[conlang_learners] where do we begin?

[Olivier Simon]

I suppose we can keep on using this list; but on the other hand, there is a risk that "technical" messages (i.e. not related to the study of the xlang itself) are getting drowned among the flood of messages concerning the learning of the language. Moreover, if we had to split into two groups, this solution would be impossible. 
If the chosen xlang has no preexisting internet platform, one (I mean "the teacher", or the one most proficient in the xlang) can rapidly create a google group. 
This was the solution recommended to me by D.McLeod when he learnt Sambahsa: 
http://groups.google.com/group/sambahsa-mundialect 
and it worked well (off topic: in the file section "fichiers", you can download many texts written in sambahsa...)
 
Olivier
http://sambahsa.pbworks.com/ 

--- On Sun, 8/30/09, Jim Henry <jimhenry1973 at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Jim Henry <jimhenry1973 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [conlang_learners] where do we begin?
To: conlang_learners at conlang.org
Date: Sunday, August 30, 2009, 5:30 AM


2009/8/30 Dayle Hill <dwhmusic32 at yahoo.co.uk>:
> Once xlang is chosen, how and where will we begin to communicate in it?
> Do
> we simply begin posting here in xlang, or will there be a wiki page where
> people can post there conversations and replies etc?

Unless we pick something I've already studied as much as say, Taruven,
I expect it will take me a few days, at least, before I'm ready to
really *communicate* in it in the sense of conveying new and
interesting information with it and understanding the new and
interesting things  other people say to me in it; likely my first
attempts at producing the language will be simple sentences on the
models of the sample sentences in the grammar or lessons.

As for "where", I think it best to leave that decision until after the
votes are counted and we know which language we've chosen.  Some of
these languages already have online web fora or mailing lists devoted
to them.  If not, then we could either talk about and in the language
here on conlang_learners, or create a new mailing list for the
language, or a new web forum -- it might depend on the language
creator's preferences, whether they prefer to use a web BBS like phpBB
(what ZBB uses) or a mailing list or wiki or what.  It might suit
perfectly well to continue using conlang_learners for this purpose for
a good while, but at some point, probably, some of us will want to use
conlang_learners to discuss other conlangs and decide on another one
to learn next, and those of us who are most interested in the
first-chosen language will want to continue talking in and about it,
so at that point if not sooner we should make a separate list or forum
for it if one doesn't already exist.

> Or how about we begin with simple descriptions of ourselves, where we live,
> our hobbies, families etc...

Once we've learned enough of the language to say things like that,
that would be a fairly good place to start.

> Or is this open and free at our own discretion?

....But I don't think we should require it per se.   Different people
have different learning style and if someone wants their first writing
in the language to be translations of traditional conlang texts that
haven't been done in said conlang yet, or conlang test sentences, or
original poetry or short stories, or anything else: fine.

(I expect what we do with the language will depend partly on its
nature, e.g. whether it's set in the modern world or something similar
enough that we can talk about arbitrary here-and-now topics in it, or
if it's set in a fictional world very different from our own; in the
latter case, it might be cool to create characters for ourselves in
this setting and do something like a roleplaying game (but not
necessarily so quantified and rule-governed) while attempting our
first conversation in the language.)

Before most of us are ready to start writing in the language, we'll
probably spend some time collectively going over the existing
resources for the language; maybe working through the lessons and/or
grammar together, and posting here or on the language's mailing list
or forum about any questions or uncertainties we have about the
material, etc., and going to the conlang's creator when and if we
can't collectively answer those questions on our own.

It might make sense also to go through the language's lexicon and mark
it up with numbers or tags ranking how important each word is for
beginners to learn, in some way that makes it suitable to feed the
lexicon to a flashcard program which will quiz the most
important/frequent words first and more often and rarely used ones
later and less often.  Details will have to depend on the chosen
language, whether its creator is involved in the project, what format
their extant lexicon is in, etc.

-- 
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/
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