tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Jul 12 10:40:59 1998

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Re: how do you learn voc?

---Alan Anderson <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> ja' muHwI':
> >ghItlh DloraH:
> >>When at work (or school) and home, look around and try to name
things.  when
> >>somebody says something, or after you say something, think about
what it
> >Yes, "think". But the words, I can't look them up. Sometimes I
stand there
> >and I think like {*door* vI*open*meH nuq vI*use*nIS} (this is just
an example)

This isn't a bad way to go.  Use Klingon grammar and English words to
talk to yourself.  Slowly you substitute in more and more Klingon
words until you are really speaking Klingon.

> This would go along well with the suggestion to compile your own
personal
> dictionary.  Copy all of the words from both sides of TKD and its
appendix,
> TKW, the "new words" page on the KLI web, and the newest ones you've
seen
> here.  Put them in a form where you can print them out and make
yourself a
> booklet you can carry with you everywhere, so that you *can* look
them up.

My suggestion about looking words up, is: be careful what you
memorize.  I bet at qep'a', if I catch someone in the act of looking
up a word, grab the dictionary and ask them to think about the word,
they will either be able to think of it after a moment, or tyhey will
be able to tell me it is near the bottom of a left hand page.  If you
have got to the point where you remember where the word is, but not
the word, you're shutting off your brain as you reach for the
dictionary.  Instead guess the word.  Make a guess.  ANY guess.  Then
look up the guess instead of the word.  If you're right, you know the
word, congratulations.  If you're wrong, look up the correct word.  I
suggest techniques like keeping the dictionary in the fridge or
putting an elastic band around the dictionary to make it more effort
to just look it up than it is to THINK.  

I have a reputation for having learned the vocabulary very quickly. 
Here's what helped:

1. I had a first printing, first edition TKD and didn't want to get it
all thumbed up.  So I only opened it when I *really* couldn't remember.
2. I read the list at work and kept my dictionary at home.  At first I
just downloaded the list onto disk and took it home to read, but after
a while I couldn't resist trying to read the messages, especially
answers to questions I had asked.  The words that I didn't know that
were crucial to understanding of the sentences bounced around in my
head all day untl I could run home and look them up.  I deliberately
kept my dictionary at home to keep from reading and writing Klingon at
work, and almost accidentally memorized the vocabulary to circumvent
myself!
3. I labelled everything in my home in Klingon.  This technique is
demonstrated to work for someone who has very poor memorization skills
and was deliberately avoiding learning the language.  One day he said,
"One of your labels is on the floor."  I asked what it said.  He
answered "water," a split second before he realized that I had
deviously taught him {bIQ}.
4. I spent so many hours on the MUSE that my keyboard wore out.

I also used flashcards, set goals, talked to myself, wrote stories and
many of the other things suggested.  As far as I have seen, the number
one determining factor of how fast someone will learn vocabulary is
the amount of effort they put into it: concentration multiplied by
time.  

> But can you walk around with a word list that you 
> printed yourself?

ghunchu'wI' has a teeny tiny one.  chaq mu'ghomDaj vInIH.  

> >chaq qep'a' wa'maHDIch vISuch.
> >I am planning to come to the tenth qep'a'.
> 
> pa' qaleghbej.

jIbupchugh ghaytan qep'a' wa'maHDIchvaD jIchegh.
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