erinja:15 minutes a day is probably more effective than an hour once a week.

Very true. Even 5 minutes a day is better than 1 hour per week.

For quite some time, I felt like I was looking at Esperanto through a sheet of cloudy plastic. I could make out some of it, but a lot of it was blurry and some I just couldn't get. Even when I knew all the words in a sentence, I still had to translate it into English before I understood it. "When will this turn into English?" I remember frustratedly thinking (the answer, of course, is that it never does), meaning, naturally, "when can I read this without translating?".

Then one day I was reading a forum post here, and about halfway through the post the author switched from English to Esperanto, which I remember thinking was a bit odd, but whatever. After I finished the post, I looked back up at the top half, and, surprised, realized it was ALL in Esperanto; there wasn't a word of English in the post. I just hadn't noticed until about halfway through.

It does happen. It can take longer than you want, but it does happen. Just keep practicing in the knowledge that you WILL get to that point, too. And, the more you practice, the sooner you'll get there. Just keep powering through the frustration.

RiotNrrd:
Then one day I was reading a forum post here, and about halfway through the post the author switched from English to Esperanto, which I remember thinking was a bit odd, but whatever. After I finished the post, I looked back up at the top half, and, surprised, realized it was ALL in Esperanto; there wasn't a word of English in the post. I just hadn't noticed until about halfway through.

Honestly I believe you can't make that moment happen or rush it or anything. You study a language long enough, translate it enough times in your head (not that there's anything wrong with having to think about what you're going to say or what was just said), that one day you wake up, hear/read something and bam, it happens. At least that's what it was like for me. I guess thinking in the language helps, that's what I've been told.

RiotNrrd:Then one day I was reading a forum post here, and about halfway through the post the author switched from English to Esperanto, which I remember thinking was a bit odd, but whatever. After I finished the post, I looked back up at the top half, and, surprised, realized it was ALL in Esperanto; there wasn't a word of English in the post. I just hadn't noticed until about halfway through.

A similar thing happened to me. I read a post in the Esperanto forums but the author had written it in English. It bothered me a little because it isn't fair for people of other languages who can't understand him. After trying to figure out why he did that, I realized that it was written in Esperanto.

This doesn't happen often but I sometimes think purely in Esperanto when reading. I still translate a lot in my mind but sometimes I don't. I never thought that would be possible.