I'm just curious to know why people do the things they do. Why did you start learning esperanto? What did you hope to get from learning it? Were your expectations met? Did you find any unexpected benefits from learning esperanto? or unexpected challenges?

Since I asked, It's only fair that I answer. I wanted to learn SOME language, I didnt really care which one. But I wanted to Really learn it, to become fluent in it. I first thought of spanish as useful, but "teach yourself spanish" type programs that are worth anything (if you want to be able to do more than ask for the check and how to find the bathroom cost an arm and a leg, and most of them seem to only be equivalent to a year or two of college classes. So it seemed my new hobby was going to be very expensive (not to mention the cost of tutors to help me with pronunciation). I came across "Teach yourself Esperanto" in a bookstore, and it was the first I'd ever heard of esperanto. A few google searches later and I was intrigued. An international language spoken by millions of people all over the world, pasporta servo, a wealth of translated and original literature...and most importantly easy enough to learn on my own....I was very tempted....but how useful would it be, really? In the states few people have ever heard of Esperanto. But then I read about the studies showing how studying esperanto then a third language (spanish, french, etc) makes learning the third language much easier (and faster). In the time It takes to learn just spanish, one can learn esperanto first, then spanish at an accelerated rate -- So you basically get two languages for the investment in time that it would take to learn only one national language by itself. I was hooked....So I started a few months ago.
I'm not fluent yet, but i've made great progress. Mostly, I've really enjoyed the process of learning (oh it's still frustrating at times, but on the whole it's great). Eventually I'd like to go on and learn French and Spanish as well, but those are longer range goals. For now, I'm going to keep on the Esperanto path and hopefully reach a high level of fluency in the next few months. So what about you? Why did you start? Why did you become interested in Eo in the first place?

Michael

I wanted to retranslate the lyrics to the opening song of FFXI (Final Fantasy XI) "Memoro de la Ŝtono" which was composed in Esperanto because the composer realized that not just Japan would be playing the game but the whole world.

I thought for sure it was in Spanish or Italian and every site I went to said "Esperanto" which I though was the languange IN that language or a dialect of a known language...a few Google searches later and I found the Free 10 Lesson Online course which was a GREAT start.

I started messing around with Esperanto recently because Saussure mentioned it in his Cours as a highly systematic language. I was taken by the way it has both a rich (sematically) grammar without hardly any irregularity at all. I look forward to speaking / writing with an international community, but my reason for initial interest was that I thought I might learn a lot about language in a deep way from learning it.

About a year ago I decided that I wanted to learn a new language. In my school days I had taken four and a half years of german and three years of french, but it had been so long that I couldn't string together a sentence in either one. And I wasn't really interested in relearning either one, as my memories of them were that they were pretty difficult.

So I decided that I wanted to learn a "planned" language, and, on my searches, ran across loglan. The idea of a language constructed entirely around the principles of predicate logic - and which had a structure unlike any natural language - appealed to me. I discovered that loglan had been superseded by lojban, so I started studying that.

But materials on lojban on the net are too sparse. So I ordered the book "The Complete Lojban Language". However, the person responsible for sending the book out took his own sweet time. I got quite antsy waiting for the book to arrive. Additionally, while the lojbanist sites claimed that lojban was very easy to learn, based on the materials that were available to me I found it quite the opposite. Using an online dictionary I tried to translate some simple english sentences into lojban and immediately ran into difficulties. I think I spent an entire hour trying to figure out how to translate "I live in a blue house". Gaah! Too hard.

So, while waiting for my book to arrive, I started hunting around for another language, and ran into esperanto. And discovered that THIS language really WAS easy. The online resources were plentiful, the courses free, and I found I could start stringing decent sentences together almost immediately. Plus, there were many constantly updated sites entirely in esperanto which I could start to practice reading on (Ĝangalo, for example). Radio Verda is a wonderful resource for hearing spoken esperanto, and a new program comes out about once every couple of weeks.

I ordered "Teach Yourself Esperanto" (used) from Amazon, and it got to me long before the lojban book did. In fact, I had to bug the lojban guys several times before they finally sent out the lojban book. By the time I got the book I was already at a fluency level in esperanto that exceeded my ability in german after a full year of studying it.

So, lojban went on the shelf. Their foot-dragging had propelled me into esperanto, and I'm not unhappy that it did.

I didn't really have any goals in learning a new language other than the intellectual pleasure of learning something new. And it has been a very good experience. It's been almost a full year now, and I can read esperanto nearly as fast as I can read english. My speaking ability is not nearly as well developed, but it's getting there (it turns out one of my co-workers is also an esperantist of many years, and we speak together in esperanto a little just about every day - both of us somewhat haltingly, as I am still a beginner and he hasn't used it in many years and is quite rusty).

I still like the idea of lojban, and might get back into it one day. But for now, I am enjoying my experiences with esperanto a great deal, and am glad that I decided to learn it.

I had been studying Japanese on my own for a little while already and was browsing online courses available for a variety of languages from some website. I had no idea what Esperanto was, but I clicked on it and skimmed through the first lesson of the 10-lesson email course. I was surprised that after only skimming through it, I had no trouble understanding everything in the lesson already. Somewhere between several months and a year later, I came back to it and actually started it. It was just so simple that I couldn't put it down. By the end of the summer I was chatting on ICQ almost every day for an hour or two, all in Esperanto.

um... why DIDN'T i start learning Esperanto would be a better way of putting it. i knew about esperanto for a while, but the second i started to learn a few words, i was hooked. Esperanto is basicly flawless, extremely easy to learn, and has a clever word-forming technique of combining words. this language has been a great hobby for me, and i'm trying to get other people to learn it (and it's working!) i hope that everyone will speak Esperanto in the future!

My grandad first told me about Esperanto, and said it was a very interesing language.
There are no Esperanto books in my local library, so I searched on the internet and found Lernu.

I think it is a very useful language as it enables you to communicate with people all over the world. Learning it has made me very interested in languages, and although I must still learn French in school, I am hoping to become fluwnt in Esperanto in the next couple of years.

Also when I am older, I would like to work in some way with Esperanto, so the language can continue to thrive.

Well, acctually I haven't learned it yet. I har a course in one week this sommer and after only a week I found out that this is a language I must learn. The reason I wan't to is because I love to know languages even if its hard to me learning it in the shool whit al the gramma but esperanto is easier. I'ts mostly the gramma part that is the problem, well lets say that this is the first time I realy thinking of learning the gramma an whole of it. After a week I already fell that now I can learn it on my own. I learned the basic gramma, far away from everything but I know some of it. Enough to learn it on my own at least. Still need some more practise but I understans a bit of how to use it ant I think its easier to learn the gramma when I learnd the languare. I know nothing of gramma so It was a bit difficult to understand what my teatcher meant but i must say I dindn't wan't to spring it over and thought of learning the whole of it at onse. I already made a lot of progress and thinking of going to meet more esperanto people cause thats the easiest way of learning for me.

My father was very interested in the idea of Esperanto so he bought the 'Teach yourelf Esperanto' book and started to learn. This was about 15 years ago. He got quite far in the book but stopped after realising there was really not much point in it. I am almost 16 years old. About two weeks ago, I picked up the book and began to read. I found it very simple and fun. I searched for a website and found Lernu!. I am enjoying reading the forums because it helps me improve my Esperanto. My father has now decided to relearn the language which won't be very hard. I am in Yr 10 in Australia and 3 of my friends are quite eager to learn now I have told them about the language! I teach them before school starts and sometimes at lunchtimes in our classroom. When more of our class walked into the room, they were also interested but I don't think they will learn it. It's a shame the dream of the whole world speaking Esperanto didn't work out. I think it was a great idea.

My situation was much like your Dad's, Camilla. I got the Teach Yourself book about 20 years ago. I went through the whole thing, and then attended a summer course in San Francisco. I started a little club here in Philadelphia, which I kept going for a few years. But it was very difficult to attract new members. There were only three or four of us--and Philly is a large city! One of the members died, and the club just fell apart. I went for over ten years without giving another thought to Esperanto.

As for why....I guess it was mainly curiosity. I had heard of Esperanto, but I thought it was something that never came to anything (Some would say I was right!). When I stumbled upon a chance mention of it in 1985, my interest was piqued.