CharlesReynolds:

I played around with it a little and I'm not so sure about the program. It's kind of neat, but there doesn't seem to be any means to actually record my responses or send them to the human reviewer.

Ti* and Ki* are giving me fits, of course. Maverynthia, what's the Free Esperanto Course and how do I get it?

Dankon,

Ĉarlzo

It's for the last section of each lesson. You translate sentences and email them in old school like.
The Free Esperanto Course is here: http://pacujo.net/esperanto/course/ I found this to be the most useful to me. Though I'm having some trepidation signing up again. I don't want to get anyone I've already had. (Don't want them to go "OH.. it's that person again... didn't they complete this course already?") This one is good as you can write in and ask questions on the lessons.

erinja:And he felt that if Esperanto went down this path, it would be difficult and confusing to decide when to call someone 'ci' and when 'vi', and that it's easier not to bother distinguishing.

But why not have distinct singular and plural forms?

Bruso:I'm looking forward to "Paŝoj", which I'll probably try in parallel with a repeat of "New Approach", which I'm about 3/4 of the way through.

Let me know if you make it all the way through. I like the idea of the book much more than the book itself, and I don't believe I know anyone who has made it through all of the stories and exercises without losing interest and stopping midway through.

Which book? "New Approach" or "Paŝoj"?

Bruso:

erinja:And he felt that if Esperanto went down this path, it would be difficult and confusing to decide when to call someone 'ci' and when 'vi', and that it's easier not to bother distinguishing.

But why not have distinct singular and plural forms?

Because even if you say "This is only for distinct singular and plural forms, not to indicate politeness", you still have people who disregard that and use it for politeness, mainly people coming from a language that uses these forms for politeness. I know this for a fact because I have seen it, Esperanto speakers coming from a language background where you distinguish based on politeness, trying to use "ci" as a personal form, because they insist that "vi" is too cold and impersonal. This problem would surely get worse if "ci" actually came into wide use. It's hard enough to encourage certain people not to use it, even though it is barely ever used and Zamenhof himself recommended not using it.

Basically anytime I ever see it, aside from situations where it's talking about the grammar of another language, it is being used as a personal form, rather than as a simple singular, even though its meaning is explicitly singular and not personal.

Let me know if you make it all the way through. I like the idea of the book much more than the book itself, and I don't believe I know anyone who has made it through all of the stories and exercises without losing interest and stopping midway through.

Which book? "New Approach" or "Paŝoj"?

Paŝoj. I've never even heard of the other one.