Friday 16 October 2009

My problem with Esperanto...

No posts for a long time. This reflects exactly what happened to my Esperanto learning progress: it stalled. I don't really know how to 'get back on track', but due to not using it, I start losing it, and that makes it even harder to read anything, so I don't, and my Esperanto competence slides further down the slippery slope.

How I can combine learning Esperanto with a busy day, I don't know. I don't think it's a problem with Esperanto as such, as I had the same experience with other things I attempted to learn, be it brushing up my Latin or learning basic Economics. There's a limited amount of time and energy available, and anything non-essential falls by the wayside first.

Any idea how to solve this dilemma?

11 comments:

  1. Hi Oliver,

    Even if it's just a few minutes a day, regular exposure can be a big help. The online site lernu.net has lots of courses that can be consumed in small bits.

    Another option is to subscribe to a periodical for beginners (like "Juna Amiko", or "Kontakto"), or get a novel in basic Esperanto (like "La Krimo de Katrina" by Sten Johansson) and set aside a few minutes each day to read part of it, while making a list of new words to look up and/or grammar questions to ask. Check the EAB bookstore: http://esperanto-gb.org

    Finally, there's an old (but still excellent) textbook by Montagu Butler called "Step by Step", with short, bite-sized lessons that you can do in a few minutes each. You can get it from Esperanto-USA, at http://esperanto-usa.org/retbutiko

    Amike,
    - Hoss

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  2. Thanks, I'll give that a go. I have subscribed to the Lernu 'word a day', but I find that the definitions are already getting too complex if you're not 'in it'...

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  3. Hi Oliver

    When I got bored, listening to the television, I attempeted simultaneous translation, to myself, into Esperanto.

    Somewhat weird, but it defeated my boredom, and improved my Esperanto :)

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  4. Hi, I always have the same problem and especially so with Esperanto. I am getting back on track whenever I meet up with other Esperantists! Maybe you could find a group where you live?

    Where I live there are exactly 2 other people who speak Esperanto in a radius of over 300Km! We do meet very irregularly with each having busy schedules, but when we do meet it always gives a boost to pick up those textbooks again!

    Amike,
    Carsten.

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  5. Try to expose yourself to Esperanto material as much as you can. If you use Facebook, set the interface to Esperanto. Consider using twitter and following http://twitter.com/esperanto, this will give you a stream of news in Esperanto. There's also the Esperanto planet, a collection of Esperanto blogs in one handy location: http://e-planedo.kerno.org/.

    That's what I've done so far. I'm now seeking out local Esperantists (very few and far between) and planning to read some Esperanto e-books -- sites like http://www.librejo.com/ warrant exploration.

    I did the Esperanto email correspondence course when I started, which was both brilliant and free. As well as working through the material my teacher would answer any questions I added, all within 24 hours. I still email her occasionally and I can't understate the help she's been. You could have a go at that (the first few lessons would be revision, but that wouldn't hurt). That's at http://pacujo.net/esperanto/course/.

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  6. You need a penpal. I have a really good one who lives in poland. :) My Esperanto gets better everyday.

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  7. Yeah, ten minuets a day will help tremendously. I went through the same drop off. Try these videos from youtube:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqmBL3vWrXw&

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWbyXVSiCxw&

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  8. Hey! I enjoyed reading this blog! I know that the last update was a lot of time ago, but... How is your esperanto learing going?

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  9. Still stalled... I must find some time again! I already have a plan that might re-kindle my enthusiasm, which I will blog about here when I get round to it.

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  10. Great! I will be waiting. Count with me! ;-)

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  11. This has happened to me too.
    Take a break. Don't do anything Esperanto related. At some point your interest will be rekindled, but don't force it.
    Something like learning Esperanto should be a labor of love and not work.

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