What is the best way to learn Esperanto?
Given that you speak English, probably the best place to start is the Esperanto course at duolingo.com. It takes a few dozen hours to complete, and has a basic spaced repetition system (which is good for efficient memorization). We’ve used it to help people get through the basics, and you speak passably enough to communicate once you’ve finished it. It takes a few months to finish, which varies widely based on how much time you put in per day (at least 10–15 minutes is essential).Once you have learned the basics, you have to start using Esperanto to communicate. You can’t achieve real fluency from memorization alone; you have to communicate ideas using Esperanto as the medium. You can read, write, speak, and listen. You might try:Watching Youtube videos in Esperanto. There are a few Esperanto channels. There’s enough content to keep you busy, though it’s not always very polished.Finding a local Esperanto club (or starting one). This is perhaps the single most useful thing you can do; just show up and start talking. You can make some good friends while learning how to speak.Reading books in Esperanto. There are thousands of them, and several online sites that specialize in selling Esperanto books. The market for these books can be a bit old-fashioned; the web sites sometimes require you to make a phone call to place an order.Reading and posting in online Esperanto forums.Chatting on an Esperanto IRC channel.And so on. You can use Google Translate to look up vocabulary (be warned: it’s not very good, so don’t trust it completely). But to get started, you should do an Esperanto course, and Duolingo is the best I know of (I’m aware of lernu.net, mentioned in another answer; it is fine, but I much preferred Duolingo).
How long would it take to learn Esperanto?
Esperanto is easy because it takes a small fraction of the time needed to learn other languages. Esperanto is difficult, because all languages are different and you have to learn new concepts to which you aren't used to. I teach Esperanto by email to people in many, many countries, to people that understand English or Spanish. Most of the committed students take around 20 hours to complete the basic course. A few go faster, same never finish. After that, they need either a second course or some practice. I believe 150 hours are enough to get some fluency, same spoken or written. Learning Esperanto is a very good first step to learn other languages. But using Esperanto can give you a lot of nice experiences. Last July I spent 12 days in Hanoi, Vietnam and 6 days in Seoul, Korea ... almost all the time speaking in Esperanto. I put 210 pictures of this trip in 20 web pages: http://esperantofre.com/uk2012 About English being the international language, just remember that in all big international conferences "in English" they have huge banks of interpreters and translators. Esperanto conventions don't use them. Esperanto is a very useful language. .
Learning Esperanto and French at the same time?
Learn Esperanto will help a lot. Do not stop learning French ... but try to give more time to Esperanto until you get about 20 hours worth of Esperanto. Then continue with both. After 20 hours of learning you should be able to communicate with Esperanto speakers from other countries, including France and Canada. These Esperanto speakers will be very happy to help you learn and practice the French language. You could also go and visit some of them. They will be very helpful when you visit. For reasons to learn Esperanto, and learning and practicing, please visit this web page: http://esperantofre.com/faktoj/ To learn French the best course, paid or free, is French in Action, developed by Yale University. They sell DVD's with videos, CD's with only the sound, a book with the whole text, and books with exercises. In the web for free you can find the sound at http://www.learner.org/resources/series8... There are 52 videos, 29 minutes each. Lesson 1: This lesson is only a presentation in English. All the other lessons are French only. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojMErQ-8... No matter how good is the course, you will have to work hard to learn the language ... no quitting allowed. Dedicating 20 hours to learn Esperanto first, would make easier to learn French. Esperanto speakers from France, will help you learn their language. . Lesson 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjlqMQMPrLk Lesson 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txumeCXkL7I Lesson 51: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Uzfzw8WbwY Lesson 52: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_sIwWOLS-o .
What is the best way to learn Esperanto fast?
See http://www.esperanto.net/ Buy yourself a book about the language. It is that easy, that you can learn it very fast. The speed depends on your memory. The grammer is a 'peace of cake'.
Should I learn Norwegian or Esperanto?
Both aren't worldwide languages, I know. I know Mandarin Chinese though, and along with ASL and Hebrew, so I want to start learning a European language, particularly one that is easy. I heard that Esperanto is extremely easy, and I'm not too sure about Norewegian. Which one should I learn? Do more people speak Norwegian or Esperanto? Thanks! :)
What is the Esperanto language? How does learning Esperanto help you to understand other languages?
Esperanto is a constructed language designed in 1887 by Dr. Zamenhof. His vision was that it would unite the world by having a very simple grammar, it was incredibly easy to learn and start speaking. Some estimate that you only need 500 words (or roots) to have great conversations in Esperanto, this is very low for languages.Esperanto is a great first language to learn for aspiring language learners because of two major benefits.1. You learn a language fast and easily, which empowers you and makes you realise that it IS possible to learn a new language.2. It introduces you to grammar on a very low level, which is helpful for when you tackle languages with more advanced grammars. Assuming of course your native language is a language with a simple grammar system like English.I'm a fairly new Esperanto speaker, but I can share one amazing experience I had with the language already.At a recent Esperanto meetup in Germany I was introduced to an elderly couple from Portugal who spoke very little English and German, and since I didn't speak Portuguese or Spanish we could only communicate in Esperanto - which we did!Then when the waiter in a restaurant came in to ask for our order I was suddenly interpreting from Esperanto into German just months into me learning my first word.That s the power of Esperanto. Then there's a bunch of other cool stuff like a global community of events, meetups, couchsurfing and tons more that I'm only looking forward to try out from now on :-)