10 days milestone
Celebrate a milestone
It’s only been 10 days since I decided to learn Toki-pona. Perfect time for a first summary.
An easy language?
Toki-pona reminds me in many ways of my classical Chinese studies. Both in form and in content. It has a very wide range of meaning in the form of suitcase words, structuring particles, minimalism and synthetism of expression. Toki-pona is an impressionistic and poetic language by design.
It is said here and there that in 30 days a learner is able to read and write the language. This is probably indeed the case. Of course, if the memory is not so much in demand, it still requires a certain intellectual investment. But after 10 days, I am surprisingly able to follow any conversation on a forum, as long as the context is clear. Context is the whole point of communication in Toki Pona.
The next step
I now see two big new steps to take:
Become familiar with the grammar and, especially, the way sentences are formed. Indeed, the language is simplicity-oriented and the somewhat rudimentary but very effective grammar invites to break down ideas and organize them into small simple units. This requires gymnastics of the mind and I have the feeling that this effort can bring unsuspected benefits that go beyond the purely linguistic framework. Wait and see…Getting to understand something by listening. For now, I must say that I don’t understand a word. In fact, I understand all the words but I haven’t yet acquired the quickness of mind to make sense of them as a whole. During my Chinese studies in Paris, several years went by without me being able to immerse myself in a language bath. All this time, I was unable to follow a real spoken conversation. Until I went to live in Taiwan and everything was unblocked in a few weeks.
I now realize that of all the teaching resources available on Toki-pona, the vast majority are based on the content of Sonja Lang’s original book: grammar and vocabulary.
The most suitable method for personal learning (not in a classroom context) is, in my opinion, the Pimsleur method. I have tried it on several occasions and its effectiveness is amazing. For those who do not know, it is a method entirely based on oral comprehension and immediate reformulation of the given material.
The big difference
When I start learning a language, I get stressed. The reason for this? Thousands of questions arise in my head and end up burying me and stifling my motivation. In fact, the problem is that we often don’t see the end of what we’re learning: verb conjugation, declension, all kinds of exceptions, tenses, gender, modes… and then there’s the vocabulary and culture(s). A bottomless pit.
Here, you can see from the start the boundaries of what you have to learn. In fact, as Jan Misali says, vocabulary and grammar fit on a double-sided page. Psychologically, this is very comfortable. And this comfort makes all the difference.
Idiomatic expressions
It is satisfying to improvise, on the fly, a word association and find that this is the expression actually used by the majority. The idea of learning a language without having to learn the vocabulary makes sense. But, naturally, over the years, a rather well established lexicon of word associations has been formed. Although it is by no means set in stone, it is still good to know the words frequently used in the community to avoid being left behind. For the beginner that I am, these are not necessarily easy to catch.
My survival kit
Here are a few, I don’t intend to make an exhaustive list or anything but as I came across them recently, maybe they will be useful to whoever comes across this page.
keeping a conversation alive | |
---|---|
ken la | maybe |
lon a | of course |
kin la | moreover |
mi pakala! | I’m sorry! |
mi pona ala | I don’t understand. |
sina ken ala ken | can you…? |
kepeken tenpo mute | slowly |
Listen,… (Look,…) | o kute (o lukin) |
awen + Verb | still (in the process of) doing something |
Some related sentences | |
---|---|
Maybe you are not good enough? | |
Yep, if I were you, I wouldn’t do it. | |
Fruits are good and moreover healthy. | |
Can you speak slowly, please? | |
Listen, I don’t agree with you. | |
Your are looking great today! | |
I am still learning Toki-pona. |
Common words | |
---|---|
ma ko | Earth |
ma kasi | park, garden |
tomo tawa (+linja) (+kon) | car (train) (plane) |
ma tomo | city |
tomo suno | school |
tomo telo | bathroom |
tomo lape | bedroom |
toki musi | joke |
sitelen tawa | movie |
kon nimi | definition |
Tech stuff | |
---|---|
ilo sona | computer |
lipu tuwita | |
kulupu pi ilo sona | internet |
musi | game |
kalama musi | music |
yutu | Youtube |
lipu | website |
ilo toki | phone |
Some verbs | |
---|---|
kama jo | to find |
alasa | to search |
pana pona | to help |
pona x tawa y | to give s.th to s.o |
pali | to do |
awen sona | to remember |
weka e ike | to forgive |
wile pali lon tenpo pini | to regret (things that one didn’t do) |
wile weka e pali pini | to regret (things one did) |
tawa tan | to flee |
I’m sure you could come up with a quartet of synonyms for these, so feel free to be creative, but keep in mind that in the heat of a discussion, it can be difficult for the other person to pick up on the wacky stuff.
Tools and resources
With 20 years of development, Toki-pona has a huge variety of resources and tools for learning. The commitment of the community to facilitate the learning and the development of the language is remarkable. In fact, there are so many resources that it can be daunting. Here are the ones I’ve used over the past 10 days.
- The 18 lessons of the official Toki-pona book by Sonja Lang
- The 12 lessons of Jan Misali
- lipu sona pona (toki pona course)
- lipu-pi-ijo-pi-toki-pona
- Beginner’s resource of Toki Pona
- Useful phrases in Toki-pona
- tatoeba’s corpus of Toki-pona sentences
And of course, the communities on Reddit, Discord and Telegram. You may see me there from time to time, don’t hesitate to say hi!
mi tawa,
Jan Pitaki