Dear Dave,

Welcome to the wonderful world of Pali study. More your efforts be
fruitful!

I didn't realize that Bhikkhu Bodhi's Pali classes at Bodhi Monastery
were online. How wonderful!

The de Silva Primer is a good gentle introduction to Pali and to the
concept of a language with declensions and conjugations, if you have
little or no background in inflected languages. But don't spend too
much time on it, as I think the exercises are fairly tedious and not
at all relevant to anything in the canon. The Gair Reader is well
worthwhile, though, and a very good way to get a sound base of Pali.

Good luck.
With metta,
John

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "dkotschessa" <dkotschessa@...> wrote:
>
>
> Hello. Just wanted to introduce myself as another beginner in
> learning the pali language. Through listening to Dharma talks and
> readings online I have picked up more and more of some of the key
> pali term in relation to the dhamma, but have decided to take the
> next step now and dive all the way in!
>
> I live in Delaware and there doesn't seem to be any place to take
> classes around here, so I will have to rely on self-study for the
> most part. Here's what I'm doing at the moment:
>
> Desilva's pali primer online:
> http://www.vri.dhamma.org/publications/pali/primer/
>
> Bhikhhu Bodhi's Pali Language course online:
> http://www.bodhimonastery.net/courses/Pali/course_Pali.html
>
> and I just ordered "A New Course in Reading Pali: Entering the Word
> of the Buddha by James Gair and W.S. Karunatilleke"
>
> which is supposed to accompany this class.
>
> In addition I am trying to memorize verses from the vandana (book of
> devotional chanting).
>
> We'll see how it goes!
>
> -DaveK
>