melbourneDAC

Mutter, drawl and second language

Before lunch I went to the presentations of Caroline McCaw and Darshana Jayemanne. I can't really say much about that though.

Their presentations were almost illegible to me, which is sad, because according to their papers they ought to be talking about things I am really interested in - which of course is why I attended their presentations in the first case. But you see, I happen to have English as my second language, and I sat to the far back of a crowded room. With presenters who speak in a low voice, in their own dialects and with a bit of a mumble or too much of a drawl, I am lost. Actually, the questions of the people with their backs to me cleared up a lot of my confusion about what the presenters were really talking about. A large part of the audience knew when to laugh, when to nod and when to shake their heads and mutter though, so I guess I missed something there...