Greetings, SuvwI’pu’!
Communications Officer Lt. jenbom tai-toQqul of the IKV batlh qa’ reporting in at the request of my ship commander.
toH (So)….
Marok, janSIy and I landed in a small tera’ngan (Terran) town outside of Chicago, IL on July 23, 2015 ready to embark on an exciting linguistic adventure. As beginners, Marok and I were both excited and apprehensive about the process of learning tlhIngan Hol at the annual KLI qep’a’ (big meeting). Fortunately, there were 2 other beginners about to start a mental battle with the language alongside us so start we all did! There was a lot of language to battle! tlhoy maSop je. (We ate excessively also.)
Thursday morning started out with a beginner grammar class from language expert ‘angghal (sci-fi author Lawrence Schoen). This was the class that put us beginning ghojwI’pu’ (students) on the path to forming sentences in our mighty warrior language. In the afternoon, everyone played nuq ‘oH (20 questions), where we started putting to use the things we learned with help from intermediate and advanced speakers. The final challenge for the day was wa’ ‘ay’ (one piece) where we were given a sentence in Klingon and had to change one piece of the sentence at a time to eventually form an entirely new sentence. The sentence was supposed to continue to make grammatical sense throughout the process. This made for some amusing sentences as we got up to explain our process and the beginners again got to work with more advanced speakers who were always helpful and encouraging.
Friday included a class on effective self study lead by ‘arHa (John Harness) since learning Klingon requires a lot of self-discipline. Depending on where you live, it can require more self-study than one might be used to and, if you have long since graduated a scholarly institution, being reminded of effective study habits is a huge help. This day also included a chance for anyone who wished (or had prepared) to take certification tests. Friday also kicked off the first of two story-telling challenges. All participants in the qep’a’ were provided a random word and had to create a story using that word. The more advanced speakers picked their word in the moment while those of us that were beginners got ours before lunch and had time to prepare and get help writing our stories. Later on in the day, the advanced speakers participated in pegh mu’ (secret word aka Klingon Password). Did I mention we also ate a lot? We ate A LOT. Indian food, deli sandwiches, pizza, Chinese… there was no shortage of great food and fellowship over megh (lunch) and ‘uQ (dinner).
On Saturday, Qov (Robyn Stewart) presented information on how to prepare for the Level 1 Certification Exam and we created short stories based on full sentences. Much like the day before, beginners got their sentences early in the day to prepare while the fluent speakers picked theirs in the moment and spoke extemporaneously. A particular highlight of Saturday included Dr. Marc Okrand, creator of the Klingon language, taking the floor to answer any and all questions for an hour. The evening then turned into a pItSa chab (pizza pie) party and cabaret where new and fluent speakers shared stories, songs and performances. Marok gave a toast in Klingon, one of the other beginners sang the Klingon ABC’s, and I sang che’ron ‘oH parmaq ‘e’ and helped read the story of Goldilocks & The Three Bears as translated into Klingon (the gagh was dead, attacked and was just right) while everyone else acted it out. Beginners were fully encouraged to participate and show off anything they learned over the 3 days of the conference.
The best part about attending the qep’a’ was being in a room with multiple advanced and fluent Klingon speakers that were genuinely thrilled to have beginners sitting among them. They want to share the language and their enthusiasm for it. We beginners were never left out and, while it was not an easy weekend for us, it was incredibly rewarding as words and grammar stuck in the memory and basic comprehension slowly crept into our brains. I left with a renewed sense of excitement over the language and new jupmey (friends)!
As someone whose participation in the cosplay aspect of Klingon fandom was due to getting involved with language five years ago, I often see the divides between KAG and the KLI. I would love to see KAG members dip their toes in the proverbial language pool far more than we do. We walk proud with our weaponry at conventions and take pride in the exactness of our uniforms. However, we have something incredibly unique and that’s the ability to embrace a fully formed language on top of our incredible costuming.
So if you want to go beyond Qapla’ and majQa’ or at least want to make sure you’re spelling those properly when you use them, the resources exist. In this age of communication that we live in, the ability to connect with fluent speakers is easier than ever.
Buy a copy of The Klingon Dictionary.
Become a supporting member of the Klingon Language Institute and start their new online courses.
Join the Learn Klingon facebook group and make an effort to translate the Klingon you see.
If you don’t know what people are typing, use the incredible dictionary we have right here on our very own KAG website.
Suvlu’taHvIS yapbe’ HoS neH.
It takes more than brute strength to win a fight.
Expand your minds, mighty warriors of KAG! Or at least your tlhIngan Hol vocabulary.
Growling a few great phrases at a convention with proper pronunciation feels pretty amazing (and if you spit on the person you’re talking to, you know you’re doing it right)!
Qapla’ batlh je!
Success and honor!
Lieutenant jenbom tai-toQqul
Communications Officer
IKV batlh qa’
Responses
I was going to make a report, too but you’ve pretty much said it all, and it would only impugn both of our honour if I were to try and elaborate on that. You might, however, like to remove a space between a certain type-5 noun suffix and its noun, and adjust a certain plural prefix to respect its noun’s ability to speak.
AERs from multiple ships are normally allowed and often encouraged, since it’s a chance for each ship to describe what happened from the point of view of it’s members (and an opportunity for each ship to award Battle Notches, etc, for each participant). However, the qep’a’ is pretty small and jen seems to have covered everything. 😀
We will be writing another article for the Mindscanner later on, and I’d really like to get a bit from each KAG member that was there. I want to show the rest of the club that the KLI isn’t a bunch of qatru’pu’ that spend their time fighting over minutia, but a group of people brought together by their deep love of the Klingon language and culture, the very things that KAG is supposed to bring to life. 🙂
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