Genre(s) | Children's games |
---|---|
Players | Three or more |
Setup time | None |
Playing time | User determined |
Random chance | Medium |
Skill(s) required | Speaking, listening |
Chinese whispers (Commonwealth English) or telephone (American English) [1] is an internationally popular children's game[2] in which players form a line, and the first player comes up with a message and whispers it to the ear of the second person in the line. The second player repeats the message to the third player, and so on. When the last player is reached, they announce the message they heard to the entire group. The first person then compares the original message with the final version. Although the objective is to pass around the message without it becoming garbled along the way, part of the enjoyment is that, regardless, this usually ends up happening. Errors typically accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly from that of the first player, usually with amusing or humorous effect. Reasons for changes include anxiousness or impatience, erroneous corrections, the difficult-to-understand mechanism of whispering, and that some players may deliberately alter what is being said to guarantee a changed message by the end of the line.
The game is often played by children as a party game or on the playground. It is often invoked as a metaphor for cumulative error, especially the inaccuracies as rumours or gossip spread,[1] or, more generally, for the unreliability of human recollection or even oral traditions.
As the game is popular among children worldwide, it is also known under various other names depending on locality, such as Russian scandal,[3]whisper down the lane, broken telephone(In Poland), operator, grapevine, gossip, don't drink the milk, secret message, the messenger game, and pass the message among others.[1] In France, it is called téléphone arabe (Arabic telephone) or téléphone sans fil (wireless telephone).[4] In Malaysia, this game is commonly referred to as telefon rosak, and in Greece as spazmeno tilefono (σπασμένο τηλέφωνο) which both translate to broken telephone. In the United States, the game is known under the name telephone – which in this use is never shortened to the colloquial and more common word phone.
Historians trace Westerners' use of the word Chinese to denote 'confusion' and 'incomprehensibility' to the earliest contacts between Europeans and Chinese people in the 17th century, and attribute it to Europeans' inability to understand China's culture and worldview.[5]Using the phrase 'Chinese whispers' suggested a belief that the Chinese language itself is not understandable.[6] Additionally Chinese people have historically been stereotyped by Westerners as secretive or inscrutable.[7] The more fundamental metonymic use of the name of a foreign language to represent a broader class of situations involving foreign languages or difficulty of understanding a language is also captured in older idioms, such as 'It's all Greek to me'.
The game has no winner: the entertainment comes from comparing the original and final messages. Intermediate messages may also be compared; some messages will become unrecognizable after only a few steps.
As well as providing amusement, the game can have educational value. It shows how easily information can become corrupted by indirect communication. The game has been used in schools to simulate the spread of gossip and its supposed harmful effects.[8] It can also be used to teach young children to moderate the volume of their voice,[9] and how to listen attentively;[10] in this case, a game is a success if the message is transmitted accurately with each child whispering rather than shouting. It can also be used for older or adult learners of a foreign language, where the challenge of speaking comprehensibly, and understanding, is more difficult because of the low volume, and hence a greater mastery of the fine points of pronunciation is required.[11]
A variant of Chinese whispers is called Rumors. In this version of the game, when players transfer the message, they deliberately change one or two words of the phrase (often to something more humorous than the previous message). Intermediate messages can be compared. What an individual player changes in the message often says something about the player.[according to whom?]
The pen-and-paper game Telephone Pictionary (also known as Eat Poop You Cat) is played by alternately writing and illustrating captions, the paper being folded so that each player can only see the previous participant's contribution.[12] Commercial boardgame versions Telestrations[13] and Cranium Scribblish were both released in 2009. The game has also been implemented online at Broken Picture Telephone, Drawception and other sites.
A translation relay is a variant in which the first player produces a text in a given language, together with a basic guide to understanding, which includes a lexicon, an interlinear gloss, possibly a list of grammatical morphemes, comments on the meaning of difficult words, etc. (everything except an actual translation). The text is passed on to the following player, who tries to make sense of it and casts it into his/her language of choice, then repeating the procedure, and so on. Each player only knows the translation done by his immediate predecessor, but customarily the relay master or mistress collects all of them. The relay ends when the last player returns the translation to the beginning player. The game has been played in the conlang community.[14]
Another variant of Chinese whispers is shown on Ellen's Game of Games under the name of Say Whaaaat?. However, the differences is that the 4 players will be wearing earphones, therefore the players have to read their lips.
The form and timing of the tic undoubtedly mutated over the generations, as in the childhood game of Chinese Whispers (Americans call it Telephone)
The sinophobic name points to the centuries-old tradition in Europe of representing spoken Chinese as an incomprehensible and unpronounceable combination of sounds.
Play 'Chinese Whispers' to demonstrate how word-of-mouth messages or stories quickly become distorted
Explain that speaking quietly can be more effective in communication than shouting, although clarity is important. You could play 'Chinese Whispers' to illustrate this!
Listening skills:..Play Chinese Whispers
Simple games for practising vocabulary and/or numbers: .. Chinese Whispers: ..the final word is compared with the first to see how similar (or not!) it is.
Most of us are familiar with the telephone game. For those that haven’t played, the game is very simple. A group of people stands in a line. A simple sentence, starting with the first person, is whispered into the next person’s ear one by one until the message reaches the end of the line. Typically, the sentence that is revealed by the person at the end of the line is significantly different than the one that was started with.
Just as in the game, this phenomenon of simple miscommunication exists in the workplace. Once you realize just how easily spoken communications can be changed inadvertently, the importance of effectively communicating is reinforced. Car dealerships are particularly prone to this given the complexity of many of the activities occurring. If a salesperson misunderstands the sales manager when working a deal with a customer, it can alter the rapport and general experience for that customer significantly. When a service advisor communicates with a customer ineffectively, the same thing can happen.
The obvious solution is accurate and detailed documentation in every customer and internal transaction. That being said, there are simply too many things happening and sound bites of information being exchanged that recording everything would be laborious and inefficient.
The solution lies in ensuring that you have processes and technology in place that record and track everything related to a customer’s transaction with your dealership in the most time-efficient manner possible. In addition, you should take the time to train your staff some basic effective communication skills. Simply understanding these basic concepts will help avoid misunderstandings.
By understanding these two fundamental concepts, you’ll be able to increase the effectiveness of communication between all employees and reduce the probability that miscommunications occur. By doing this, you’ll create a powerful environment that will allow you to operate more efficiently which will translate into a more efficient workplace, better customer experiences and increased revenue.
IntroductionTelephoning in English includes learning a number of special phrases, as well as focusing on listening skills. Some of the most important phrases include how to answer the phone, how to ask for others, how to connect, and how to take messages.
Here are a few ways to informally introduce yourself on the telephone:
Marathi natak comedy. If you'd like to reply more formally, use your full name.
If you are answering for a business, just state the business name. In this case, it's common to ask how you can help:
The first example response is in American English and the second is in British English. As you can see there are differences in both forms. The telephone articles include both British and American English, as well as phrases that are common to both forms.
In American English, we answer the phone stating 'This is ..' In British English, it's common to answer the phone by stating the telephone number. The phrase 'This is ..' is used only on the telephone to substitute the phrase 'My name is ..' which is not used to answer the telephone.
Sometimes, you'll need to find out who is calling. Ask them politely for this information:
At other times, you'll need to speak to someone else. This is especially true when you telephone a business. Here are some examples:
If you answer the phone, you might need to connect the caller to someone at your business. Here are some useful phrases:
These phrases can be used to express that someone is not available to speak on the telephone.
If someone isn't available, you might want to take a message to help the caller.
Continue practicing your skills by using the practical exercises below which include information on leaving messages on the telephone, how to ask native speakers to slow down, role plays on the telephone and more.
Begin by learning important telephone English with the dialogue below. Here is a short telephone conversation with some of the key phrases:
Operator: Hello, Frank and Brothers, How can I help you?
Peter: This is Peter Jackson. Can I have extension 3421?
Operator: Certainly, hold on a minute, I'll put you through..
Frank: Bob Peterson's office, Frank speaking.
Peter: This is Peter Jackson calling, is Bob in?
Frank: I'm afraid he's out at the moment. Can I take a message?
Peter: Yes, Could you ask him to call me at .. I need to talk to him about the Nuovo line, it's urgent.
Frank: Could you repeat the number please?
Peter: Yes, that's .., and this is Peter Jackson.
Frank: Thank you Mr. Jackson, I'll make sure Bob gets this asap.
Peter: Thanks, bye.
Frank: Bye.
As you can see, the language is rather informal and there are some important differences from face-to-face conversational English.
Whether you're in management or are simply a concerned employee, you may be worried about how text messaging, e-mail and social media have added to talking as effective ways of passing along gossip in the workplace. Games can be a fun way to help employees and co-workers see how destructive gossip is in a way that doesn't make them feel immediately defensive.
If you want to convince adults to play a game, you'll need to establish why. You can share what workplace gossip costs in terms of hurt feelings, loss in productivity, decreased morale and making group work more difficult. You should further explain that research reveals that habitual gossipers are not liked or respected in the workplace.
This is an old favorite you may have played in school, but you can modify it to fit your workplace. Whisper a sentence in one employee's ear and have them pass along this sentence, each employee whispering it to another, until everyone has been a carrier. To modify the game for the workplace, have employees share the secret while they take customer orders, wash cars, complete spreadsheets or engage in other common workplace tasks. You can do the same type of game using actual phones: ask people to retype a text and pass it along to the next person, making sure they leave autocorrect on. The point is to show how the message changes -- and becomes inaccurate -- after everyone tries to repeat it.
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To start this game, gather everyone around a tube of toothpaste. Use a sample size to make cleanup easier. Squeeze the toothpaste onto a sheet of waxed paper. Ask different employees to take a turn at putting the toothpaste back into the tube. When no one is able to successfully complete the task, explain how this is like gossip; once the words are out, they can't be retracted.
Using snopes or another urban legend confirmation website, prepare a list of questions about common Internet rumors such as where they came from, whether they are true or false, or how they developed. Divide employees into two teams and have them compete in a baseball type game, advancing to a base whenever they answer a question correctly, when they miss three questions the other team is at bat with the questions. You can finish with a discussion of how Internet rumors got started and how destructive they have been.
KS Dunham began writing professionally in 1995. She authored four health-related books: 'How to Survive and Love Nursing School,' 'How to Survive and Love Your Life as a Nurse,' 'The Boy's Body Book' and 'The Girl's Body Book.' Dunham has a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Drexel University.
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