[lojban-beginners] Learning Lojban

[Ronald Guida <ronguida@mindspring.com>]

Hi.

My name is Ron; I heard about Lojban and I have started to become 
interested in learning it.  I saw the recent post on the Lojban home 
page that mentioned the difference between "learning" a language and 
"acquiring" a language.

Currently, the only language I know is English.  I am trying to figure 
out the best or fastest way to learn Lojban.  It appears to me that the 
resources don't exist yet for me to learn Lojban through natural means 
(i.e. to "acquire" it), so I am wondering what is the next best thing.

Right now, I am thinking that I should study the grammatical structures 
of Lojban first, before studying a bunch of vocabulary.  The reason for 
this is I believe children learn grammar before vocabulary.

Consider this English sentence prototype:
"The X-ons are Y-ing in the Z."

Based on grammar and word-formation heuristics, most likely X names a 
set (in plural), Y is an action being carried out at present, and Z is a 
location.  This information creates context; the listener can use that 
context to help infer what X, Y and Z are.  Presumably, children who 
have figured out grammar can learn new words by making inferences.

I am thinking that I can learn Lojban grammar structures by constructing 
sentence prototypes that do not contain any actual gismu or lujvo.  For 
example, ".i le X ca Y le Z".  I believe Y is a connective, acting in 
the present, that connects X and Z.  Is this correct?

-- Ron