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Esperanto a waste of time? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6902 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 17 of 351 02 January 2007 at 1:15am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Perhaps "heart-rending" then, which has that exact literal meaning. Or does it feel too old-fashioned ? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6776 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 18 of 351 02 January 2007 at 4:25am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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One place you can actually put your Esperanto to use if you have any is at the Int'l Academy of Science in San Marino. Apparently it's a university with all classes taught in Esperanto. Student theses are written in Esperanto plus the student's native language. Link
As an odd side-note, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev is a faculty member. Edited by Captain Haddock on 02 January 2007 at 4:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| T0dd Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6557 days ago 17 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: French | Message 19 of 351 02 January 2007 at 8:59am | IP Logged | ||||||||
You'll find that there is a definite kooky fringe within the Esperanto movement itself. Since you're already familiar with English and French, you can expect to pick up the Esperanto vocabulary fairly quickly. One thing that slows down language learning is memorization of details that have no semantic payoff, such as grammatical gender. Irregular plurals and verb forms also take extra time to learn. The learner of English must memorize a large number of idiomatic phrasal verbs. Then there are rules that apply only some of the time, etc. In English, your skin can redden, your hair can whiten, but nothing can ever greenen, yellowen, or brownen. In Esperanto you can use one form with all the colors, and anything else. I would never claim that Esperanto is "easy," because learning a new language is never easy. You still have to learn to express yourself in that language. But the thing that makes learning the first non-native language difficult is the tendency to try to translate straight from one's native language. Once this habit is broken, language learning gets easier. I would say that if you're already past this barrier, then an hour a day of study would get you to the point of being able to engage in simple but meaningful conversation within a couple of months, especially if you get some audio material and/or go to that Esperanto house for conversational practice. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6558 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 20 of 351 17 January 2007 at 3:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Other than helping you improve you learning techniques, or learning the occasional aspect that "crosses over" to another language, I'm not sure this is true. I haven't experienced it. But there are many other good reasons to learn esperanto. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| T0dd Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6557 days ago 17 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: French | Message 21 of 351 18 January 2007 at 9:11am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Personally, I think the *first* new language that one achieves real competence in is the one that helps to break through that psychological barrier that many people have. I don't think it matters if it's Esperanto. The only advantage to Esperanto, for this purpose, is that one can get to that level faster.
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| tujiko Senior Member United States Joined 6541 days ago 140 posts - 144 votes Speaks: English* | Message 22 of 351 18 January 2007 at 9:18am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Agreed. What matters is that one reaches that "hey, it's possible" level in at least one. From there, if one chooses, other languages are possible. But reaching a conversational level in at least one language first is a very good idea.
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| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6558 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 23 of 351 18 January 2007 at 11:59am | IP Logged | ||||||||
That sounds right. The reason I bring it up is that someone used this argument, or a variation of it, to try to convince me to learn Esperanto. This was after I already knew several languages fairly well. But I will learn Esperanto eventually - I like the whole community thing they have going on. Question - on the average how many languages do Esperantists speak? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6590 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 24 of 351 18 January 2007 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
This thread begs to differ. I'm especially interested in this:
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