How did you learn tlhIngan Hol?

[torqey]

I've been using the Klingon Dictionary to try and teach myself Klingon, but it's not that easy as I don't have anyone teaching me/learning with me. I'm all alone  To those you speak tlhIngan Hol, how did you learn it?

[QoghtlhIH'u']

Learning how to speak is hard because no one will talk back to you. I did practice saying things out loud but who wants to listen to me?
I guess hardly anyone really speaks tlhIngan Hol...
Do'Ha' !

[Qunchuy]

The fundamental thing I did in order to learn tlhIngan Hol was to practice it with other people.

I joined the tlhIngan-Hol mailing list and read everything people were writing. I tried to add to the conversations, and got appropriately helpful feedback when I made mistakes. At one point I recorded a journal in Klingon during a week of vacation and submitted each day's entry to the mailing list, again getting appropriately helpful feedback.

My first big leap in skill occurred when I joined the Klingon Education Virtual Environment MUSH and began interacting with people in real time. That resource is, alas, defunct. The second major event in my learning was when I attended qep'a' wejDIch, the Third Great Meeting of the Klingon Language Institute, and got to talk to people face to face. The annual qep'a' is now a permanent part of my summer vacation plans.