Go away. I can't read it anyway.

I feel like I am on the verge of being an eternal beginner... some of you have hit on parts of the problems being not taking the steps to start using the language... I am for sure that finishing Duolingo... I won't be able to say anything, it's almost too easy so I don't have to think about it too much. Although I like Duolingo and think it is a great place to start!

I think I am at the point where I need to spend more time on lernu! try out the new course and work with materials in the Media Library. But at first I am actually writing them out as I go through... because even the new course it is easy to peak and just move on thinking I have it down, but don't really.

I would like to start interacting here in the forums, facebook, youtube, etc in Esperanto, but I just don't feel I have a good enough feel for the grammer, and I don't trust google translate... I am sure it is good enough so others can figure out what I am trying to say, but I don't want to learn incorrectly.

Thanks for the Paralela Universo link erinja! That sounds very interesting.

As for my area... Springfield, MO I don't believe there is much going on, but I've been thinking about throwing up a MeetUp but feel I am not quite ready yet.

As for going to an actual sanctioned event... I am still too intimidated for that... the feeling of there being an expectation of the need to be able to converse comfortably scares me from those... even if that expectation isn't real... it just feels like it is.

Anyhow, I guess I agree that the onus is on the learner to put in the time... the modern tools make it easy to dabble... and dabbling results in eternal beginners... kind of in a weird way... the older, less accessible, training methods probably had higher percentages of people moving up, because of the high bar to even become a beginner... dabblers (kind of like me, but I am fighting it) would still clear and not even start.

I am not sure eternal beginners are bad though... if a couple hundred people in my town became eternal beginners, at least they would know what Esperanto is and be around to interact with, even if just at a beginner level...

It's still a matter of self-motivation. That and being able to jump in and quell that fear of making a fool of oneself or being inadequate.
There is no way on earth a person jumps from rock-bottom beginner to any level of proficiency in a single leap. It's also not a matter of preparing in private for that moment when everything goes public and you start interacting. A learning-while-doing approach is necessary, because they feed each other.

I agree... it just seems that the official conferences seem like they are for Esperanto speakers... beginners aren't speakers yet... the idea I need to suck it up and prepare to act like a fool, implies they aren't directed towards beginners

Anybody use Ubuntu? ... something along the lines of their organized LoCo team system for Esperanto would be cool... for some infrastructure for folks to build on... http://community.ubuntu.com/help-information/meeti...

Like for Missouri... could be a main "esperanto-us" group with state level sub-groups like"esperanto-mo-us" that are completely open to beginners, and then if there are sufficient number of folks apply for things like "esperanto-southwest-mo-us", "esperanto-stlouis-mo-us", and "esperanto-kc-mo-us" underneath the state levels...

Basically a sort of official community body sets up country level groups and then subsections as necessary per requests or needs... using forum sections, g+, FB, Twitter, IRC, diaspora, etc.

If anything analagous exists... point me in that direction!

[edit] nevermind all that... simple FB and G+ pages would be more simple... closest to me is FB Esperanto Kansas City... i'll join up.

Sorry to dredge up an old thread but I find this fascinating as I have long referred to myself as "eterna komencanto." I blame myself pure and simple. My interest in things such as Esperanto waxes and wanes. Someone else mentioned joining Koresponda Servo and I think I will do that also because if I am receiving an email from time to time and someone expects a reply it will give me motivation. At the moment I have nothing except myself driving me to learn. And after a few weeks my interest will be gone again. I really think regular correspondence is the best motivation. We'll see I suppose. Anyone else using Koresponda Servo? Do you enjoy it? Find it helps?

Alkanadi:Why do some people get stuck as eternal beginners?

In pursing the answer to your question, I think the following joke should be borne in mind:

An old man, with a violin case on his lap, is sitting at a bus stop in New York city and a young man comes up to him and says, “Sir, can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?” The old man looks up at him and says, “Practice, practice, practice!”

a related question: https://lernu.net/forumo/temo/23254/1#p334040