I’ve not read clockwork orange, but i know plenty of people who’ll stop reading a book if they had to look up words in a dictionary, maybe the students first instinct just wasn’t a dictionary?
which is still not great, but way less terrifying than people needing an actual translation for a work written in their native language in the last century.
and I’d describe works by Fontane or other german authors as “old german”, when it’s merely old fashioned with words not in common use today, or not used in the same context, for which i remember using a dictionary. I know they used the same language as i do, there was no great shift in how the language worked, but the style and vocabulary used is enough to trip over if one is not used to it.
I don’t think an llm is a good tool to engage with a text one thinks is difficult, but it’s better than not engaging with the text at all.
I’ve found LLM is excellent to help understand how language use is different from one era to the next, or the meaning in a different structure/pattern (Clockwork Orange being an excellent example).
Just the other day I asked about a specific phrase in a 19th century novel that surprised me in it’s specificity - the LLM clarified the author’s meaning and that someone from the era would’ve understood the implications, while only an historian today would’ve got it.
I thought it was a universal practice to keep a dictionary on standby on your phone when you’re reading. On ebooks its even easier, just hold down on a new word to get it’s definition.
Is this a rare practice? This “moat” to reading is barely a trickling stream. It makes me sad,; If I didn’t push back any of the times I was blocked by a new word, I would have missed out on so many of the greatest stories ever told or taken to page.
i think it’s that our brains like to do mostly easy things and learning new words is not easy, it has to fire up those neural pathways for that and create new connections for not a lot gratification for many people, simmiliar to how children often need external motivation to start to learn an instrument or other complex endeavors, because the fun part of it requires a suprising amount of practice and expertise, and if no one is pushing them to get through a specific book they’ll pick an “easier” read or something else entirely for entertainment.
I’ve not read clockwork orange, but i know plenty of people who’ll stop reading a book if they had to look up words in a dictionary, maybe the students first instinct just wasn’t a dictionary?
which is still not great, but way less terrifying than people needing an actual translation for a work written in their native language in the last century.
A Clockwork Orange was written in English, but it’s heavily colored by Russian slang and has a lot of new words for an English speaker.
But like… they described it as “Old English”
Isn’t A Clockwork Orange notorious for its weird language? Maybe the student thought it was old English.
and I’d describe works by Fontane or other german authors as “old german”, when it’s merely old fashioned with words not in common use today, or not used in the same context, for which i remember using a dictionary. I know they used the same language as i do, there was no great shift in how the language worked, but the style and vocabulary used is enough to trip over if one is not used to it.
I don’t think an llm is a good tool to engage with a text one thinks is difficult, but it’s better than not engaging with the text at all.
I’ve found LLM is excellent to help understand how language use is different from one era to the next, or the meaning in a different structure/pattern (Clockwork Orange being an excellent example).
Just the other day I asked about a specific phrase in a 19th century novel that surprised me in it’s specificity - the LLM clarified the author’s meaning and that someone from the era would’ve understood the implications, while only an historian today would’ve got it.
For real, it’s not like reading Hobbes’ Leviathan
I thought it was a universal practice to keep a dictionary on standby on your phone when you’re reading. On ebooks its even easier, just hold down on a new word to get it’s definition.
Is this a rare practice? This “moat” to reading is barely a trickling stream. It makes me sad,; If I didn’t push back any of the times I was blocked by a new word, I would have missed out on so many of the greatest stories ever told or taken to page.
i think it’s that our brains like to do mostly easy things and learning new words is not easy, it has to fire up those neural pathways for that and create new connections for not a lot gratification for many people, simmiliar to how children often need external motivation to start to learn an instrument or other complex endeavors, because the fun part of it requires a suprising amount of practice and expertise, and if no one is pushing them to get through a specific book they’ll pick an “easier” read or something else entirely for entertainment.