For resources in Japanese, see the Japanese resources page:
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The Official Toki Pona Book
My own favorite is the official Toki Pona book, Toki Pona The Language of Good. It’s probably because this is how I learned the language. I like how the example and practice sentences help you to understand the shift in viewpoint that comes along with using the language. This book is available on Amazon, and is also being translated into more and more languages.
Video Lessons
Many people have made video lessons to teach Toki Pona. Here are three popular series:
jan Kekan San’s “Learn Toki Pona!”
In this series, jan Kekan San introduces the hieroglyphs throughout the lessons.
jan Telakoman’s “o pilin e toki pona”
Using a full immersion method, jan Telakoman teaches Toki Pona using only Toki Pona.
ilo Tani’s “Toki Pona in 18 Minutes”
For people with even less time, ilo Tani explains all of Toki Pona in only 18 minutes.
Written Lessons
Different kinds of lessons are better for different people. Here are some to check out:
- lipu sona pona
- lipu sona
- Toki Pona Today! includes audiovisual clips and speaking practice.
- Book: Learning Language Toki Pona by Kurt Hinton includes a lot of practice translations and activities.
Other learning tools are also available:
- Flashcards are available on Memrise by jan Antele
- An Anki deck of flashcards is also available. Hieroglyphs are also included.
Writing system lessons:
See Jonathan Gabel’s site for lessons in Sitelen Sitelen, the non-linear writing system developed for toki pona.
Various Resources
The 120 main words are listed in Toki Pona The Language of Good, but The Toki Pona Dictionary has common ways to say a wide variety of English words. Numbers show the degree to which a phrasing is used in the Toki Pona community, based on respondent answers to a survey. This book is great when starting out and you’re not sure how many things would be said. It is available on Amazon.
Other various resources:
- All of Toki Pona on one piece of paper! This pdf file has all of the Toki Pona grammar on one page, and all of the Toki Pona words on the second: jan Sa’s Toki Pona Cheat Sheet.
- Linku is a searchable online dictionary of single Toki Pona words. It includes all commonly accepted usages for each word, etymology, creator, and both the hieroglyph and sitelen sitelen characters.
- Writing proper nouns in Toki Pona: while following the rules to make your own is more accurate, jan Ne’s transliterator will automatically turn words from other languages into what they would be using the sound rules of Toki Pona.
- Font: linja pona is a font for using the Sitelen Pona hieroglyphs. It even combines adjectives into the glyphs of the nouns they modify.
General resource pages:
tokipona.org is the official site of the language, and much can be found there. The Wikipedia page also has a lot of general information about the language, but for the most resources check out the Toki Pona wiki, sona pona.
Community
After you have learned the basics, you need to start trying out the language with other speakers. And sometimes you need someone to answer your questions. Here are some places where you can do all of that. Of course, you can also use the Toki Pona-only discussion board on this site!
- Discord has the largest and most active Toki Pona community. There are three main servers:
- ma pona pi toki pona is the largest, and is a center of the toki pona community
- ma toki pona is a Toki Pona-only environment. (ma pona pi toki pona also includes Toki Pona-only threads.)
- kama sona is for Toki Pona beginners. (ma pona pi toki pona also has threads for asking questions about Toki Pona, and there are a lot of beginners there, too.)
- Facebook has a Toki Pona group.
- Twitter (X): If you mention Toki Pona in a tweet, you will soon get likes and words of encouragement from a score of people who search daily on “Toki Pona”.