December 9, 2018 Update

   I have spent most of my hobby time practicing piano using PianoVideoLessons but due to leg difficulties but yet wanting to fill the hobby bug I checked back in on my Esperano skills.  I am a rather rusty to take up DuoLingo right where I left off but I am doing well with my review of words using a language app called Drops, a flashcard type app that adds variety to picking the right word.  Drops has Many other languages are also available.

Drops App

Music hobby and Esperanto progress update

Saluton,

  We have really enjoyed learning guitar.  We have had Jay L. and/or Curt W. on several occasions in our yard practicing.  We also had a congregation picnic where Jaj and another brother we just met had fun playing.  I am slow going on the guitar but will continue in time.

  I also thanks to Jay L. have a Piano keyboard that I am learning to play using a real online teacher.  I am picking this up at a better pace that the Guitar, working with my limitations I am spending more time with the piano at this time.

   I have revisited learning Spanish but still found it way to difficult to take on, so that led me back to Esperanto so.....

   Yesterday I revisited Duolingo and practiced some Esperanto.  I did quite well, especially for not practicing it for quite some time. I was quite encouraged.  If I had another speaker around me I could really pick it up.

I leveled up to level 13 yesterday.at Duolingo :)

   I was also pleased to see that Duolingo now has a Spanish to Esperanto course and apparently there is a Duolingo forum for both English/EO and Spanish/EO  Esperanto speakers.  That is what EO is all about, a neutral easy language that all can learn and use togather.

   There are times when I am caught up with other more important studies, and I can only do so much sitting up at a piano bench practicing music.  I am often limited to sitting reclined with my legs elevated.  These may continue be good times for me to practice Esperanto.  I do enjoy the experience of learning another language,  I just wish one of my friends would take an interest in it.  Kathy my Wife has not been able to learn it as she likes and for another local Brother, the time was just not there for him.  I don't care I still enjoy the experience of learning a language, a language that follows its own spelling and pronunciation rules completely and consistently.  

Ankoraŭ studento sed ankoraŭ lernante.


 

100 days of Duolingo regularity

    I have been regular for 100 days now, and also only have 8 more lessons to finish the course.  I spent that last few days getting my tree gold for a 100 day screenshot. 

   I am in no rush to finish the last 8 lessons of the course, as I still need much practice with the lessons that I have already done.  There is also a lot of meat to study in the last few lessons I have yet to finish.   I am ok with taking my time in finishing the course in order to learn the language the best I can,  and also not to stress myself with trying to learn too much too fast. 

   When I do finish, I would like to keep the course reviewed for practice.  I also would like to turn the audio back on to see if now that I have had more practice with the language I will be able to pick out the audio.  

September Update

   Mi estas nivelo dek kaj laboras pri la sana lecionoj.  Mia Frato estas nivelo ses nun.

   I am still level ten and currently finishing the travel skill lessons and then on to Affixes 2. When I finish the tree I will really need to refresh my lessons.

   UPDATE: I have decided to go ahead and review  and re-golden my lesson tree. I need to review and the lesson are getting harder. This will allow allow me to practice my listen skills using simpler sentences with words I know better. The audio lesson were added when I was already on level 10 and the more complicated sentences are giving me problems.

   My Brother is level six now. And a mutual friend of our has been learning some Esperanto as well.  My Wife wants to learn more Esperanto as she is able.  I plan to go over lessons 1 and 2 alongside her on her Duolingo account.  It will be fun if we can all become fluent enough to use EO with each other.

   I am finding that besides my new wells word dictionary I also like using the Glosbe en/eo/en dictionary to get the meanings of words and many words are used differently between the languages. Of course I still use lernu for quick reference on a word.

UPDATE on my sci-fi short story, 

Ni venas paroli kun vi en vian lingvon

We come to speak with you in your language

   I posted a link to my sci-fi short story at Duolingo Esperanto Learners forum and particularly one student Jonathan Powell really helped me out to make it a readable story.

   Another student Catherine Wilcox has shown interest in recording an audio file along with some other stories she has been reading for student practice.  This conversation is at the Duolingo Esperanto Learners forum.

   Here is a link to the original draft story:  Ni venas paroli kun vi en vian lingvon.

   I will post the edited story in my next post perhaps even with an audio file to go along with it sometime.

Time for some Duolingo lesson reviews

   As I worked towards and finished the 'Dates/Time' lesson of level 8 of the Duolingo course I am finding that I am having difficulty and having to hover words to get the translation hint to often.

   I am going to start going back through the lessons I have already completed for some refresh and confidence building.  It's time to return my now multi-colored lesson patches to there gold luster.

   I am also still having difficulty with the -n affix.  This comes from my ongoing difficulty with identifying word types on the fly.  In english I can make sentences just because I grew up with it and my brain just does it.  I learning a new language I do not have this instinct to draw on, I have to actually know word parts.  If I could Anglesize Esperanto word order and get away with it would help a lot.  I can read sentences that use the -n affix ok though.

   My wife has not been able to continue much with Esperanto so I do not have her practice with.  She never was able to start the Duolingo course.

Duolingo's new Esperanto course ready for class

   The new DuoLingo's Esperanto course has been available to sign up for eight months since September, 2014 and, finally with a lot of work from the volunteers who created it, the beta phase is finally ready for students.  My wife and I have been waiting and watching the Course Status page throughout its hatching progress.  We will be starting the course along with 26,062 students who also pre-signed up without a doubt more to join.  We look forward to using it to continue our progress to learn the language.  

   We look forward to when the beta course is released to the Android/ios App to use it learn Esperanto while out in the yard with our Androids this summer.  Until then, while in beta phase we will use Chrome browsers on our devices.  Who knows, if it works well with Chrome we may not bother with the app at all.  It would certainly save some device memory

   We will continue to use the other teaching avenues we have been using as well. Memrise for vocabulary reminders has been great, but most notably my best language asset so far has been my patient English/EO tutor for helping with my my lack of sentence structure skills.

   In Esperanto if a word is an object or an adverb or noun they are automatically encoded into words by an ending with an -o (object), -a (adverb), or an -n for a noun or pronoun.  I wish EO was used when I was in school to help teach us parts of speech.  Besides, us mono lingo US students need the opportunity to learn a second language right from primary school since it is the best time to learn one.  I really would have enjoyed learning it in school.  We always enjoyed using pig latin and cheap oriental with each other until it got too easy and we grew out of it. If we could have been using EO with each other and have been learning a real language that is used around the world on through adulthood it would have been awesome.  We could also have applied that skill and confidence to learning yet another language later in school.  Esperanto is a bridge to learning hundreds of languages I wish we could have known about.  It is harder to learn a language as an adult, but at least Esperanto is considered the easiest and most structured language a person can learn.

  Between Memrise, my tutor, Esperanto's logical structure, our study book ¨Ni Parolu Esperanton Kune¨, and now Duolingo, we should really be able to enhance our progress of learning Esperanto. 

The Duolingo course and my Memrise deck progress

Things are really coming along fast for the Duolingo course which is at 78% of opening up, the course writers have done quite a bit just since my previous post.  It also now has 12,000+ students waiting for the course to open up.

The course is at 78% since and now has 12,000+ students waiting for the course.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I have been very busy as well.  I was in 6th place I believe for the high score of the "A complete grammar of Esperanto vocabulary" Memrise deck during my last post.  Now as of this post have gone through all 924 words,  now I just need to review the deck often to keep them all in my head as I continue to be exposed to these words further in the textbook at Google play Books of the same title.

I now have (temporarily I am sure) the lead on this particular decks all time high Leader-board due to cramming all day long ever since my last post with 587,686 points.  I took a screenshot so it will last longer.  :) I expect the lead may disappear very quickly as there are several other active users of this deck that may wish to challenge my lead.  Its all part of the fun and motivation to keep ones studies up. i hope i have motivated them as much as they have motivated me. :)
EDIT: Noticed my score was passed on Feb, 15,2012 :)

1st

greenrish600,985

My temporary lead on this decks leader-board.

A Complete Grammar of Esperanto

I am going through the ebook:
A Complete Grammar of Esperanto with grades exercises for reading and translation together with full vocabularies by Ivy Kellerman, A.M., Ph. D.
As I have been studying the book I have also been using the 'Add Note' feature of Google Play Books to add all of my translations of the 'Reading Lessons' and 'Sentences for Translation' provided in the book.

Screen shot of the ebook along with a pop-up note of a translation.

Along with the book, I am using a Memrise flash card deck that includes all of the vocabulary from the book. I currently have 376,005 point that currently put me at 5th place on the all time leader board for this deck.  I am currently in position 1 for the weekly and monthly score position.  However, note that these scores are highly fluid for as soon as the next person sees my score, they will want to top it.  I have been bouncing back and fourth with the active deck users for the weekly and monthly position.  I find it rather fun and motivating.  It helps me to keep the vocabulary in my head in between my session with going through the book.

The Duolingo course is currently 77% done with 11,796 pre-registered.

I am finding it a useful combination to give me a head start while I wait for the Esperanto Duolingo course to start. The Duolingo course is currently at 77% near its completion with 11,796 students pre-registered for it.

Progress at Learning Esperanto

  

They don't give out gold stars but
all Esperantists do get a green one.

  My Progress.
  I am doing well with learning Esperanto words.  I have a few hundred words bouncing around somewhere in my head that I can recall with some prodding from flashcards at Memrise.com.  I need to work on creating my own sentences and doing some reading.  I see it being even more fun as My Wife and I continue to learn further.

  The Esperanto Duolingo course is really coming along and I am really looking forward to it starting around its estimated launch time of 3/21/15.  It already has 10,802 students pre-signed up.  It will be great time to start what is considered to be an excellent starter language for beginners.  Even though Duolingo is not a college course with a diploma, it is free and is commonly used by college students.  The greatest diploma you can show from learning a new skill is showing how well you are able to use the new skill itself.  While we wait for the duolingo class I am getting as much of a head start with the language as I can.

   Why learn Esperanto?
   In My Wife and I's case it is fun language that we can learn together as a family without the learning stress that other languages have. We are both loving that it is a VERY easy language to learn.  It follows ALL of its grammar and spelling rules without exception.  ALL words are spelled exactly as they are spoken, and spoken exactly as they are spelled.  It is a real breath of fresh air compared to English.

   Esperanto is taught in some schools as an introductory language.  It teaches language structure (nouns, pronouns, adjectives) without having at the same time to fight non-conforming spellings and pronunciations of a new language.  This builds confidence to learn another language.  Esperanto is especially easy to learn by English speakers at it uses many of the the same root words that English uses, root words that are common to many languages.   Once basic language learning skills are learned with Esperanto it may motivate and build a persons confidence to learn yet another language.  Even if a person chooses not to continue with another language after Esperanto, at least you have learned the one second language to use.