tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun May 25 16:47:41 2003

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Re: Learning Klingon

In some ways, Susan, i am a perfect example of how not to go about learning 
tlhIngan Hol.

i joined the mailing list in 1996, have all the publications available 
in/about Klingons and the language (including a couple that are 
unauthorised); i have the tapes and the CD and novels/novelisations; i have 
all issues of jatmey, all but 7 of HolQed; i have the video boardgame; i 
have a meticulously kept electronic K-E dictionary, compiled from TKD, TKW, 
and from Holtej's WotD, along with the notes that are sent to us (mostly by 
voragh nowadays); every morning when i wake up, the first thing i see is a 
giant banner i made for myself, stating -- in Klingon pIqaD lettering 18 
inches high -- that "Failure Is Not An Option", pinned up opposite my bed 
(sort of my daily 'pep-talk').  i have the Klingon symbol (whatever it is 
called, i forget right now) tattooed on my left flank, along with the 
Klingon axiom "Listen to the Voice of your blood!"; i have a clock on my 
'puter that tells me the time in Klingon when i click on it; pagh once told 
me my Klingong name, DantlhIgh (an adaptation of my last name, Danzig), was 
about as Klingon a name as any; last christmas i received a full-scale 
detailed replica of QeylIS' bat'leth in metal from my brother.

And i can not speak a word of Klingon. Oh, i can pronounce the words, and 
know the Klingon for "Listen to the voice of your blood" and "Four thousand 
throats can be cut in one night by a running man" by heart, but i never 
dedicated myself to the language or it's pursuit, and as such i am still a 
n00b.  i studied at uni for 4 years, so that got in the way, as did/does my 
tendency to spread myself around a large number of time-consuming interests, 
thus not really giving any of them my full attention, i suppose.

And here i am, 7 years later, with still a rudimentary knowledge of this 
language.  i once heard that one of our older members, Nick Nicholas, can 
hold an impromptu conversation in Klingon on the spur of the moment.  How 
far away from that i am!

If you want to learn the language, Susan, persist.  Nothing worth doing is 
ever easy; nothing hard will ever leave your efforts unrewarded.  And you 
don't want to be sitting in front of your 'puter in 7 years thinking 'if 
only i had kept at it, i'd be able to read these damn emails without needing 
SKI!'  LMAO.



--DantlhIgh

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