My apologies, semi-sub. I am truly unaware of any active Esperantists; in fact, I've never met one anywhere, ever, despite spending four-and-a-half years in college, plus some part-time graduate school. Are these surviving Esperantists actually active somewhere outside the ivory tower of academe?

I took enough Latin in high school to recognize that the word Esperanto would mean something related to hope. Well, I'd hate to discourage anyone from keeping hope alive (any hope), but I think English ~ US English ~ has already won the battle for international-language status.

I'd study Irish or Yiddish before taking up Esperanto. They may be "dead languages" (or almost-dead), but at least they both have interesting and worthwhile literary traditions.