(no subject)

[gfish]

It's kind of scary. After a couple weeks of practice, I already read/write Esperanto about as well as I ever did French -- and I took 5 years of French. (Of course, all that romance language experience isn't hurting here. Neither is the Japanese, in a more abstract sense. And I'm generally a lot better at studying now than I was back then. But still. Scary.)

Comments

[meardaba.livejournal.com]

Isn't the idea behind Esperanto that it is hella-easy to read, write and understand because it incorporates the best of the Romance languages and turfs the rest(exceptions, irritating rules etc...)? Maybe that's the reason you're finding it easier.

[mrlogic.livejournal.com]

Two of the hardest things about languages are grammatical rules and formations, and illogical idioms. Since Esperanto has very, very few of the former (none irregular), and none of the latter, that does make it extremely easy to learn. On top of that, the sound system of Esperanto was chosen to be easy for speakers of most languages to pronounce (although why it includes hx (h-circumflex, like German ch or Spanish j) I don't really understand; that's an alien sound for many languages).

[memegarden.livejournal.com]

I also found two weeks of Esperanto equivalent to 5 years of a Romance language--in my case Spanish. But both my Spanish and my Esperanto are now many years neglected.