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How easy is Esperanto really?

  Tags: Esperanto | Difficulty
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto Post Reply
40 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5  Next >>
Jordan152
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 5602 days ago

39 posts - 35 votes
Studies: English, Finnish

 
 Message 1 of 40
18 October 2011 at 10:13pm | IP Logged 
I've heard people claim that they have become fluent in as little as 6 weeks.
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jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6690 days ago

4250 posts - 5710 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
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 Message 2 of 40
18 October 2011 at 10:58pm | IP Logged 
It's impossible to say - it depends on a lot of factors such as your definition of "fluent", your language learning experience, your "aptitude" and so on.

I quote myself (a thread from 2010):
I started with Esperanto in January, and was conversing after a couple of months. I felt that my basic "conversational skills" were way better than in Russian/Chinese.

The number of hours I had spent on esperanto? How about 30-35.. I can read articles and books, listen to podcasts...

Whether this means that Esperanto (itself) is easy (for me?), or that I simply suck at Russian/Chinese despite having studied them for a few years, I don't know... But the grammar, "international vocabulary", flexibility, word order etc definitely help.


Good luck with your studies.
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Splog
Diglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
anthonylauder.c
Joined 5450 days ago

1062 posts - 3263 votes 
Speaks: English*, Czech
Studies: Mandarin

 
 Message 3 of 40
19 October 2011 at 2:26pm | IP Logged 
I learned esperanto in about a month, spending about an hour a day on it. In that time, I
learned all the grammar, and enough vocabulary to get by at a basic level.

After that, there still remained the long road of learning vocabulary and idioms, just as
with any language. Admittedly, the vocabulary of esperanto is smaller than most other languages (since words are often composed systematically), however there are still
thousands of basic words to learn. For me, learning those words was was so boring I gave
up.
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jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6690 days ago

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Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
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 Message 4 of 40
19 October 2011 at 3:37pm | IP Logged 
Regarding the vocabulary - if I remember correctly, you and I are both avid readers. Although there are thousands of translated works in Esperanto (and a fair share of original works), you simply won't find a bookstore or library where you can run into a large collection of crime novels, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, chick-lit, "classics" , scientific material and so on, so I believe picking up vocabulary by osmosis is relatively difficult.
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Enriquee
Triglot
Groupie
United States
esperantofre.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5116 days ago

51 posts - 125 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, Esperanto, English

 
 Message 5 of 40
20 October 2011 at 1:38am | IP Logged 
Jordan152 wrote:
I've heard people claim that they have become fluent in as little as 6 weeks.

I met speakers who claim to have learned much faster ... I also met people a lot slower. People have different degrees of assimilation, desire, willpower, free time.

jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Whether this means that Esperanto (itself) is easy (for me?), or that I simply suck at Russian/Chinese despite having studied them for a few years,

Even if some people can learn some languages very easy, most of us cannot ... But Esperanto is different, much easier. Most people can learn Esperanto much faster than other languages. This is one of the reasons for Esperanto to be a good stepping stone to learning other languages.

jeff_lindqvist wrote:
you simply won't find a bookstore or library where you can run into a large collection of crime novels, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, chick-lit, "classics" , scientific material and so on, so I believe picking up vocabulary by osmosis is relatively difficult.

If you want to spend some money, there are several "libro-vendejoj" that can help you, even if you have to order by mail, e-mail, web page, or telephone. Esperanto-USA, near San Francisco, California, USA, has about 3000 book-titles in stock, a few dvd-movies, songs, and dictionaries.

There are thousands (with "s" at the end) of books and magazines in the web. And don't forget the "Vikipedio". Also forums, Skype, some movies, pod casts, and all kinds of documents. There are enough materials for a life time in the web. (for free)

Lots of books in different levels, and much more you will find in "Resources to learn and use Esperanto" at
   http://esperantofre.com/edu/iloj01a.htm

Wikipedia in Esperanto:
   http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikipedio:%C4 %88efpa%C4%9Do

Magazines: (2005 issues)
   http://www.gazetejo.org/cxiuj_g

Videos (also the whole text of the animations = 173 minutes)
   http://esperantofre.com/edu/kino01a.htm

Esperanto-USA ret-butiko (bookstore):
   http://www.esperanto-usa.org/en/node/19

Best wishes and success, on your learning Esperanto.

Enrique

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alang
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Senior Member
Canada
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 Message 6 of 40
20 October 2011 at 8:26pm | IP Logged 

Does anyone have the link for Kontakto's 1000 most common words and word roots?
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jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6690 days ago

4250 posts - 5710 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
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 Message 7 of 40
20 October 2011 at 9:22pm | IP Logged 
I think I just found the Dead Sea Scrolls...:
http://remush.be/tezauro/Kontakto.html
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Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6220 days ago

4474 posts - 6726 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 8 of 40
20 October 2011 at 10:18pm | IP Logged 
jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Regarding the vocabulary - if I remember correctly, you and I are both avid readers. Although there are thousands of translated works in Esperanto (and a fair share of original works), you simply won't find a bookstore or library where you can run into a large collection of crime novels, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, chick-lit, "classics" , scientific material and so on, so I believe picking up vocabulary by osmosis is relatively difficult.


There are thousands of original works, and tens of thousands of translated ones. There are a few large bookstores: UEA's libroservo and Esperanto-USA both have a fairly decent range. I can't always get every book I want (even fairly culturally important ones), but both do provide access to thousands.

Edit: I also learned Esperanto about as quickly as Jeff, and I know others who have too. The figure I usually hear is "10 times easier than a national language". It still requires work to learn it, though - there are plenty of "eternaj komencantoj".

Edited by Volte on 20 October 2011 at 10:20pm



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