Dear Yong Peng,

P G Dave here. I'll sign as "PG" from now on to avoid confusion.
My last name is Dave (not the first). Pronounce it as you wud pronounce
"dave" if it were a pali word). It is an apabransha of the sanskrit word
"dvivedii" used in western parts of India.

with metta,
PG
________________________________________

On 3/26/08, Ong Yong Peng <pali.smith@...> wrote:
>
> Dear DaveK and Nina,
>
> like Nina, I believe that as you read more and progress, the
> declensions (and conjugations) will become second nature. I believe
> speakers of other Indo-European tongues would concur.
>
> Nina mentioned context. This is so in Pali because in many of the
> paradigms, you will find noun cases sharing the same declensions.
> Hence, memorisation at this point becomes less helpful. Being able to
> read and understand the entire sentence in its context has become more
> important.
>
> However, many people still have taken the effort to put the paradigms
> into memory, which is not a bad idea if that's your way of learning.
> In fact, once you have seen them all, you would realise there isn't a
> lot to memorise.
>
> As for the English-to-Pali translation, I would encourage you to go
> through them, partially if not in full. Although it may be true, there
> isn't any (commercial?) value learning English-to-Pali translation,
> there isn't really much opportunities for Pali-to-English translators
> either. Hence, I view this issue totally differently from Bhikkhu Bodhi.
>
> I think the Pali-to-English exercise develop my analysis skill, the
> ability to analyse Pali passages using a tool, which happen to be
> another language, English. On the other hand, the English-to-Pali
> exercise develop my synthesis skill, the ability to construct
> sentences in Pali. This forces me to think in Pali, and allows me to
> better appreciate the Pali sentences I read. It allows the reader to
> connects with the author.
>
> It's not so much about 'value'. If you think it's good, then go for it.
>
> Besides, many of us, including Nina and myself, have went through the
> book together and put up the solutions online. We hope someone will
> come along someday to go through the solutions, and let us know of any
> mistakes.
>
> Btw, Dave, are you the one who were organising Pali study group in
> your area, or was it the other Dave or someone else. Frankly, I am
> getting a bit confused between you two. Would appreciate if you can do
> some intro again. Thank you.
>
> metta,
> Yong Peng.
>
> --- In Pali@yahoogroups.com <Pali%40yahoogroups.com>, dkotschessa wrote:
>
> My problem is with the initial pain of learning declensions. As slow
> as I seem to go, I still do not seem to have the mind for keeping
> track of them. Is it a matter of hard rote memorization, practice,
> context? Might someone advise me of some sort of strategy?
>
> My second question concerns the type of exercises I am doing. Bhikkhu
> Bodhi recommends only doing pali to english exercises in the DeSilva
> Primer. His take is that translating in the other direction isn't
> particularly useful as a skill. i.e. there are no real practical uses
> for translating any kind of english texts into Pali. However I wonder
> if it still isn't a useful exercise for getting familiar with the
> language.
>
> Do people find much value in translating from English into Pali?
>
>
>


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