The basic form of the game is very simple, and easily learnt: Copycat! One person is the game leader and presents the action through hand signs and sounds – the hand signs are either invented on the spot or borrowed from a suitable sign language. American Sign Language is one of the sources for the signs. The sounds are actual words in a language that the leader speaks fluently – at least on the topic. By copying signs and sounds, the other players start to pick up the language, and something crazy happens, and all of a sudden everyone can speak the language.

Along the way, players who know the game can employ various techniques that’ll accellerate learning.

I’ve been playing Japanese and Danish with a fellow I met on the Google group, and we’re having a blast. I’ll try to remember to document our progress here on the blog.

After two hours, Ben can identify four objects (red pen, black pen, rock and ball), and knows how to ask and answer questions to increase and confirm his knowledge. We’re currently working on fluency towards the goal conversation of have/want/give/take. This conversation has a lot of grammatical content, and is what is called the Universal Speed Curriculum.

Last time, we did a technique (TQ): No Pressure Refresher, where we went over the stuff he already knew before going into new territory. Then, I tried to go over definite nouns, but we had some difficulties, so I’ll have to think about a better setup. TQ: Setup is important in WAYK, because you want everything to be TQ: Obviously! – with the right setup, it is always obvious what you’re saying, especially if you add TQ: Bite-sized Pieces only.

Want to try? Give me a hollar on skype (arnesostack) or google+ (Arne Sostack), and I’ll see what we can do. I’m probably also looking to learn YOUR language.

Check out http://whereareyourkeys.org/ for an introduction from the inventor, Evan Gardner, or see some of the videos of people having a blast playing a silly game of copycat and sneaking a language into their brains at the same time.

Also, I’ve set up a phpBB for the forums. Old posts are not lost, just not publicly available. If you want them, let me know and I’ll see what I can do to move them across.

Jiu jitsu wise, I went through jigo waza again last Tuesday, not a lot of new stuff coming up there, which is good, I guess. I’ve been through nage waza with John, and ude gatame as well. ashi gatame and kyosho are areas I should work on now, I think. Oh, and check out the new web page for our jiu jitsu club, my design and text in Danish.

Go here!

Turns out my server has been hacked by some Italian, who used the opportunity to upload a phishing site to my mother’s web site. For an Italian bank. To those affected, I’m terribly sorry.

The site was up from a Sunday at 4pm until the day after at noon, where my ISP kindly responded to a complaint about the phishing site by pulling the plug on my internet connection.

I’m thoroughly disappointed with people.

Long story short, I’ve decided to no longer run my own online server. I’ve moved whee.dk to a webhotel at http://surftown.dk (If you’re shopping for hotel space and find surftown to your liking, drop me a note, as I have this kind of link that’ll give you a discount and me a bonus )

Other sites that I hosted will have to find their own new homes. I’ve offered help moving the ones I could think of, and at least the Wyrden comic is getting closer to having a new home over at http://hellionsart.com/ – I’ll post an actual link some time soon.

In the meantime, I’ve become webmaster for http://sccdk.com/ – I’ve built them a new site, and am actively handling content as provided by board members and others. It’s based on http://WordPress.org/, a blogging system I’ve come to like very much.