[lojban-beginners] Re: Newbie Intro

[Scott <scottr@synthiotics.com>]

> ... Please express your opinions
> about what kind of content you want it to have.
> Should it be strictly spoken in Lojban?

No.  Nothing but Lojban would have a sort of quirkiness to it, but I think 
would tend to limit the listeners beyond an initial "that's kind of cool, but 
I have no idea what's being said" sort of reaction to those who've been 
involved for quite a while.

> Or mostly English?

No, then it wouldn't really be a Lojban podcast.

> Or repeating every statement in both languages? Or something in between?

I think that's a good idea.

> Would you like beginner lessons?

Coming from a newbie: absolutely.  Any lessons that don't involve the words 
"klama", "nelci", "melbi", "karce", "zdani", and the other gismu that pervade 
the online beginner lessons would be a plus.  Not that those aren't good 
words in and of themselves, but they get covered TO DEATH in the online 
literature.

> Would you like world news headlines in Lojban?

Sure, although their translations should also be made available.

> Would you like to hear the adventures of a xenoarcheologist exploring the
> advanced language inscribed on the walls of a subaquatic deathtrap built by
> an extinct alien civilization, which turns out to be Lojban?

Heh.  Um... ok...  :-)

> What would get you to subscribe?

I think mainly conversational beginner lessons would be great.

I've noticed that the online Lojban beginners lessons tends to focus on the 
structure of sentences more than content.  The content is there, of course, 
but more for illustrative purposes than anything else.

Back in my high-school and college days I took 4 1/2 years of German and 3 
years of French, but never used either, really, and forgot most of what I 
learned back then over the intervening decades.  About a year ago I picked up 
a first year German book, just to brush up on it, and noticed that it was 
more about content than structure.  The chapters are heavy in building up 
vocabulary and giving the student the ability to converse in simple sentences 
about everyday things.  Delving into the finer points of correct grammar and 
whatnot comes later, after the students can already talk (in "baby German") 
about Otto, his sister, his father, his mother, their pets, the trip he took 
to the store, what he bought, what kind of classes his sister is taking in 
school, etc., etc., etc.  Lots and lots of short, single subject, sentences 
about really common things that everyone knows about.

The Lojban lessons I've been going through since I started with it (just a 
couple of weeks ago) are extremely light on vocabulary in comparison to the 
German book, but get into very detailed descriptions of rather complex 
grammatical constructions almost right from the beginning.  Without the 
accompanying vocabulary, it can be a bit hard to practice what one is 
learning about the grammar.  I'm not saying the vocabulary isn't there in the 
Lojban lessons, but in comparison to the German book there is a really 
significant difference.  Certainly some of this is because at a simple level 
German and English are structured very similarly, whereas Lojban is quite 
different.  Nevertheless, gaining the ability early on to talk about everyday 
things without involving untangling three layers of inserted bridi I think is 
important to keeping up students interest.

So I (as a rank beginner, of course) vote that a podcast really focus on 
building basic conversational skills first, and grammar skills only 
secondarily.

Just my thoughts.

mu'o mi'e la skat.