Na'vi Research Study

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

Very interesting survey! I hope you get some useful information from it. I, too am interested to see what kinds of information you are able to gather with this survey.

[amar]

Kaltxì ma smuktu, oel ayngengati kamuye

Too bad ... I'm 13 and I really want to participate at this survey  Why can't I ?
Mì olo' leNa'vi everyone involved from the smallest to largest ... Please  

Eywa ayngengahu

[Eana Tanhì]

I'm 18, I would like to fill it too

[Amaya]

Yeah. Why 19? Just curious.

19 is the legal age in Canada, where my University is located and this was a condition of my Research Ethics Board.

If there is enough interest from those who are under 19 years of age. I might be able to modify that though, but the ethics board would need sufficient reasoning to do this. 

[Ftxavanga Txe′lan]

Also, I am not surveying speakers of any other constructed languages right now, but did recently write an article about media and information technology and constructed languages (Klingon and Na'vi) and what endangered language communities could learn from their example.  This article is currently in review, but I can let you know when (and if) it is published.

Oh, that's very nice!

As for the enthusiasm, I think it's because it's exciting to be studied by a legit researcher at a university.

I also think the reason might be among those lines. We Na'vi speakers tend not to be always taken seriously by others, whereas this survey shows some kind of recognition, a txantsan leiu!

By the way, I didn't know the majority age in other Canada provinces was 19. Here (in Québec) it's 18. hihi

[Amaya]

It's 19 in the provinces of British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon

Which doesn't necessarily reflect the legal drinking age XD but that's beside the point.

Back on topic, I've filled out the survey, and thought it was very well made, although there were a few questions that could have benefitted from being "yes or no" or scaled questions *(as someone who worked in surveys for eight years, I can tell you from experience that you're going to get a lot of abiguity that you're going to have to assign a value to)

[linganthprof]

Quote from: Markì on Today at 08:57:24 am
Christine,
Since the survey is anonymous, I wouldn't think age would be a big problem in Canada, or anywhere else for that matter. I can tell you that a significant percentage of the members that report their age on their profile on LearnNavi.org are under 19. Excluding this group will introduce a significant bias to the data.

Thank you for the extra information. I have updated the ethics forms to include everyone (regardless of age) with the argument that many of the members of the forum are under 19 years of age and that as this is not sensitive information there is no risk to those under 19. If there is still concern I will add this extra information on data bias and ability to learn other languages to my reasons for the change.  I'll let everyone know I hear back.

Irayo, Christine

[linganthprof]

Back on topic, I've filled out the survey, and thought it was very well made, although there were a few questions that could have benefitted from being "yes or no" or scaled questions *(as someone who worked in surveys for eight years, I can tell you from experience that you're going to get a lot of abiguity that you're going to have to assign a value to)

That is a good point.  I wanted to be able to give participants as much of a voice as possible, which is why I chose to do it this way and it's been interesting to see where people have diverged from a simply one word answer when I didn't expect them too. 

['Oma Tirea]

Hasey soli

[amar]

Yeah tha'ts really good ! 

Irayo nìtxan nìtxan

[linganthprof]

Just wanted to let everyone know that the survey is now running in Russian, German, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Na'vi and will soon be up in French.  Irayo to all of the translators and to those who have participated!

If you haven't filled in the survey yet, you have lots of options now    I just ask that if you fill it in in only one language, with the exception of the Na'vi survey, that one has a question built in that asks if you have filled it in in another language.

Christine

[Tirea Aean]

Just wanted to let everyone know that the survey is now running in Russian, German, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Na'vi and will soon be up in French.  Irayo to all of the translators and to those who have participated!

If you haven't filled in the survey yet, you have lots of options now    I just ask that if you fill it in in only one language, with the exception of the Na'vi survey, that one has a question built in that asks if you have filled it in in another language.

Christine

Txantsan Then here I go to 'iveyng nì'na'vi.

[Ftxavanga Txe′lan]

Just wanted to let everyone know that the survey is now running in Russian, German, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Na'vi and will soon be up in French.

Awesome, that's a lot of languages! Just so you guys know, the French one is finished and up now.

[archaic]

Ultra fail at learning, so left it alone.

[judytuna]

Awesome! I'm also looking forward to the results. Professor, is it okay to tell us about what some of your hypotheses were and whether they're being fulfilled? Or I guess we'll have to wait for the research paper =) And what kind of reception do you get from other people (students/colleagues/etc?) about your research? Personally, I have experienced derision and have been told that learning a real language would be a worthier use of my time, to which I say that a hobby doesn't necessarily have to be "useful to all of society" and that I'm exercising my brain muscle the same way that basketball exercises other muscles, and so on. (Maybe for your next survey about conlangs, you could ask a question about whether it has impacted our lives, what other people say to us about our hobby, how we try to get people around us in real life to speak it -- a lot of people I have met through LN.org are the only speakers in their whole circle of RL friends, myself included! My RL friends know I'm into it but would never try it themselves.)

The people who run this message board also run dothraki.org ... have you poked around there, too? =)

[linganthprof]

Awesome! I'm also looking forward to the results. Professor, is it okay to tell us about what some of your hypotheses were and whether they're being fulfilled? Or I guess we'll have to wait for the research paper =) And what kind of reception do you get from other people (students/colleagues/etc?) about your research?
The people who run this message board also run dothraki.org ... have you poked around there, too? =)

Hello!  Thanks for your questions and interest in the survey results.  Many of my questions on the survey are based off of similar questions that were asked of Klingon speakers in a study by a Swedish student (Wahlgren 2004).  He found that the learners of Klingon, although fans of Star Trek, were also those individuals interested in languages and linguistics in general.  I am finding this to be true of some of the participants, but not the majority (as far as I can tell from just scanning the results so far).  Also, only about 20 individuals answered his survey where there have been 106 participants in the English version of the Na'vi survey alone.  I won't say more than that now, since the survey is ongoing, but will post the results when the survey is completed (July 31st). I posted notice of the survey to various list-servs and a few individuals wrote back to me about their own courses on created languages and the need for more research in created language communities so the response has been quite positive. 

Last, I've taken a peek at dothraki.org, but haven't really looked at it in detail. 

[Plumps]

Wonderful that there's such an interest in promoting the language for a wider audience

[linganthprof]

Kaltxì Christine!
I'm the mom of two children, a 13-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl.  They started learning Na'vi about 5 months ago, and they want to learn it more intensely now that school it out for summer break.  I'm learning along with them.  I'll take the survey, and please keep us posted if the study opens up for those under 18 in the U.S.

Kaltxì,

I wanted to let you (and anyone else who is interested) know that my university has finally approved my application to have children fill in the survey.  They wanted a version of the survey that could be read at a grade 3 level and so I have made a new version on-line at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NAVIkids

So, if your children are still interested you can check that one out.

For those of you who are under 19 and have already filled in the original survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NAVI - thank you! 

If there are individuals under 19 out there who haven't yet filled in the survey, you can fill in either of these surveys. The survey will run until July 31st, 2011

Irayo again for your interest and to all who have participated!

Christine

[Ftxavanga Txe′lan]

That's good news, great!

[Human No More]

Done
If you are interested, you could find some more people form the Avatar community at ToS - most of the serious Na'vi speakers will be here as well, but there are still quite a few who aren't.