I am losing hope i will ever learn esperanto and i don't know what to do. I have been trying to learn for like 2 months now and all i can do is type and have staggered conversations. I can say some phrases and come up with responses but i cant understand anyone if they are speaking at a normal-fast speed. Should i just give up?

Jimmywa:I am losing hope i will ever learn esperanto and i don't know what to do. I have been trying to learn for like 2 months now and all i can do is type and have staggered conversations. I can say some phrases and come up with responses but i cant understand anyone if they are speaking at a normal-fast speed. Should i just give up?

Don't give up. A lot of people who study Esperanto are the kind of people who are interested in languages and have a knack for learning them. Watching such speedy learners can make one feel left behind, sometimes! Just hang in there, it's totally worth it. Change your approach, perhaps. Look at how you've been learning so far and think about taking a different tack. Make a list on smart.fm, perhaps. Also look at integrating Esperanto with something in your life that you are fond of. It can be hard to find Esperanto speakers to practice with, when we normally live in countries where we are surrounded by fluent speakers of our native language, but they're out there and in general are a very supportive, friendly bunch, who will help you out!

If you had been studying Spanish for only two months, and you could already hold a simple conversation in Spanish, but you couldn't understand Spanish when spoken at a normal-fast speed, would you conclude that you had failed and give up?

Of course not. Esperanto is easiER than other languages, but it is not easy. Maybe you should focus on what you have achieved rather than on how far you have to go. You went from zero to having a conversation in a foreign language in only two months! That's pretty good in my book. You won't learn Esperanto in a day, or even in two months, unless you're some kind of super language genius. Cut yourself some slack and keep on learning.

And if you are getting frustrated and not seeing the benefit of your Esperanto, then maybe you should make a special effort to meet people using Esperanto, who do not speak English. And keep repeating to yourself, "Two months ago I would have had no way to communicate with this person, and now I am having a great conversation with a very nice person from another country!"

I think you are worrying about nothing.

I started learning Esperanto in March of 2009. Two months after that, I dived into a chatroom and really struggled. I hadn't even met a speaker at that point. A few months later, I was holding my own in the chatrooms and forums.

You will get there. I have found speaking to be the hardest skill, but only time and practice will help you improve.

If you want more practice, it would be a pleasure to chat with you over skype, if you like.

Should you quit? Not yet - it's way too early. Here's why.

I have been doing this for about 10 months. I pretty much felt the same way that you feel after about 3 months. At that common point, I think our experience just supports the history of Esperanto as a unique, often frustrating, self-teaching experience. Looking backward, I believe that I was spending most of my time for at least the first 3 months "learning how to self-teach" a new language. Esperanto itself had little to do with my frustration.

I also think you should consider some of your frustration as a sign of progress. For example, you seem to realize that your vision of "fluency" may now actually be measured on a scale of several years. Does this mean you quit or adjust your expectations? Whatever your choice, realize that it would take longer in almost any other language. Additionally, as you improve, the inadequacy of your instructor (i.e. you) increases, up to a certain point, as "he" understands how much more there is to learn. Be more patient with your instructor in these early stages. Then you both can form better expectations. In spite of this, you appear to be communicating with somebody out there in Esperanto-land, just not at the level you would like. It all sounds like normal progress for a self-motivated, self-taught beginner to me. Congratulate yourself and your instructor – then keep moving forward!

Ok, finally, when should you quit? I've met a few folks on LERNU who classify themselves as beginners after starting Esperanto 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Most of them seem to continue because they find something "special" about Esperanto and it's culture. I know that Esperanto has actually pushed some other long-term activities out of my life. Beyond this, I'm not sure how to describe "special" better. If at some point beyond the next six months, Esperanto doesn't become "special" to you, just put it on the shelf and let it sit for a while. You can always come back to it.

Learning anything involves periods of progress and periods in which you seem to plateau. Starting something new is always exciting. After all, knowing SOMETHING about a subject is an ifinite step over knowing NOTHING. As you progress, the new things you learn represent less of an increase over what you already know and it can seem like you're spinning your wheels. In reality, you are still progressing and need to keep at it. Try to learn something new every day. There's no deadline for fluency and you're not in a race.

I totaly agree with you.

Esperanto is not so simple as the propagand says.

I tryed to use it and ...

It is easy to start with simple sentense. If you talk with understand friend he can understand and is patient and don't correct 100 times the same mistake.

But sometime you cant talk at all because you have many linguistic and extremist people who force you to talk perfectly.

And result the don't understand you and you don't understand them. The use hard word just to show that they know and you don't know.

Esperanto is not a language of equality and neutral. You have people who know and komencanto who try to use and to express themself.

Try learning French for a couple a months and then try out your skills with a native speaker. You will be amazed at your command of Esperanto by comparison.

Jimmywa:I have been trying to learn for like 2 months now and all i can do is type and have staggered conversations. I can say some phrases and come up with responses but i cant understand anyone if they are speaking at a normal-fast speed.

In my opinion language is a tool. Someone should combine language learning with a hobby or topic s/he is very deep in its mother language. So s/he can guess a lot of the context. Sure, thats no prezise understanding but gives some motivation to follow up learning the foreign language.

sudanglo:Try learning French for a couple a months and then try out your skills with a native speaker. You will be amazed at your command of Esperanto by comparison.

Wow. You just made me flash back to my first year of learning French. I didn't know how to properly conjugate the verb "to be" in French back then.

I've been studying Esperanto for a few weeks and I know more than that now.