tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Mar 20 09:52:51 1997

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Re: simple words



ja' qoror:
>...the problem is that I can't remember many simple words...
>...Does anyone have a way of remembering them that I could use?

mu'mey DaqawmeH ram mIw. tIlo'qu'.

Your last word is the important one -- *use* them and you *will*
remember them.  When I started learning this language, I built my
vocabulary slowly but steadily by translating absolutely everything
I read on the list.  I remember the amazing thrill I felt the first
time I read an entire sentence -- with subordinate clauses, even --
without needing to look up any of the words.

'ach mughmeH De'wI' yIwuvQo'qu'!  bIghojbe'bej.

A word of caution, however -- don't rely on a computer when you're
translating.  After I had been studying for a while, I knew enough
words that having to stop to look one up was very distracting, and
I started to use a computerized translator program regularly.
Guess what?  I stopped learning new words.  I found myself asking
the computer for the same words over and over again, without ever
remembering what they meant.  For most people, memorizing a word is
easier than the time and trouble of physically looking up a word in
a paper dictionary, and your brain will automatically remember it
to optimize the situation.  But it's usually easier still to have a
computer translate the words, so there's no incentive to learn.
I don't have a translator program installed on the computer that I
use to read my Klingon email.  Since my (autographed!) copy of The
Klingon Dictionary is falling apart from overuse, I made a pocket
dictionary (just the word lists, with a verb prefix refrigerator
magnet tucked inside the front cover) that I keep with me constantly.

-- ghunchu'wI'




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