My Esperanto journey, which started with so much enthusiasm, ended up crashing and burning. Just trying to get through the Duolingo course was a bad idea. I got bored. Boredom = language death.

In retrospect, I should have gotten into the Esperanto community, which appears to be a lively, enthusiastic, lovely community. Usually, when I study a language, even if I am not actively studying it I will watch videos or listen to music or do something to keep the spark alive. My interest/enthusiasm with a language’s culture helps me remember why I’m putting in the work to learn it. And since Esperanto is a created language, I think it’s really necessary to get into the Esperanto community to keep the spark with the Esperanto culture.

I still love Duolingo and am excited by each new language that is added to it. But, man, it is brutal to try to learn with Duolingo as the sole resource. And, let’s be honest, I’ve been using it wrong. I try to power through it, to get that golden owl as soon as possible regardless of how much I’m retaining. Do not try this at home kids. It’s the least effective way to try to learn a language. Really, what seems to be a much better approach that I’m going to apply to my next language is to not move on to the next Duolingo skill until I can recognize 80% of the vocabulary words without needing any hints or prompting.

So, after a little over a month my Esperanto has plateaued. One day I want to get back into it (the right way!). Esperanto has a lot to offer, and I regret only scratching the surface.

But it’s that time again, new month, new language: German!

Note: I failed to actually post this on September 30th. So I ended up backdating it. Sorry for any confusion!