the princess and her would-be husband. He also freezes her slave who went to check on them. He ends up freezing a lot of people. A hodja tells the padishah that he has to marry his daughter to the boy. They are married and the people are unfrozen. 

Kunterbunt

-The strange story of three brothers who keep running into three things (two being the same and one being different just like them). In the end, it turns out to be a dream.