funky pre-disco goodness

[elizabear]

We have just purchased the 4-dvd set "The Best of The Electric Company", containing 20 episodes of the show. Z is entranced. And I am realizing just how complicated this English-language thing is.

And what about ... Naomi?

Comments

[the-nita.livejournal.com]

OOoh...good idea...

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

If you ever doubt the unwritten complexity of English, consider adjective placement. We never talk about it or teach it, but "red little wagon" is totally wrong, whereas "little red wagon" is fine. And it gets worse with more adjectives ("only tiny holy overripe red apple"...). You just have to grok it by example...

[dsrtao]

Curiously, _The Electric Company_ makes these things explicit, and then says "I don't know why, it just happens that way."

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I must have missed that. And of course it solves the problem that kids* always want to know WHY...which is so often glazed over in teaching. I knew there was a reason** why I liked Electric Company.

(*Adults seem to just accept things, even when they should be questioning them. I don't know why. It just happens that way.)


(** Spider-Man)