Hi. I'm learning Esperanto and want to use a mix of Duolingo, Kurso de Esperanto, and Lernu. How long does each material take to complete, and which should I use, Kurso or Lernu?

In order to learn Esperanto well, "Practise makes perfect." As the proverb goes, we shall accustom ourselves to it through listening to it, speaking it, reading it, writing in it and even translating it.

Even though we are enthusiastic about learning, it takes great patience to go through any material like Duolingo, Kurso de Esperanto, and Lernu, whose amounts are large enough to make one as restless as an ant on a hot pan. As another proverb goes, "Rome is not built in one day." Therefore, before we bring home the bacon, insistence is necessary.

In spite of the rocks ahead, do not be afraid, just go forward. Bravery is the best weapon to overcome all difficulties. Moreover, we wish you good luck!

In the beginning, choose one of those methods and see it through to the end. Jumping about and mixing them will just bring about either confusion or overload.

I suggest Duolingo first (because of its encouragement of learning methodology) and then you can go through the course here.

I also suggest Duolingo first (it's what I did as well). It will give you a good basic understanding of the language along with 1500 or so vocabulary words (the Memrise flash card deck for Duolingo has almost 2000 words, but a lot of those are conjugations of the same verb).

However, if you are more of a book study type of person (reading lessons and then doing exercises), then Lernu might suit you well. Lernu will go a bit more in depth, I think. I'm only about halfway through the Lernu course and feel as if I'm approaching the boundaries of what I learned throughout the whole Duolingo course. The Lernu course is really good, though, and I am enjoying it.

Here's what worked for me:

As I went through the Duolingo course, I also listened to podcasts and watched a lot of videos on YouTube, which helped a lot with comprehension. I also spent a lot of time reading Esperanto online in places like Esperanto groups in Facebook and in the Esperanto groups in the app Telegram (list of Esperanto groups at Telegramo.org).

In addition, I used an Esperanto textbook to supplement the Duolingo course. I used the book entitled Esperanto: Learning and Using the International Language by David Richardson. Also, I started reading other fiction books written in Esperanto.

I also started making my own videos on YouTube in order to practice speaking the language. This helped tremendously as I had to learn so many new words just to make the videos, then a bunch more just to understand and respond to comments. Of course, making videos is not for everyone.

Anyway, it might be overload depending on the person, but it's how I went about it.

I have had the best success in acquiring new languages by mixing study methods and exposure - plain exposure is very good, even if at the moment you don't think you are getting much out of it - I mean like watching films, going to theater, listening to media, etc in the target language - better yet if you can met speakers face to face who are engaged in speaking the language like people who don't speak your language so that you are forced to communicate in your target language, in groups that use the language and you just try to "hang out" with them (that is how I finally acquired Spanish - after studying books, etc - I found Spanish speaking friends and hung out with them).

kvdsouza:Hi. I'm learning Esperanto and want to use a mix of Duolingo, Kurso de Esperanto, and Lernu. How long does each material take to complete, and which should I use, Kurso or Lernu?

a related question: https://lernu.net/forumo/temo/19684

Slightly not related but how do I make a forum?

I am starting to learn but I do not know how to start, can someone tell me please?

The previous replies say exactly how.

I went through the Teach Yourself Esperanto book, and my reading comprehension improved, and I enjoyed that very much, but I had difficulty recalling the correct words when I did the translation exercises. I also did the Kurso de Esperanto 4.0 program, and I enjoyed finishing it, but I also had difficulty recalling the correct words for the translation exercises in that program. I am currently reading and working through the exercises of A Complete Grammar of Esperanto[,] The International Language, by Ivy Kellerman, and I am enjoying the deeper discussion of grammar, but I am again having difficulty recalling some of the correct words when I do the translation exercises. All of those materials share a common feature: there is no immediate feedback or correction. (That in turn reveals part of the value of a live teacher.)

In contrast, I am also working through the Duolingo course for both Esperanto and Spanish, and I get immediate feedback from my mistakes and an opportunity to peek at a word if I cannot remember it.

Nonetheless, I am still interested in studying other materials that will cover things in more depth, but the lack of immediate feedback or correction is a serious bottleneck. So, today, I tried studying the Kellerman book (a free .pdf copy) while also having a text editor open to write out translation exercises, and then I would cut and paste my translations into Google Translate to see if my Esperanto would get translated into the desired English meaning. Good plan, but Bad Google, Bad!--Google's translations of Esperanto can be astoundingly bad. (Why does Google even do it if no one in charge knows Esperanto?) So, I went in search of other translation programs, hoping to find something better, but it's been a long day of searching through dead ends. (I am happy to have found the great online dictionary here at Lernu, but I need something that can translate whole sentences.)

For you, I will heartily recommend a buggy but brilliant online course that I finished: http://kursosaluton.org/. The course is for complete beginners and is taught entirely with pictures and is written entirely in Esperanto -- no translations. It is immediately immersive but surprisingly effective. It is buggy because the links to the audio files don't work, and because you have to break your habit of using the space bar when you type all the words of a sentence into the answer boxes. The course is about 200 web pages long, but the web pages have a lot of empty white space, so it is not really that dense. The course gives you immediate feedback by displaying a green check mark when you have typed in the correct words, and you can hover over the submit button to see the answers if you get stuck. I was very pleased towards the end of the course at the complexity of the material that I can now read.

Learning to teach like that is pure genius.