tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun May 06 08:10:59 2001
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Re: Dictionary Programs?
- From: Alan Anderson <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: Dictionary Programs?
- Date: Sun, 6 May 2001 10:07:59 -0500
- In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
- References: <l03020900b713cfc7085a@[216.117.92.99]>
jIja'pu':
>I started using one a year or so after I began learning to speak Klingon,
>and found that my progress in gaining vocabulary came to a complete halt.
ja' "...Paul" <[email protected]>:
>Wow, I had the complete opposite experience. Because I could look up
>words in the dictionary so much faster, I *wrote* more, and because I
>wrote more, I started to remember more, especially the suffixes and
>prefixes... In fact, I think I remember the suffixes and prefixes more
>than I remember the actual words...
ngerwIj Da'ollaw'. chotlhochpu'be'. mu'mey Daqawbe' 'e' Damaqlaw'.
That seems to confirm my position rather than oppose it. You say you
remember affixes but not as much vocabulary, which is consistent with what
I think is the typical result of using a too-easy translation tool. Fast
computerized dictionaries cut down on the work of looking up a word to the
point that it's not worth the effort to memorize anything. They don't
usually make it any less difficult to translate a prefix or suffix. It's
hard to improve on a one-page reference sheet -- the affix charts fit on a
mouse pad with room to spare! :)
The vocabulary-building exercises which I found most effective were of two
kinds. First, just going through the lexicon, one word at a time, and
rewriting the Klingon and English meanings; that at least exposed my brain
to the entirety of the vocabulary. Second, *reading* everything I could
find that was written in grammatically reasonable Klingon. Writing was not
as much of a help as I thought it might be; I ended up with the ideas still
associated with the English words, not the Klingon ones, because that's the
language in which I was thinking. When I *did* compose directly in Klingon
early on, I was limited by the vocabulary I already knew, and there wasn't
any mechanism for me to break out of that limitation.
Now, I'm finding that "flash card" drills are the best thing in the world
for keeping my vocabulary skills fresh. I'd be ecstatic if someone made
available a flash-card-like tool which could *speak* a Klingon word at
random; Klingon isn't just a written language.
-- ghunchu'wI' 'utlh