Re: Help a newbie get started!

[Chris Bogart <cbogart@POCC.GPSMET.UCAR.EDU>]

>Is everyone on vacation, or have the headted debates simply died?

I'm still here -- I think the debates just kind of trickled off
for a while.

> The main reason I am writing is to get some advice on learning the language.

Here's what I did:

I read through all the materials, textbook and reference grammar etc just
for information, not trying to memorize anything.

Then I went through it all again, making a "cheat sheet" with some common
gismu, and any cmavo that I thought weren't too obscure to bother with at
first.  It also had very short explanations of tense word order, a list
of all the attitudinals, etc. etc., and in very small type came out to
about ten pages.

I also printed out a list of gismu and associated English keywords, sorted
by gismu, and another sorted by keyword.

Then I started writing stuff in Lojban, and/or translating from English to
Lojban.  Nothing too difficult at first.  It would take *forever* to make
a sentence, because I'd have to figure out the grammar and look up all the
words; and often the words didn't exist, so I'd have to look for similar
words or synonyms and try to build tanru or explanatory phrases.
(I stayed away from lujvo for a long time)  But it got easier and easier
as I went along, and I learned a lot of basic vocabulary that way.

At some point I decided to go through and learn all the gismu systematically.
I never really had the fortitude to continue, but I did get about half
way through, and vaguely remembering about half the list has helped me
a lot.

> I have decided to focus on learning the gismu at first.  Logflash is nice,
> but I wanted to make some tapes and/or flashcards that I could use anytime I
> wanted and not just when I am at my computer.  Does anyone have any advice on
> how to make these learning aides?

Go to a printer or copy shop where they make business cards, and buy a bunch
of blank ones, or maybe you can even get printed ones that someone didn't
pick up or that had an error on them??  Maybe you could write out 10 or 20
cards at a time, study them, and keep adding to your stack of cards gradually
as you study.

I wouldn't worry about the place structures -- just print out a list and
keep it handy in the future when you're writing and refer to it a lot, and
you'll eventually pick those up by osmosis.

> It seems as though I am not learning
> the gismu as much as I am learning what order the words are on the tape :)

I had that problem trying to learn the gismu from a list, rather than from
scramblable flashcards.  I think it might help if you sorted the list
according to the sound of the Lojban word, or scramble them randomly,
rather than grouping together similar meanings (e.g. put all gismu starting
with the same sound together, rather than all gismu for colors)

co'o mi'e kris.


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