There is a small amount of lee way in Esperanto because the language should be universal. Esperanto does not have a glottal stop.

Each letter of the Esperanto alphabet has a fixed pronunciation, very little influenced by adjacent letters.

http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/eo/colloq/colloq010.html

I struggle a bit with these types of words, so I say sit at the beginning but I try to soften the i sound as much as possible so that it flows nicely.

Scias --> sit-see-ass

Scienco --> sit-see-en-tso

There is a small amount of lee way in Esperanto because the language should be universal. Esperanto does not have a glottal stop.

Each letter of the Esperanto alphabet has a fixed pronunciation, very little influenced by adjacent letters.

http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/eo/colloq/colloq010.html

I struggle a bit with these types of words, so I say sit at the beginning but I try to soften the i sound as much as possible so that it flows nicely.

Scias --> sit-see-ass

Scienco --> sit-see-en-tso

In terms of two vowels beside each other, they should both make a distinct sound. Every vowel represents a syllable. No glottal stop is required. Just like you would say sa-lu-ton, you would also say sci-en-co