tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Jul 09 03:55:23 1994

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Re: for beginners






charghwI'vo':


>In a conversation with another, I happened upon an exercise
>that I would recommend to others. More than anything, it is
>what I have done to gain whatever skill I have:
>
>Write something in Klingon. It doesn't have to be especially
>challenging, though eventually you do want to throw in
>challenging things along with simple ones.
>
>Now, put aside what you wrote where you can find it later.
>Leave it alone long enough to forget the process of having
>written it.
>
>Now, go back and READ what you WROTE. Is this the best way to
>express this thought in Klingon? Try to polish it.
>
>The important thing is that you don't think that polishing it
>while looking at the English is the same thing as polishing it
>while looking at the Klingon. You are not trying to learn how
>to say English things better in Klingon. You are trying to
>learn how to say thoughts better in Klingon. You will be more
>aware of grammatical constructions and more open to other
>vocabulary choices if you are working with the Klingon as
>Klingon instead of staring at the English sentence with a
>microscope as you try to write your Klingon.
>
>Hope this is useful to someone...


This is *excellent* advice to anyone at *any* level.  I frequently go back 
over things I have written in Hol before I send them.  In fact, I have one 
piece I have *not* sent yet, which I have gone over no less than 5 times... 
because everytime I go over it, I find something else I want to change, or is 
ambiguous, or flat out wrong.

The only bit of advice I would offer along side of this is to learn the 
suffixes.  That was one of the first pearls handed to me from Qanqor (although 
he may not remember it).  Even if you don't memorize what they *mean*, learn 
what are suffixes and what are not.  This makes parsing things *much* easier.  
If you learn what they mean, too, it makes most tranlsations go *very* 
quickly.  Most of the time, I can read about half a sentence just from 
scanning the suffixes and what verbs/nouns/chuvemy I have memorized, and then 
go and look up the missing bits.  Makes life easier. {{:)

--HoD trI'Qal






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