So I am very new to esperanto have been learning it for about a week and half now and i am almost done with bildoj kaj demandoj. should I be doing anything else to assist the jamming of esperanto in my brain? I notice that i seem to forget roots and suffixes and i have to use a translator to jog my memory. How else can I make myself remember and work the esperanto i already know?

You have just to continue your learning. On the top of this site you have the button "my lernu" on the bar, click it and then click the button "study plan". There you'll see the steps you have to (well, you can do). For exemple now, given that you're a beginner, in the section: courses/basic, apart the course "bildoj kaj demandoj" you have "ana pana", "mi estas komencanto" and "la puzlo de esperanto". I suggest you the course Ana pana but generally following this plan will help you in a gradual improving.

P.S. I wouldn't get to much attention of affixes for now. At the beginning I had a lot of difficulties trying to learn correlatives (kie, kia, kiam, kiu, kio, kial, kiel ...) because they were so similar, but after a month they are natural to me and their similarity is a great solution because it helps you in so many ways that you'll find. Therefor don't try to learn them, just keep on going and they will set in your mind naturally.

Saluton

Repetition can be extremely helpful in learning a language. Once you've finished the whole course, skim over the whole thing again. Whatever you don't remember, relearn. It tends to require far less effort to relearn any subject than to learn it for the first time.

Also, make sure to practice every day that you can. The more you use Esperanto, the better you will be at it.

One week is very little time. Do not panic. I would recommend that you never use a translator (such as Google Translate) but an esperanto dictionary. The dictionary here on lernu.net is very usable for simple words, affixes and correlatives.

Try to come out of the closet as an Esperantist as soon as you can. Use your dictionary to write simple postings on Twitter, Google Plus or Facebook, and enjoy how Esperantists will approach you from all sides. I started to publish things in Esperanto two weeks after I started learning and this is how I'm still managing to keep up with it and use it daily.

[url=Memrise.com]Memrise.com[/url] has a number of esperanto dictionaries and is a great tool to help you learn and practice.

But remember the forums here are a great source for help.

I'm also a beginner in Esperanto (been at it for just a month or so), but having studied languages before I know that immersing yourself in the language as much as possible is helpful. I've been working through the courses here at lernu! in the recommended order, have switched the default language in Facebook to Esperanto, started a second Twitter account for posting in Esperanto and following other Esperantists, and have also switched my default browser at home to the Esperanto localization of Firefox. I take walks on my breaks at work, and as I look around I try to describe what I'm seeing in Esperanto. Even something as simple as sitting down at the computer and thinking, "Mi uzas mian komputilon" gets me thinking in Esperanto and is therefore helpful.

You might also think about listening to some Esperanto podcasts. Even if you don't understand everything, hearing the spoken language is important for getting a feel for its sounds and rhythms, and you may find you understand more than you expected.

Thanks for all of the help. I will try all of the tips and keep working at it. Another thing that has me worried is literally speaking Esperanto. I have taken basic Spanish and I have noticed that I can write and understand most basic present tense Spanish no problem. However when i took my oral test and had to tell a 5 minute story in Spanish, I repeatedly stumbled over my words and had to think hard about what to say. My point to this story is that I do not want the same thing to happen to me with Esperanto. I want to be able to speak it as well as i can write it. However, I live in nowhere Montana and there is no obvious place nearby to look for Esperanto speakers. So how can i work on speaking and conversation while making sure my pronunciation is correct as well?

mschmitt: I would recommend that you never use a translator (such as Google Translate) but an esperanto dictionary.

I mostly agree with this statement. I will say this: using Google Translate, for instance, can be a very useful tool for checking your grammar and syntax etc. There is, however, a danger with using it. First, you could come to rely on it. If you rely too much on it, then you're not really learning anymore. Second, Google translate uses websites, books, and other published literature in order to understand the language; however, there is not a wealth of material in Esperanto and so the translator probably does not have enough experience to give you accurate translations all (or most) of the time. When you use Google Translate, you cannot be certain that you are getting a correct translation.

Google Translate can be helpful as long as you use it wisely. I wouldn't say you should never use it, though.

shs613: My point to this story is that I do not want the same thing to happen to me with Esperanto. I want to be able to speak it as well as i can write it.

In reality, I think it comes down to experience. That means knowing words and phrases so well that you understand them without translating in your mind. Second, you probably need to speak in Esperanto with others on a regular or semi-regular basis. There really isn't much else to do. As far as stumbling while speaking, that could probably be taken care of fairly easily. You should probably be speaking aloud in Esperanto regularly. Whatever it is you are doing, whether vocabulary, reading a book or website, etc. That will probably help.

I'm fairly new at it myself, but it seems to me that there are really no shortcuts. You just need to plow through and use the language on a daily basis, I suppose.

I recommend talking to yourself in Esperanto, aloud, to build your confidence in speaking. When you're alone, try to think aloud in Esperanto. Give an imaginary tour of your house to someone; when driving, give an imaginary tour of whatever's around you. You'll soon discover where the holes are in your vocabulary, and you'll have to look up those words and learn them.

There's no magic wand to getting comfortable with speaking. I think that the problem with a lot of language classes is that there's a lot of passive understanding, and reading and writing, but not a ton of practice with speaking. Unless you're doing private lessons, it's difficult to get around that, so it's really up to you to have a bit of courage and get yourself talking.

"Mi estas komencanto" is a good course to get you started with spoken conversational Esperanto.

But if you've completed Bildoj kaj Demandoj, I recommend doing Ana Pana next. It's corrected by a tutor, which is really helpful. If you have a concern that you're not doing well with a particular grammatical element, ask your tutor to explain that to you, and ask your tutor which aspects of the grammar you should focus on.

As an aside - I tutored for Ana Pana for a very long time, though I'm not currently active. I noticed that many students are poor judges of which parts of grammar they need help with. Some students reported difficulty with a certain form, but almost always used it correctly (so they had the right idea, but it was just a matter of practice to make it come naturally). The same student perhaps consistently used another form wrong, indicating that they needed to spend a bit more time studying that other bit of grammar. An independent take on your grammar is really useful for targeting those areas that you should work on more!

shs613: My point to this story is that I do not want the same thing to happen to me with Esperanto. I want to be able to speak it as well as i can write it.

Mi ne rekomendus ĝin nun, sed kiam vi estos progresinta sufiĉe, ke vi povas kompreni ĉiutagajn konversaciojn, vi Skajpu kun aliaj Esperantistoj aŭ renkonti en Google+.

I wouldn't recommend it now, but when you have progressed enough that you can understand everyday conversations, you should Skype with other Esperantists or "hang out" on Google+. This is a great way to practice your speaking, and I've done it before.