The World According To Hannah

A Clockwork Orange

“Then she went off, and my three droogs had got out of the auto quiet and crept up horrorshow stealthy, putting their maskies on now, then I put mine on, then it was only a matter of me putting in the old rooker and undoing the chain, me having softened up this devotchka with my gent’s goloss, so that she hadn’t shut the door like she should have done, us being strangers of the night.”

When you’re in the process of reading the book, you can speak fluent Nadsat. I haven’t read it since last year, and reading passages now makes me think I was crazy for understanding it completely.

The best way to learn a language is to surround yourself with it. When reading “A Clockwork Orange” you find yourself thinking: “It’s a malenky bit cold today.” or “Oh, what a sladky koshka.”

I can learn made-up languages that no-one speaks within a few weeks, and yet after spending three hours a week for five years in German lessons I can barely form a coherent German sentence. 

I highly doubt that the occasional ability to speak Nadsat will be of any use to me in the future. Perhaps I’ll put it on my CV.