Erinja:

Foxtrot Uniform:Then there's the vocab I can hook up to Spanish (even though apparently Esperanto didn't borrow from Spanish).

Didn't borrow at all? That would be a very bold statement. Esperanto even has words from Japanese and Sami, it certainly has words from Spanish.

In most cases, you can't say "It came from this language". Esperanto words are frequently a compromise between forms used in multiple languages, and Spanish certainly would have been taken into account.

I said APPARENTLY. That was based on the article I read that said Zamenhof took words from English, French and German because those were the languages people studied. I don't want to appear I know hardly anything at all. I'm fascinated by Esperanto and wonder why I had never heard of it my entire life. I certainly wish this language had been taught in school. I took four years of hs spanish, making Cs the last two years. I took two semesters (which was a review of Spanish II from HS). I was stationed in Germany and tried to learn German, but it was too hard. The words didn't hook up to English words. It was hard to pronounce. The case endings that changed for gender was really a hassle. I had to memorize not only a brand new word, how to spell it, but if it was masculine, feminine or neuter.

I almost gave on Esperanto because of the subject and object cases. And that's what gives me trouble still, remember to use the -n for subjects.

I don't know if most people who learn Esperanto are -- lingvoema. I'm not really. But I want to travel and I really like the idea of Pasporta Servo--though I'm a little leery of it. Part of me thinks that going into a complete stranger's house in a foreign country is a good way to wind up a lampshade and inviting a complete stranger into your house is a good way to wake up with just a roll of dental floss and roll of aluminum foil left in your house.

I used to work with a fellow from Louisiana who related almost the same history as yourself: he was stationed here in the late 1990s and Germany before that and had done Spanish at school. He always said he was just hopeless at languages, but I observed his methodology and it was too much of an attempt to analyse everything he was trying to learn. Wanting to dot all the 'I's and cross the 'T's immediately and too much self-awareness in usage. He had a terrible fear of looking foolish among natives.

I told him to stop trying to read books with a dictionary. To read the newspaper instead and to just look up the very hardest words, only after finishing an article. I think his weak spot was conversation. He wanted either fluency or not to speak at all rather than look inadequate. Most adult language-learners experience this.

Now I'm not saying this is identical to your experience, or presuming to know exactly how you approach it, but to learn any language you need to let yourself off the hook now and again. Making the mistakes is how you learn. There is always a lot of correction at the start. Looking for cognates and linking back to other languages can hinder as well as help. I don't think even Esperanto escapes this feature of language learning, the basic curve is just not as steep, but the refinement of it is not a cakewalk either.

Vestitor:Now I'm not saying this is identical to your experience, or presuming to know exactly how you approach it, but to learn any language you need to let yourself off the hook now and again. Making the mistakes is how you learn. There is always a lot of correction at the start. Looking for cognates and linking back to other languages can hinder as well as help. I don't think even Esperanto escapes this feature of language learning, the basic curve is just not as steep, but the refinement of it is not a cakewalk either.

I'm not exactly looking for cognates. It's just when I encounter a new word, if it is that seems based on English (havi, lerni, helpi) or one is similar to words I've learned from Spanish (vendi => vender // to sell, iri => ir // to go, etc.) then there's like a block learning that word.

words like bildo (picture), kelnero (waiter), kuniklo (rabbit), kvankam (even though), frua (early), it's a lot harder for me to learn.

I'm TRYING to match the word to the concept and not to another English word. I know the problems that can cause when people learning sign language link the sign to the English word and not to the concept.

A few months ago one of the sign language learners at our church who is just starting to interpret the songs, came to this line:

Were every man a scribe by trade.

The sign she used for TRADE meant TRADE, EXCHANGE, SWAP, SWITCH ONE FOR ANOTHER.

In ASL there's usually not just one way to translate this. I would have gone for something like SKILL which carries the idea of being an expert.

Roch:

I think that

http://www.eszperanto.hu/eo-etimologio.htm

is a more direct way to it tyroncs. Thank you!

Thank you Roch

In a study on 4444 first esperanto-roots:
- 39% are foreign for russian;
- 24% are foreign for german;
- 22% are foreign for english;
- 10% are foreign for french
The most roots are common to most european languages.The origin is latin, greek, indo-european...

The word-syntax of no variable (sub)-words is near of big asian and african languages: chinese, japanese, turkish, swahili, Wolof...

Esperanto is the most international language by construction and destination.

FoxtrotUniform:I almost gave on Esperanto because of the subject and object cases. And that's what gives me trouble still, remember to use the -n for subjects.

[-n for objects, you meant]

I don't know if this will help you, but this bit of advice may give you a small boost of confidence. I know for a fact that you can get this subject and object thing right. You already do it countless times every day - in English.

Every time you say "You see me" or "I see her", versus "You see I" or "I see she", you are correctly choosing an object case instead of a subject case. Obviously English only does it for pronouns and some correlatives, not for all nouns, and the rules are not the same as Esperanto's (in English we do it for indirect object as well as direct object - Give it to me, not Give it to I).

But any English speaker who thinks they can't get this right simply has a mental block, because it isn't too hard, it isn't as foreign as it seems, and it isn't that different from this aspect of English.

FoxtrotUniform:I almost gave on Esperanto because of the subject and object cases. And that's what gives me trouble still, remember to use the -n for subjects.

I used to dislike the N ending but now I really like it. It comes natural to me now but I still forget it often.

The nice part about the accusative is that it indicates direction. This is a very practical and useful language feature.

Mi amas vin - The direction of the verb ends with vin.

La kato ĉasis la muson en la domo.
the cat chased the mouse inside of the house.

La kato ĉasis la muson en la domon.
the cat chased the mouse into the house.

I have always felt as though Esperanto is based on Latin. Since English is based on Latin, it is no surprise that Esperanto and English sound similar.

English, French, Esperanto, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese sound similar to each other.

Example of some random Latin words in Esperanto:
Lakto
Mano
Nigra
Per
Post
Trans
Sed
Dekster

morico:In a study on 4444 first esperanto-roots:
- 39% are foreign for russian;
- 24% are foreign for german;
- 22% are foreign for english;
- 10% are foreign for french

Could you please link (or at least identify) the source?

Roch:The word-syntax of no variable (sub)-words is near of big asian and african languages: chinese, japanese, turkish, swahili, Wolof...

Oh really? (inb4 Piron)

nornen:

Roch:The word-syntax of no variable (sub)-words is near of big asian and african languages: chinese, japanese, turkish, swahili, Wolof...

Oh really? (inb4 Piron)

I am not taking sides on this one because I don't know anything about the topic, but I just wanted to link this article:
[url=claudepiron.free.fr/articlesenanglais/europeanorasiatic.htm]claudepiron.free.fr/articlesenanglais/europeanorasiatic.htm[/url]

Alkanadi:

nornen:

Roch:The word-syntax of no variable (sub)-words is near of big asian and african languages: chinese, japanese, turkish, swahili, Wolof...

Oh really? (inb4 Piron)

I am not taking sides on this one because I don't know anything about the topic, but I just wanted to link this article:
[url=claudepiron.free.fr/articlesenanglais/europeanorasiatic.htm]claudepiron.free.fr/articlesenanglais/europeanorasiatic.htm[/url]

This paper is not the one I had in mind, but it is as hilarious as the other:

wŏ - I
wŏde - my
wŏmen - we
wŏmende - our

hence:
I = mi
my = mia
we = mij
our = mija

...

The other paper is about Esperanto "-a" being like Chinese "de". That's why in the Ekzercaro it says "Jen la pomo kiun mi trovis" and not "Jen mi trovisa pomo"...