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Esperanto a waste of time? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6556 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 25 of 351 19 January 2007 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Excellent link Ari. I stand corrected. Sweet, I'm on my 6th, so maybe it will get easier for me. On the other hand, after Japanese and Chinese, it's gotta get easier, right?
I'm thinking that just having another language mastered is what gave the Esperanto group the advantage, rather than having Esperanto specifically mastered. For example, if you gave a monoglot (is that a word?) a 2 month head start, would a diglot catch and surpass her? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Aryan Newbie India Joined 5500 days ago 1 posts - 5 votes | Message 26 of 351 09 November 2009 at 3:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I learned Esperanto thirty years ago. I read it, speak it and write in it, I also tried to strengthen the Esperanto
movement in India. By profession I am a medical doctor. Having travelled all around the world, befriended by hundreds of Esperantists in India and abroad, having authored some books in and on Esperanto, I feel I wasted my life. I regret learning Esperanto. If I learned any other natural language like Spanish or Swahili, I could be more useful to my mother tongue Telugu and the world of literature. This is my life-experience. Do you need to know more about why Esperanto is waste of time? Dr Aryan Edited by Rhian on 09 November 2009 at 4:18pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6445 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 27 of 351 09 November 2009 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'd like to know more about Telugu literature. Some questions: 1) Who are your preferred Telugu authors, and why? 2) Are there any Telugu audiobooks? If so, would you name a few? Are they sold online? 3) I realize Esperanto seems to be a sore topic for you, but do you know any Esperanto translations of Telugu literature, which you judge to be good? What about English translations of Telugu literature? 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| FuroraCeltica Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6871 days ago 1187 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 28 of 351 10 November 2009 at 9:45am | IP Logged | |||||
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Esperanto is no more a "waste of time" than any other language. Plenty of people learn Latin, a dead language, but nobody calls that a waste of time. In fact Latin is often held up as a good way to learn about how languages work (declension, grammar etc) as well providing a base for learning Roamnce languages. Esperanto is therefore no more a waste than Latin.
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| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5675 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 29 of 351 10 November 2009 at 10:48am | IP Logged | |||||
Except that if you speak Latin, many people would likely consider you well educated. Whereas if you speak Esperanto, many people would likely consider you a nerd. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5527 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 30 of 351 10 November 2009 at 11:14am | IP Logged | |||||
Exactly. Plus the fact that some of the greatest authors of all time wrote in Latin, whereas material orignially produced in Esperanto is likely to fall short of Cicero or Ovid. (If you only learn one Classical language you should naturally pick Greek, but Latin is not too bad either.) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5844 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 31 of 351 10 November 2009 at 4:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I support it for political reasons.
I want the EU to have it's OWN language that is based on European languages but that is not tied to any national policy or culture and which is a foreign language to everyone, while still having the potential to easily become everyone's second language. I find it incomprehensible that so many Europeans are comfortable using the language of what is gradually turning into a competing world power as our common language... The days of the British Empire and the Cold War are long gone. Just listen to some Europeans trying to speak English (no nationalities mentioned..) and you'll see why English simply doesn't give all EU citizens a fair equal chance -- it's too hard to master for people who are educated in less than ideal circumstances and whose mother tongue is very different from English. However, Esperanto is SUPER EASY and has none of the trip-ups that English is packed with. I do not want to speak English with a Romanian, Greek or Portuguese person just because it happens to be the national language of the United States which has been a superpower for a bit over half a century...! Anyone agree with any of this? Edited by patuco on 11 November 2009 at 12:46am 14 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5915 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 32 of 351 10 November 2009 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Personally, I like English. I don't mind that it's politically connected to some countries more than others (probably because I don't mind those countries). And it seems to me that the EU has gotten on just fine without its very own language. If English is the de facto common language for parts of the world - which it is - then I think we just need to deal, and make the most of it, take advantage of it rather than wish it wasn't so. The fact that I CAN talk to my Greek friends in English in an accomplishment that I have to give credit to English for, and there are numerous other things I would never want to be without in my life that I simply would never have had if not for English. So I'm grateful.
Should English be replaced by another language? Personally I wouldn't mind if the main common language was Italian instead of English, but such is life. Not something I spend time thinking about, to be honest. But I don't think it should be Esperanto - though I'd probably at least consider getting behind it if 1) I thought it would work on a large scale to everyone's benefit without disadvantaging any particular culture or language, and 2) it didn't sound like nails on a chalkboard to me. No offense, just my personal feelings about the sound and look of the language. I guess the question is, is it a big enough problem that English is the language that is used to let people connect and communicate across linguistic borders? I mean, really? 7 persons have voted this message useful |
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