This was a more direct attempt to apply the WAYK gesture system. The participant (Jo) was very patient with me. She is an educator and a Greek Language enthusiast and was aiming to teach me some Greek.
Jo has never used the gestures. The gestures are numerous and require repetition to remember in themselves, let alone apply in the conversation. I have found a WAYK discussion group and they suggest limiting the techniques taught and agree on the objects that will be used, in advance. So there's something to try next time.
We realised we could understand one another in French. And at this point the TQ gestures from the WAYK game were not necessary but perhaps we were not working on a problem at that point. Jeanine, who runs the café, was a bit too keen on the cake. I think it got in the way of remembering any words that Jo was teaching.
Obstacles create a lot of laughter, and the gestures express a different kind of communication - about the game: especially ‘Obviously’ and ‘How Fascinating’. For ‘Obviously’, Evan Gardner, the originator of WAYK, has suggested that we pretend to be 'a North American 12 year old girl'. In other words, I guess - "don't tolerate fools". This gestural language and the 'attitude' means speaking yet another language, or adopting a style. So this is where I try adopting another persona within the game - Jeanine is an alter ego .
Language tourism, in the form of these lessons, can be enriching. But compared to the trials of people seeking new identities, or caught in limbo between languages it's a different order. Jo and I are navigating grammar and vocabulary and finding our limits. The power relations and attitudes are just a game, and playing is freedom. We are in the shed, on the Zoom. We are in a bubble.
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