Step by Step in Esperanto

Live mentally in Esperanto-land. Think in Esperanto. Write your note-books, your diary, your accounts, in Esperanto. Practise conversation with yourself—not necessarily aloud! Ask yourself questions and answer them. Describe to yourself what you see as you walk along the street. Translate mentally the Sunday sermon, the shop advertisement, the newspaper article. If no Esperantist Mend is available, make one. Practise on the baby, the cat, the dog. Make speeches to the looking-glass. (Incidentally, this is a cure for the “blues”.)

If you make a regular and sustained effort—and if you have enough humility and uncommon sense to learn the language as it is, instead of guessing what it might be, and to refrain from suggesting improvements till you have learned it (and discover that the points you once criticized in your ignorance are just those which stamp Esperanto as the creation of a genius)—then your progress will be speedy and certain.

Take every opportunity of hearing and speaking the language. In the Group meeting join those more advanced than yourself, avoiding the hangers-on who, by persistently talking English, never get beyond “Bonan tagon! How are you?”, and waste your time as well as their own. If possible, attend an Esperanto Congress, and converse by preference with those who do not know English. You will soon find yourself talking Esperanto easily and naturally.

Esperanto is one of the most beautiful languages on earth. But even Esperanto may sound hideous if murdered. The standard of some Esperantists is deplorably low, and they seem content to have it so. Even propagandists have been known whose errors make a sensitive listener shudder. You owe it to the language and to yourself to aim higher than this. Esperanto is worthy of your best efforts, your enthusiasm, your affection. Treat it with at least the same respect as that which you would give to any other living language. If the height of your ambition is to write picture-postcards which are ungrammatical and only half-intelligible, you would do Esperanto and also your puzzled correspondents a service by leaving it alone. (This, however, is not intended to discourage correspondence at even an early stage, if supervised.)

It does not follow that because you speak fluently you speak well. Never imagine that you have no more to learn. No, not even when you have passed an examination.[114]

Join your national Esperanto association, and thus support the movement, and keep in touch. Wear the Esperanto star. When you are proficient, correspond with Esperantists in other lands. Join (or found) the local Esperanto group.

Form a class among your friends. If you are able to teach and keep a class, you will be a valuable gain to the movement. But teaching is an art, and a poor teacher can quickly kill any class. In the United States and Canada, you can call upon the AATE for assistance in teaching methods and choosing appropriate textbooks.

Summary of the Esperanto Grammar (See also paragraph 1108 )

Pronunciation

(No silent letters)

VOWELS: A, E, I, O, U, sound in Are there three or two?

CONSONANTS: As in English, but C = ts; Ĉ = ch; G=hard g in go; Ĝ=soft g in George; Ĥ = ch in loch; J = y; Ĵ = s in pleasure; Ŝ = sh.

DIPHTHONGS: EJ, AŬ, AJ, OJ, sound in Stay now, my boy.

ACCENT: on the last vowel but one.

Structure

Most words are formed from a root (e.g., am, kat) plus a grammatical ending. The root may be modified by one or more affixes.

NOUNS end in O. Amo, love; kato, a cat.

ADJECTIVES end in A. Ama, of love, loving; kata, feline, cattish.

PLURALS end in J. Ama vorto, a loving word; amaj vortoj (pr. ah-my vor-toy), loving words.

ADVERBS end in E. Ame, lovingly; kate, in a cat-like manner.

COMPARISON: Pli, more; plej, most. Pli ame, more lovingly; plej ame, most lovingly.

INFINITIVE: I. Ami, to love.

IMPERATIVE: U. Amu! love!

PAST TENSE: IS. Mi amis, I loved.

PRESENT TENSE: AS. Mi amas, I love.

FUTURE TENSE: OS. Mi amos, I shall love.

CONDITIONAL: US. Mi amus, I should love.

PREPOSITIONS govern the nominative. Li, he; al li, to him.

THE DIRECT OBJECT of the verb ends in N. Mi amas lin, I love him; li amas min, he loves me. The ending N may replace an omitted preposition. Mi iras tieN (or mi iras AL tie), I am going thither (=to there).