January 25th, 2013 - Start learning Klingon

I've tried to learn a language other than English many times.  I took three years of Spanish in high school, and another dos anos of it in college.  My professor, Marta Hernandez Salvan, inspired many a pleasant sueno, but did not help me to retain much about verb conjugation.  I can remember the random vocabulary word here and there, enough to win a game of Spanish Bananagrams a time or two.  But drop me in the middle of Mexico, and I would revert to American Spanish.  That is to say that I would just speak English, only louder and with more pointing.

I took a semester of German in college, but because my professor was French and I could barely understand her when she spoke English, it was a rocky road.  I've tried ASL, but I can only remember "bullshit," which, though it's a useful sign, won't get me many places.  I've even tried to listen to a "Learn Norwegian While You Drive" CD.  I got about 5 minutes in before I realized they had a word for every word that we had, so I just gave up.

This afternoon, I decided to give it another go.  But I didn't want to attempt Spanish again, and I didn't want to do something normal.  In the spirit of the blog, I wanted to do something that I hadn't done before.

And that was to start learning Klingon.

For those that aren't fans of the franchise, Klingon is a fictional language from Star Trek.  Introduced in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), the language has since been translated and reproduced into a variety of mediums.  There are Klingon versions of Shakespeare, a full Klingon opera, and a version of Boggle.  There's even a Klingon Language Institute, which promotes Klingon language and culture throughout the current United Federation of Planets.  As this contains only Earth at this point, they have room for expansion.

I ordered The Klingon Dictionary by Marc Okrand a while back, but I never set out to reading it.  This afternoon, I did just that.

I set out to first do something basic, like learn how to sign my name:

Then, I wanted to tell Elizabeth something:

"jIH bang SoH"  (That means, "I love you")

I also wanted to learn something very Klingon.

"batlh Daqawlu'tah" (That means "You will be remembered with honor.")

I plan on starting to use my new found linguistic skills in every day life.  I still have a long way to go in order to become fluent, and practice makes perfect.  But maybe one day I'll be able to challenge the gang on The Big Bang Theory to a game of Klingon Boggle after all.

"tlhIngan Hol Dajatlh'a'?"