I'm the kind of person who likes to provide some tl;dr background to posts like this, so skip down a bit if you want to get to the real question:

Until recently, I thought the whole idea of a conlang was kinda dumb. I'm a passionate writer, so I have a special love for language; specifically, English, because it's the only one I know. I love the inconsistencies in English, because a) they don't bother me, having been fortunate enough to be a native speaker and b) they make for more interesting writing. So, for these (rather closed-minded reasons), I wrote off the idea of an artificial language as pointless.

Then today a friend of mine mentioned Esperanto, and I had a vague memory of reading about it somewhere, so I looked it up when I got home. The Wikipedia article brought me here, to lernu!, and I did a little bit of the "la puzlo Esperanto" course. To my great surprise, I was fascinated, and I've been working on it for hours. At this point, I feel like I have a better grasp of Esperanto than 2 years of high school French gave me for that language, probably thanks to its artificiality. Point is, I want to learn more.

So here's the meat of the question: can lernu! teach me all the basics I need to start practicing on my own? If so, how can I practice? I don't know anybody who speaks the language. Perhaps setting up email correspondence with someone fluent who's willing to help a noobie? Any ideas are welcome.

Maulrus:So here's the meat of the question: can lernu! teach me all the basics I need to start practicing on my own? If so, how can I practice? I don't know anybody who speaks the language. Perhaps setting up email correspondence with someone fluent who's willing to help a noobie? Any ideas are welcome.

I'm in the TL;DR poster boat too, but more often my TL;DR posts are just waffle

Short answer though: It can give you all the basics, to practice on your own just read news sites (eventeo I think is one, or just read the Esperanto conversations here, or the English sections even can give you enough knowledge if you're lazy like myself), or watch documentaries. In the now slightly dangerous to enter Glenn Beck thread, someone posted a documentary done by a chinese lass (or hosted by one, not sure because I didn't watch it), but that's an example of one way to practice.

For some links etc:
http://esperanto.cri.cn/ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvqXVEOI6nU)

http://www.eventeo.net/web/

http://radioverda.com/

Kaj tiel plu... (etc).

An example from Eventeo:
"Ondoj da sociaj protestoj skuas eŭropajn landojn de kelkaj semajnoj. Jen ekzemploj el tiuj sociaj movadoj en 3 landoj... "
(Waves (consiting) of social protestors shake European countries for some weeks. Here are examples of those social movements in 3 countries...)

http://www.eventeo.net/web/index.php/euxropo/socio...

(lo and behold, one of them is France. Fancy that! )

This is basically how I practice anyway, just by mucking around in EO on the web and looking at various EO media on it.

Maulrus:
So here's the meat of the question: can lernu! teach me all the basics I need to start practicing on my own? If so, how can I practice? I don't know anybody who speaks the language. Perhaps setting up email correspondence with someone fluent who's willing to help a noobie? Any ideas are welcome.

Just my personal idea how to dive into esperantujo:

Sounds like you prefer writen stuff(?). Yes would require some financial investment but you could try to buy a e-book reader i.e. Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader. That would you give lots of traditional paper like reading ressources. Anyway, first I would advise you to set up Skype and do some conversation via Skype. There are some Skype nicknames listed at this thread.

There seems to excist also a regulary learning course via Skype. Take a look at this. Btw. does there excist any other Skype learning sessions which are mentored by an experienced teacher?

After getting some E-o knowledge you could check edukado.net to decide for yourself with what e-o efforts you wanna proceed.

Maulrus:... I wrote off the idea of an artificial language as pointless.

Then today a friend of mine mentioned Esperanto, and I had a vague memory of reading about it somewhere, so I looked it up when I got home. The Wikipedia article brought me here, to lernu!...

Funny because the same thing happened to me, and in no time I was convinced.

And yes!, Lernu is enough to learn all you'll need to get the basics of the language.

As far as practise is concerned , I personnally :

- read a lot of articles from the Eo-Wikipedia and also from the Eo version of "Le Monde diplomatique".

- listened to Radio Verda and also to the programs of the Polish Radio (R. Verda is better to start).

- After a few hours of study, I was able to write simple messages on this forum or on Facebook.

Important thing is to study and practise every day ( 10 minutes at least) and you'll be amazed by your own progress.

+Here is the Chinese tv-news mentionned above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5uFAM15SDA

It will seem that lernu offers a lot in the way of beginner courses and not much in the way of advanced; but most people never do any courses beyond an intermediate stage. The "advanced" level comes through practice and use of the language. Also, certain aspects of grammar that would be considered advanced in other languages are really basic or intermediate in Esperanto.

Don't forget that lernu has its own Esperanto chat room (look at the tujmesaĝilo, lower right hand corner of the lernu site), so you can actually (text) chat with other lernu users anytime you're logged in.

I see from your profile that you're located in New Orleans - it's not an Esperanto hotbed, unfortunately, but there are a couple of Esperanto speakers within an hour or two of you. Internet is probably your best bet at this point in your life. I started learning Esperanto at an age just slightly younger than you; I'm 30 now. Learn Esperanto well, because if you like to travel, there are so many opportunities to travel and meet cool people in all kinds of countries. The decision to learn Esperanto was one of the best decisions I ever made. I have met Esperanto speakers in trips all over the world; hanging out with the locals really enhanced my experience.

Regarding writing, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the opportunities and flexibility that Esperanto offers you. Esperanto has a smaller vocabulary than English but you can use the compound words to great effect. Esperanto's flexible word order can also be used to great effect, and the fact that you can turn a word from one part of speech into another part of speech, simply by changing an ending, adds a lot of interesting possibilities. I have done a lot of translating from Esperanto to English (for this site), and it isn't always easy to translate a certain elegant Esperanto phrase into elegant English. So although the grammar is simple, the word formation is simple, and the verb forms are mainly limited to past, present, and future, you will find that the flexibility of Esperanto adds incredible power to your writing. Of course you have to learn it well first, to take full advantage. But as a person who enjoys writing, I think you won't be disappointed.

In response to all of the preceding posts offering suggestions: Thanks! Those all seem like great ideas, and I wouldn't mind shelling out a few bucks for Esperanto books.

erinja:I see from your profile that you're located in New Orleans - it's not an Esperanto hotbed, unfortunately, but there are a couple of Esperanto speakers within an hour or two of you. Internet is probably your best bet at this point in your life. I started learning Esperanto at an age just slightly younger than you; I'm 30 now. Learn Esperanto well, because if you like to travel, there are so many opportunities to travel and meet cool people in all kinds of countries. The decision to learn Esperanto was one of the best decisions I ever made. I have met Esperanto speakers in trips all over the world; hanging out with the locals really enhanced my experience.

Regarding writing, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the opportunities and flexibility that Esperanto offers you. Esperanto has a smaller vocabulary than English but you can use the compound words to great effect. Esperanto's flexible word order can also be used to great effect, and the fact that you can turn a word from one part of speech into another part of speech, simply by changing an ending, adds a lot of interesting possibilities. I have done a lot of translating from Esperanto to English (for this site), and it isn't always easy to translate a certain elegant Esperanto phrase into elegant English. So although the grammar is simple, the word formation is simple, and the verb forms are mainly limited to past, present, and future, you will find that the flexibility of Esperanto adds incredible power to your writing. Of course you have to learn it well first, to take full advantage. But as a person who enjoys writing, I think you won't be disappointed.

Okay this post captures pretty much what I forgot to put in my tl;dr: I love to travel more than anything, like nothing calms me more than a straight 12 hours on the road, and of course I plan to travel through Europe at some point after I graduate. I hadn't even considered the possibilities of Esperanto for that.

Also, re: "word formation is simple": I like stuff that works very logically (didn't think that applied to language as well, probably just because I didn't enjoy French class very much), and Esperanto word formation is like solving a puzzle. I really honestly had no idea how Esperanto would appeal to me on like, five different levels, but wow.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't learn the Esperanto basics through Lernu, and have never taken any of the courses here. Instead, I learned through books - mainly "Teach Yourself Esperanto" (TYE). Once I had the basics down, I started posting in the forums, and that's where I got my practice.

So, while I personally didn't learn using the Lernu courses, I proved to myself that I could learn it on my own, without having to take classes or find a teacher. As far as I know, the Lernu courses are as good as anything in TYE.

Yeah for the record, the only Esperanto course I ever took was the 10-lesson free postal course. It was about 10 years before lernu even existed, and it was before my family had internet access. For ages, that's how people learned, mainly out of books. So I would say that lernu offers more than enough resources. It offers a lot more than I ever had.

You should definitely look hard at the travel aspect. Especially in Europe, many major cities will have Esperanto speakers, and in most cases, there will be someone willing to put you up for free in their house. At a minimum, you can meet up with them and they'll show you around their city. Often if there are several local Esperanto speakers (in most larger European cities there are) the local speakers will meet up and take you out to dinner.

And travelling in Asia with Esperanto - it's like being a real VIP. Asian Esperantists don't get so many visitors so you stay in people's houses and you're treated like an honored guest. I haven't done a ton of travel in Asia but I have to say that the Esperanto community in Taiwan were incredibly nice, friendly, and helpful. They took me everywhere, gave me a bunch of souvenirs and gifts, and I barely paid for a single meal while I was with them! And that's especially nice in a place like Taiwan, where not only could I not speak the language, but I couldn't even read the signs.

------

Forgot to mention before, when you meet Esperanto speakers abroad, it's as if you're already friends before you even met them. It's a little like visiting a distant relative; you have something that links you from the very beginning. It isn't to say that you will like every Esperantist you ever meet (you definitely won't) but you will find that you become friendly with people very quickly, and that you have a lot in common with them, even if you haven't met them before. Most Esperanto speakers share an interest in international cultures and ideas, and they are usually happy to answer questions that you have about their region/country/culture, and to hear what you have to say about where you come from.

this thread has been very helpful! I downloaded the ebooks on my kindle & am now going to finish my lernu course.
I love languages & thought less of Esperanto but this discussion plus how you can travel and meet so many people from differing cultures is
what I love.
So thanks!
Cornelio

Perhaps someone with direct experence of using it should elaborate for Cornelio's benefit on the Pasporta Servo.

And on the question of using Skype for chats with Esperantists, It's worth pointing out that Esperantists can be eaily be found with the search facilities.

Fill in just Town and Country (according to choice) and put in 'Esperanto' in the Language field.