Esperanto is a neutral international language created by L L Zamenhof in the end of the 19th century. After more than a century since its inception, Esperanto is now spoken by hundreds of thousands - in fact, probably millions - of people all over the world. Today the objective of Esperanto is the same as always: to become the one foreign language everybody studies and learns.
While no foreign language is easy to master, Esperanto was intentionally designed to be as easy to learn as possible. Its grammar is concise and highly regular (no need to memorize verb conjugations), and its basic vocabulary consists of two thousand words or so - tens of thousands of words are formed with regular endings and other similar devices. You should be able to put Esperanto in use several times faster than any national language like French or Russian.
You can learn the basics of Esperanto on the Internet with a personal tutor free of charge. The Free Esperanto Course consists of ten lessons with exercises. You study the lessons by yourself, do the exercises and send them to your tutor by email. Your tutor checks your exercises and answers your questions. In the end you will receive a diploma.
You can sign up any time by following this link:
Free Esperanto courses are available on the Net in several languages. I am aware of these:
If you have already participated in the Free Esperanto Course or know the basics of the language, you may want to take the advanced email course. Its name is ``Gerda malaperis,'' and it is taught in Esperanto.
Here are the Frequently Asked Questions for the students.