One Two Three Speaking

How can one's first steps in Coptic become easier? How could one learn that language without hurdles? Is it possible to find enjoyment in learning an ancient language? This book attempts to address these questions. It is the result of many long years of research, reflection, workshops, classes, and dialogues with students, language teachers, illustrators, and designers.

ⲞⲨⲀⲒ, ⲤⲚⲀⲨ, ϢⲞⲘⲦ draws on a new technique for language acquisition developed at the Polis Institute of Jerusalem, the Living Sequential Expression (LSE), which was inspired by two ideas of François Gouin: The influence of sequentiality into the learning process, and the need to express basic human experience through the language we learn.

This is why most of the pages of ⲞⲨⲀⲒ, ⲤⲚⲀⲨ, ϢⲞⲘⲦ show sequences of actions to be heard and seen, to then be enacted and retold by the learner. These sequences respect the inner structure and dynamics of the target language. By doing so, the process of internalizing a language will thus be all the more swift and efficient as language features are acquired according to an overall natural sequence, given that specific pragmatic features naturally precede others. This is what the pragmatic progression of ⲞⲨⲀⲒ, ⲤⲚⲀⲨ, ϢⲞⲘⲦ intends to reflect.