Re: [lojban-beginners] Best methods to recall lojban words?

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

On Sunday 09 October 2011 12:01:31 Sam wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> The biggest stumbling block for me is that I can't recall any lojban
> words. They seem meaningless and homogenous. I can speak basic
> spanish, german, and arabic, express myself freely in french, know
> basic phrases in japanese, chinese, serbian, latin, and quenya, and
> all of those have been by far easier to pick up than lojban.
>
> I've tried spaced-repetition software such as Anki, and less cool
> flashcards like Quizlet. The problem is I need context to give these
> words meaning. The IRC channel is silent. Using an operating system
> (like linux) in Lojban would let me learn most of the related
> operating system words and phrases. Watching programs in lojban would
> be enormously helpful, but there is no such thing.

Which channel? I'm on #lojban and #ckule, of which one has had conversation in 
the past few minutes. I'm "away", but my IRC program is up.

> I was wondering if anyone had suggestions about what worked for them
> in remembering this language which, while containing shadows in
> phonetic choice of the five most spoken languages, is kind of steep in
> learning curve.

I don't remember what worked for me learning Lojban, but for other languages I 
learned in written form, reading a book which I also had in a language I know 
already works well. Try the Lojban translation of Alice or remod's kid books.

Also try making sentences with words you recognize parts of. I speak Spanish 
and some Russian, so some Lojban words are obvious or easy to 
remember: "vajni" is straight Russian, "vensa" is Russian with 
metathesis, "midju" is pretty obvious from English, Spanish, and Russian (all 
of which are cognates). "datka" is from English "duck", Spanish "pato" (and 
its Arabic source), and Russian "утка". "gunse" is from at least 
English "goose", Spanish "ganso", and Russian "гусь", which are related, and 
go back to PIE, though some borrowing happened. So you can say "lo vensa cu 
vajni lo datka .e lo gunse".

> I know a technique espoused by some educators is to give things a
> pneumonic, such as preti --> "[vous êtes] prêt?" Which is a
> question... But this seems like heresy for the spirit of lojban.

That's "bredi", not "preti" (which is partly from Spanish "pregunta", but that 
lacks a French cognate).

Another thing to try is memorizing commonly-used phrases like "ko frati le 
fonxa". (Not that I use that one; I live alone.)

Pierre
-- 
Don't buy a French car in Holland. It may be a citroen.

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