simple language lessons

[aikidave]

Here is an idea for a course in toki pona, which I found on another conlang site. Have multiple short lessons; maximum 8 or 10 new words per lesson. No grammar explanations, just a simple story. Story line builds as student gains more vocabulary. Story is not translated, just presented so the student can figure out the meaning from the vocabulary. The idea is that the short little vocabulary for each lesson is the only thing that has to be translated, to make the course tailored for ANY language. So toki pona would be accessible to be learned by anyone.

1) mije li lape. mije li lape ala. mije li open e oko ona. pimeja li lon. mije li pini e oko ona. mije li lape.

mije - man
li - signals the next word is a verb
lape - sleeps
ona - he
ala - not
open - opens
e - signals the next word is a direct object
oko - eyes
pimeja - dark
pini - closes

2) mije li lape. mije li lape ala. mije li open e oko ona. suno li lon. tenpo suno kama li lon. mije li lukin e kasi. mije li lukin e kasi suli. mije li lukin e kasi lili. mije li lukin e kasi mute. mije li lukin e waso lili mute.

lukin - see
suno - light
tenpo suno kama - morning
tree - kasi
lili - small
suli - big
mute - many
waso - bird

3) mije li lape ala. mije li open e oko ona. ona li lukin e kasi. ona li sewi e sijelo ona. ona li lukin tawa ali. ona li lukin sewi. ona li lukin e lipu. ona li lukin anpa. ona li lukin e

lipu.
sewi - stand up
lukin - look
tawa - at
ali - everything
lipu - leaf
sewi - up
anpa - down

[aikidave]

jan Pije li lape. jan Pije li kama lape ala. jan Pije li kute e mama
meli ona. mama ona li toki e ni: o Pije, sina lape ala anu seme? jan
Pije li toki e ni: ala. mi lape.

jan - person
lape - sleep
kama - becoming
mama - parent
meli - female
ona - his / her
kute - hear
toki - say
ni - this
anu - what
seme - what
ala - no, not
mi - I
sina - you
e - (marker separating verb from direct object)
li - (marker separating subject from verb)

[aikidave]

Seen in another group on learning Kah:

"To that end, I suggest that new language lessons should be short, do-
able in 15 or 20 minutes. The learner could study two or three such
lessons per day, and make very good progress. Each lesson introduces
no more than 10 new words, with 5 to 8 new words as a preferable goal.
Points of grammar are shown by example, rather than explained in
techical linguistic terms.

Lists of sentence templates to demonstrate grammatical fine points are
counter-productive to the development of fluency. They challenge the
learner's memorization skills, but do little to enhance the ability to
produce connected thoughts, to tell a story in the target language.

The language practice section of the ideal lesson is narrative, story-
like, conversational in tone. The purpose is to engage the learner's
language brain, and provide verbal images and story lines that the
learner can re-tell, modify, and use to build fluency. the practice
sections should be entirely in the the target language, with no
sentence-by-sentence or word-by-word translations. Interline,
"glossed" translation examples might be useful for showing off the the
language, perhaps in an introduction, but they teach the learner to
translate text from the target language to the native language,
instead of understanding it directly without translation.

Lessons should be short, non-academic, narrative, and (as much as
possible) entirely in the target language, to provide an immersion
experience for the learner."