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lethargic_manI'm back from Limmud now, which was as good as ever.
I gave two talks this year. My Semitic languages talk got about fifteen people, half the usual number, which may indicate all the people who want to learn about it have already done so, but may just be because it was on Saturday night, when most people haven't arrived yet. (I've got thirty people before on a Saturday night, though.)
My Samaritan Torah talk, which I gave for the first time this year (barring a dry run withbluepork, Mrs Pork and Judith WiNoDWoLJ), went very well. I got about forty people, some laughs (including at things I wasn't expecting), and learned some things myself from things audience members said, which is always nice when it happens. I wasn't sure how much time audience interjections would take up; the talk was supposed to last seventy minutes, but the dry run ended up taking two hours! Fortunately, with a little skipping of the least interesting of my slides, I ended up hitting the required time period exactly.
I'm pleased to announce I didn't get taken to task on anything I said wrong by audience members who knew more than me. Afterwards, I announced I'd be happy to give an electronic copy of the slides to anyone who wanted, and a bunch of people gave me their cards. I stuck them in my pocket, and only afterwards, looking at them, did I see they included: a Cambridge academic, a rabbi at the University of Manchester department of Middle Eastern Studies, and the President of the Board of Deputies!
I gave two talks this year. My Semitic languages talk got about fifteen people, half the usual number, which may indicate all the people who want to learn about it have already done so, but may just be because it was on Saturday night, when most people haven't arrived yet. (I've got thirty people before on a Saturday night, though.)
My Samaritan Torah talk, which I gave for the first time this year (barring a dry run with
bluepork, Mrs Pork and Judith WiNoDWoLJ), went very well. I got about forty people, some laughs (including at things I wasn't expecting), and learned some things myself from things audience members said, which is always nice when it happens. I wasn't sure how much time audience interjections would take up; the talk was supposed to last seventy minutes, but the dry run ended up taking two hours! Fortunately, with a little skipping of the least interesting of my slides, I ended up hitting the required time period exactly.I'm pleased to announce I didn't get taken to task on anything I said wrong by audience members who knew more than me. Afterwards, I announced I'd be happy to give an electronic copy of the slides to anyone who wanted, and a bunch of people gave me their cards. I stuck them in my pocket, and only afterwards, looking at them, did I see they included: a Cambridge academic, a rabbi at the University of Manchester department of Middle Eastern Studies, and the President of the Board of Deputies!
