Conlangery Podcast (Latest Ep: #94: Face and Politeness)

[Ollock]

I think you need to cut out a lot of the hesitation moments in your podcast. It can be quite slow-going at times. Will's problem is slightly different; when he has the floor he'll sometimes make a dramatic pause, and I think it'd be better if he just got on with what he's saying.

Normally it isn't so bad but this episode the hesitation and "uuuuh" moments were so bad it interfered with communication. I still haven't finished listening to the podcast because I needed a break. I fast fowarded a little t get past some of the hestiation and it still wasn't done. But frankly Will and Bianca left George out to dry this week. Bianca didn't seem present for most of it, unless she was censored out (except for the zipper noises). Wow, that came off kinda mean and I don't mean it to be. It was just distracting was all.

(except for the zipper noises)

It always sounds like tearing paper to me; I always think of Bronson Pinchot in that horrible movie adaptation of Langoliers.

Overall I don't think the "unprofessional" noises and pauses destroy the ... "goodness" of the thing; it would be better not to have them, but I can live as-is.

Edit: Overall it sounds like sitting at a table with 3 other people and looking over some papers together.

I actually started out the podcast being really hyper about editing out pauses, hesitation markers, and repetitions, then got less interested in removing them. Now I mostly focus on audio artifacts and a few of the extra-long pauses (which I think tend to involve Skype lag). None of us are professional radio people, and none of us have much experience with audio or video performance, so we can't always fill the time properly. However, I've found there is a balance between editing out every pause and hesitation and preserving the natural flow of the conversation. There is a tendency when you edit too much to end up with choppy speech which you can tell was edited just because of the bizarre prosody. Also, episode 19 we didn't do our best because of the difficulties with this particular subject matter.

Also, William is probably the best radio performer we have. I suck donkey balls when it comes to radio voice. Probably comes from me being mostly a quiet, introverted person.

EDIT: Oh, and I think the "tearing paper" noise might be Bianca's mouth brushing against her mic or something.

Torco sounds cool on ep 16.

That wasn't Torco. He's a Spanish listener named Jaime. Geez, can't you tell apart Hispanic accents?

[Bob Johnson]

Torco sounds cool on ep 16.

That wasn't Torco. He's a Spanish listener named Jaime. Geez, can't you tell apart Hispanic accents?

I can barely tell the two regular guys apart. (i.e. not Bianca.) I suppose it would help if I paid attention to the part where you give your names, but then I also forgot which real name goes with which board name.

(Bianca is different because she's from Girlyland and they have an easily noticable accent.)

[Bristel]

Torco sounds cool on ep 16.

That wasn't Torco. He's a Spanish listener named Jaime. Geez, can't you tell apart Hispanic accents?

Oh damn it.

No, apparently not.

I posted that before I realized that it wasn't Torco.

[Bristel]

William sounds like he should host shows on NPR.

He sounds mildly like Garrison Keillor.

[Ossicone]

The tearing-paper noise might have been me rubbing my hands. They get cold and it's something I do a lot.

Although you guys sound be glad I didn't record this past episode or then you'd have a lot of noises to complain about.
(I am/was sick and would have been coughing every other word.)

[TaylorS]

The Vikings are in Minneapolis, Ossicone!!! ROFL!!!

[Ossicone]

He kept that bit in?!

[Ollock]

Bianca, how much do you think I actually edit? The only episode where I made significant content cuts was #13, and that was after William specifically asked me to cut some time off of it.

[Ossicone]

I have no idea. I didn't think much.
I figured I mentioned this before the intros, but I guess it was after.

[TaylorS]

The discussion on case in interesting. Mekoshan's case marking can either be analyzed as prepositions that inflect for definiteness or articles that mark for case and number

"o fé gšed"
GEN fat child
"of a fat kid"

"ööd fé gšed"
GEN.DEF fat boy
"of the fat kid"

"ood fé gšes"
GEN.DEF.PL fat boy.PL
"of the fat kids"

[TaylorS]

He kept that bit in?!

LMAO!!!

[Jipí]

FWIW, George, I think you're improving in speech flow and articulation. Also, regarding William's voice, which indeed sounds very radio-suitable, I think age also matters in that respect. And most professional radio hosts here, I get the impression, are men in their 30s to 50s, depending on the programme and audience.

[Kereb]

your voices are all fine, but sometimes the editing (or lack) is a bit weird

[Ollock]

So, with the holidays coming up, I decided to work up a poll to get an idea what people might want us to do with the show. You can find it here.

[finlay]

Page isn't loading for me right now... but if you need any help like presenting the show or something I suppose I could offer some "expertise"...

[Jipí]

Um, am I supposed to vote by writing a comment? Because the comment that's already there right now indicates that the guy voted somewhere else.

Oh hang on, AdBlock blocked the poll

[finlay]

Ah, right... just remember that experience has taught you in the past that if you try and record a "short" topic on something you'll end up finding that there's far more to say about it than you thought and you'll just end up with a full length episode.

And I take it by the tone of the thing that you're not expecting to be free during the holidays yourselves... are you? I mean, that'll be a major indicator of whether you should keep doing episodes.

As for the holidays... do they start in early for you or something? I mean I'm thinking you're thinking about Thanksgiving or something. Our holidays over here really don't start until about the 20th of December, and that's if you have a holiday at all. I'm unemployed at the moment so I don't get a holiday. (There's a school holiday in the coming week, but I'm not at school – it does mean that my volunteering isn't on though, but I'm not really sure why because the community centre only just happens to share a building with a school...)

[Jipí]

We're in the middle of 2 weeks of fall holidays at school here right now, but as a university student my next holidays will only start on December 24th and go through the 1st week of January. There haven't been classes since July, though, and they'll only begin again on next Monday, in so far I've just had 3 months of summer holidays, ish, if I didn't have to write 2 term papers and now weren't to read the better part of 3k pages this week.

I voted for mini episodes, but considering what Finlay noticed I think he's right.

[Ollock]

Ah, right... just remember that experience has taught you in the past that if you try and record a "short" topic on something you'll end up finding that there's far more to say about it than you thought and you'll just end up with a full length episode.

And I take it by the tone of the thing that you're not expecting to be free during the holidays yourselves... are you? I mean, that'll be a major indicator of whether you should keep doing episodes.

As for the holidays... do they start in early for you or something? I mean I'm thinking you're thinking about Thanksgiving or something. Our holidays over here really don't start until about the 20th of December, and that's if you have a holiday at all. I'm unemployed at the moment so I don't get a holiday. (There's a school holiday in the coming week, but I'm not at school – it does mean that my volunteering isn't on though, but I'm not really sure why because the community centre only just happens to share a building with a school...)

Well, I do like to have these things figured out well in advance. Considering that the show often has a 2-3 week buffer I don't think it's too unusual to start asking now, so that I know by the time I'd be scheduling the actual "holiday" episodes.

EDIT: Don't worry about *us* being busy. We can just load up the buffer if we need. The point is that many listeners might be too busy to listen and not want to have to catch up later. Also, keep in mind the majority of our audience is in the United States. I don't know how big Britain (our second biggest listenership) is about holiday travel and family time, though.

[finlay]

Ah, right... just remember that experience has taught you in the past that if you try and record a "short" topic on something you'll end up finding that there's far more to say about it than you thought and you'll just end up with a full length episode.

And I take it by the tone of the thing that you're not expecting to be free during the holidays yourselves... are you? I mean, that'll be a major indicator of whether you should keep doing episodes.

As for the holidays... do they start in early for you or something? I mean I'm thinking you're thinking about Thanksgiving or something. Our holidays over here really don't start until about the 20th of December, and that's if you have a holiday at all. I'm unemployed at the moment so I don't get a holiday. (There's a school holiday in the coming week, but I'm not at school – it does mean that my volunteering isn't on though, but I'm not really sure why because the community centre only just happens to share a building with a school...)

Well, I do like to have these things figured out well in advance. Considering that the show often has a 2-3 week buffer I don't think it's too unusual to start asking now, so that I know by the time I'd be scheduling the actual "holiday" episodes.

EDIT: Don't worry about *us* being busy. We can just load up the buffer if we need. The point is that many listeners might be too busy to listen and not want to have to catch up later. Also, keep in mind the majority of our audience is in the United States. I don't know how big Britain (our second biggest listenership) is about holiday travel and family time, though.

We do it in December for Christmas, not November. And I find that i like to have something to 'unwind' with because family time can be stressful.

[Astraios]

And I find that i like to have something to 'unwind' with because family time can be stressful.

We don't seem to like our families much in general here.

[Gojera]

I usually hoard a few episodes on my iPod and "catch up" every few weeks when I have a bunch of stuff to do in the kitchen.

[Nannalu]

[Ollock]

We got a new episode that's sure to inspire a new trend in conlanging: Conlangery #20: Ideophones

[Nannalu]

I'd love to join you guys sometime :*