Hello,
A quick search on this forum turned up a few threads where Pali is mentionned, usually in passing.
I wish to learn Pali to be able to read Theravada buddhist scriptures, but the little material available to me hasn’t been very helpful, so I could use some advice from more advanced learners.
I started out with the OCBS online Pali course, but I frankly hated the experience. It is basically a rip-off of another Pali textbook, only they made it into short videos. It’s extremely grammar-heavy with only a few illustrative sentences, so it’s 90% theory - 10% practice then you immediately move on to the next chapter…
I then tried A New Course in Reading Pali by James W. Gair and W. S. Karunatillake, which is very different but equally dry and arduous. They immediately give you authentic texts right from the start. So the first chapter is a dozen lines of Pali, then 3 whole pages of vocab (basically every single word needs to be defined), followed by about 3 pages of small-print grammar describing all the grammar found in said Pali text in order of appearance.
Needless to say, I never managed to memorize that vocab and never moved on to the following chapter.
I’m wondering why no one has envisioned a textbook that would be more user-friendly. I’ve learned Latin and some Greek and have never come across such dryness and lack of proper method in Greek and Latin textbooks.
Sorry for the rant but I wanted to describe my experience and the frustration it has caused. If any charitable reader could point me to more effective material than what I’ve delt with so far, I’d be really grateful.