Esperanto has proven to be an incredible waste of resources for me. Once again, on giving it another go-round, I find the same unsolvable problems.

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Music lyrics that translate as garbage, a common issue. So common.
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A shirt with the saying: Cxu vi povas direkti min al multiproksima medicina efiko? Mia piko estas frapmont de fulmo!
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I tried to learn from some past issues I've had with the language--that is, try to translate an unknown Esperanto word into either a Germanic or Latinate language--you might get lucky and recognize the word. Well, looking up this saying on the shirt has cost me hours of time, and once again wasted chunks of time. This time could have been used for a "harder" language, at which I'm slowly advancing.
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I have several books, one is by Richardson, still quite available, another that's outa print, but I got off eBay, also rated high. I have a nice clean copy of Gerda Malaperis and Lasu Min something by Piron. This is hard to find, even at eBay. One can download copies of somethings for free, legally, so make sure you actually want these books. There was a set of 3 books by Piron, I paid $35, would like to recover that.
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This hurts:got a hard-to-find copy of the comic book "Asteriks", title= Asteriks cxe la Olympiaj Ludoj. $15

I was thrilled when I found that--I still believed I wanted to pursue Esperanto. Esperanto is most definitely not for me. If you live on the north side of Chicago, and would like to buy any of my collection, contact me.
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I do not understand how you all make progress in Esperanto, I have decided that its not for me. Good for all of you who find success and are happy in your pursuit, if you would like to purchase all or part of my library--let me know.

All English songs that I know, if translated into Italian become the most idiotic banal texts ever read. Translating mentally Italian songs into English the result is also a disgrace, and I think we can say reasonably that it works so for every passage of this type. Poetic texts work within the boundaries of their languages and cannot be translated literally as technical, descriptive texts.

Honestly I didn't understand what your shirt should say. Are you sure that you learned the core of Esperanto properly before trying to translate things?
Aren't you complaining that you're not Armani even if you don't know how to sew?

LionsAreUs:A shirt with the saying: Cxu vi povas direkti min al multiproksima medicina efiko? Mia piko estas frapmont de fulmo!

It seems like you already made up your mind but I wanted to point some things out nonetheless, there's a difference between good grammar and word use in esperanto versus not. The latter of which this obviously falls under. Looking through the misspellings and the words that probably should have been chosen, I was able to see that the intended meaning of the shirt might have been "Can you point me to the nearest clinic, my penis is on fire." Or possibly some other kaco/piko related jokes. It's like reading a I Can Has Cheezburger meme.

As far as music, one can't translate literally into English, or worse, rely on stuff like Google Translate. Music always gets that poetic license, for better or worse.

These things become more recognizable the more words you know, the more you read, and the more experience you have with the language.

So, with regret, goodbye and best of luck!
Do, kun bedaŭro, ĝis kaj bonŝancon!

LionsAreUs:Esperanto has proven to be an incredible waste of resources for me. Once again, on giving it another go-round, I find the same unsolvable problems.

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Music lyrics that translate as garbage, a common issue. So common.
----------
A shirt with the saying: Cxu vi povas direkti min al multiproksima medicina efiko? Mia piko estas frapmont de fulmo!
-------------------
I tried to learn from some past issues I've had with the language--that is, try to translate an unknown Esperanto word into either a Germanic or Latinate language--you might get lucky and recognize the word. Well, looking up this saying on the shirt has cost me hours of time, and once again wasted chunks of time. This time could have been used for a "harder" language, at which I'm slowly advancing.
----------------------------------
I have several books, one is by Richardson, still quite available, another that's outa print, but I got off eBay, also rated high. I have a nice clean copy of Gerda Malaperis and Lasu Min something by Piron. This is hard to find, even at eBay. One can download copies of somethings for free, legally, so make sure you actually want these books. There was a set of 3 books by Piron, I paid $35, would like to recover that.
-----------------
This hurts:got a hard-to-find copy of the comic book "Asteriks", title= Asteriks cxe la Olympiaj Ludoj. $15

I was thrilled when I found that--I still believed I wanted to pursue Esperanto. Esperanto is most definitely not for me. If you live on the north side of Chicago, and would like to buy any of my collection, contact me.
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I do not understand how you all make progress in Esperanto, I have decided that its not for me. Good for all of you who find success and are happy in your pursuit, if you would like to purchase all or part of my library--let me know.

3 Piron books: Gerda Malaperis/Vere aux Fantazia/Lasu Min..
Those are the 3 I want $35 for. Surprising how small these texts are. Realize that some of this is available for free from this very site, but if you want the ḧard copy..

Iĺl check back ccasionally to see if anyone from Chicago has expressed interest in buying any of this stuff.

Sorry to see you go, but it appears you've made your mind up.

I see you have very few posts here at Lernu, so I assume you must have been to local meetings or to some other type of community of Esperantists? Otherwise I can see why you would find things like these to be "unsolvable problems".

As a start-stopper myself I can say that it is difficult to find motivation without actively taking part in the community. My second time around I started participating in forum discussions right away, even if it took me 20 minutes to make the post due to looking up words.

I also agree that most music lyrics translate as "garbage", so I don't translate them. Most English songs also have very little "literal" meaning in the lyrics, especially the popular ones. Your example saying looks to be "garbage" that someone translated literally from their own language without considering the actual meaning (or about using real words). It would be like translating "Mi irantas al vendejo" for "I'm going to the store" -- simply not correct.

Hopefully "real" languages are easier for you, but unless you use them daily in your job/relationships it will be difficult to keep with it. I used to know all kinds of Spanish (12 years of it in school); now I know very little from disuse.

I would take the books off your hands, but Chicago is a bit out of the way from Fort Wayne, even if we're relatively close on a global/national scale.

kaŝperanto:My second time around I started participating in forum discussions right away, even if it took me 20 minutes to make the post due to looking up words.

That is exactly the right way to do it. In my opinion, if someone isn't using the language, whether by writing or speaking, then they aren't really learning it.

To me, in regards to the above statement, reading does not count as using. It helps, sure, but nowhere near as much as writing/speaking does. If a student isn't writing or speaking regularly, then most of what they learn from reading just isn't going to stick.

It's amazing when I think of just how much time I spent writing really short blog posts in Esperanto when I was first starting out. An hour per paragraph (and they were short two or three sentence paragraphs) was typical in the beginning. I am not talented at languages, and for me it was really hard work. Thing is, though, that it's only hard work for a little while. You look up the same word a half dozen times, and eventually the meaning sinks in and you don't look it up any more. Rinse and repeat enough times with enough words and grammar points, and one day you find that you actually know the language.

Wow. Looks like he has deleted his account, I guess he decided that it didn't matter that much after all, whether he was able to sell his books, since he didn't leave any other contact information.

He seems to be a very negative person, in general. I feel sorry for him and those of his ilk. They only see the glum side of life, even when the sun is out, the birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming and there is love in the air. Maybe the long hard winter hasn't ceased in northern Chicago and he just has a case of the downs.

I was so much like this person. I am ashamed of how many times I quit and started. I would buy the books and get rid of the books. Then the magic came. It was when I was studying Ido. I hurriedly went back to Esperanto. Yes, the magic was there too. I can understand the sentences. I’m getting the flow of the language. My tongue is loose. I can thrill all of the “r’s”. I am 63 and having a ball. It takes hard work and patience, but the reward is much greater.

janboi:I was so much like this person. I am ashamed of how many times I quit and started. I would buy the books and get rid of the books. Then the magic came. It was when I was studying Ido. I hurriedly went back to Esperanto. Yes, the magic was there too. I can understand the sentences. I’m getting the flow of the language. My tongue is loose. I can thrill all of the “r’s”. I am 63 and having a ball. It takes hard work and patience, but the reward is much greater.

Yes, so far as I can tell, there is literally not on earth a genuine language which is "easy" (whatever that might mean) for an adult learner to deal with competently. This is a blunt fact, sad to say. Yes, various planlingvoj are easier for adult learners than many / most / all "natural" languages, but they still take effort for adult learners. That is all there is to it.

I am older than you are, and I first learned of Esperanto in 1961, although I did not seriously engage it until later years. I can read E-o texts reasonably well, but when I try to write anything, such as here on lernu, I need a lot of dictionary lookup, as I have trouble retaining vocabulary for active use. Also, I have almost no experience with E-o as a spoken language. For me it is almost entirely a written code.

In his book One Language for the World (1958, if I recall), Mario Pei wrote that, roughly speaking, all languages are equally easy for child learners in native, immersion environments. The world interlanguage issue could be dealt with if enough societies around the world would agree to pick one language -- almost any language would do if it has adequate vocabulary for modern life!! -- and teach it to all young children. (Granted, in reality there could be practical issues.) Then there could be a true interlanguage.

To be sure (as I see it), few societies would be willing to concede place to the language of a competing society. That is why I myself support the ideal of a constructed international auxiliary language (conIAL), such as Esperanto, which is no one's particular native tongue. To that extent, I am a finvenkisto, although I am not committed to Esperanto in and of itself. (I also have serious familiarity with Interlingua and Ido.) I can understand the stance of the Raŭmistoj, and I have no problem with it as such, but I remain a finvenkisto, whether that be Esperanto (far in the lead) or some other.