While following another thread (about auditory comprehension) I realized there is a need for a localized thread for study helps.

My favorite is a free computer program called jMemorize. You create flash cards that can be repeated in whatever frequency you desire, and *it* keeps track of your progress. The more often you answer a card correctly, the *less* often it pops up in the study sessions.

http://jmemorize.org/

This is a free program. I don't work for them, but I use it many times a day.

As an aside, anyone who could help me translate this for the 'official Esperanto forum would be MUCH appreciated.

AUDIO LEARNING TIPS

Try *Children's Songs* on CD or MP3.- This has been easiest to obtain in Spanish and the only trick is NOT to accept 'whatever looks good'. If you can hear the music before buying, look for things that have slow, clear melodies with very little sound clutter in the same tones as the speakers' voices. One singer is better than a chorus. I was very, very grateful to a bilingual friend of mine: she helped me pick out two CDs in Spanish that were clear. I listened to them until the discs went limp.

*Record your own lists and simple descriptions.* I'm just beginning this in Esperanto, but the basic technique works for each language I've tried. Take pictures of your family, the rooms in your house, your pets, then set a timer for a short amount of time. Record yourself describing the things/people in the picture, and stop when the timer dings. Only record every tenth or fifteenth practice.

waxle:Dangit, I voted for listening to stuff, when I meant to vote for "other."

Same here! Becoming aware of my gradually increasing ability to think in E-o and communicate with it (mistakes and all) seems to me greater than reading, for that's a solitary thing. But the ability to use a language actively develops more slowly than the ability to passively understand, and so can easily be eclipsed.

I have not used esperanto for many purposes yet,I mainly use the forum and the messages here at lernu!, do a course now and then, once in a while listen to radio or youtube clips, and have just started to read Alice in wonderland.

I think that what I like the most and which has helped the most is using the forum. Because it is shorter texts and you do both reading(passive) and writing(active) and you can "steal" the vocabulary for each topic from those who has written before you. But perhaps most importantly, learning through using the forum means that you are actually USING the language, not just learning it, as often during the first period of learning a language. This way it has been possible to make use of all that is learnt right away.