Hey all.

I've been learning Esperanto for roughly a week now. Whenever I listen to someone speaking Esperanto (example), I feel like I can't wrap my head around what they're saying. Even the words that I recognise go in one ear and straight out of the other. I find myself needing to stop the video, read the subtitles (in Esperanto), maybe look up the words I don't know, then go back and listen to the same thing again. Only then can I comprehend what was said.

For some background, I also had this problem with German, which I tried to learn on and off over the course of several months. I could stumble through basic text with a dictionary at hand, but again, when it came to listening, I just couldn't do it. I know I shouldn't expect too much from myself so soon, but it's frustrating not understanding anything and feeling like I'm not making progress.

So, the main reason I'm here: have any of you experienced this frustration while listening to a foreign language? Is it the sort of thing where it will eventually sink in if I keep at it? Am I doing it wrong? Am I just dumb?

EDIT
Thanks so much for all the useful replies! Here's a list of resources if you need stuff to listen to (definitely check out afterduolingo.com for more):
YouTube / Film / Video

• Evildea - Australian YouTuber who makes videos/vlogs in Esperanto (with subtitles).
  
• Vanege - French YouTuber who makes gaming videos in Esperanto.
  
• Mazi en Gondoland - An educational cartoon in Esperanto. Good if you're just starting out, like me.
  
• Easy Esperanto Talk Videos - YouTube playlist of videos in Esperanto that are slower/easier to understand
  
• esperanto-tv.com - A variety of esperanto videos to watch.

Radio / Podcasts

• Radio Verda - A radio show (no longer being made) that you can download as an MP3 file. Also has a transcript, so that you can read along.
  
• china radio international - I haven't looked at this much, but I believe it's a site for news about China, culture, international events and so forth. There's stuff to listen to at the bottom of their homepage.
  
• Pola Retradio - Just found this one in my bookmarks, but I haven't actually listened to it properly yet. Seems to be still active. No idea what it's about, so I'll let you guys find out
  
• kern.punkto - Podcast about lots of different topics
  
• Varsovia Vento Elsendoj (podkasto.net) - Another podcast. You can easily download the mp3 of these broadcasts.
  
• Muzaiko - Music radio (listen here) with podcasts

Stories / audiobooks

• Facila.org - A website that has various texts & audio - aimed at beginners.
  
• La Miriga Skatolo - Short story with text and audio. Download the mp3 here (~9 mins long).
  
• Serĉas Leteran Amikon - Short story with text and audio. Download the mp3 here (~20 mins long).
  
• Neĝulino - Short story with text and audio. Download the mp3 here (~21 mins long).
  
• elerno.cn - Chinese site for learning esperanto. It has a fair selection of stories of various difficulties that you can download and listen to.
  
• Wikibooks Catalogue of Esperanto Audiobooks - maybe you'll find this useful. Click here for the list of contents across the web other than just audiobooks (film, games, music etc.)

Chatrooms / Voice chat

• /r/esperanto Discord server - A place where you can chat with other Esperanto speakers (via voice & text).
  
• 'Skajpanoj' Facebook group for finding Skype contacts. Here's a list of contacts (you can add your details here)
  
• telegramo.org - chat with other esperantists

It's completely normal. It takes time to become familiar with the spoken form of any language you learn mainly through text. You need time (and exposure and practise) to help the two meet in the middle.

Don't just jump into fast-paced speech and expect it to make sense. Start small. Watch the Mazi videos on Youtube and then watch them again. Don't try to understand every word, just get the gist of what is being said and allow the gaps to slowly fill as you progress.

The video you linked has a very English pronunciation which isn't standard. For instance:

vama instead of varma
meltrenkviliĝis instead of maltrankviliĝis
famisto instead of farmisto
ketestrofo instead of katastrofo
odjonis instead of ordonis
ekvon instead of akvon

and so on.

This makes it quite hard to understand. Evildea ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxDRv37LJCM ) in my opinion pronounces very clearly and is readily understood although he talks faster than the narrator in the video you linked.

Thanks for the replies

I think Mazi en Gondoland is a nice place for me to start, so thank you for that suggestion. I'm already subscribed to Evildea and I like his videos, so that should give me something to aspire to once I can understand simple/slower stuff.

It's nice to know that it's not just me - I'll give it more time and try to be patient. In the meantime, I'll keep reading, building up my vocabulary and I won't be too hard on myself if I don't completely understand everything I hear.

Your method is basically What I did and after eight months I'd say I'm about sixty percent fluent in Esperanto but it took me about two months before I could to something and fully processes every thing including the words I don't know.
So keep at it but be patient.

Have you tried http://facila.org/ ? It's *very* clear Esperanto, and intended for new learners

Thanks so much for suggesting radio verda and facila.org! I've been busy lately so I haven't had much time to check them out, but from what I listened to, the pronunciation of the speakers is pretty clear and it's extremely useful to have transcripts! These websites should keep me entertained for a while

I'll edit my original post to list all of these resources, in the hope that other people reading this will find them useful too.

My first resource for Esperanto listening was the audio for the Lernu courses, which at the time were Ana Pana, Ana Renkontas, and Gerda Malaperis. I listened to the audio while I read the text, and also downloaded the sound and listened to it at other times, especially Gerda Malaperis. Those courses are now available in the Lernu library, but unfortunately there is no longer a link to download the audio, only a button to play it on-site. A few of the stories in the Lernu library had sound, but they don't have it anymore. Some of them can be accessed through an archived site though (click the orange speaker icon): "La Miriga Skatolo" (from Vere aŭ Fantazie by Claude Piron), "Serĉas Leteran Amikon" (from the same book), and "Negulino" (from Kabe's translation of Grimm's fairy tales).

I don't recall having very much difficulty with listening comprehension in Esperanto, perhaps because I was listening to stuff from the start, but now I am very much having that problem with Spanish; I can read, I can write, I can talk, but listening? Maybe catch a word here and there, but no significant comprehension. I signed up on italki and am now doing voice chat sessions once a week, and I think it's helping, but I still have a lot of difficulty, so I understand your frustration!

Christa627:I don't recall having very much difficulty with listening comprehension in Esperanto, perhaps because I was listening to stuff from the start, but now I am very much having that problem with Spanish; I can read, I can write, I can talk, but listening? Maybe catch a word here and there, but no significant comprehension. I signed up on italki and am now doing voice chat sessions once a week, and I think it's helping, but I still have a lot of difficulty, so I understand your frustration!

This goes to show the differences. Listening has been the easiest of the four core skills in languages I've studied. It's relatively passive (unlike writing or speaking which require active creativity and skill). In the foreign language I use most (Dutch) I have to use it every day for most of the day and even after many years it's still easier to sit and listen than to talk. In the same way I'd rather read than have to write.
It seems to me that the more words you are familiar with, the more you recognise. But that's not the whole story, what really happens when listening is that patterns are recognised. A lot of everyday speech is very patterned, with certain words and constructions always occurring together and repeated.

The answer to the question: how do I get better at listening (and being able to understand it)? Is pretty mundane:

1. Listening to the target language over and over again.
2. Reading text that replicates how people actually speak (bog-standard newspaper, the news reports etc) TV is good because it adds the visual cues..
3. Time...always time.

My first resource for Esperanto listening were popular Esperanto songs. In my opinion sing-along (karaoke) songs somebody leads through out of passiveness. It also "tenderise stumpleness" every beginner starts with and probable wanna left behind as fast as possible.