tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jan 26 18:10:54 1996

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Re: charghwI' <DaHjaj> lut

Dona Bazley writes:
>Being a very new comer to learning klingon I wish when someone writes in
>Klingon they'd put the translation in English cuz it would help us
>new  people see what is trying to be said and  help us learn faster.
>PLEEEZEEE

Sorry, Dona, but we cannot comply.  Often when we write using Klingon
we are "thinking in" Klingon, and it would simply be too much of an
inconvenience to try to say the same thing in English.  It would be
much the same thing if someone asked you to rephrase what you wrote
without using any of the same words.

I also doubt that having a translation always handy would help anyone
to learn the language faster.  It's just too easy to "cheat" when you
can skip over the hard parts.  There's another problem, too:  sometimes
there just *isn't* a true translation.  There is usually a "good" one,
and there is often one that carries the meaning perfectly, but rarely
can we point to an English sentence and call it *the* translation.

Klingon is not a way to encode English words.  It has its own distinct
grammar.  It has a different "feel" -- while English is riddled with
nouns and the verb "to be", *action* dominates Klingon speech.

So if we're just talking to one another about the weather, or having a
good laugh because of a play on words, or complaining about our cars,
or {ghommaj ghatlhlaw'mo' qoHpu' mabeplI'chugh} we are not going to
state our thoughts twice.  If you want to follow along, you'll have to
put in the effort to translate it yourself.  Only with real practice do
skills improve.

I am the Beginners' Grammarian.  I'm here to help beginners.  If you
have specific questions, or if you want me to check your grammar, or
even if you just want my opinion of something you wrote, you can put
the codeword "KLBC" somewhere in the subject of your note and I will
do my best to answer your needs.  I will critique your translations,
if that's what you want.  But I will *not* translate others' messages
for you.  This list is supposed to be for those who want to learn and
use the language, not for people who merely want to eavesdrop on the
conversations without putting in the effort of learning at least the
grammar.

-- ghunchu'wI'               batlh Suvchugh vaj batlh SovchoH vaj

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