Talisman:Mi pensis ke tio mi bezonas plu laboro kun mi Esperanto, kvankam cxu estas esperanto vere valero mia tempon?

I think that I require more work on my esperanto, Although is esperanto really worth my time?

Jes/Yes

1. Learn How to learn a new language

2. New internet friends

Ne/no

1. Spend off and on a year and a half and still want to be better.

2. Hardly anyone in to talk to face to face (at least my age in US)

3. Funny comments from cops

Should I cut my losses and start learning Spanish?

http://klanestrotalisman.blogspot.com/2010/09/is...

People who grow up in a country where learning other languages is not really a matter of course often don't realize what is involved in developing language skills to the level of fluency...in ANY language. Esperanto is not a hard language to learn...but it IS a langauge, and learning another language is never easy, particularly your first foreign language. Busting down a language barrier is a lot of work.

Learning a language is a lot like learning to play the piano. When you start, you can't play Flight of the Bumble Bee or Pachelbel's Canon in D Minor, but you CAN play Happy Birthday and Mary Had a Little Lamb. With a little time and study, you find you can play more complicated pieces, and at every stage along the journey, you can feel satisfaction at your accomplishments while still striving for something higher. That's what learning a Esperanto (or any language) is like...this is a marathon; not a sprint.

Should you learn Spanish? Sure you should. Spanish is one of the most important languages on earth and learning Spanish will many open doors for you. I speak Spanish, and I use it all the time. Spanish skills are invaluable in the United States, and it also will give you immediate access into over twenty other countries. I can pull up news and Internet sites from Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, participate in discussions, and read novels and other literature and participate in aspects of culture that I would be isolated from otherwise--so it was well-worth the investment of time, energy, and effort. It also took years.

Esperanto works the same way. Look at all that's available to Esperanto users nowadays--there's international news on Eventeo. There are forums right here on Lernu where you can get the perspective of people from quite literally all over the world about social and political issues, world events, and issues facing other nations. I have learned FAR more about what is going on in the world and what people are like in other places from Esperanto sources than from ANYTHING ELSE I have access to.

There are "radio" broadcasts available to everybody on Radio Verda, contacts available over Skype--and just do a search and look at the SCADS of ACTIVE Yahoo groups from all over the world that use Esperanto. No, you're not going to go to the "Esperanto" part of town and order food in an "Esperanto restaurant", but there is literally NO OTHER LANGUAGE IN THE WORLD that people learn just to be able to communicate with one another. Stop and think about that for a moment--if you learned Swedish, French, or Russian, you couldn't just contact people and start using your language skills without some secondary reason--but not so with Esperanto. Just the mere fact that you speak Esperanto gives you enough in common to merit a conversation with other Esperanto speakers across the globe. Furthermore, Esperanto is a language you can learn on your own.

So is Esperanto worth-while to you? Both Spanish and Esperanto have a lot to offer--this is sort of like someone saying "should I drop the piano to learn to play the saxophone?" But be aware that, while no language is particularly easy, Esperanto is much simpler in comparison to other languages in terms just about everything--grammar, vocabulary, flexibility, etc. So if you're unhappy with your progress in Esperanto because you think it's too hard or too slow, you'll probably wind up laying Spanish aside for the same reason.

My sincere advice would be to learn both. Why not? If you're the type of person who gets into language, culture, and communication, then I don't see why you should limit yourself.

Esperanto estas valoro mia tempon.
Esperanto is worth my time.

kial? Why?
Sed Esperanton sentas bona dum oni uzas gxin.
Because Esperanto feels good while one uses it.

Eble, mia esperanto estas ne malbona tio mia pensis ke estis.
Perhaps my esperanto is not as bad as I thought that it was.

mi bezonas al pensos pri unua nova topico al parli sur mia blogon.
I need to think about one new topic to talk about on my blog.

Kiel estas Dio?
How about God.

Ah, God's a hard one, too many dialects!

Stop and think about that for a moment--if you learned Swedish, French, or Russian, you couldn't just contact people and start using your language skills without some secondary reason--but not so with Esperanto. Just the mere fact that you speak Esperanto gives you enough in common to merit a conversation with other Esperanto speakers across the globe. Furthermore, Esperanto is a language you can learn on your own.

Very well put, Polaris, and absolutely true.

Now, I have learnt French, largely by self-instruction, to a point where I can enjoy French TV broadcasts and read light fiction in French for entertainment.

But I wouldn't imagine for one moment that I could easily engage in a conversation with a total stranger who happens to be French and expect a courteous reaction. And this is not just because my spoken French is limited (which it is).

This is in marked contrast to the reception, that most students of Esperanto have experienced when interacting with other Esperanto speakers.

It is sometimes levelled as a criticism against Esperanto that there are so few speakers. But in assessing the usefulness of Esperanto one must compare like with like.

The correct comparison is the number of Esperantists who are prepared to give you the time of day with the number of native speakers of a particular language who will be ready to endure your (necessarily) limited abilities in their mother tongue.

sudanglo:It is sometimes levelled as a criticism against Esperanto that there are so few speakers. But in assessing the usefulness of Esperanto one must compare like with like.

The correct comparison is the number of Esperantists who are prepared to give you the time of day with the number of native speakers of a particular language who will be ready to endure your (necessarily) limited abilities in their mother tongue.

And let's ask ourselves: What would be more interesting, talking to someone who just talks their native tongue, or speaking to someone who was crazy enough to not only learn something that wasn't anyone's native tongue, but to learn something made by a polish eye doctor in the 18/1900's? (not that non-Esperanto-speaking people are boring, on the contrary some are much more interesting at times. But to go on such vague number-based intuition, I'd say it's safe to say that Esperantists do their research and often have something to say about anything (although a lot of it can be about Esperanto, some Esperantists will NEVER talk about Esperanto, and sort of give you the silent treatment when you try to bring it up or speak to them in it - well, that is when it ISN'T the only common language to speak in )).

Talisman:Esperanto is worth my time. Why? Because Esperanto feels good while one uses it. Perhaps my esperanto is not as bad as I thought that it was. I need to think about one new topic to talk about on my blog. How about God?
Esperanto estas valoro mia tempon. kial? Sed Esperanton sentas bona dum oni uzas ĝin. Eble, mia esperanto estas ne malbona tio mia pensis ke estis. mi bezonas al pensos pri unua nova topico al parli sur mia blogon. Kiel estas Dio?

Suggested correction:
Esperanto indas je mia tempo. Kial? Ĉar uzante ĝin, mi sentas min bone. Eble mia Esperanto ne estas tiel malbona, kiel mi opiniis. Mi bezonas pensi pri nova temo, pri kiu mi parolu en mia blogo. Ĉu Dio?
(With idiomatic phrases like "how about" we need to translate the meaning rather than the actual words. So there may well be a number of ways of doing this, depending on how we interpret the phrase).

And, my response is, I agree with what you said. I encourage you to work through the courses which include online feedback like Ana Pana and Ana Renkontas. As Polaris indicated, you need a little patience for learning any language. Keep it going, as my driving instructor used to say!

Talisman:Eble, mia esperanto estas ne malbona tio mia pensis ke estis.
Perhaps my esperanto is not as bad as I thought that it was.

That resonates with me. Tiu resonadas kun min.

I don't think I'm making much progress. Then I say or understand something that I had thought was beyond my skill. Perhaps you underestimate your skills too.
--
I almost didn't send this response then changed my mind after looking over my account on smart.fm. Seems someone going by the name Talisman wrote a couple of the Esperanto goal things I study and is following me there also.

If that's you, your goals helped me a lot with understanding affixes like -ant- vs -at-, drumming in the meaning of -ul- attached to a word, ... etc.

Try to learn esperanto like a game. Actually it is funny. you can create words like a game.

Polaris:
So is Esperanto worth-while to you? Both Spanish and Esperanto have a lot to offer--this is sort of like someone saying "should I drop the piano to learn to play the saxophone?"

Very nice comparison. Anyway, I will start guitar lessons next week and will try to get some motivation for esperanto at the next e-o rekontiĝo and Skype conversations.

ceigered:
And let's ask ourselves: What would be more interesting, talking to someone who just talks their native tongue, or speaking to someone who was crazy enough to not only learn something that wasn't anyone's native tongue, but to learn something made by a polish eye doctor in the 18/1900's?

Yes, I agree. E-o is crazy in the meaning of "cool".

sudanglo:
When the 'fina venko' comes you will have a nest egg.

Bäh! Much more interesting things happened like that "FV" illusion. Learning E-o is in hard competition with other hobbies. Sorry, nothing else. We are writing 2010 and not 18XX. Okay, just my ignorebla opinion. Sole volis aldoni mia mustardon (German Idiom). Don't have some cents available.