anyone trying the Lojban mini-lesson?

[Logical Language Group <cbmvax!uunet!GREBYN.COM!pucc.PRINCETON.EDU!lojbab>]

It has now been a week since I posted the draft Lojban mini-lesson.  I
have as yet gotten only one brief meaningful comment on it, and no
attempts by people to submit the exercises.

There has been a fall-off in traffic on Lojban list which might mean
that people are trying the exercises, but no other sign of reaction.

I would also like feedback from conlangers, who are less exposed to
Lojban concepts, and can thus give us a better feel for how the
mini-lesson is seen by a newcomer to the language.

Athelstan wrote this to be a standalone document, so every reader of
this list SHOULD be able to do the exercises even if they have no other
materials from us.  The intent is that the effort should take relatively
little time.  Therefore, I'm hoping that the absence of response is only
temporary.

The one comment received:  divide it into short pieces like the
Esperanto free intro course.  We don't have the resources for this now -
some people already know how slow I can be in filling orders at times.
I'm trying to reduce my overhead workload, so I can work on the
textbook, and thus have gone to standardized packages in hopes of
reducing numerous special orders that take lots of time to prepare.
With a single mini-lesson, I can farm out responding to volunteers.
Note that a 10-lesson course would cost US at least $5, and the student
$3 in postage and printing costs, so we couldn't afford to do it for
free anyway.  And Lojban would take more than 10 lessons to get to the
same point because we have to teach people to let go of English (or
other native language) patterns and misconceptions.  The mini-lesson
does not pretend to teach the whole language, or even much of it, but it
gives the reader a basic grasp of the language concepts (we hope) that
can then be built on by our longer materials.

An unposted comment is to be implemented.  The final version will have
the exercises divided into two parts.  Half will be immediately after
each section, and will constitute 'solved exercises', with answers
provided at the back, leaving only half as many exercises to be sent in
without knowing the answer.  This follows the pattern of the "Schaum's
Outline" series of books.  The idea is to give the learner more
confidence that she/he has the idea before asking him/her to send
answers out into the unknown.  How we divide the exercises will in part
depend on the responses we get to this draft version.

The draft version is one of many things I've sent off for posting to the
PLS that should become available within a couple of weeks.  I'll let
people know when the stuff is available.  If for some reason you did
not get a copy of the mini-lesson, and want to give it a try, let me
know.

The final version will be included as part of both JL16 and LK16, and will
become part of our introductory package for Lojban.

For comment:
A policy we are considering is that a serious attempt at the mini-lesson
be a prerequisite for receiving package 1 and other more advanced materials
from us without prepayment (as well as JL subscriptions).  Indeed, such a
policy was approved at Logfest 90, a year and a half ago, but the delay in
getting the mini-lesson done invites a reopening of the issue.

lojbab@grebyn.com