A couple years ago, I sat down to check out Esperanto the same way that any of us programming language nerds check out another programming language.<p>Polyglot Benny Lewis recommends that if you don't know any foreign language, the best place to start is Esperanto, because it's so easy. See <a href="https://www.fluentin3months.com/2-weeks-of-esperanto/" rel="nofollow">https://www.fluentin3months.com/2-weeks-of-esperanto/</a><p>I intended to give it about an hour, one Sunday, so I sat down in my chair at 4pm, and went to the most recommended tutorial:<p><a href="https://lernu.net/" rel="nofollow">https://lernu.net/</a><p>I had so many “whoa!” and “wow!” and “this is amazing!” moments while checking it out that I didn't get out of my chair until almost midnight. I didn't even notice the house had grown dark around me.<p>It's a really fun, simple, easy language to learn. I ended up learning it for six months to a conversational level. I found someone fluent in <a href="https://www.italki.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.italki.com/</a> and we talked by Skype for three hours per week. I used Anki flashcards to memorize vocabulary. I slowly read a few books in Esperanto.<p>After six months, I attended the international Esperanto conference in Seoul, Korea, and spoke only Esperanto for a few days. I was glad I was doing it, and somewhat glad I did it, but in hindsight maybe should have used that time to learn Mandarin or another language where I can communicate with people that don't speak English.<p>Still, I miss it. Esperanto is wonderfully designed. I highly recommend anyone curious go to <a href="https://lernu.net/" rel="nofollow">https://lernu.net/</a> and work their way through the course there, even if that's all you do.