I'm interested by linguistic and evolution of languages. One day, i felt on articles of Claude Piron, about differences between languages and the difficulty to explain ideas even in its own language.

It has really opened my eyes. I was very disappointed but agreed about the fact that i'm not a fluent locutor in others languages except mine. I've studied german and english for many years in school, but i can't do a formal speech, it's difficult to write fluently, to understand a song (except the chorus=title), to speak seriously with someone.

On an higher level, i will say that it's either difficult with my own language (french), which grammar and orthograph are hard to memorise and to use. Although i've done very long studies in university, i avoid some words or grammatical structures, i don't know very well. I'm shame of that. I've spoken about this with friends : each of us has a black hole with the practice of its own language. When you speak, or write formally, it's difficult to formulate the deep of your mind and terrible when you are misunderstood or when you have made an error (particulary in french society) because of the complexity of your own language.

Continuing articles of C. Piron, i discovered some structures of esperanto which i liked immediately : no exceptions, adverbs with -e which work really as i'm thinking.
I've loaded the software "Kurso de esperanto" and was very surprised that after 3-4 lessons i devoured in few hours, i could read a text, understand and write some texts to others!!! Kind of magic !

No fear to write and make mistakes with people who had done many before me, the understanding yield of esperanto is very high. I can speak with others "on an equal footing".

Nethertheless, i will not say that esperanto is perfect and that i like everything in this language, but it's sufficient for me.

One of my friends pointed it out when we were debating cool languages. A quick wikipedia search turned up all the details, and linked to a wikibook and eventually to here. We all had some interest in learning another language, and since Latin and Elvish both look astoundingly complicated, Esperanto it was. It also looks like it would provide a sound basis for learning other languages later. I want to have a good handle on English and Esperanto eventually, and then from there learn what I can of German and anything else. I also studied Spanish for many years in school, and I would like to improve my vocabulary of Spanish eventually also.
I'm 17 and I plan to travel a lot, basically .
(ankaŭ, mi ŝati pasteĉo)

There have been studies that have shown that learning esperanto does indeed help you learn other languages after learning Eo. In the most famous study, a class was broken into two random groups. One group (the control group) studied french for four years. The other group studied esperanto for 1 year, and then french for 3. The results were very interesting. The group that studied Esperanto for one year not only learned esperanto to essentially fluent level, they surpassed the french skills of the control group. So in three years, they were able (on average) to learn more french than the control group that had studied french for four years. They were able to learn 2 languages in the time it took the control group to learn one. This study was actually one of the things that prompted me to learn Eo. I thought Spanish would be a much more useful language (living in the states where there's a large spanish speaking population). But by studying Esperanto for a year or so first, I could get two new languages for the price (time/work) of one.

This result makes sense if you think about it. Probably learning any 2nd language will help you learn additional languages more easily than you would have otherwise. While you're learning the second language you're developing the skills needed to learn languages. Esperanto is so quickly learned, and so logical (for the most part *Grin*) that it really equips you with excellent tools for learning future languages. So if you have Eo under your belt, you can hit the ground running if you want to learn french or german or whatever next.

Just as an aside, My esperanto study has also greatly improved my understanding of English grammar. Good luck in your Esperanto studies!

Finally, since you said you wanted to travel a lot, you should look into the pasporta servo. This service will hook you up with esperanto speakers all over the world who will let you stay in their homes for a few days for free. So if you travel to a foreign country, you can stay with someone who can show you the sites and places that tourists seldom get to experience. search for it on the internet if you find it intersting.

Fleath:One of my friends pointed it out when we were debating cool languages. A quick wikipedia search turned up all the details, and linked to a wikibook and eventually to here. We all had some interest in learning another language, and since Latin and Elvish both look astoundingly complicated, Esperanto it was. It also looks like it would provide a sound basis for learning other languages later. I want to have a good handle on English and Esperanto eventually, and then from there learn what I can of German and anything else. I also studied Spanish for many years in school, and I would like to improve my vocabulary of Spanish eventually also.
I'm 17 and I plan to travel a lot, basically .
(ankaŭ, mi ŝati pasteĉo)

Unue, mi aŭdis pri "Loglan" kaj "lojban"... "logikaj lingvoj". Mi provis lerni la loĵbanan sed la pensa maniero postulita estis malfacila. Tiam mi malkovris ke la precipa atingo de tiu lingvo estis nur 20-minuta konversacio inter kelkaj spertuloj. Ve!

Tiam oni diris ke Esperanto estas multe pli uzebla, do mi serĉis librojn el la urba biblioteko de Milvaŭkio kaj partoprenis la 10-leciona retpoŝta kurso. Post nur unu monato de meztaga 'lingvomanĝado' mi povis legi el la biblio, malrapide sed sukcese. Tio mirigis min.

Tiam mia vivo iĝis tre okupita per multaj aferoj. Post dek jaroj, mi reprovis lerni E-on per lernila programo kion mi faris kaj mi trovis multe da geamikoj el ĉi tiu paĝaro, Lernu.

A friendly reminder that this is the English forum, so while everyone is welcome to write in Esperanto, it should preferably be accompanied with an English translation, so not to scare away the komencantoj

rdmiller3, mia sperto similas vin.
Mi lernis Esperanto je 1987, kaj faligis intereson post unu jaro. Lastatempe mi reinteresiĝis antaŭ kvin mezoj. Do mi aĉetis librojn, kaj mi abonis gazetojn (Monato).
Mi aĉetis "Jen Nia Mondo" ankaŭ. Ĝi estas CDROM-kurso praktiki mian aŭskultadan komprenon. Ho, mi ankaŭ acetis la filmon "Gerda Malaperis". Ĝi estas la DVD-filmo de la libro por Claude PIRON.
Kaj ĉar mi estas predikisto, mi ĉiutage legas La Biblion, kaj mi povas nun legi ĝin Esperante!

Rough Translation:
My experience is similar to yours. I learned Esperanto back in '87 and dropped interest after about a year. Recently, in the past 5 months my interest has be peaked. So I bought books and subscribed to magazines (Monato).
I also bought "Jen Nia Mondo". It's a CD-ROM course to practice my listening comprehension.Oh, I also bought the movie "Gerda Disappeared". It's the film of the book by Claude Piron.And since I'm a pastor, I read the Bible daily anyway, now I can read it in Esperanto!

tkd-kiwi:
I would like to be able to chat on the instant messenger but it never seems to work.

We don't have the messenger working yet, on the new version of the site. Basically, it comes down to lack of programmers to do the job. The ordinary user hasn't seen much in the way of changes recently but there is a lot of 'behind the scenes' work going on to make the site faster (by making calls to the database more efficient) and to make life way easier for us 'lingvohelpantoj' (by designing a whole new 'lingvohelpantejo' - tutoring center - that will assign a specific tutor to each student, rather than the current system of any available tutor for a given language correcting whatever lessons have just come in).

well, since i teach english as a foregin language, i have really appreciated the logic and regularity shown by this tongue.

I hope to learn it well enough to teach it one day, perhaps the main reason its that it reads just the way you write it.

English is so charmingly anti-phonetic!!

so i gues many learners will enjoy learning a reasonable, phonetic language.

That is why I started leraning Esperanto.

null

I actually just started studying a month ago. Right now, (besides the normal enthusiasm) I just use it to take a break from Russian, which is where I am at learning the language now. So naturally, (in my opinion) my learning of Esperanto is going unsatisfactorily slow.
I first heard of the language in my Junior year of high school, in the hallway of all places. A person I was acquainted with had fallen in love with it in no way close to how a guy falls in love with a girl, he was practically(and literally) shouting it down the hallway, and someone had asked him what he was saying. He explained simply, "Esperanto!".
At the time he was talking to another enthusiast, and at the time I was just amused, but I certainly remembered the name!
Ever since then, like when you learn a new word, I heard it again and again, and finally looked it up here in Russia.
Since then, my understanding of grammar has hightened, and I have even started studying it in Russian, which gives me a cool new perspective.
My ultimate hopes is to learn the language enough to be able to write in the language, so that I can translate my weak attempts at literature!

Have you guys been to the Entomological museum in Xi'an, China? Though I know of Esperanto before, that experience was the one that got me interested in EO. To make a long story short, the museum was built in honour of a prominent entomologist who was also an Esperantist and they had a section of the museum devoted to EO. Heck, even the name of the museum was written in EO.
Big deal, given that the museum is the largest entomological museum in Asia.

That contact I had with the language convinced me of it's usability. Though so far, it is the only contact I had with EO apart from through the Internet. South East Asia just lack samideanoj...

Parenteze, if anyone is curious, the entomologist is Chou Io and it is possible to search for him on vikipedio. (The English Wikipedia does not have an entry of him yet)