Dajun par hibirar
Plan for studying
Tsade gotal'u johase rejorhaa'ir dajune, gehat'ike, bal copade bah ash'ade. Joha tengaana jaon'yc mirde par tsad meg pirimmu bic. Ke hibira joha cuyir burc'yase ti adate teh ibac tsad.
(Groups make languages to tell plans, stories, and desires to others. Language shows the important thoughts for the group that uses it. Study the language to exist as friends with people from that group.)
(Groups make languages to tell plans, stories, and desires to others. Language shows the important thoughts for the group that uses it. Study the language to exist as friends with people from that group.)
Summary
To learn a language, discover methods for learning it that you enjoy and that you can use systematically and daily over a long time. Be patient with your progress, and celebrate the small wins.
Outline of the journey
First, write down your motivation or initial goal for learning the language. This will help you prioritize what you want to learn and help you choose activities that allow you to reach that goal faster. Next, add practice time in your daily schedule. When you schedule time for activities that you want to accomplish, you are more likely to do them. I recommend committing at first to two weeks, to see if you like this language and want to continue. After that, check in every month or so, to see if you are still enjoying learning and using the language.) Keep in mind that, for most languages, it takes at least four months of daily practice to grasp the basics and learn about 1000 words well, depending on how much time you devote to study and immersion.
Pick one or two of the activities described below and do them for 15-30 minutes each day. As you try out the activities, figure out how much energy and time it takes you to do each one. Then, in a notebook or reminder program, order them by their time and energy requirements so that each day, you can pick from this "menu" of options based on how you feel that day.
You don't have to pick the same thing every day; any skill is best and more quickly learned through frequent use and exposure, so a variety of experiences can keep the learning interesting. However, even if you only spend on few minutes each day with Mando'a (such as including a couple of Mando'a words in your posts on Mando servers, or reading what someone else posted in Mando'a), it'll be enough to keep you primed for when you have the time and passion to get more into it. It's better to start somewhere, even if it isn't perfect, than it is to wait for perfection. How you learn will evolve and adapt as you explore different options.
Be kind to yourself (and to others who correct you!) if you don't remember everything you introduce yourself to right away. The majority of people who "make it look easy" have worked a long time, often for at least 30 minutes every day, to get that proficiency level. The more that you tap into the language and interact with others, the more the language will remain with you and be there the next time that you want to apply it. It can also help your desire to continue learning the language if you can find a partner or mentor to encourage you on your journey and give you someone to practice with.
If you feel yourself get a little bit of a headache as you use the language, that's normal and expected! That's your brain's way of telling you that it's working hard, in the same way that your arm muscles will hurt a little at first when you use them to lift weights.
Activity Ideas
Watch or rewatch videos from the Mando'a Lessons YouTube channel. (I've watch some of them dozens of times.) For some other videos, including in French and German, visit this page.
Speak along with the videos that only use Mando'a; this is called shadowing. After you've listened to a video a few times, pause it and try to repeat what you've heard and how it's said. Eventually, you move on to speaking at the same time as the person in the video.
Count aloud in Mando'a, such as workout repetitions, numbers in recipes, or any time you need to use numbers. This small way to add Mando'a to your daily life can help maintain at least some interest in Mando'a and keep you ready to dive into learning for when you have a larger block of time to devote to that.
Use Memrise courses, which also have a review feature. Periodically revisiting these is a good way to practice words that you might not use often. For some other learning resources, including other types of quizzes, visit this page.
Use flashcards (create a set using the MandoCreator site, make your own, or find ones on Quizlet). Most of these only present one word at a time; consider making your own set of phrases that you want to use often in your favorite Mando server (like greetings or talking about the weather). Alternatively, use the flashcards as a source of prompts for creating sentences using words that come up.
Sort your favorite dictionary by theme and by word type. Keep notes in a journal or document editor, or create flashcards that you can sort. This helps you understand the kinds of concepts you can talk about in Mando'a, and can help when you want a particular kind of word (such as an emotion, food, or weather word) and you want to know what your options are.
Copy to your phone's notepad the words from a "common terms in Mando'a" post in your favorite Mando server, or pick one of the category lists found in this Project Shereshoy Tumblr post. Then review the list. (This is great for when you just have little chunks of time throughout the day.)
Play Mando'ardle. Post your victory on the MandoCreator Discord server. Note what the word is, and on a future day (not the same day), post a message in that server's shi-mandoa channel using a previous day's word.
Select a random set of words and figure out a few sentences or a short story you can make with them. The Random Words page on this site randomly offers you three nouns, three verbs, and three modifiers (adjectives/adverbs).
Write one sentence with Mando'a about one thing that happened in your day or about something that you've heard. Write it by hand in a journal, in either an English/Latin script or with a Mando'a script. Writing by hand offers an additional path for strengthening your memory of the language. If you play a fighting game, you can find plenty of inspiration with that (and lots of related words that already exist). Post in a shi-mandoa (mando'a only) channel in a Mandalorian realism server or on a social media site for others to use as practice, and to get comments from people with more experience.
Translate one or more posts from a shi-mandoa (mando'a only) channel in a Mandalorian realism server or from the Random Sentences page. When I was first learning the language, I would copy a post to a notepad and write my translation under the original text, so I wouldn't have to keep everything straight in my head.
Talk to yourself in the language if you can't find someone to talk with or aren't comfortable speaking aloud with a partner. Using only Mando'a words, recite a line that you've translated or describe your day aloud or the contents of a photo that you took or found. Pretend you are a podcaster, and interview yourself about a simple topic. Record yourself, so that you can a new source of input.
For words that you see often but have a hard time remembering, write them down by hand in a notebook as you say them aloud. Seeing the word, writing it by hand, and speaking it aloud at about the same time is a powerful combination to fixing the language in your memory.
Track your progress in a journal. Write in it words and definitions from the dictionary, translations from shi-mandoa channels, or things you'd like want to talk with others about. Use as many Mando'a words as you know. If you have a paper journal, use colorful pencils or pens to add pizzazz and make your work more memorable. Use different pencils to indicate words that you know, words that you had to look up but found in the dictionary, and words that you couldn't find translations for. Get help in a Mando server with translating those tricky parts. Don't forget to include the entire sentence even if you only need to figure out a few words, so others have context for the concepts you're trying to express.
Once you know the common Mando'a terms used in your favorite Mando server, use them in your everyday posts there. If you use words or phrases not on the common list, be sure to include the translation so those who aren't interested in going beyond the minimum can understand you.
Read one of the grammar guides or another resources available in any Mando server you are in. Reread them periodically, especially if you don't use the language often.
Read posts in forums/server channels that discuss the local nuances of present-day Earth Mando'a. For links to some Mando realism servers, check out the MandoCreator community page.
Read articles or posts about the culture. Use the search feature on forums or servers to find others' thoughts on different aspects of the culture. Jot down ideas that you particularly like ... and ones that you don't agree with. Then formulate your own reactions to the culture. See Mando Droten for some culture resources.
Watch videos about the culture. Take notes about parts you found particularly interesting or have questions on and share them in your favorite forum or server. See this page for some links.
Try spending about 15-30 minutes with flashcards or with videos about the language. Then, as soon as you are done, take a short rest, closing your eyes and letting your mind wander. You don't have to think about the language, necessarily. During this rest, your brain processes what you've learned, allowing you retain more information for later use.
Rely heavily on the dictionary, especially at first. Both the mandoa.org and MandoCreator dictionaries can be loaded to the internet browser app of a phone and used offline. (For most browsers, MandoCreator works offline even if you navigate away and come back, but mandoa.org only works offline if you do not reload the page).
Learning about the culture helps you understand how words are used and gives the language more depth beyond as a cipher for English. It can also give you a community to learn with.
Reasons to learn
I admit that it's hard to prioritize learning Mando'a over the many other activities that compete for attention and energy. Choose to learn the language to improve brain function. Choose to learn the language to gain more enjoyment from fanfic. Choose to learn the language to strengthen your identity as a Mando'ad. Or decide that learning a fictional language doesn't fit into your lifestyle at the moment, and put your attention and energy into what will make your life better.
More insight
Tips from another language leader, including more details about acquisition (language study through language use) and decoding (sentence translation for learning). You need to be a member of Project Shereshoy to see these. https://discord.com/channels/862865338084229180/886082046508806154/990960480195588207 and https://discord.com/channels/862865338084229180/886082046508806154/991021272571981884
Journaling tip from Project Shereshoy: https://discord.com/channels/862865338084229180/886082046508806154/995910437738663936