Customer Reviews

Esperanto (Teach Yourself) (Revised: 3rd Edition)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Two years ago, while in high school, I formed an Independent Study class with a couple other students to learn Esperanto. It's a relatively esoteric subject for most people, so we were worried we would be unable to find an effective text book. We ultimately decided on Esperanto from the Teach Yourself series, and were pleased beyond our expectations. I was amazed by not only how easy the language is to learn, but by the wonderful format and selection of vocabulary presented by the book. The book does not patronize you with repetitive material, and instead uses every page to pack in more of the language. Complete with wonderful appendicies (and a comprable dictionary), I felt that I learned more from that book than I did from my first three years of formal classes in Spanish. Although I have used a more advanced textbook since, shortly after finishing the TY Esperanto book, I had very little trouble tackling La Hobito (the Hobbit), Genesis, and poetry in Esperanto to test my success and build vocabulary. I fear, if interest fades or not enough materials like this remain available, this wonderful experiment with linguistics will die. Don't be afraid to help Esperanto stay alive, and Teach Yourself Esperanto.

I have personally bought more than ten books from the Teach Yourself Series. This is the most complete and helpful language aid I have ever utilized. True, this is mostly thanks to the nature of the language itself, nevertheless, I have learned from my own experience that a good language book is hard to find, but this one is excellent. It envelopes the entirety of Esperanto grammar, without cramming it into the two hundred pages. Explanations are never ambiguous, and examples are plentiful. I went through the book by myself in two months, later bought a dictionary and some Esperanto language books and am now fluent. I can offer no considerable complaints. I have studied almost twenty languages in my day, and this is probably the best teach yourself aid I have encountered. Five stars.

I learned Esperanto from this book in the 1970s, and still consider it to be one of the very best foreign language textbooks I have ever seen -- for any language. The book includes fun and interesting material throughout to help the reader gain fluency, including magazine ads, travel brochures, and crossword puzzles. If you are interested in learning Esperanto, you can't go wrong by choosing this book.

For those of you who like languages, Esperanto is for you, and this is the book to make you fluent. This book took me from zero to advanced conversation in the course of just two months! The lessons are well composed and full of examples, and the ease of learning Esperanto has encouraged me to tackle harder languages, backed with the grammatical understanding I have gained from studying Esperanto via this book.

Many people spend great amounts of time learning foreign languages that they are unable to use with any practical degree of fluency. That is because ethnic languages are very difficult to learn. Esperanto gives people a bridge to cross the language gap by serving as a neutral language that can be learned much more quickly and thoroughly than the ethnic langages. For English speakers, Teach Yourself Esperanto is the best book in existence for acquiring the international language through self-study.

The book does an exceptional job of introducing the elements of the language step-by-step, and engaging the reader in practical exercises to use what has been learned. No time is wasted on exceptions; there are none. Teach Yourself also maintains focus and omits linguistic comparisons, and because of this, it is perfect for a student who wants to gain practical knowledge rather than parse the language as a curiosity.

TYE also does a good job in presenting Esperanto as it is really used. There are few hotels or restaurants where you will speak Esperanto with the staff, instead the specimen texts trace the friendship of an English Esperanto-speaking family and their Norwegian penpal who eventually comes for a visit. There are also several other articles on other topics which make learning less monotonous.

There are keys to all the exercises, as well as a good practical glossary for beginners. In addition, there are appendices summarizing the correlatives of Esperanto, the common affixes and the 16 fundamental rules. If one criticism is to be made, it is that the book does aim for British students, and is a little bit dated. None of this should stand in the way of a serious student, after all, the language hasn't changed.

Audio tapes are available with it, and they are helpful, but not completely necessary. Mastering the 28 sounds and the handful of diphthongs (vowel combinations), none of which vary in their pronunciation, and internalizing that the stress (accent) is without exception on the second to last vowel, can be done without the audio supplement.

I learned Esperanto in 1994 using TYE. I had only picked the book up just to get an idea of what Esperanto was like linguistically. In time, I was doing all of the exercises and learning the language before I even realized it. Devoting a few hours a week to learning, I was able to have meaningful, fluent conversations in Esperanto in less than 6 months - all without ever consulting a teacher. I've since made contact with Esperanto speakers from around the world and attended conferences in several countries.

If you've failed at learning another language, you'll be surprised by Esperanto.

This was one of only two Esperanto books at my local Borders. I bought both, and loved this one. After merely months I can chat online and read web pages and (simple) books! I bought it without the tapes, which I didn't know existed until several months later, but that's my only regret. The alphabetized word lists in the back serve as a surprisingly helpful (for the size) dictionary until you buy a full one, which I still haven't yet. You can't go wrong with this book! Acxetu gxin! (Buy it!)

I only have great things to say about this book. I'm enrolled in a free Esperanto introductory course, and I just have to say that reading this book alone has helped me get further along than the class! Of course, I can't negate that the class has been at the very least synergistically helpful. I would recommend taking a class to anyone, but even if you do, or if you can't manage that luxury, this book will be just as helpful.

When I learned Esperanto in 1968 from the 2nd edition of this book, I had to buy it in the backstore and under the counter because, like in URSS, the learning was forbidden in Salazar's Portugal. When I received the first issue of the magazine Esperanto I studied the 16 lessons in the afternoon and could read the magazine in the evening from cover to cover by looking only six words in the provided vocabulary, and using extensively the appendix. I already knew plural languages at the time... The appendix of the book is very useful with its table of correlatives (all the familly of words like WHo, THat, SOMEWHere, NObody), the list of 37 affixes that automatically extend your word power tenfold and Zamenhof's summary of the grammar in 16 rules. I have bought the new 1992 edition that now comes with two cassettes and can tell you that the best became even better with the revisions of J.H.Sullivan. Learn it for the pleasure and join the enormous amount of websurfers in Esperanto.

I ordered this book through my local library, because I was interested learning about Esperanto. Once I had it, I realized I would need a permanent copy for myself. I searched everywhere on the internet for it, but because it is out of print the only place I found it was here, on Amazon.com. The price was $30.68, which is outrageous for a book of not even 200 pages. But I paid it, because this book really is priceless!
If you want to learn Esperanto, you need this book.

"Teach Yourself Esperanto" is a classic in the United States Esperanto movement. It goes through elements of the language in a logical progression concentrating each chapter on a theme such as "Family & House," "The Room," and "The Town." It goes on to such advanced and specific areas such as "The Weather Forecast," "Television & Radio," and "Hobbies." In each chapter, more and more of the language is revealed and then hammered home in terms of a text and dialog work.

"Teach Yourself Esperanto" is the most in depth introduction of the language in publication. That is all it concentrates on and because of that it does an exceptionally good job. If you're interested in learning the LANGUAGE, this is the book to buy.