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Esperanto a waste of time? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5527 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes  Speaks: Swedish* | Message 345 of 351 27 November 2010 at 12:49am | IP Logged | ||
Well, regularization of morphology has been going on for considerably longer than Esperanto's been around. Still, this is not what I'm talking about. I'm assuming that countless expressions and set phrases have appeared in Esperanto, that can not be explained by a short set of rules, but are rather based on analogies from real life. This phenomenon can never be captured by grammar alone, it makes really learning a language, as opposed to knowing morphology, syntax and vocabulary (any computer could learn that), harder. It also makes it interesting but from an Esperantists point of view it must be seen as a failure, since it considerably weakens Esperanto's case. Even if you got rid of the irregularities of English morphology and spelling, really knowing English would still demand a tremendous effort. When it comes to natural languages, grammar is the easy part, usage will take forever. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Enriquee Triglot Groupie United States esperantofre.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5341 days ago 51 posts - 125 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Esperanto, English | Message 346 of 351 27 November 2010 at 3:55am | IP Logged | ||
Maybe the chance to "encounter Esperanto" is low ... but it is much higher than you think. Were you to pass me by, on any street, or public place, you wouldn't know that I speak Esperanto. If you stop me and ask for a street or a place, I will try to answer as best as I could, but I am not going to tell you "I also speak Esperanto". This could have already happened to you, but of course, you couldn't know. There are many other ways to "meet Esperanto". I teach Esperanto by email to people that send a request to me. During the last two years I received 300 requests each year, almost one request each day. How did they find me? Some of them tell me ... - They were looking for some kind of information in the web. One of the answers came in Esperanto. They didn't know what it was, and rejected this page, same as they would reject a page written in Chinese, Greek, Navajo, or Quechua. After several times of getting that kind of answer they get curious and search to see what it is, and finally they start to look for Esperanto, and some of them write to me. - Reading materials about any subject they could find the word Esperanto on the text. -Some science fiction books mention Esperanto. -Known writer Isabel Allende in a couple of her books, tells that her grandmother spoke Esperanto. -In today's politics (USA) some people speak against George Soros, and mention that he spoke Esperanto from birth. When he was a teenager, he went to an Esperanto Convention, leaving Hungary and a good chance to loose his life in Nazi hands. Some of these critics said that Soros wants the whole world to speak Esperanto. The sad reality is that he is not interested in Esperanto, even if Esperanto saved his life. -The 3 women best qualified in world chess, are the Polgar sisters who learned Esperanto from birth. -Lately the word Esperanto had appeared many times in newspapers ... not always within a context that I would appreciate. -In the list of books recommended by Oprah, appeared the book: "A Curable Romantic" by Joseph Skibell. The main plot of this 600-page book, is about Esperanto, (Not the best period of Esperanto) -There is a documental film presented to small audiences, and not too often, called "Utopia in Four Movements". There are 4 independent parts. The longer one is about Esperanto. -"Homebody/Kabul" by Tony Kushner, was presented in many theaters about 5 years ago. Esperanto plays an important part in its plot. -There are Esperanto meetings around the world all the time. If you happen to pass by, or stay in a hotel where there is an Esperanto convention, more likely you will find about that. -Some universities have Esperanto courses. If you take a summer course in San Diego University at La Jolla, California, it is very likely that you would meet some of the participants in campus or in the cafeteria. -Now that you are aware ... you are going to find Esperanto somewhere ... not necessarily in one of the situations that I have described. -You may find yourself reading my web page "Resources to learn and use Esperanto" at http://esperantofre.com/edu/iloj01a.htm which has more than 400 links. This page also exist in Esperanto and Spanish. You don't have to learn Esperanto. It looks like Esperanto is not for you. Best wishes Enrique 11 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6556 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 347 of 351 27 November 2010 at 4:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Cool post Enriquee. Thanks.
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| Aquila Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5487 days ago 104 posts - 128 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: French | Message 348 of 351 30 November 2010 at 6:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Isn't this one of the longest discussions on this forum? Edited by Aquila on 30 November 2010 at 6:09pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Slacker Diglot Pro Member United States Joined 5459 days ago 62 posts - 99 votes Speaks: Spanish, English Studies: German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic (classical) Personal Language Map | Message 350 of 351 24 October 2011 at 2:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Lets stop talking and start doing.
Step one - Would one of you out there who is artistically inclined, preferably with a female voice, perform an unplugged version of "Desperado" in Esperanto? Step two - forward the beta tracks to me for post-production, and initial marketing/publicity. Step three - TDB... but its gonna ROCK! -Slacker 1 person has voted this message useful |
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