[lojban-beginners] New member and question(s)

[ScottL <scott@mu.org>]

it was appropriate here as well:
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I have recently had to go on longterm disability from work and will be 
moving back to where I grew up in the Midwest. One of the things I have 
decided to try and do with my newly found abundance of free time is 
learn lojban (or at least play with it for a while).

I have read about half of "What is lojban?" and have read parts of some 
online resources. I am what you might call an ultra newbie. I currently 
speak English and Romanian and have studied French but I don't remember 
it much. I have however read a lot about languages and linguistics in 
general and have amassed a lot of "trivia" type knowledge about the 
subjects.

My question is this: Are there many (on this list?) lojbanists in the 
(mid)Missouri area? If I can't find someone to study with locally I am 
tempted to simply post some sort of ads or flyers around the University 
of Missouri.

I am looking not sure how much time I will be spending with this "hobby" 
I guess it depends on how much I like it once I get started. That I 
suspect will depend on a lot of things about the language that I have 
not yet learned (like how difficult translating things are due to words 
that simply do not yet exist in lojban).

I am also interested in any advice that people have for me in how to 
approach learning the language. I am a very verbal learner I learned 
Romanian primarily by immersion and speaking it then followed that up 
with book studying and I can now speak Romanian well enough that at 
times I can pass as a native speaker (though one with a very limited 
vocabulary that makes me look not very intelligent). As such I would be 
interested in any early efforts anyone has made for audio/video learning 
aids for lojban. If there are not I think a short video covering the 
phonetics and pronunciation would be a good place for the community to 
start.

Regards,
SKL