The Case of the Accusative -N

Credit to Cafe Press

   What attracted me to Esperanto language is its logic and its standardized structure.  Being and American English user and taking word order for granted I am having difficultly learning accusatives relating to the -n ending.  But I see it as a necessary tough learning curve I must master.  I see it as necessary so other speakers from other languages that use different word order than mine can under stand my sentences. Those from other languages that use different word order from my language must learn -n ending as well so I can understand them.  That is the whole idea of Esperanto to me.  As a new user I want standardization even if at first it is difficult to me.

   I defiantly need practice.  Right now I kludge around Esperanto sentences sounding like a cave man.  I defiantly need practice remembering words on the fly.  According to Memrise I know over 2923 words but I reality it must be 1/3 that that I really know.  Also consider that I am dong several decks that duplicate many of them.  I do cards a lot at Memrise, enough so that I have earned the badge of Memonist with over 2,500,000 pts almost exclusively spent trying to memorize Esperanto words.

   I am now going through the book 'Ni Parolu Espernaton Kune'  by Charlotte Kohrs, M,A.   It has been a great little starter book for me from Esperanto-usa.org it has all the basics of speaking Esperanto along with simple reading sentences.  The print quality is that of a printer on fast draft mode but is "good" enough to read comfortably.  I am using its simple sentences to help me learn the finer points (such as the accusative -n) and reading simple sentences.

  Off and on I also read a few sentences of Gerda Malaperis at ReadLang.com as the site helps with words I do not know by letting me click on them to get a translation only as needed.

   Travis, A helpful English language teacher is helping me with sentence structure via email.  By writing some basic sentences to him in EO and letting him edit them it will help me to put together better sentences. This will give me a Very Big head start for when the Duolingo course starts.

   He is learning Esperanto himself but is catching on quickly as seen here in his YouTube Pensoj en Esperanto (Journals) .  Being an English language teacher by trade and familiar with language structure it will be very helpful to him as he learns and continues on to help others like me.  I really appreciate his help.

So practice makes proficiency:

  Mi ankaŭ need al praktikan skribon.  Mi estas tre Novan studenton.  Mi koni that al skribi pli estas bonan ideon.  La vortoj mi koni on la flugi does ne allow mi tre multaj sentences sen krokodoli English mixed en.

   Lol.  Ouch that hurt trying to read that back to myself.  Don't worry I won't do any more of that to you.  Maybe by next post my attempt at making on the fly sentences will not be so painful and perhaps also will properly use the accusative -n as well.  No one will at least be able to accuse me of not trying. ;)

  This post brought to you by the letter -N and Cafe Press for the picture.

My Youtube Esperanto Video Blog

   I have been receiving Benny Lewis Language Hacking League newsletters by email. On the 7th newsletter day he asks you to make a video of yourself speaking your target language and post it at Youtube and fi3mplus.com(Fluent in 3 Months).  I thought this would be a cool idea.

   While I was at it I set it up to be a YouTube Video Blog. I do not promise a regular series of language attempts to be posted there, but I do hope to do a few more as I progress. I added English and Esperanto CC to my first video, YouTube make it VERY easy to do, I wish more YouTube uploaders would do it.

  Mi estas ankoraŭ aksia atendi la eko el la Esperanto Duolingo course. Ĝi estas nuntempe 86% finita. Dume mi konservi laboras ĉe lernu la lingvo.

Video CC Transcript (closed captions) 

EO: Mia nomo estas Paŭlo. Mi lernas
Esperanto. Mi estas tre nova studento.
EN: My name is Paul. I am learning English. I am very new student.
EO: Mi estas kvardek-tri jaroj
EN: I am forty three years 
EO: Mi estas malebligita
EN: I am disabled
EO: Mi spekti Stelo Vojaĝo, Mi ankaŭ spekti 'Pasporto al la tuta mondo' en YouTube
EN: I watch Star trek, I also watch 'Mondo tuto de la mondo' on Youtube.
EO: Mi legas la Biblion kaj Google librojn pri Esperanto
EN: I read the Bible and Google books about Esperanto.
EO: Mi ankaŭ havas banano arbo.
EN: I also have a banana tree.
EO: Dankon por aŭskultas, adiaŭ.
EN: Thank you for listening, goodbye

#fi3mo

Continuing with Memrise

   I am continuing with Memrise while I wait for Duolingo course.  I have went through several packs at Memrise and according to it, I know well over 1500 words, but I am still having a hard time reading basic Esperanto texts.  The reason why is all the Memrise flash card decks are teaching me are the basic words without the and affixes that Esperanto uses (as any language does).  This has made it so that I am not recognizing words that I should already know. They have just been looking like new words that i have not learned yet to me.  So I am now doing an Esperanto - Affixes in Action! card pack that specifically is teaching me the affixes.  It is teaching me a LOT of the missing peaces of Esperanto for me.  I have been trying to listen to programs and read paragraphs of text that use these.  Even basic video programming and reading uses at least the simplest of these affixes.  I hope after doing this pack for a while I can try reading and listing to Esperanto some more and get better sense out of it.

   I have been having a hard time using lernu.net. I have found their courses hard to follow.  Perhaps with some suffixes under my ĉapelo I will be able to use lernu better.