My name is Scott and I speak Esperanto. You can, too! Esperanto is a great introduction to foreign languages, and has a fun and welcoming community behind it.

What is Esperanto?

Esperanto is a planned (or constructed) language, invented about 130 years ago by an eye doctor, Dr. Ludwig Zamenhof, in what is modern-day Poland (then a part of Russia). Zamenhof was Jewish, and looked around: People were divided by language! Russians and Poles, Jews and Christians, and they all had their own language that separated them, because learning languages is hard.

Zamenhof had this idea of an easy-to-learn common language that would bridge the cultures. People would finally talk to each other, and understand that we're all one people! We'd have an unstoppable movement of world peace!

Zamenhof totally failed. Well, at least with the World Peace thing. Since then, we had a War to End All Wars, and then a Second World War. Esperanto was condemned during those times as a tool of spies, and many Esperanto-speakers were killed, including many members of Zamenhof's family. However, Zamenhof's language has persisted! The Internet has given the language new life, and allowed disparate Esperanto communities the ability to communicate like never before.

While it's failed at bringing world peace, it has some great things going for it:

1. Esperanto is somewhat simple. Some people say that Esperanto is "Easy to learn!" I disagree, somewhat. I don't think learning any language is easy. However, Esperanto is EASIER to learn than most other languages, because it has some really smart tools built-in. More on that in another lesson.
2. Learning one (simple) language wires your brain to learn other languages. Once someone learns their first foreign language, the brain becomes more flexible at learning subsequent languages. If you learn a simpler language like Esperanto, future languages will be easier to learn.
3. You can escape your language bubble! As an American, speaking mostly just English, I was in a bubble. I've found that learning a language opened up the world of new ideas and new friendships worldwide.
4. Esperanto has an interesting culture behind it. Esperanto was not intended to become a first language of anyone, and only meant to be a secondary tool for communication across cultures. That being said, Esperanto has developed a bit of its own culture, with original works of literature, music, film, and art.
5. Esperanto has some great resources for learning! There are many fine communities for learning Esperanto. Some of the best I know are:
   
   a. Esperanto Duolingo - One of the best Duolingos to get you up to speed in a language. This one is curated by actual teachers and expert grammarians in the Esperanto. You can learn Esperanto from English or Spanish! The associated Facebook group is very supportive for filling in the gaps.
    
   b. Lernu.net - This old grand-daddy of the Internet has been around as long as I remember. It's got so many lessons, and forums, and resources - in every language! I keep going back to it year after year, and I keep finding new stuff.

If you want to jump ahead with your studies, please feel free to explore the links above! Or you can join me in translating the Steem applications to Esperanto! We're needing translators and reviewers, so that Esperanto can be added to the Steem applications, and thus Steem can be spread to new communities.