Hey Dudes & Dudettes,
Historically speaking, it originally meant ``old rags"...
In the late 1800s, it was akin to a "dandy" - a meticulously dressed man especially in the West.
And hey... it became "cool" in the 1930s & 1940s and it is the byword now among the youth.
All right... you are wondering what I am talking about... ?
Yes... I am talking about the word `dude' and hey, whatever its origin, it sure has become the coolest opening line in GG's column and that explains all those in the E-tribe who wanted to know about the `dude thing' that GG started off a year back, of course with the inevitable "dudettes." And I am sure you guys are drooling over my new outfit... right? And hey, watch out for more to come guys.
Whoa, dude! Cool gift vouchers, computer tables, short computer courses, entry tickets for multiplexes & gaming arena, a mobile phone and much more exciting prizes. That's exactly what happened to those in the E-tribe who had what it takes to be the winners of the one & only E-plus 1st Anniversary special contests. Watch out for more such contests and keep winning! Lemme join the entire E-tribe to congratulate our winner for the Mega Anniversary special prize... B.V. Karthik from Velammal Engineering College. Way to go dude!
Ok folks... it's Monday and I am back with all the gyan for this week. Let's roll:
Hey Narayan... Wassup dude? Let's welcome our friend into the E-tribe all the way from Dubai who has moved into our own Chennai. (You just rocked your way into this cool city by getting into the one & only E-tribe man! And you stay addicted to E-plus) My buddy Narayan, who doesn't quite like American lingo... has a unique interest. He wants to know all about ventriloquism and wants to learn the art. (GG thinks we sure have someone here who wants to expose his talents on belly-speaking with a sidekick of his own of the likes of those well known Danny O'Day, Howdy Doody, Charlie or our own Venky's monkey). Well Narayanan, first when you are in the E-tribe you get to speak the world languages dude!
Lemme start right from the basics. The word ventriloquism has its origin from Greek word `engastrimythos' which has three elements - en meaning in, gaster meaning belly and mythos meaning word or speech and hence in English a `ventriloquist' is a belly speaker. And what's more interesting to know is that it is said to have started in ancient times way back in sixth century BC and it is believed that it was used to supposedly communicate with the dead. The belief was that the spirits of the dead went to the stomachs of the prophets and continued to exist there, thereby enabling them to foretell the future through the spirits who do the speaking and this is the origin of the name `ventriloquist.' Well the modern day ventriloquists have turned this cool talent into a money-spinning entertaining idea and some just do it for fun. (I am sure we are gonna have one cool ventriloquist right here in the E-tribe!)
As some of you may know ventriloquist use a wooden dummy or doll which he or she places on their hand in order to operate their movements and then pretends to carry on a conversation with the dummy by moving its mouth and providing its voice. The dummy's voice actually comes from the ventriloquist, but since there is no sign that he or she is moving his or her mouth or lips, the voice seems to come from the wooden dummy. (And that is an awesome talent guys!)
If you wanna learn ventriloquism, you've got to unlearn a few things your phonetics professor taught you to open your mouth adequately simply because you've got to talk keeping your mouth shut. Well as you are looking for some books on this art... your pick could well be the book Ventriloquism Made Easy which you find in Landmark right away or you can visit the Chennai Book Fair. (Right on time for you ... and that's Chennai for you dude!) You can also check out the performances by City's own veteran in this art Mr. Venkatesh with his most popular show `Venky & Monkey show'. All the very best dude.
Prabha Kumar, Sneha Narayanan and all those who are looking to learn Japanese, you guys can check out institutes such as The Indo-Japan Center @ Teynampet (24352010) or ABK-AOTS DOSOKAI @ Nelson Manickam Rd. And Sneha as you are looking to become a translator / interpreter, it really is a good venture dudette as a lot of Indian companies are looking at nurturing in-house localisation and multilingual expertise that can actually make a lot of difference to their business in the international arena especially the non-U.S. countries.
I sign off right here when I get to urge you all to stay addicted to E-plus, remain hungry for more gyan, keep smiling and keep the E-tribe rockin' and don't you ever forget to keep appearing on my screen.
Mail me at educationplus@thehindu.co.in with GG in the subject line.
Yo,
GG
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