Saluton!

I made the decision about a year and a half ago to start learning Esperanto. I wasn't 
a very serious student, really just using Duolingo for a year straight. Fortunately, 
Esperanto was designed to be (and is) extremely easy to learn.

So, I read and write one language: English. This is pretty typical among most US 
citizens, I think. There is definite utility in learning more languages but to be 
honest I think people here just don't really... need to. Our nearest neighbors who 
speak another language, Mexico, is about it as far as other people to communicate 
with. There's the whole "global culture" thing and the fact that a lot of Candians 
speak French, but it's not like in Europe where you can drive an hour and be in a 
completely different culture and embedded in a group of people who speak so 
differently. So I understand why people here basically just speak English.

But now, with our phones, the interent being everywhere, and all the good things that 
come with our modern technology... learning is free. If you're interested, there's 
no reason NOT to learn something. This idea really attracted me to trying to learn 
another language - because I can, it'll be good for me, and it's pretty cool. But 
then I ran into issues. Which one to learn? My sister teaches Spanish, my brother has 
his degree in French... those are the two obvious choices. German would be next but 
my family has no relation to Germany, and it just didn't "do it" for me. Then, if I 
tried to learn anything more complicated, what good would it do? If I don't run into 
a language often, I'll probably forget it. Plus I have no experience in this realm - 
this will be a big challenge for me.

So, Esperanto. Designed to be easy for beginners. Rules with no exceptions. Few 
native speakers. Designed to be used globally.

I have a realistic mind-set, I think. I know it's a "made up" language that nobody 
uses. I don't expect this will be the most useful thing I can learn. But it's a 
stepping stone for me. Something challenging, but doable, to introduce me to foreign 
languages. And having almost no native speakers means basically everyone who knows 
Esperanto has chosen to learn it. The communities online are extremely welcoming, 
because everyone has been in a similar situation. That idea alone is pretty freeing 
to me. It's really a language of students, in the real meaning of the word.

So I spent a year (casually) trying. Even just doing that, I feel good about my 
skills. I can read alright, and can usually get most of my sentences written just 
fine (translating mostly to find words I had forgotten or never learned). I'm not an 
expert and I probably can't speak it at all. But I'm really proud and happy with 
where I am.