double the fun

i'm determined to learn a second language. however, my reasons aren't for practicality, or i'd pick up on spanish. i'd really just like to be able to speak, write and think with a different set of words and ideas. i'm looking at german, sanskrit, arabic, esperanto, latin and thai. my problem is that without the means to practice it, i'll never remember it.

i've got all the resources i need to learn sanskrit, and i was actually making progress with deciphering the devanagari (those fancy looking letters that look like a straight line with a bunch of squiggles underneath). i have a thorough sanskrit-english online dictionary and a webpage that goes over grammar. alas, i don't know anyone who speaks sanskrit.

i've found two books in pdf (which are currently on my desktop) that explain esperanto, and it looks promising. it's apparently very easy to learn for english-speaking people, and it has very few rules. the trickiest part is getting used to the pronunciation of letters. (for example - the letter 'j' is pronounced like 'y'; the letter 'c' is pronounced like 'ts'; the letter combination 'sx' is pronounced like 'sh'; etc.) when school's over, i should have enough time to dive in.

i've got a german-english and a latin-english dictionary lying around here somewhere. arabic just sounds awesome, but it's going to be the most challenging from what little i know about how it works. i know even less about thai, but i love the look of the thai alphabet. it's like hawaiian mixed with alien; it just looks so cool.

if anyone wants to do esperanto over the summer, i could hook you up with the books and we could practice it.