 Hi guys, EvilDeer here. So this isn't a funny story or anything like that. This is more a life tutorial, I guess. Now a lot of people ask me for instance how I became fluent in Esperanto, a language which is obviously not spoken by any particular nation. And it's not always by Esperanto speakers. It's also by people who just want to learn any language in general. And I could say it comes down to a few basic rules, but instead of doing that I'll just give you a rundown of what I did to become fluent at speaking the language. Now it was I think it was probably a lot of just reputation really, just reputation, just lots over and over and over. So when I first started studying the language I started learning by Learnu.net, which is a Big Esperanto learning website. I would do courses. I would learn vocabulary during these courses and basically just repeat it over and over and over. And that got me to a basic level. So once I'd learned a couple of hundred words of vocabulary, stuff like that, just doing these little mini courses. I went to my first Esperanto meeting and when I was there, even though I could speak quite well, I guess, for like I was just above Comenzanto, which is like a beginner, I realized that I could speak it quite well, but I couldn't really understand it. Like people were responding in Esperanto and I was hearing individual words and like 30 seconds after they set up, I'd be like, oh, that's what it meant. So that was the point where I realized that I really really need to focus on the listening side. Like speaking is easy with a language. Well, not easy, but it's easier than listening, funnily enough. So what I did from there, and by the way, a lot of people would say, well, that doesn't sound right, listening's always been easier. Later on, listening becomes easier than speaking. It's kind of a weird thing. So at first, you'll have all this vocabulary and you'll be able to say lots of different things and people respond and you won't have a clue what they're saying. But then later on down the track, it'll get to the point where you understand everything you're hearing, but your vocabulary still needs to expand more. So it kind of overtakes one after the other. So yeah, at that point, I went to my first little Esperanto meeting. I practiced the language and then I came back and I went, okay, so I really need to focus on my listening side. Now, a lot of people at this point would say, go listen to radio, go to YouTube, stuff like that. There's something that I really liked and it's quite different to everyone else. Is I would look up sentences in a book. Like say, for instance, I was reading this Esperanto book and I'd go, well, that's an interesting phrase. That's an interesting way of saying something or even, oh, so that's how you're meant to use that verb. And then I would record myself saying that and then I'd put in like a six second break and then I'll record another line and put in a six second break and I'd keep doing that for all these different things. So like 20 different things. And then when I was even walking to work or driving to work, depending on what time it was, I would listen to those and I'd hear it and then I'd try and say it back in English before I heard my English version of myself. That way I became more acquainted with the language. Now that worked for a fair bit and obviously you can't record like everything. So then I got to the point where I was listening to music because I just love listening to music. So that helped me a lot because I'd have to look up weird like words and sentence structures and stuff like that. So at that point I was probably about a middle, you know, like a mezz parolanto. So like a mid-level like speaker type of thing. And that was probably about six months into my study with Esperanto with like a national language. It's probably going to take you like four years if you really focus on it to get to this point. Now, so yeah, I was at that point. And then after that I noticed that I got better at hearing but my speaking wasn't that good, especially the things that are not natural for an English speaker like the accusative case, which is just a grammar form in Esperanto and certain things like the plural, which is works differently to English. So what I did there is I actually because I know how to program, I started programming little like games and stuff that would have sentences in it and then randomly swap in and out nouns and adjectives and verbs and stuff. And then it would prompt me saying how would you say the cat chases the dog or the dog was bitten by the rat, you know, they wouldn't make sense, but it would force me to focus on learning the grammar side of things. And I believe that's how I really got the accusative case down pat, which is a real big hurdle for English speakers. So I did that a lot, especially with the accusative case. So I made like, I don't know, I must have made tons of mini little games and I also went and found little games and I'd play them. I had flashcards and stuff like digital ones, like Memorize and stuff like that, I think it's called, but I really found those boring. They just didn't work for me. At that point I was also going to more regular Esperanto meetings, so I got to hear the language more. But the next point where I guess I made the next hurdle in learning the language was when I was forced to start using it. Now when I say I was forced, this is where I was at the point where I was in the Australian Esperanto Association. It was probably about a year into my study. And I was actually having to use this language to communicate with other people, so I was forced to respond to people who were sending me emails to email other people. So I was forced to look up words that I previously just didn't need. So I'd look up these words and I'd use them and I'd have to use that word again next time and I'd maybe look it up or maybe I'd just remember it. So I just kept learning that way, so it became more forced. After that, it got to the point where I, with a group of others, launched Esperanto TV. And again I had to start conversing with actually people from foreign language backgrounds and they were using Esperanto to communicate with me. So I'd start to see send instructions and stuff I hadn't seen before, which helped me learn more. Now another thing I kind of realized when I was practicing and learning all this, it gets to the point where you understand and you can speak certain topics. But there'll be certain topics which you just don't need in Esperanto, you don't use, but one day you may need that word or whatever it is, but you want to learn that stuff. Let's say talking about cooking or something, it's not something I'd need in Esperanto. Or for instance, at that point I could talk to you in international politics about pretty much anything, but if you wanted to discuss basic cooking and stuff like cleaning the house, I wouldn't have a clue how to do it because I just never needed to learn those words. So I started then walking around the house randomly just talking to myself in Esperanto and whenever I had a point where I didn't know the word, I would pull out this little dictionary that I had and I'd look up the word and then I'd practice that word. And I'd do that quite a bit. And then after that it got to the point where you become quite proficient at the language so you can speak it, you can understand it in multiple different contexts. But the true point when you actually learn a language is when you start to teach it to others. So when I started to teach it to others, there were certain things I'd learnt and I'd based on habit, but I didn't know why it worked that way. So when I had to teach it, I had to learn why in case anyone actually asked me. So I was teaching others and through teaching others I was learning myself. And that's pretty much up to the point where I am now. So when people, this is another thing, people will say Esperanto is the easiest language in the world, which hands down is definitely true. But easiest language in the world doesn't mean easy language. It's still hard to learn a language, even one like Esperanto. So I've been speaking it now probably for four years now. No, probably more than that, maybe like five years. I can't remember, I can't keep track of these things. But yeah, so I'm at the point now where I can pretty much converse about anything I want and maybe every now and then I'll hit a hurdle and just be like, and then I'll just think of something and I'll say that and it'll work for me. So even though this is the easiest language in the world, I'd say it probably still took me two years, maybe three years to get truly proficient in it to the point where I consider myself fluent. Even now there's still words I'd learn and like little grammar things will be like, oh that's a pretty cool way of doing it. So if you're learning a language like Chinese or something like French or German, just think about that what I've told you, but just scale it like 10 times more, maybe more than that. It's the same rules, it's the same thing. So just follow those steps and you'll be fine. And I'm the master of this stuff. I've made mistakes along the way I learned. But yeah, that's pretty much how I learned it. Now, as I said, this is kind of like a how-to based on my life. So there's probably multiple ways out there of how to do it. And I'd love to hear from my Esperanto viewers how you guys learned the language, what you did. Like I know some of you probably came from a time when there was no computers. Like so yeah, just tell me how you learned it. I'm always fascinated in those types of things. If you ever have a desire to learn a language just contact me and I can point you in the right direction. Anyway, so that's pretty much it for this video. It was just kind of like a little, you know, face-to-face type chat even though I'm in front of the camera. So yeah, if you like this video just share it around with your friends, subscribe, whatever. Yeah, that's pretty much it from me. So yeah, I hope to see you in the next video. I won't threaten you at the end of this one like I do all the others because this is just me being friendly and everything. So yeah, I hope to see you in the next video. Have a great day.