I decided to investigate esperanto a few years ago when I was ill. I couldn’t move much and couldn’t afford classes or tutors so the free esperanto courses on lernu.net seemed like a good idea to give me something to exercise my brain during recovery. It was so easy to learn and communication in esperanto started almost immediately. Now I enjoy regular conversations in esperanto with people around the world. I read books from other cultures that I would never have be able to before. My kids have picked up quite a bit and I don’t even speak esperanto to them. – All for free, in a short span of time, in the comfort of my home. What other language could give me that?
I wish I had learned esperanto in school; I firmly believe it would have increased my ability to learn other languages. I learned French for years and took an immersion course as well but I cannot speak it or write it past the basic level. Interestingly, learning Esperanto seems to have re-awaken those latent French lessons and I have noticed that my understanding of written French has improved significantly in the last year or two.