Testing assumptions
If we’re serious about communicating, we first have to question our assumptions.
We always assume, for instance, that people will clearly understand what we’ve written or said.
But do they? more…
If we’re serious about communicating, we first have to question our assumptions.
We always assume, for instance, that people will clearly understand what we’ve written or said.
But do they? more…
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Ngapaki? Na reason ja? Balanda manymak yaku; ngapaki yaka manymak.
Yul ko wangha? Gapuwiak? Galiwinku? Maporro? Ga jama ka? diangbala. Teacher?
April 25th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Kato:
You must be referring to my use of ngapaki elsewhere (On Line Opinion perhaps?) because I don’t think I’ve used it on my website. So it might appear to be a propos de rien to most readers. I use ngapaki following common practice these days at Yirrkala, which is where my gurrutu derives from, although it goes through to Galiwin’ku via Mata Mata. As is the way, balanda has fallen out of use - perhaps temporarily - because of its similarity to the name of a deceased person. So using it is not quite as yatj as you might think. In any case, I think it falls into the Australian habit of being mockingly abusive towards your mates. For those who don’t know any Yolngu Matha, ngapaki is the word for flying fox. It is used figuratively for whitefella and the image is that of creatures who come flying into your country, make a lot of noise, eat up everything in sight, shit all over the place and then leave. And no, I’m not a teacher, as you will see from this website, so I’m not sure why you ask the question. Nice to hear from you, but.