This is the second volume of the “Lakota Audio” Series. It is designed primarily for beginner learners, but it will be useful to all students of Lakota.
How many units and when?
We recommend that you listen to one or two new units every day.
If most of the material is new to you, we don't recommend listening to more than two units a day. As you gain more confidence, you can listen to more new units a day. Still, it is always advisable to use manageable learning portions.
Before starting a new unit, always review the units you learned during the previous learning session.
If you listen to new units in the morning, you can review them in the evening or the next day.
If you listen to new units in the afternoon or evening, review them the following day.
Do your best to have a learning session every day or at least five times a week. If you have a learning session only once or twice a week, you will not achieve much, even if you spend half a day learning. By listening to two new activities and reviewing two previous activities, you will spend an average of 20-30 minutes of learning every day.
It is useful to review the previous material once in a week or two. When reviewing, you can listen to as many units as you find comfortable.
How to listen?
Listen to the English sentence and its Lakota translation. Repeat the Lakota translation aloud. Repeating aloud is one of the most important aspects of this learning method. If the Lakota sentence is repeated, then you, too, should say it twice.
If you listen to an activity for the first time, don't try to guess or anticipate the Lakota sentences before you hear them.
If you are reviewing or listening to a review activity, always try to say the Lakota sentences before hearing them from the native speaker. If you didn't say a sentence correctly, repeat it aloud after the native speaker.
What is the content of activities?
Every activity introduces one or two patterns (sentence patterns, conjugation patterns, word usages, or other types of patterns).
Each pattern is repeated numerous times within an activity. This repetitive Nature enables you to internalize the pattern. Repeating the sentences allows you to drill the introduced pattern.
Each pattern is introduced in one unit and recycled or reviewed in one or more subsequential units. This reinforces your knowledge of the patterns.
The pause before each Lakota sentence allows you to say the Lakota sentence before hearing it from the Lakota speaker (in cases when you
are reviewing or when you can anticipate the recurring pattern).
Vocabulary is sometimes introduced in word lists, and it is also gradually added in the repetitive pattern activities.
The remarks about grammar that are sometimes provided at the beginning or end of activities are designed to help you understand the patterns. Still, they are not meant to be memorized. It is always useful to study the examples rather than understand the patterns only on the grammar description.
Please note that the English versions of the example sentences may not always sound entirely natural because they are primarily designed to bring the learner closer to the Lakota sentence structure and show the grammatical and semantic features expressed in Lakota but not always shown in English.
