Hi guys, my first thread here. I would appreciate some help.

I recently (about 2 months ago) did a short course on the basics of Esperanto. Since then, I've been trying to stay on top of it and improve my skill level, but am finding it very difficult to find a) the time, b) the motivation and c) adequate resources to keep myself progressing with the language.

Every time I go over things like the suffixes and prefixes etc. I end up forgetting them the next week (I usually spend about 10-15 minutes on a Sunday night working on my Esperanto - which I know is hardly enough and even that is only because I really force myself to.)

I would appreciate some advice on how to stay interested in the language and develop my reading and writing skills without getting bored.

I also speak French to a reasonable (B1/B2) level.

Also - how long would it take to get from mid A1 level to roughly around B2 level? Thanks a lot.

Dankon

You need to study every day.

EVERY day.

I also learned Esperanto in ten to fifteen minute chunks. But I did those chunks at least once per day, seven days a week. At that rate, I was writing full blog posts in Esperanto about pretty much anything I wanted after about six months of study. I don't know how that translates into the levels you mention, but I went from zero to being fully expressive pretty darn quickly.

If you have to force yourself to do it, though, one has to wonder why you are doing it at all. I'm not trying to discourage you with that, but it does take a certain level of self-motivation to really progress. I guess what I'm saying is that if you aren't finding it fun enough to spend more than 15 minutes a week on (and then are still having trouble keeping up even that level of involvement), maybe there are other things that you may find more rewarding.

But, assuming you really do want to do it: do it every day.

You actually may find that doing it every day will increase your level of motivation, since you won't be starting each session discovering how much you've forgotten since the last session (which I personally would find dispiriting).

10-15 minutes once a week isn't really enough.

It would be better to spend five minutes each day on it, than 15 minutes once a week. This time could be spent trying to understand one message in the lernu Esperanto forums, or looking at one vocab list, or listening to one song as you read the lyrics, or watching one thing on YouTube. These small digestible bites make it easier to do, than banging your head against a list of out of context suffixes that you just can't memorize.

Don't expect the suffixes to come all at once (or the correlatives either). Some people are successful in memorizing them all at once and then using them but most people aren't. You might want to focus on just a few to start (-eg-, -et-), and then expanding your list.

Focus on passive understanding first. And when I study a language, I try to focus on pleasurable aspects of it as much as possible - so don't force yourself to do vocab lists all the time, try to practice by reading a page or two of a story, or listening to a song, or reading a short news article (www.liberafolio.org for news about the Esperanto community).

It might help you to get a book in English about Esperanto grammar. "Being Colloquial in Esperanto" is an excellent book (and also available free online)

RiotNrrd:You need to study every day. EVERY day.

I also learned Esperanto in ten to fifteen minute chunks. But I did those chunks at least once per day, seven days a week. At that rate, I was writing full blog posts in Esperanto about pretty much anything I wanted after about six months of study. I don't know how that translates into the levels you mention, but I went from zero to being fully expressive pretty darn quickly.

If you have to force yourself to do it, though, one has to wonder why you are doing it at all. I'm not trying to discourage you with that, but it does take a certain level of self-motivation to really progress. I guess what I'm saying is that if you aren't finding it fun enough to spend more than 15 minutes a week on (and then are still having trouble keeping up even that level of involvement), maybe there are other things that you may find more rewarding.

But, assuming you really do want to do it: do it every day.

You actually may find that doing it every day will increase your level of motivation, since you won't be starting each session discovering how much you've forgotten since the last session (which I personally would find dispiriting).

Thanks a lot for the advice - doing something everyday clearly is more beneficial.

Regarding the idea that I force myself - this is not because I don't enjoy the language, but rather I have very little idea on what materials to use that could develop my language skills.

I can understand that the more I work, the more I will learn and hence the more motivated I will become. The question here is how to "work on it" everyday. What would you recommend? Doing more courses? Reading Wikipedia articles? Reading books in Esperanto? I do love the language, and am fascinated by it and it's history - I just don't know how to work on it without simply just turning my experience into rote learning suffixes etc. if you see what I mean? What methods did you utilise to stay motivated and to work on your language skills?

Thank you

erinja:10-15 minutes once a week isn't really enough.

It would be better to spend five minutes each day on it, than 15 minutes once a week. This time could be spent trying to understand one message in the lernu Esperanto forums, or looking at one vocab list, or listening to one song as you read the lyrics, or watching one thing on YouTube. These small digestible bites make it easier to do, than banging your head against a list of out of context suffixes that you just can't memorize.

Don't expect the suffixes to come all at once (or the correlatives either). Some people are successful in memorizing them all at once and then using them but most people aren't. You might want to focus on just a few to start (-eg-, -et-), and then expanding your list.

Focus on passive understanding first. And when I study a language, I try to focus on pleasurable aspects of it as much as possible - so don't force yourself to do vocab lists all the time, try to practice by reading a page or two of a story, or listening to a song, or reading a short news article (www.liberafolio.org for news about the Esperanto community).

It might help you to get a book in English about Esperanto grammar. "Being Colloquial in Esperanto" is an excellent book (and also available free online)

Thanks for the tips, I shall be sure to try some of these methods in the future.

Dankon

I'm a firm believer in writing. Use the language as early as possible. When you learn a new word, try fitting the suffixes and prefixes you can remember to that word and figure out what they might mean.

Word lists and the like are boring. Instead of memorizing tons of words that you may or may not use, try writing out a paragraph in English and, with the aid of a dictionary, translating it into Esperanto. When you're done, post it here and ask for corrections. Or try to figure out yourself if there are any errors in there, and correct them.

The very first English sentence I translated into Esperanto was "I live in a blue house". As you can see, that's not very deep, or even very interesting. But, I DID live in a house at the time, and it was blue. So I learned a few words immediately that actually had relevance to my life. That's where the best word lists come from - your own experience. Write about stuff you know about, and you'll learn the words that make the most sense for you to learn.

Aside from that, erinja's suggestions are good. There's tons of material around to read. But I would suggest writing as something to focus on first. Reading is great, and you'll want to do it, because that's where you learn stylistic niceties and such, interesting ways of expression that you might not have thought of yourself, and so on. Reading is important, too. But give more emphasis to writing than to reading. You will progress MUCH faster when you use the language actively than if you try and absorb it passively (sorry, erinja - I know that contradicts what you said, but in my experience active is always better than passive; naturally, that is just from MY experience, and others mileage may vary, but that's where I'm coming from).

RiotNrrd:I'm a firm believer in writing. Use the language as early as possible. When you learn a new word, try fitting the suffixes and prefixes you can remember to that word and figure out what they might mean.

Word lists and the like are boring. Instead of memorizing tons of words that you may or may not use, try writing out a paragraph in English and, with the aid of a dictionary, translating it into Esperanto. When you're done, post it here and ask for corrections. Or try to figure out yourself if there are any errors in there, and correct them.

The very first English sentence I translated into Esperanto was "I live in a blue house". As you can see, that's not very deep, or even very interesting. But, I DID live in a house at the time, and it was blue. So I learned a few words immediately that actually had relevance to my life. That's where the best word lists come from - your own experience. Write about stuff you know about, and you'll learn the words that make the most sense for you to learn.

Aside from that, erinja's suggestions are good. There's tons of material around to read. But I would suggest writing as something to focus on first. Reading is great, and you'll want to do it, because that's where you learn stylistic niceties and such, interesting ways of expression that you might not have thought of yourself, and so on. Reading is important, too. But give more emphasis to writing than to reading. You will progress MUCH faster when you use the language actively than if you try and absorb it passively.

Great advice. Can see the logic behind the prioritising of writing over reading via the active immersion as opposed to passive.

Cheers.

That isn't to say that in the early days writing is easy. It isn't. In the very early days, it took me freaking forever to translate anything. Three sentences would easily take me an hour. But at the end of the hour, I KNEW those words. I knew how they fit together, and I knew why.

And, each time I wrote something, it was easier than the time before. I didn't have to keep looking up which suffix was present tense and which was past. The correlatives started to look less and less all alike. The common prefixes came to mind more and more easily.

So, if your early tries take longer than you think they should... they aren't really. They're taking exactly as long as it requires for you to learn them. And if it's slow going at first, just remember that that is only a temporary affair. It gets better.

RiotNrrd:(sorry, erinja - I know that contradicts what you said, but in my experience active is always better than passive; naturally, that is just from MY experience, and others mileage may vary, but that's where I'm coming from).

I firmly agree with you that active is better than passive! But active requires more effort than passive, and if the choice is active or nothing (due to lack of motivation), then passive is better than nothing.

One thing I did when I was learning was to try to translate favorite texts - whether it was a saying, or a poem, or song lyrics. It was sort of like a fun puzzle to figure out.

For reading, I recommend short stories rather than full-length novels. It's less discouraging because you can actually finish reading the story in a reasonable length of time (versus taking days to read one chapter and feeling like you got nowhere)

As a beginner I frequently talked to my dog in Esperanto. I learned some simple dog-related words in Esperanto and some commands, and it was a way to talk to someone who wasn't going to be impatient or 'judgy'.

One tip I learned from Assimil books - when you have read a sentence in your target language, try covering up the sentence and repeating it from memory. It's a good way to get some active speaking practice out of the passive act of reading, and it helps you begin to memorize correct grammatical structures in context.

erinja:... if the choice is active or nothing (due to lack of motivation), then passive is better than nothing.

I completely agree with that. Passive is better than nothing.

The effort that active learning requires is precisely WHY it's the better choice - more effort means more progress. But, yes, if that level of effort isn't possible (for whatever reason), then passive learning is definitely better than nothing at all.