My daughter and lojban [was RE: On international applications of Lojban]

[Brook <nellardo@concentric.net>]

On Fri, 31 Dec 1999, Bob LeChevalier (lojbab) wrote:
> From: "Bob LeChevalier (lojbab)" <lojbab@lojban.org>
> 
> At 05:34 PM 12/30/99 -0500, Brook wrote:
> >(I'm not fluent, but my three-year-old daughter seems
> >to get the hang of lojban easily enough).
> 
> Tell us more!  Please!  What are you doing to facilitate it, and what has 
> she learned?  And can we talk you into keeping some type of logs if you 
> think she will acquire anything like fluency?

Mostly it has been simple word games - "la zo'is mi vecnu", "la zo'is vecnu
mi", "mi la zo'is vecnu" and the like (her name is Zooey (pronounced*zowiy*,
just like the more usual spelling "Zoe")). And the concept of a cat being a
"mlatu" makes her laugh her head off (cats are her favorite animal).

But the concept of her name being different, of words being in different orders
and meaning the same thing, doesn't seem to bother her at all - she appears to
treat lojban the same way she treats French. She plays with the words, and just
"figures it out." (I've never seriously studied childhood language acquisition,
so I don't know much more about the process than a general linguistics
background provides) (and what I've seen first-hand in Zooey, but I gather from
the reactions of other parents that her language acquisition is somewhat better
than above average (and no, I'm not biased))

Problem is, I'm hardly fluent. And she can't read much yet. So concerted
efforts for me to speak it to her don't go very far. Now, if I hired John Cowan
as a baby-sitter from time to time, we might get somewhere :-)

> We are VERY interested in *all* attempts to teach Lojban to kids, including 
> up through high school age.

I'll keep the list posted as interesting things happen, but I doubt she'd gain
fluency with no fluent speakers around. :-(

Brook
----------------
Klactovedestene!