So, I'm curious why you all picked Esperanto as a language to learn, and how you first learned about it.

I feel like I've known that Esperanto existed since my childhood. I remember there being a Trivial Pursuit question involving Esperanto. I don't remember the actual moment when I found out what it was. Most likely, my dad told me what it was during the Trivial Pursuit game.

I was just sitting at home one evening after work, thinking that I wanted to learn another language. I had studied French in school, but that was so long ago. I felt like my life had become work/home, work/home, and so in addition to picking up some new hobbies, I wanted to stretch my brain, so to speak.

Maybe I'm just getting old and bigoted, but everytime I think of a language to learn, being that every language is tied to a country and culture, I think of some negative thing about the country or its people, and then I don't want to learn the language. Heck, if I weren't a native speaker of English, I wouldn't want to learn it.

Of course, you realize that I'm speaking in generalities. When it comes to individuals, I generally am quite fond of people, and I don't judge them too quickly or harshly.

Anyway, I was sitting there thinking that it would be great to learn a language that doesn't have any ties to a country or a culture, and then it was like I had a sudden flashback and remembered about Esperanto. So, I googled it, bookmarked a ton of pages, and then started learning it with this site.

So, what's your story?

I apparently had come across its name a number of times, but had no idea what it was so nothing clicked in my head to remember it.

So actually I first found out about it through lonelygirl15 (haha). I watch the series but really don't participate in the discussion. Sometimes I glance over the comments.

Anyways, one of the videos was in Spanish, and I recognized that but a couple people mislabeled it and thought it was Esperanto, giving a very brief description of what the language was. They also said it sounds a lot like Spanish... so I wanted to verify that it really was Spanish. I came across Lernu, wanted a general idea of the look and sound of the language so I clicked on "How to Begin". After I read the alphabet, I saw some of the rules like: all nouns end in o. Always. I was like No Way! That's amazing! And every verb tense is without exceptions? Genius!

I took Spanish for over 3 years, and though I was decent at tests and vocab, speaking was completely not my forte. Much of what I learned faded quickly through my confusion of exceptions and inconsistencies (and I thought Spanish made more sense than English )

I started taking some of the lessons immediately and was hooked. I like the look, sound and structure of it. I have always been interested in being bilingual, I feel so trapped only knowing one language. Spanish was fun, but a ton of effort (like most languages need). Esperanto was a fun alternative that was less frustrating to learn. (Though I still think learning other languages is great!)

Then I realized its use when I first tried to speak in chat. And I came to a word I didn't know how to say so I asked in english, and like 5 people responded in different languages that apparently they didn't speak English. Fun! I just corresponded with people of different native languages by only using one language.

This discovery was last August. I'll admit, I only REALLY studied it for a week (though kept visiting here) and got really busy with life. This past month I got back into and hope to continue studying.

Anyways. I am the only one I know personally who has ever heard of Esperanto. And most of my family (after I told them about it) see it as useless, pointless, waste of time, etc etc. That really upsets me that anyone would say that about any language. I don't think any language should replace any other, its just an add on to your collection of knowledge, something fun. And in Esperanto's case, a useful tool to communicate with many different cultures, even if its speaking population is less than many other languages...

Hope that wasn't too long

I just love languages and I always feel that I don't know enough of them. I don't have the time to learn a new natural language since they are all full of intricacies and exceptions. I had known about E-o for a long time but for some reason I had never researched it.
So I did, and I found that the tools to learn it well are out there (unlike national languages that basically require you pay some money for decent courses). When I learned about and therefore discovered that was totally regular, I thought "this is it". I can learn this language easily. On top of that I speak two romance languages, and lets face it, the E-o vocab is so much easier to learn if you are a romance language speaker.
So I started and to my amazement I was able to hold fairly simple conversations in a couple of days!
I know I haven't improved much since then, but that is totally my fault.

Finally I think it is a great cognitive exercise and it is just fun fun fun. (On top of all that I have a reputation to keep, and people were starting to believe I am not geeky enough)

Cheers
Ed

I just like language too. It's more of a challenge just to learn language, and I'm planning to study French in college. Not to mention that I like Esperanto's phonology, and Esperanto has a certain aesthetic quality about it (though not as much as French or English in my opinion!).

As a matter of fact, I would rather tell my story in Esperanto than in English, because I'm not a native English speaker...

Mi neniam aŭdis Esperanton ekde mia naskiĝo ĝis 2006. Vere, neniam. Mi ekkonis Esperanton en verkaĵo de iu ĉina fama verkisto. Tiu verkisto (Lu Xun, sed mi pensas ke vi ne konas lin) estis esperantisto, kaj li menciis Esperanton en unu el siaj verkaĵoj en la ĉina lingvo. Estis interese, ke la ĉina nomo de la lingvo estas "世界语"(Shijieyu), kiu signifas "la lingvo de la mondo".

Mi kurioziĝis pri la lingvo, ĉar mi neniam eĉ imagis pri ekzistado de iu lingvo internacia kreita de persono. Do mi serĉis ĉe la Interreto. Baldaŭ mi trovis Lernu, kaj mi tuj interesiĝis pri tio, ke en Esperanto, unu litero havas nur unu prononcon, ke la finaĵo de vorto sciigas ĉu la vorto estas verbo aŭ substantivo, aŭ aliaj, kaj ke oni povas devenigi novajn vortojn de vorto per afikso certigata laŭ la signifo. Mi tuj komencis ĝin lerni.

Post lernado dum ĉirkaŭ du jaroj, mi nun sentas ke mia Esperanto estas pli bona ol mia angla, kvankam mi lernas la anglan lingvon jam dum ok jaroj.

Anyway... I will translate it into English for you beginners.

I had never heard Esperanto since my birth until 2006. Really, never. I knew of Esperanto in a work of a Chinese famous writer's. That writer(Lu Xun, but I don't think you know of him) was an Esperantist, and he mentioned Esperanto in one of his works in Chinese. It was interesting that the Chinese name of the language means "the language of the world".

I became curious about the language, as I hadn't even imagined of existence of an international language created by a person. So I searched on the Internet. Soon I found Lernu, and I was interested at once in the fact that in Esperanto, one letter has only one pronunciation, that the ending of a word tells whether the word is a verb, a noun etc. and that one can make new words out of a word by adding affixes that one can certify according to the meaning. I began to learn at once.

After learning for about two years, now I feel that my Esperanto is better than my English, although I have been learning English for eight years already.

That's my story, though I'm not confident with my English. After all, I wish to you success in learning Esperanto. I hope you can read my story in Esperanto after learning it for some time.

黄鸡蛋:As a matter of fact, I would rather tell my story in Esperanto than in English, because I'm not a native English speaker...

Verdire, via E-o estis tiel klara ke eĉ ĉi tiu relativa komencanto povis kompreni ĝin facile, kaj ne bezonis legi la anglan poste. Mi gratulas vin.

Trans: To tell the truth, your E-o was so clear that even this relative beginner could understand it easily, and didn't need to read the English afterwards. I congratulate you.

黄鸡蛋:(Lu Xun, sed mi pensas ke vi ne konas lin)

In fact, I read and heard a lot of good things about Lu Xun, and even if I never managed to get my hand on one of his work translated into a language that I would understand (basically French, even though English or Esperanto could also sorta work), I have been actively seeking since three years (in French, to say the truth).

Among other things I know him as one of the eminent chinese litterate of the XXth century, one whose interest into stories that were written using the popular language made these better known and understood from the intellectuals of China and also outside of China.

BUT I didn't know he was also an esperantist: it does make this character even more interesting to me!!!

Filu:
BUT I didn't know he was also an esperantist: it does make this character even more interesting to me!!!

It's a fact that very few Chinese know he is an Esperanto. I guess only Esperantists may know he is an Esperantist. -Of course, I knew he was an Esperantist when I read one of his works, which, however, couldn't be regarded as a work, as it was the collection of the letters he and Xu Guangping, his wife, wrote to each other. As it is far less famous than his other works, it isn't strange that few people have noticed that he is an Esperantist.

黄鸡蛋:I knew he was an Esperantist when I read one of his works..

Which works by Lu Xun are in print, that you would recommend as Esperanto literature?

Miland:Which works by Lu Xun are in print, that you would recommend as Esperanto literature?

Unfortunately, Lu Xun didn't write any works in Esperanto. I think he was more concerned about the society at that time, which was also a reason why few people knew he was an Esperantist...Anyway, the Russian Esperantist Eroŝenko was his close friend.