Learning Esperanto

Hey, a friend and I are looking at learning Esperanto, we're both Australians if that matters.

We want to learn conversational Esperanto so sometimes we can speak to each other without others understanding what we're saying.  How long does Esperanto take to learn? How long does conversational take to achieve? Any advice for us to learn it? What are some good resources for learning?

We would like to learn it as quickly as possible.

It's pretty easy to learn, you can pick it up really fast, especially if you speak a Romance language already (imo), but really, knowing any European language will be of use to you (incl. English of course). If you already have a good grasp of how various languages work, then understanding Eo will come easily, it would just be learning the vocabulary. Many Eo words are made by combining prefixes, suffixes, and root words so there isn't a whole lot to learn.

Use lernu.net to help you out, they have a little dictionary you can use. it took me a few months to get to a good conversational/reading level, and that was while I was teaching it to myself in a very lazy manner. it also helps to switch to the Esperanto pages of wikipedia pages while you browse. They dont have alot of info but it'll help you learn vocab.

esperanto is a ngiger