Subject: How good are you at Lojban?

From: Bob LeChevalier-Logical Language Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 14:06:21 -0500

I dug up the URL for the US government standards on language proficiency.

http://www.dli.army.mil/pages_/catalog/skill.htm

There are standards in each of the skills: reading, writing, speaking, and 
listening, and skill level ranges from level 0 to level 5.

I am curious as to the level of skill that people using Lojban feel that 
they have acquired. Is there anyone who feels that they have reached level 
3 in any skill according to these standards? How many of us feel that we 
have reached skill level 2 or 2+.

I'm asking everyone reading this who has actually tried to read and/or 
write Lojban (speaking and listening too, if applicable) to estimate their 
skill level. (Be honest, but not self-denigrating).

For the record, in Lojban, I for example, am either 2 or 2+ in Reading, 
level 2 in speaking, level 2+ in writing, and barely level 2 in listening.

The other question is: how good would *you* need to be in Lojban in order 
to say that you could/would use the language effectively. I have generally 
considered level 3 to be the highest realistic target that most anyone 
could have for an artificial language, unless it comes into general use, 
but perhaps even this is too high a standard - one that few will seriously 
aim for. Since in general one will not get better in a language than one 
is willing to work to achieve, knowing at what level people will be 
satisfied (and thereby stop working hard to move up) would be useful.

For those who know other conlangs, I would also be interested in your 
self-skill-rating in those other conlangs. I suspect that many 
Esperantists are more skilled in that language than they are in Lojban.

I'd like to get lots of responses, so I suggest sending to me personally 
unless you have a general comment on the topic, and I will summarize the 
results.

lojbab
----
lojbab [email-masked]
Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc.
2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org (newly updated!)