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My experience & thoughtsabout Esperanto | ||
Tags: Esperanto | Pronunciation | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
| masoris Diglot Groupie Korea, South Joined 6294 days ago 48 posts - 52 votes  Speaks: Korean*, English Studies: Esperanto, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 1 of 18 11 September 2007 at 10:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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At 2003, I knew about Esperanto by chance in Internet. So I started to learn it. First, I use “Kurso de Esperanto” computer software and I met Esperantist in South Korea. After few months learning, I realised that Esperanto is not easy as introduction in Internet.
Many descriptions said that Esperanto is very easy language because... It said Esperanto has only 5 vowels and 23 consonants, it very simple and there are no difficulty to learn it. However, to me, gx, jx, z are same pronounce, and s, sx are same pronounce, p, f are same pronounce, b, v are same pronounce, r, l are same pronounce. c, ch are same pronounce, especially hx is very wired pronounce. Although Esperanto audio textbook speak slowly, I had hardness to hear what it say. When I heard normal speed conversation between Esperantist, I just had no idea. It said Esperanto is easy because, 70% of the vocabulary from Latin roots... (and no vocabulary from Asian languages) that means I had to memory all new vocabulary. And it need s more than 2000 vocabulary to correspond with other Esperantist, and more than 5000 vocabulary to understand newspaper. Because of those hardness’s, I saw that when an Esperanto course starts in South Korea, a 10th of people dropped out in a first year. It is true that Esperanto is not easy language between South Korea people. Nevertheless, those hardness’s, I think Esperanto is still attractive language. Because, Esperanto makes me understand what language is. After understand Esperanto, I can deal any language with minimal vocabulary and minimal grammar. And I have no fear to study and speak other language any more. I think Esperanto is universal language than international language. It is guidebook for all language. If somebody wants to learn more than three languages, they should learn Esperanto first. Then they can learn other languages very fast. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| manny Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6362 days ago 248 posts - 240 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Tagalog Studies: French, German | Message 2 of 18 11 September 2007 at 11:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Welcome and thanks for sharing.
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| awake Senior Member United States Joined 6640 days ago 406 posts - 438 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Spanish | Message 3 of 18 13 September 2007 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I suppose I'm one of the Esperanto apologists on this board. But your difficulties show that easy is a relative
term. People mistake the word easy for the word easier. It's like saying that going to the moon is easier than going to mars. It's true, but that doesn't mean that going to the moon is easy. Sometimes Esperanto's supporters make it sound like learning esperanto is effortless. That's unfortunate. It's a full language, and like any full language there's a huge volume to learn. I certainly struggled with some aspects of Esperanto when I was learning it (and even now I still make mistakes sometimes...though I do that in my native tongue too :). And I agree with you 100%, it's a great second language to learn, because it teaches you so much about how languages are put together, it helps you greatly when you want to learn future languages (especially those that contain all those sounds that are difficult for you), and though this is only my opinion, it's a very beautiful and useful language. :)
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 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6913 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 18 14 September 2007 at 4:28am | IP Logged | |||||
How do you deal with these sounds in your Mandarin studies? Most of them are there. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| masoris Diglot Groupie Korea, South Joined 6294 days ago 48 posts - 52 votes Speaks: Korean*, English Studies: Esperanto, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 5 of 18 23 October 2007 at 7:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
I can distinguish all sounds now, I had learn some IPA for it. But I don't think Mandarin also has those sounds. s, sh, b, r, l, c, ch in Mandarin and English are different sounds, and I pronounce it different way. Edited by masoris on 23 October 2007 at 7:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6913 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 18 24 October 2007 at 12:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I wouldn't say that the Esperanto sounds are too different from sounds you have encountered in Mandarin (or English). The letters are pronounced differently in the languages, but the sounds are there (more or less). Rough approximations below.
gx - joke (Eng); jian (Chi) jx - measure (Eng) z - Brazil (Eng) s - song, sweet, solid (Eng); san (Chi) sx - sheep (Eng); xing (Chi) p - play (Eng); pengyou (Chi) f - free (Eng); feichang (Chi) b - ball (Eng); Beijing (Chi) r - close to the tap/flap, common in Americal English l - little (Eng); liang (Chi) c - cats (Eng); cong (Chi) ch - church (Eng); qing (Chi) hx - loch (Eng); hen (Chi) Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 20 February 2008 at 2:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Phil_K Diglot Newbie Mexico Joined 6133 days ago 11 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese, Esperanto | Message 7 of 18 18 February 2008 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think one of the problems is that Esperanto is easier for native speakers of European languages. For us, s and sx, for example are clearly different. As a speaker of Spanish, I've found Esperanto relatively easy...the only problem I have is memorizing the corelatives!
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| awake Senior Member United States Joined 6640 days ago 406 posts - 438 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Spanish | Message 8 of 18 19 February 2008 at 12:47am | IP Logged | |||||
When I was first learning Esperanto, the correlatives gave me fits too. My problem was that learning them a few at a time just wasn't an effective strategy for me. So, what I did was I learned how to build the table. But I didn't memorize the words in the table, i learned how to build it. The trick for me was to break them down into pieces. There are 5 beginning elements and 9 ending elements. You can learn all 45 words individually (which for some reason I had trouble with) or you can learn just the elements themselves (only 14 "words" to learn). So, I know Ki= which and it can be combined with the other "ending elements". For example Kiu = Ki + u = which one (or person) Kio = Ki + o = which (unnamed) thing Kiam = Ki + am = which time kie = which location etc.... Instead of learning kiam as "when" I learned it as Ki + am = which time. I drilled all the possible 45 combinations with flash cards, and then I never had a problem. At first I was a little bit slower, because when I wanted to say "when" I had to think, "how can I say that using "which" instead? But, I never had trouble reading the correlatives in Esperanto again after that. Whenever I saw one, I could always work out its meaning. Then after a short time, I found that my brain had just internalized them. Now, when I see kiam, I immediately just know that means "when" If I translate something from Eo to English, I know longer think of it as "which time", but translate it immediately as "when". It's completely natural for me to use the correlatives now, and I never have trouble with them (even the ones that are rarely used). For some people this approach would be less efficient I imagine, but it worked well for me. :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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