[conlang_learners] What will you do the first day?

[James Montgomery]

I'm not opposed to moving the schedule up, but after hearing about test-driving the conlangs, it sounds like a good idea. Does anyone know how many could potentially come back in Sept?

The first thing I will do is cringe at the grammar, which is my weakest area, by far. I'll have to use model sentences, beginner readers, etc..., to get it down.

As a side note, our group inspired me to write my Persuasive speech about the necessity of an IAL for communication in business and between languages. Not that I see it happening without global domination of some kind. It should be an unusual topic for the normal people, to be sure.

James

--- On Wed, 7/8/09, Jim Henry <jimhenry1973 at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Jim Henry <jimhenry1973 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [conlang_learners] What will you do the first day?
> To: conlang_learners at conlang.org
> Date: Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 10:18 AM
> On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 7:52 AM,
> Mechthild Czapp<0zu149 at gmx.de>
> wrote:
> >> Von: Brett Williams <mungojelly at gmail.com>
> 
> >> I've been feeling impatient about choosing the
> language, haven't you?
> >> I mean I do think it makes sense to set a longish
> schedule like this,
> 
> Does anyone want to move the schedule up, then?  I
> mean, I am busy
> studying Taruven for the Inverse Relay and will be until
> the beginning
> of September, but if others want to get started sooner,
> that's fine; I
> (and perhaps others now busy with learning their target
> languages for
> the relay) would join you later.
> 
> We still have some minor issues to hash out re: how to do
> the voting.
> I think we have a consensus on some form of instant-runoff
> voting and
> secret ballot; but are we going to have votes hand-counted
> by a team
> of people who don't have a conlang under consideration, or
> automatically processed through a web form, or emailed and
> counted
> offline with some IRV-vote-counting software run by one or
> more
> members of said team?   And will we do two
> rounds of voting, to get a
> short list of conlangs whose creators' permission we want
> to get
> before doing the final vote, or just vote, then ask the
> creator's
> permission for the top pick, and revert to the runner-up if
> the
> creator of our first pick isn't amenable to working with
> us...?
> 
> 
> >> So what will you do the first day?
> 
> If the conlang chosen is one I haven't studied much before
> (as seems
> likely) I reckon I'd settled in to read all the materials
> about it,
> and in it, carefully; when I finish that (probably not the
> first day),
> I'd start writing short sentences in it and posting them
> somewhere
> (see below) for other co-learners, and the creator, to
> comment on and
> correct.   Then work up to translating very
> short stories and maybe
> writing original ones.
> 
> Organizationally, there is going to be some work to be done
> re:
> creating the repositories Mechthild mentioned, contacting
> the
> conlang's creator to tell them their conlang was chosen,
> etc.   We
> should plan ahead who's going to do that, and split up the
> tasks so
> all of them can reasonably be done in the first day or two
> after the
> conlang is chosen.   If we stick to the
> original schedule, I could do
> one or more of those things; if we move the schedule up to
> start
> sooner, I'd be busy with the inverse relay, and someone
> else would
> need to do them.
> 
> Do we want to move to another mailing list or web forum for
> discussing
> detailed issues of learning the chosen conlang, or keep
> using this
> list for that purpose?  It may depend on the chosen
> language; Láadan
> for instance already has one webforum and one mailing
> list.   But even
> if we pick a conlang for which no such mailing list or
> forum exists
> yet, it may be better to create one for that conlang, and
> continue to
> use this list for meta-discussion about "how to learn
> conlangs and
> what conlangs to learn", adapting Mario Pei's phrase.
> 
> > Should we create a respository like on github for our
> created material?
> 
> Certainly; perhaps more than one, depending on the type of
> material
> and whether we can find a repository that's suitable for
> storing all
> kinds of material... maybe Flickr or pics.conlang.org for
> images
> illustrating the meanings of words and sentences in the
> conlang,
> FrathWiki for original texts, translations, new lessons
> based on the
> creator's reference grammar or vice versa, and GitHub for
> code such as
> entry methods, parsers, flashcard programs etc...?
> 
> 
> Longer-term, if the project lasts long enough that it seems
> worth
> doing, I'd want to create lessons for the conlang if the
> creator has
> only provided a reference grammar, or vice versa (obviously
> that would
> be a multi-person task requiring a lot of input from the
> creator, if
> they're still involved with their conlang), and translate
> said lessons
> and grammar into other natlangs and widely-spoken conlangs
> -- I could
> do an Esperanto translation -- and then publicize the
> conlang more
> widely in the languages for which  learning materials
> are now
> available.
> 
> -- 
> Jim Henry
> http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/
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