tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Apr 01 13:59:23 1996

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Re: pongwIj DavID nuqneH

According to David W. Schaefer:
> 
> pongwIj DavID nuqneH
> (Hey, there, my name's David)
> Okay, okay, needs some work, but hey this *is* my first message to this forum

Yep. Sure needs work. I'll leave that to the Beginners'
Grammarian.

> I have a quick question that's been gnawing at me since I started lurking
> amongst you guys.  Do you know this so well that you can just kind of come up
> with thlingan Hol off the top of your heads, or do you consult TKD?

For the most part, I use the word list when I'm translating
anything which uses words I don't commonly experience on this
list. This is the main place I use Klingon. I speak to myself
in Klingon often for practice, especially when winding down
after a stressful day at the office. It does wonders for my
ability to tolerate traffic.

Often when I hear someone say something in English which uses
words I know in Klingon, I review in my head how that would be
said in Klingon. Sometimes I tell the people how it would be
said in Klingon, but I have learned that this is primarily
useful if you want those people to leave you alone.

> Also:  I have a good friend who used to teach Japanese and one of the things he
> told me is one the most important things with learning a new language is to
> *use* it -- both writing (which this forum is a great outlet for) and
> *speaking*.  But let's face it, finding someone who speaks Klingon is a stretch.
> What do most folks do?  

I basically never spoke it until qep'a' wa'DIch, the meeting in
Philadelphia a couple years back where half a dozen of us hung
out together in a motel for a week (and another half dozen
dropped by for a day or two), trying to speak Klingon. Krankor
and ~mark had conversations. The rest of us were in awe of them
and struggled desperately to very slowly say about two
incorrect sentences out loud, to the puzzled looks of Krankor
and ~mark.

The stress accompanying this blatent proof of incompetency
drove me and others to go home and WORK on this. We tried a
round robin exchange of audio tapes at one point, but certain
unspecified individuals failed to pass tapes on to others and
the effort fell apart. [Perhaps they were Romulan spies
disrupting our endeavors?]

At qep'a' cha'DIch, there were 18 of us for the whole week.
Several of us were able to speak whole sentences which were
grammatically correct after only a couple retries:

jIH... aaah, no. mIvwIj... aaahh... DujwIjDaq mIvwIj 'oH...
ummm. DujwIjDaq mIvwIj 'oHtaH ... ummm pa' vIlanpu'... uhhh,
no, that comes first.  Ummm. DujlIjDaq vIlanpu'mo'... damn!
DujlIjDaq mIvwIj vIlanpu'mo' DaH 'oHtaH mIvwIj'e' ej DaH mIvwIj
vIneH vaj DujlIj vI'el 'e' yIchaw'! [Finally, you get the keys
to his car so you can retrieve your hat.]

Besides getting to actually speak the language for a week, you
also get to hang out with a bunch of definitively wild and
crazy guys. You have not lived until you've witnessed
interactions between Krankor in full battle gear, refusing to
speak anything but Klingon, and the local waitresses. Hear
Broadway tunes translated on the fly by Krankor, ~mark and to
some extent Lawrence.

The main point is that everyone was a LOT better at qep'a'
cha'DIch than at qep'a' wa'DIch and soon there will be qep'a'
wejDIch. (Ooooooo. Aaaaaaah). You, too can be a part of this.
See this list for announcements as the July event approaches.

> I studied this language about a year and a half ago and
> was doing fairly well, but I didn't have an outlet in which to verbally use
> tlhIngan Hol, so it eventually fell to wayside -- not because I grew bored, but
> because I had a tough time retaining it without being able to use it.

Writing it helps you learn the vocabulary and grammar. Speaking
it helps you do it much more quickly, since you can't cheat and
edit the word order or look up the words without putting a
serious crimp on your expression.

By all means, write it and read it. It really will help you
speak it later.

> This is a great language and a hell of a lot of fun.  I want to be able to stick
> with it this time, and I need as much advice as possible in this area.
> 
> Dave S.

charghwI'
-- 

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