Has anyone here ever tried learning Esperanto to help in their language studies?

[dfrecore]

Not that I entirely disagree, but Esperanto can be learned very quickly compared to other languages, which I assume is what the basis of the springboard argument is. In a study, students that spent a year studying Esperanto and three years studying French were more proficient than students who studied no Esperanto and studied four years of French.

I'd be curious for my situation. I've studied Spanish on and off, but let's say it's 1 year of Spanish. I'm not sure if I would be better off studying Esperanto for a year and Spanish for 2 years, in terms of Spanish skills. (I think I'd be better off studying Spanish for 3 years.) But at least I'd know Esperanto.

If you kept with it, learning Esperanto can be a great advantage. But it's slightly harder to study and keep interested in, IMO, because it's not like there are many Esperanto resources. You can watch movies & TV shows in Spanish, you can read newspapers and books in Spanish, but you can't really find these things in Esperanto.

Let's not forget that depending on where you live, you might also hear, read, and have the opportunity to speak Spanish on a daily basis.  I live in the San Diego area, I hear Spanish every single day that I leave the house.  All of our school forms have English on the front and Spanish on the back.  I don't even know what Esperanto is.