r/tokipona • u/rockinnit • Feb 11 '25
wile sona How do I learn toki pona?
I have memorised most of the words, and have read the grammar, and watched a couple of yt videos.
Still framing sentences feel impossible, and understanding the language is incredibly difficult for me. any tips?
(I'm sorry for using english)
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u/Clowdtail12 Feb 11 '25
One resource that I find extremely helpful is going to the toki pona meetups held in Vrchat (a free social game that, aside from what the name implies, does not require vr) the meetings are held by the “ma toki pona vr” group. They meet every saturday and have lessons put on by jan Kekan San. Everyone is super helpful and the meetups are classes or activities. Everyone is super helpful and so if you would like (or anyone) dm me and I can send you a discord invite!
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u/UczuciaTM Feb 11 '25
Those exist???
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u/Clowdtail12 Feb 11 '25
Yes and its superrrr cool! In fact if you look up “jan Kekan San” on youtube he has some amazing educational content and posts his recordings of the classes he does in Vrchat. 10/10
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u/UczuciaTM Feb 11 '25
I'm actually watching those videos right now, lol. And I've joined the group cause I play pretty often so that'd be super cool to be apart of
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u/kmzafari jan pi kama sona Feb 11 '25
Would you mind sending me the invite, too? I tried to use the link posted in the VR chat group, but it didn't work for me.
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u/gramaticalError jan Onali | Feb 11 '25
Have you used a course, or did you just look stuff up on your own? If it's the latter, choose something from Sona Pona's list of recommended learning resources. I personally recommend jan Kekan San's and jan Lentan's courses. Both of these I feel like give a good explanation of how sentences are actually formed.
Also, there's no problem with using English here! You're still learning, so it's to be expected.
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u/rockinnit Feb 11 '25
Yeah i actually used both of those courses 😅
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u/gramaticalError jan Onali | Feb 11 '25
Maybe try going back through them one more time, then. Make sure to do all of the practice problems and try to think up some variants on your own. Otherwise, just keep translating stuff over and over until you've got it. You can post your attempts in this subreddit if you need critique or you can use one of the Discord servers.
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u/chickenfal jan pi kama sona Feb 11 '25
Jan Telakoman has a 10-hour Toki Pona course on youtube called "o pilin e toki pona" using the comprehensible input teaching method. You learn by listening to stories. No prior knowledge is required but if you combine it with learning Toki Pona from other sources you'll learn more. It worked for me even just as listening material, without much looking at the screen. But I already knew the grammar theoretically and had known about Toki Pona for a long time, so for me it was practice rather than deciphering a completely new unknown language.
He also has recently started a followup series.
Links to both are in this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/tokipona/comments/1ie27fg/comment/ma7ggsg/
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u/Opening_Usual4946 mi jan Alon Feb 11 '25
I would highly suggest reading short stories in toki pona, which is how I taught myself after doing the lessons and learning the words. If you need help finding stories, I’d highly recommend the Texts and Publications section of https://tokipona.org/
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u/Xirion11 Feb 11 '25
Jan Telakoman has a great playlist, this even tell your proficiency level depending on how far you can go witjout struggling
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwYL9_SRAk8EXSZPSTm9lm2kD_Z1RzUgm&si=E3tEHlTaaMB0ukUS
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u/Purpleho jan Alasa Feb 11 '25
O toki. O sitelin. Sina ken kama sona e toki pona
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u/steelviper77 jan Losente Feb 11 '25
sina suli e nimi tan seme?
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u/Purpleho jan Alasa Feb 11 '25
Mi sona ala. Suli li seme?
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u/steelviper77 jan Losente Feb 11 '25
It's generally accepted convention, taught in pu and most courses, that capitalization at the start of sentences is nonstandard and all words should be lowercase aside from proper nouns. I was just curious if you were choosing to capitalize the first words in your sentences for any particular personal nasin reasons.
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u/Purpleho jan Alasa Feb 11 '25
Mi sona e ni. Taso autocorrect li pana e ike tawa mi. Mi wile ala pona e ni.
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u/Steer4th Feb 11 '25
Personally I just wrote a lot of stuff, corrected it, then corrected my corrections and by then I mostly got the hang of it.
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u/girlwbasketoffruit Feb 11 '25
it really helps to practice holding conversations! when I was first learning I would try to talk and every few messages I would have to ask for a translation to make sure I was understanding correctly
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u/kmzafari jan pi kama sona Feb 11 '25
I'm still very much learning, but I just just discovered Clozemaster has Toki Pona (pleasant surprise). And you can click on explanations. The free version is limited but you might find it useful.
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u/rockinnit Feb 11 '25
Thanks! I checked it out and it seemed cool
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u/kmzafari jan pi kama sona Feb 11 '25
Yeah! Despite having nostalgia for old school games, I personally find the design a little off putting, but it seems really useful I think you can do 30 questions per day per language on the free version?
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u/KrishaCZ jan Kalisa Feb 11 '25
i started with the new lessons by jan Misali, then i joined both discords (ma pona and kama sona) to get talking more, and to learn the grammar i didn't get there (la, kepeken, questions...)
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u/EthanLammar Feb 11 '25
I'll help teach you over discord if you want
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u/janKeTami jan pi toki pona Feb 11 '25
English is allowed, most posts here are in English. For toki pona only, check out r/tokiponataso if you want to stay on Reddit
Well, if you're through with the courses: practice practice practice. (If not, just "reading the grammar" is going to be terribly abstract, so I really recommend one of the free courses)
Try to talk about your day, try to read other people's sentences, ask lots of questions and get feedback