#and one of the teachers there got angry as shit over me saying ‘jan pona’

[impzone]

something about toki pona to me is its ethos really only works when you put it in the original context it was made. being in ma pona and seeing the constant discussion against lexicalization or trying to say “thank you” just feels so pointless. like i get the idea of everything you describe being relative to you and what you view as important, but when put in a social context that just falls apart.

people are going to default to things that are easy to understand. they’re going to go for shortcuts for expression! if everyone came up with their own elaborate way to describe something no one will understand what the other is saying, especially online. like when i say ‘pali musi’ instead of ‘sitelen’ to mean drawing no one knows what i mean, even though to me drawing being ‘pali musi’ is a much more meaningful description. despite them having like an entire paragraph raring to go about how bad phatic phrases are every time a beginner asks how to say thank you, people are still going to say “sina pona” for the exact same function