After this past weekend’s Saturday Morning Music post, I remembered this fantastic bit that Victor Borge did about punctuation. In it he talks about how sometimes when people are speaking to one another they misunderstand what is being said because the punctuation is omitted from the conversation. And so, he created a Phonetic Punctuation system in which punctuation is given a sound that is verbally inserted into the conversation. (Watch the video, it’ll make more sense.)

And then I got to thinking, “I wonder if anyone would send in a video of themselves doing this.”

So! Here’s your Brain Bending Challenge:

Make a video of you reading a short story of your choosing using the following phonetic punctuation system and send us the video. The best attempts will be shared here, on the Livemocha Blog, two weeks from today. To sweeten the pot, we’ll give anyone who sends in a video (and who follows the guidelines listed below) 2 months free Livemocha Gold Key Access. ($20 value) 

Challenge guidelines:

• Make a video of yourself reading a short story using the phonetic punctuation system demonstrated in the video above.
• Your video should be between 30 seconds – 2 minutes. (any longer and it may be painful to watch)
• You can do this in your native language or in your target language. (No profanity, please.)
• Upload your video to YouTube and send that link to blog@livemocha.com
• Deadline for sending in your video is Friday, November 2, 2012.

Tip: Rehearse your performance a bit before you record it. It’ll help you calm your nerves and make for better entertainment for those of us watching.

OK gang… GO!! And have FUN with it.

UPDATE

So this challenge was either too challenging or totally uninteresting. Well, I’m going to err on the side of too challenging because these two Livemocha members clearly works hard on this. Congratulations to Aleksandra and Paul for winning a 2-month Livemocha Gold Key! Well done!