Customer Reviews

Beginner's Esperanto (Beginner's (Foreign Language))

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Overall, this book provides lots of great exercises and a lot of information about the Esperanto movement itself. My only criticisms are: (1) The format of the book is a little difficult to read (the publishers use almost no white space to separate one exercise from another, so everything just runs together. This gives it the appearance of not being well organized and certainly not easy on the eyes), and (2) The English translations of the Esperanto texts are word-for-word. This was probably done intentionally, to give the student a literal translation of Esperanto's word-building rules, but it can also make the translations seem stilted and unnatural. However, if you can overlook the less than ideal textual formatting of the book (the publisher's fault, not the author's!) and don't mind literal, word-for-word translations, then you'll certainly benefit from the lessons, readings and detailed information (including addresses) of various organizations in the Esperanto movement.

This book was effectively used in an Esperanto Workshop (credit available)at University of Hartford,CT, a very few years ago. The author was obviously a talented teacher, and his experience at teaching shows in the book. It may not be ideal for the absolute beginner self teaching, but it is not easy to fault. The references and examples interspersed add greatly to understanding the language, its purpose,and its functions. As a college professor emeritus (University Of Connecticut) I have read this book and seen it "in action" although I have not directly used it in my limited teaching of Esperanto. I truly like Conroy's book. (I've been familiar with the language for many years, and have used it a few times outide the United States. )

Studying Esperanto is most enjoyable and a relatively easy language to learn. However, gathering information relating to this international culture was a daunting task until I discovered Beginner's ESPERANTO by J.F. Conroy. It was like finding 'gold'! Not only is it a comprehensive text book, but also an inspirational reference guide into the world of Esperanto. My only criticism is that, while each of the lessons has its own helpful word list, a dictionary at the end of the book would have been extremely useful.

With nothing else to work with, I bought this book and started my studies of this wonderful language. The lessons are easy to read and the vocabulary is eloquently interjected to make remembering easy. With this book, one can pick it up at any time and just read for five minutes. This book also includes questions at the end of each section to quiz you on what you've learned. It's amazing at how you work up a good vocabulary base so quickly. A definate yes if you're trying to learn Esperanto. Even good for younger readers (I'm sixteen and love it!).

This is the best 2nd book on Esperanto to get! The first book should be David Richardson's or the "Teach Yourself Esperanto" one. Conroy's book should be the 2nd one to get because it's more thorough. There are tons of vocabulary lists, readings and exercises in this one, not to mention a complete treatment of the grammar. Whereas you could complete a basic book on Esperanto in a few weeks, this one will take you at least a few months to work through. For someone who wants to learn the language quickly so they can correspond with other Esperantists worldwide, the pace in this book wouldn't be acceptable. Esperanto IS an easy language to learn, but Conroy's book will take you to the next level and then some!

Even though the author may be well versed in this language he is too technical with grammar in the beginning. Reader gets overwhelmed with all the points of grammar. Way too much to absorb at the start. Seems like he wants to IMPRESS the reader
with his knowledge instead of presenting the material in an easy as possible way to absorb it, put it to practical use. He makes my head "swim" in trying to put it all together "right off the bat". Also the word lists are "disjointed". Got to flip back
and forth too much to find them, etc.