Who Wants to Learn Pāli? - take 2 (Gair & Karunatillake)

Events Pali Course
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I’m planning to start a new online Pāli learning class starting Sunday, March 3, at 6pm (US East Coast time), which is, for my location in Brisbane, Australia, 9am Monday, March 4.

We are currently winding up a very successful online Pāli course started by Bhante @Sujato in the middle of last year, and which has been continued by me after he no longer had the time available, and which course is ending in a few weeks.

There is no perfect time slot to suit everybody in the different time zones around the globe, unfortunately, and this current course, while convenient for those in Australia, Asia, and Europe, was less than ideal for those in the Americas.

The new class starting will now be better for those in North and South America, New Zealand, and Australia, and East and South-East Asia, but not so good for others. But, of course, everybody is welcome to join - you may be a late-night owl or an early riser.

The text-book we will be using will be a New Course in Reading Pāli by Gair and Karunatillake. Those of you wishing to join should arrange to get themselves a copy of this book (hard-copy, preferably) and be committed, serious students willing to attend online classes regularly and spend several hours each week doing the assigned homework.

Additional info below. [I’m stealing these lines straight from Ven. Sujato when he introduced his initial course. Same applies in the new course.]

  • students MUST be dedicated and committed to completing the course (to the best of their abilities)

  • students will be assigned substantial homework, memorizing and translating texts

  • if you don’t want to memorize grammatical categories, don’t even think about it

Each class will run about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, and the whole course will run for about 20 weeks (or until we complete the text-book).

Please indicate your interest by responding to this thread. I look forward to working with you.

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Hi @johnk, I wish you the best in this new upcoming class, and also to the students.

I will bow out once the current course finishes. Much as I would like to continue and do the exercises in G&K, I probably now need to focus on reading the suttas which was my original goal in learning Pali, and my study plan for the suttas would diverge considerably from G&K.

To the new students, I strongly recommend John as a teacher. He is very patient, and very good at explaining the intricacies of the language. I would say I have learnt a lot from him, and many of the things he taught has stuck in my mind, and helps me today whenever I try to read Pāli.

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Thank you for your kind words, Christie.

You are right. This new course is targeted for complete Pāli newbies. The expertise and knowledge that you have already gained with your hard work would be better used for reading the suttas, as you say, and not going through another beginner course at this stage.

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Additional info below. I’m stealing these lines straight from Ven. Sujato when he introduced his initial course. Same applies in the new course.

  • students MUST be dedicated and committed to completing the course
  • students will be assigned substantial homework, memorizing and translating texts
  • if you don’t want to memorize grammatical categories, don’t even think about it

Each class will run about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, and the whole course will run for about 20 weeks (or until we complete the text-book).

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I’m interested! the last one was a bit overwhelming for me and I bowed out after the first class, this one might be substantially smaller and that would work better for me I think :slight_smile:

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I’m interested to use the G&K book this time around. So much gratitude for this opportunity :pray:

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This class looks great, but the timing may not work for those in Europe. :clock2: :crazy_face:

Would it be possible to make a recording of the class available (or offer another solution) for those of us whose time zones are not particularly compatible?

Thank you very much nevertheless!

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I am interested! I have taken a couple Pali courses, but still struggling. Would like to start again from the beginning.

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May I suggest that, if you are not very familiar with the concept of Grammatical Case, you start looking it over asap, before the new class starts.
The Pali Primer is a good way to familiarize yourself with it.

This way, you will not feel immediately ‘under water’ once the class series begins.

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It will be good to have you back, Joseph.
I agree, starting with Warder chapter 1, as was done in the last class, was a bit like diving into the deep end of the pool before learning how to swim!
You’ll be pleased to know that I intend to start to start very gently in the first class, and gradually get more challenging.

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No, it’s really not at a suitable time for those in Europe. It’s a shame you didn’t attend the previous class that Bhante started, which was evening in Australia and mid to late-morning in Europe.

It’s not ideal to just learn from a recording, but there will be a recording made available. Alternatively, wait for another online class at a more suitable time. If I live long enough, and there is enough interest, I might consider doing another course in the future more suitable for European students.

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Hi @johnk , I am interested to join the new online Pali learning class! It seems that the timing will be 7am in my timezone (Malaysia), making it possible to join the class before kicking off the workweek on Monday.

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thank you @johnk - i would be delighted to be able to join your class.

please count me in!

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I am interested in this upcoming class. Thank you, @johnk for the offering. Ready to tackle the grammar categories…again! I replied previously (as mindfulwayfinder), but somehow had two accounts. I fixed it and this Is the "good"one.

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Hi Wayseeker,

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trusolo (on behalf of the moderators)

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Hi @johnk, I’ll give it a shot though I’ll probably miss a few classes from time to time.

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Hi @johnk, I’d love to join this class, please!

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Hi Amber,

Welcome to the D&D forum! We hope you enjoy the various resources, FAQs, and previous threads. You can use the search function for topics and keywords you are interested in. Forum guidelines are here: Forum Guidelines. May some of these resources be of assistance along the path.

If you have any questions or need further clarification regarding anything, feel free to contact the moderators by including @moderators in your post or a PM.

Regards,
Danny (on behalf of the moderators)

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Thank you for offering to teach in this time slot. Looking forward!

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I would love very much to be able to take this course :pray: I am very grateful for this wonderful opportunity. Thank you so much.

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