Learn Na'vi Guide?

[Lehrrapa Swirä]

I'm sorry if this is already posted somewhere, but I haven't seen anything like it so far.
My biggest problem with learning Na'vi, is the fact that there are so many materials to use. Don't get me wrong, thats a good thing, but it makes it kind of hard to know what to start with, what to study after you understand something ect...
So I was wondering, what if there was a learn Na'vi guide book, or outline. Like a High School language book type thing. It could tell you when to learn certain rules, and words ect. I was thinking it could be in the form of an outline, and have links to documents. Like if you were at the Prefix section, there would be a link to a helpful Prefix guide. And after you understood how to use Prefixes, the next link would be to the next best thing to learn after Prefixes. Or maybe once you think you understand a section, there could be some worksheets to practice. (I know there are some great ones already.)
Again, I'm sorry if this is already posted somewhere else, I just thought it would be a good idea for people like me 
Im sorry if my explanation doesn't make sense, it almost 3 in the morning and I'm tired 

[Payä Tìrol]

There's Navi in a Nutshell.
The thread up top called "Links to useful documents" also has other stuff. Definitely get the dictionaries and update them frequently. There are other stuff like worksheets, but some of them are really old and outdated.

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

There really is no formal course of study in Na`vi, because the language is still unfinished and under intense development. It is really up to you to figure out how to use the tools that are available. And only you can decide which tools are of the most use to you. Almost everyone needs 'Na`vi in a Nutshell' as an introduction. Taronyu's dictionary is absolutely essential, as that (and the Wiki) are the only places that are up-to-the-minute accurate.

There is a document entitled 'Crash Course in LKinguistics Terminology' that can be useful if you have not previously learned another language.

I tend to work on everything a little bit, and 'switch gears' frequently-- grammar, vocabulary, writing and reading (less than I want to!), learning to speak properly. Develop your own learning tools and share them. For instance, I maintain a vocabulary list for a vocabulary teaching screensaver. Also, participate in the 'language updates' page. Suggest new vocabulary terms, etc.

Learning Na`vi is a lot of fun, because (if you apply yourself), you are not only learning the language, but helping develop it as well!

[Tsamsiyu92]

^Why do you use the ` in Na'vi, what's wrong with the aphostrophy?

Ontopic, Na'vi in a nutshell is really good, it has most of (if not all of) the grammar we have got from Frommer.

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

^Why do you use the ` in Na'vi, what's wrong with the aphostrophy?

Ontopic, Na'vi in a nutshell is really good, it has most of (if not all of) the grammar we have got from Frommer.

I guess I learned a long time ago, when first signing up here, that ` worked in a username, but ' did not. I think there is a genuine apostrophe symbol somewhere, but I have not gone looking for it.

And I would agree. NAIN is probably the best all-around learning resource. It is a good introductory guide, and a handy reference after that.

Although a bit out of date, Kaltxi Palulukan's Na`vi activity book is also useful for fun exercises. It can also be a good way to gauge how far you have progressed in areas such as vocabulary.

If I can ever find the time, I have a 'fun with infixes' worksheet planned.

What dId at first was learn the alphabet. There is a video by Ftapfi that is really good for introducing you to the alphabet. A few turns with that, and you know the alphabet.

Then, I read the grammar rules, as they existed in mid-February.

With this in mind, I started to go over the dictionary, especially the most common words. I tried translating, but quickly found most real-world examples of Na`vi cannot be accommodated by the short 'first words' list. Although my vocabulary has greatly expanded since then, I still need to use the dictionary a lot when reading and writing.

Eventually, I started to build sentences and test them here. I am still in that phase today, but demands on my time have made it very difficult to do a lot of reading and writing. I am hoping that during some of the 'downtime' I have this summer, I can work on reading some of the really important stuff in the canon, as well as write some longer texts.

The ultimate goal of this all is to be able to help translate the Bible into Na`vi, as well as have a lot of fun with the language!

[Tìmuiäyä'itan]

As for bible translation I have not yet learned anything like speaking Na'vi, I treat it like a "dead" language (like the Latin and Old Greek I once learned). And I don't like it.

Hopefully, I will get a faster internet connection soon, so I could take part in teamspeak sessions...

But still, I also see the need of something like a classbook of Na'vi. The dictionary and NIAN are fine (plus there seems to be a full grammar in the pipe), and I use them as references when proofreading texts or writing something myself, but they don't help too much when learning, they are better for references when reassuring or looking up things you are not sure about any more...

A classbook would, on the other hand, sort things out for you: Where to start: simple grammar first, then the rest, first giving you the ability to speak, then improving it. I remember when studying English I had a feeling of being able to talk really a lot after a couple of weeks in school. In my second year I was able to hold a conversation with a Canadian without much effort, though my English did improve a lot since. But the basic capability to actually talk was laid in the first weeks.
Looking at Latin, I was presented with grammar rules. The aim was not to talk, it was to be able to use grammar and dictionary to get a German translation of a Latin text. This is the way I also learn Na'vi at the moment, but this won't enable me to talk a lot (including having lame internet I have no one to talk to).

So I started thinking about what one would need for a classbook. I think one needs to find out in which order to explain the grammar (the part of it we do have yet), which vocabulary to choose in order to enable pupils to speak from the beginning, and how to build on that. I think what a classbook also needs is excercises, like those we have already scattered all around the forum, maybe focused a bit more on the actual study pace of the pupil (this leads me to a question about English: when do you say "pupil" and when do you say "student"? Is this a BE-AE issue?).

I have a slight feeling that such a classbook PLUS doing the exercises together via teamspeak (at least those excercises that include talking and reading text) could be more effective than what people are doing on themselves at home... what do you think?

About which vocab to use first, I also found an article, which makes a lot of sense to me, in the net.

So I wonder if we think that such a book would be possible to create at this stage...? (btw is there any way to include sound in a pdf?)

[Taronyu]

We were going to do that, actually. We have some worksheets that work sort of like that, but they are now desperately out-dated. The issue is time, in that that is a huge undertaking, and time, in that often early on, by the time something like that was made, it was obsolete (cf. all of my grammer works.)  So...I know what you mean, but we don't have that yet.

Now...if you wanted to make it....

[Tìmuiäyä'itan]

The worksheets was it I was talking about when speaking of the scattered excercises... And I know time is an issue, this is why I want to think (loudly) about how to approach this paedagogics-wise.

I thought about whether I should give it a try and do such a thing (then again, my Na'vi is very poor as in an active way; and also poor passively ). But I won't think about starting without having an idea of how to actually make this and without seeing wm.annis' reference grammar (for I don't want to put too many mistakes in it from beginning)...

So I wonder if here are some people who have knowledge in paedagogics who could give hints etc... cause my major is theology, all I can do is give you a sermon in Na'vi once I master the language to a certain level...

Kìyevame!