Problem
I thought, I am learning enough languages. It will delay me and I might muddle it up with Spanish.
Answer
It has only 16 rules. It is all logical. It's easy to pronounce. The letters are easy. Just a dot turns an s into a Sh.
At first, I was taken aback that a man is la viro. Why la? Isn't that for women? Then I read the first page on the rules. There's no a. La is the for men and women. Like the British the, it does not change (unlike French with la for female and le for male and a table being female, la table.
I expect after a couple more lessons the la is the will stick and I'll no longer be puzzled to see la for a man.
I love it already.
I must admit I did try learning Esperanto years ago. Then I didn't get on with it. I got discouraged by making mistakes. The nice thing about Duolingo is that you don't have a teacher so nobody knows if you make a mistake. You just keep ticking a different box in the multiple choice questions until you get the answer right. Then the system helps you to remember the right answer by asking you to type it out copying the right answer. Then they check back by reversing the languages.
I am not muddling it up with any other language either.
When I have finished the course I can look for others who can speak or write.
duolingo.com
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, learner and speaker of languages. See my previous post on Zamenhof, inventor of Esperanto. Please share links to your favourite posts.
I thought, I am learning enough languages. It will delay me and I might muddle it up with Spanish.
Answer
It has only 16 rules. It is all logical. It's easy to pronounce. The letters are easy. Just a dot turns an s into a Sh.
At first, I was taken aback that a man is la viro. Why la? Isn't that for women? Then I read the first page on the rules. There's no a. La is the for men and women. Like the British the, it does not change (unlike French with la for female and le for male and a table being female, la table.
I expect after a couple more lessons the la is the will stick and I'll no longer be puzzled to see la for a man.
I love it already.
I must admit I did try learning Esperanto years ago. Then I didn't get on with it. I got discouraged by making mistakes. The nice thing about Duolingo is that you don't have a teacher so nobody knows if you make a mistake. You just keep ticking a different box in the multiple choice questions until you get the answer right. Then the system helps you to remember the right answer by asking you to type it out copying the right answer. Then they check back by reversing the languages.
I am not muddling it up with any other language either.
When I have finished the course I can look for others who can speak or write.
duolingo.com
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, learner and speaker of languages. See my previous post on Zamenhof, inventor of Esperanto. Please share links to your favourite posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment