Skits

The National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages had a convention here in Madison this week, so the University language teachers had their students perform short plays for the group. Middle Daughter performed in a small sketch about Yoruba family life, with scenes set at home, at the Zo's (is that the right word for the Nigerian equivalent?)(EDIT: Nope. Babalawo. -Middle Daughter) home, and in the spirit world--all in Yoruba with English translations displayed on a screen nearby. (Spoiler alert) The old ways are the best--stay out of the rain!

The sound system needed some work--feedback several times--but the students had fun and so did the audience, some of whom actually spoke the language. I'm told that recordings of this will go to Nigeria and be shown at conferences there too. (EDIT: Well, I don't know FOR SURE if they'll send this one. They used the one from last semester at several conferences there, and I'm fairly certain they'll use this one too. Apparently, we're big stuff for being second semester speakers...)

I have never been in a conference like this before. Physics conferences are largely male, though religious ones have been more mixed. This one was largely female, and I've never seen so many children at a conference. They ranged in age from about 6 months to 13 or 14, and must have been at least a tenth of the total number present. (Most of the people with children were from our Universtity, and came to watch their students performing)

No, I didn't stick around for all the presentations. I should find out if there's DVD's of them.