A lesson in Game of Thrones: Living Language Dothraki, and inside UVA’s college course
Living Language has published 28 easy to use and effective language courses over the past 65 years ranging from French to Swahili, and even sign. On October 7, they will be adding one more language to their long list: Dothraki.
After teaming up with Game of Thrones’ resident linguist David J. Peterson, Living Language will release 50,000 copies of their Dothraki course. The book and CD package will provide all the basics and 200 vocabulary words for $20, and they will also offer an extended online course featuring over 500 vocabulary words and hundreds of phrases for $30, as well as a companion app.
Dothraki was developed for a television show, but Living Language’s vice president Dan Zitt says that their newest offering is “a very serious language course.” Of course, a language inspired by a fantasy world will have it’s limitations, Peterson tells CNN, “There isn’t vocabulary in the language for subway trains and cell phones and airliners, but if you want to go to a restaurant and demand as much sausage as they have, you’ll be able to do that by the end of the course.”
Peterson brought a preview of the Living Language Dothraki course to San Diego Comic-Con last weekend, and gave members of the press a quick crash course. Suvudu interviewed Peterson at the convention to talk about how the language course came about, and adds that Dothraki is not just great for demanding sausages, but also for describing sword fights.
In a recent interview with Yahoo, Peterson wouldn’t reveal if we’d be hearing any more Dothraki on Game of Thrones soon, but he did say that there was a lot of language work to be done for Season 5. He seems to be in the thick of it right now, and tweeted on Wednesday that he was busy translating some High Valyrian.
While we’re on the subject of learning, a few weeks ago it was reported that the University of Virginia was offering a college course based around Game of Thrones. Initial reaction to the news may have been that the course was an ‘easy A’, or an attempt to capitalize on pop culture, but Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy has a new inside look at the course that proves that it definitely wasn’t easy, was well thought out, and it was very cool.
The course attracted a variety of students, and one fan didn’t hesitate to register, “I don’t even think it was a two-second delay between me finding it and going online and registering for the class.” While another had no idea what the Red Wedding even was, but still thoroughly enjoyed her experience, “For four weeks, I lived and breathed the Game of Thrones. As far as English classes that are actually looking at the literature, it was one of the most engaging.”
Before the course even started, each student was required to read A Game of Thrones in it’s entirety. They were also required to fill out a chart for each episode they watched, with detailed observations on character and plot development, differences from the book, and how the visual elements affected the story. The WSJ managed to get an excerpt from the syllabus, and a copy of one of the student’s charts for episodes 107 and 108. The chart looks like it would be extremely useful while preparing to write a Thrones recap online!
The course involved a number of class discussions, often led by students, including the ever popular debate of who Jon Snow’s real parents are, and the beautification of characters for the television series.
For their final project the class was split into five groups, each with a designated head of house, and covered topics such as the nature of spoilers, supplementary literature to Game of Thrones, and the distinct differences between the television series and the books (such as the “not right” Iron Throne, and Syrio Forel’s now iconic reply to Death).
Despite the criticism the course had received, professor Woolfork told WSJ, “It was a lot of work. It was a lot of debate, a lot of conversation, a lot of disagreement. This is the point of what we can do when we apply the skills of literary analysis to both a literary and televisual adaptation.”
While a student added, “I can understand how people could see that, but it’s actually frustrating because a lot of my friends are saying, ‘Oh wow, easy class,’ I had to put in a lot of work and the same analytical work that I would if I were reading the text, and in some ways it was harder because we don’t normally watch TV shows like that. We just watch them for entertainment or something to do.”
For the full report visit WSJ.
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