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The Gyllenhaal Experiment

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Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#21

Post by pbhjpbhj »

rf2019 wrote: post #18

This explains a lot of misspellings on envelopes I get through the mail, and it would be good to see this with your own name. It must be really sad if you’re Matthew mcconaughey and two thirds of the time your name is spelled wrongly in some way. Still, he’s doing ok

The problem is that people with the same name spell it differently, so we're just trying to recall arbitrary [often phonetic] misspellings accrued -- often by illiterate people -- over generations.

If your family immigrated somewhere there's a good chance the immigration official gave you your current family name spelling.

For me, my surname has about a dozen variations that arise, it seems, from mediaeval British spelling variants. If I tell people my name then they usually spell it according to the variant they've commonly seen, but more often than not they get it wrong.

I don't personally know any of the people in the study, but I've seen most of the names in writing before ... ScarJo just happens to have the same spelling as my friend with the same surname.

I'm not sure what any of it proves?

Also, spellcheck? That surely perverts the results.

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#22

Post by d-sc »

js2 wrote: post #19
Pigo wrote: post #11

>Chuck Palahniuk I've been reading his books since I found out who wrote Fight Club in 1999. My brain does NOT want to remember how to spell his name. It makes me feel like I have a learning disability.

I can never spell "bureaucracy" correctly without assistance. I always have to spell check it. Sometimes I can't even get close enough to spell check. I can't think of any other English words I have such trouble with.

The other day I got some funny looks when I yelled ‘exercise’ at my phone in a locker room because I couldn’t remember how to spell it.

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#23

Post by lifeisstillgood »

A fun dataset (how many people cannot spell using Google's text box) but a couple of points

1. I could not recognise my first picture so had to use the speech tab - which I swear sounds like Mark McGuires (with the S). So I add the extra S and of course get it "wrong".

I know I am being picky but ...

Secondly, how much of this dataset is Google being too good at correcting our spelling - I know I regularly send google bad spellings simply because my thumbs cannot be bothered to rewind on a small phone when google is 99% likely to show me what I meant anyway.

Is there a comparison between mobile spelling percentage and desktop / keyboard spelling percentages - I suspect we all spell better on a keyboard than a phone ?

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#24

Post by dasyatidprime »

js2 wrote: post #19
Pigo wrote: post #11

>Chuck Palahniuk I've been reading his books since I found out who wrote Fight Club in 1999. My brain does NOT want to remember how to spell his name. It makes me feel like I have a learning disability.

I can never spell "bureaucracy" correctly without assistance. I always have to spell check it. Sometimes I can't even get close enough to spell check. I can't think of any other English words I have such trouble with.

Is it easier to spell “bureau” itself correctly? If so, you might be able to use that as a mnemonic. You can also take the “-cracy” part from other words like “democracy”.

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#25

Post by gnomewascool »

jandrese wrote: post #17
jimbobimbo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Ukrainian - yes, but not in English.

Is this one of those cases where the wage slave at Ellis Island did a craptastic job of transliterating the name and they've been stuck with it ever since?

It's a case of the Latin transliteration not having a "natural"/intuitive pronunciation in English and hence a made-up pronunciation being used.[0]

I think that the transliteration itself was "correct" (assuming that the original Ukrainian was Палагнюк).

[0] https://chuckpalahniuk.net/author/frequently-asked-questions...

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#26

Post by tunesmith »

js2 wrote: post #19
Pigo wrote: post #11

>Chuck Palahniuk I've been reading his books since I found out who wrote Fight Club in 1999. My brain does NOT want to remember how to spell his name. It makes me feel like I have a learning disability.

I can never spell "bureaucracy" correctly without assistance. I always have to spell check it. Sometimes I can't even get close enough to spell check. I can't think of any other English words I have such trouble with.

I can only get it if I mispronounce it in my head. I think "bureau" and "cracy". I guess that's not so helpful.

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#27

Post by btilly »

js2 wrote: post #19
Pigo wrote: post #11

>Chuck Palahniuk I've been reading his books since I found out who wrote Fight Club in 1999. My brain does NOT want to remember how to spell his name. It makes me feel like I have a learning disability.

I can never spell "bureaucracy" correctly without assistance. I always have to spell check it. Sometimes I can't even get close enough to spell check. I can't think of any other English words I have such trouble with.

I learned to spell it by learning enough French to know how to spell bureau.

Then it was easy.

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#28

Post by pbhjpbhj »

js2 wrote: post #19
Pigo wrote: post #11

>Chuck Palahniuk I've been reading his books since I found out who wrote Fight Club in 1999. My brain does NOT want to remember how to spell his name. It makes me feel like I have a learning disability.

I can never spell "bureaucracy" correctly without assistance. I always have to spell check it. Sometimes I can't even get close enough to spell check. I can't think of any other English words I have such trouble with.

Can you spell bureau?

Maybe you can make a mnemonic, how are you with spelling burette?

A crazy person is using a burette with a gold (Au) end, extruding a 3D wireframe model of a desk (bureau):

Bure(tte)+au+crazy ... and hopefully you can remember where the final "c" goes.

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#29

Post by thaumasiotes »

jandrese wrote: post #17
jimbobimbo wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Ukrainian - yes, but not in English.

Is this one of those cases where the wage slave at Ellis Island did a craptastic job of transliterating the name and they've been stuck with it ever since?

There are no such cases. Everyone in the US is free to change their name if they're unhappy with it.

Re: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

#30

Post by ouid »

umvi wrote: post #13
cannam wrote: post #10

Oh that was disappointing - I hadn't heard of one of them so I hit what I thought was the "skip" button, and it took me straight to the results of all of the questions without letting me try any of the rest. I realise that this is because I am stupid - there is a warning, but I thought it was just warning me I wouldn't be able to try that question again, not that I wouldn't be able to try any of them. (It said that y…

Right click link -> Open link in incognito window Hacky workaround, yes, but this is HN after all

or you can just delete your site cookies. I strongly doubt that they are fingerprinting you.
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