<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV>This was the solution recommended to me by D.McLeod when he learnt Sambahsa: </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://groups.google.com/group/sambahsa-mundialect">http://groups.google.com/group/sambahsa-mundialect</A> </DIV>
<DIV>and it worked well (off topic: in the file section "fichiers", you can download many texts written in sambahsa...)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Olivier</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://sambahsa.pbworks.com/">http://sambahsa.pbworks.com/</A> <BR><BR>--- On <B>Sun, 8/30/09, Jim Henry <I><jimhenry1973@gmail.com></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><BR>From: Jim Henry <jimhenry1973@gmail.com><BR>Subject: Re: [conlang_learners] where do we begin?<BR>To: conlang_learners@conlang.org<BR>Date: Sunday, August 30, 2009, 5:30 AM<BR><BR>
<DIV class=plainMail>2009/8/30 Dayle Hill <<A href="http://us.mc574.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=dwhmusic32@yahoo.co.uk" ymailto="mailto:dwhmusic32@yahoo.co.uk">dwhmusic32@yahoo.co.uk</A>>:<BR>> Once xlang is chosen, how and where will we begin to communicate in it?<BR>> Do<BR>> we simply begin posting here in xlang, or will there be a wiki page where<BR>> people can post there conversations and replies etc?<BR><BR>Unless we pick something I've already studied as much as say, Taruven,<BR>I expect it will take me a few days, at least, before I'm ready to<BR>really *communicate* in it in the sense of conveying new and<BR>interesting information with it and understanding the new and<BR>interesting things other people say to me in it; likely my first<BR>attempts at producing the language will be simple sentences on the<BR>models of the sample sentences in the grammar or lessons.<BR><BR>As for "where", I think it best to leave that
decision until after the<BR>votes are counted and we know which language we've chosen. Some of<BR>these languages already have online web fora or mailing lists devoted<BR>to them. If not, then we could either talk about and in the language<BR>here on conlang_learners, or create a new mailing list for the<BR>language, or a new web forum -- it might depend on the language<BR>creator's preferences, whether they prefer to use a web BBS like phpBB<BR>(what ZBB uses) or a mailing list or wiki or what. It might suit<BR>perfectly well to continue using conlang_learners for this purpose for<BR>a good while, but at some point, probably, some of us will want to use<BR>conlang_learners to discuss other conlangs and decide on another one<BR>to learn next, and those of us who are most interested in the<BR>first-chosen language will want to continue talking in and about it,<BR>so at that point if not sooner we should make a separate list or
forum<BR>for it if one doesn't already exist.<BR><BR>> Or how about we begin with simple descriptions of ourselves, where we live,<BR>> our hobbies, families etc...<BR><BR>Once we've learned enough of the language to say things like that,<BR>that would be a fairly good place to start.<BR><BR>> Or is this open and free at our own discretion?<BR><BR>....But I don't think we should require it per se. Different people<BR>have different learning style and if someone wants their first writing<BR>in the language to be translations of traditional conlang texts that<BR>haven't been done in said conlang yet, or conlang test sentences, or<BR>original poetry or short stories, or anything else: fine.<BR><BR>(I expect what we do with the language will depend partly on its<BR>nature, e.g. whether it's set in the modern world or something similar<BR>enough that we can talk about arbitrary here-and-now topics in it, or<BR>if it's set in a
fictional world very different from our own; in the<BR>latter case, it might be cool to create characters for ourselves in<BR>this setting and do something like a roleplaying game (but not<BR>necessarily so quantified and rule-governed) while attempting our<BR>first conversation in the language.)<BR><BR>Before most of us are ready to start writing in the language, we'll<BR>probably spend some time collectively going over the existing<BR>resources for the language; maybe working through the lessons and/or<BR>grammar together, and posting here or on the language's mailing list<BR>or forum about any questions or uncertainties we have about the<BR>material, etc., and going to the conlang's creator when and if we<BR>can't collectively answer those questions on our own.<BR><BR>It might make sense also to go through the language's lexicon and mark<BR>it up with numbers or tags ranking how important each word is for<BR>beginners to learn, in some way that makes
it suitable to feed the<BR>lexicon to a flashcard program which will quiz the most<BR>important/frequent words first and more often and rarely used ones<BR>later and less often. Details will have to depend on the chosen<BR>language, whether its creator is involved in the project, what format<BR>their extant lexicon is in, etc.<BR><BR>-- <BR>Jim Henry<BR><A href="http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/" target=_blank>http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/</A><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>conlang_learners mailing list<BR><A href="http://us.mc574.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=conlang_learners@conlang.org" ymailto="mailto:conlang_learners@conlang.org">conlang_learners@conlang.org</A><BR><A href="http://lists.conlang.org/listinfo.cgi/conlang_learners-conlang.org" target=_blank>http://lists.conlang.org/listinfo.cgi/conlang_learners-conlang.org</A><BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></td></tr></table><br>