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Why learn Esperanto? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
| Z.J.J Senior Member China Joined 5612 days ago 243 posts - 305 votes  Speaks: Mandarin* | Message 105 of 140 19 August 2009 at 12:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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In fact, Esperanto has at least one critical defect, it looks every inch an unnatural human-made mechanical language. There's no native speakers of Esperanto in the world, none of the countries makes it an official or accepted language, only a few language fans are willing to learn it as target language out of interest. Perhaps Esperanto would be the most useless language which is considered easier to get started for Eastern Europeans. No offence!
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| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 6034 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 106 of 140 19 August 2009 at 12:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm studying Yiddish, it's not the official language of anywhere. It's said to be declining and not useful to anyone. Also for many years it has been said to be an ugly, broken language that is unable communicate human experience.
Some things are true about a language and some things are purely opinion. I'm learning Yiddish as well as Esperanto because I feel passion towards them both. Also I've got a use for them both. That should be enough of a reason for anyone. People have a hard time accepting it when people have values that do not conform to their own. I'm not sorry to those who can't cope with different value systems. Learn what you want! The 2 factors are an objective usefulness, and subjective passion...nobody can take either of those away from you. Peace! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6443 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 107 of 140 19 August 2009 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | ||
I'd better tell 4 people that I know that they don't exist - they're native Esperanto speakers, after all; two of them must really, really not exist, as they're third-generation speakers. George Soros and the Polgar sisters must not exist either - they natively speak Esperanto too, as do perhaps a couple of thousand other people. Esperanto is not an official language of any country; neither are the vast majority of the world's languages. Frankly: so? As for whether it looks unnatural, I suppose that's a matter of taste, and debating taste never goes anywhere. Esperanto has been the most useful language I've spent time learning, simply for the sheer amount of fun and new experiences I've had because I've learned it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6015 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 108 of 140 19 August 2009 at 3:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Z.J.J.
Did you really need to reopen a two-year-old thread to say this? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Z.J.J Senior Member China Joined 5612 days ago 243 posts - 305 votes Speaks: Mandarin* | Message 109 of 140 19 August 2009 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Would you please allow me to explain? I feel that, Yiddish is still useful (not much though) for Jews society, and it has over 3 million speakers all over the world, and there's some prestige attached to it, though Hebrew is recognized as the most important language by Israelis, and some ancient languages, which are almost close to extinction, at least, not widely spoken or used any more, still have a lot of potential prestige, for example, Latin is useful for Catholicism, culture and history of Roman Empire. Koine Greek is for New Testament and resplendence of Ancient Greece. Sanskrit is for Buddhism and anything about Ancient India. Also, Classical Chinese is for similar things. This kind of "dead languages" wouldn't really die out someday, mainly because they're still prestigious and literary languages, while on the whole Esperanto seems inferior by comparison with above languages, and it's neither spoken as a useful one as international languages such as French, German, Spanish, Russian (or even Swahili and Pushtu), nor has it as any influential prestige as Latin, Koine Greek, Sanskrit, or Classical Chinese. Please forgive me if I say anything wrong. Peace!
Edited by Z.J.J on 19 August 2009 at 3:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 6034 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 110 of 140 19 August 2009 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for explaining your opinion Z.J.J. I don't think that languages really work like that.
Even if there is only one speaker of a language left in the world...it is still important to them. This you can't understand if you operate on the "mob" mentality of language learning. Which mean you learn it because it has heaps of speakers and because other people say it is worth learning. Every language has it's worth and if even one useful conversation comes from it then it has served it's purpose. Esperanto has certainly lived up to this and more. I'm not some kind of raving Esperanto nut, I was in a similar mindset as Mr. Farber not too long ago, but I feel that unfair criticism are unfair in general, regardless of which language is being criticized. You haven't done anything wrong Z.J.J, so don't feel bad about anything. We are simply trying to share some pieces of wisdom with you. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5589 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 112 of 140 21 August 2009 at 5:03am | IP Logged | ||
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Everyone should just learn Esperanto before a foreign language :P since it's universal. I love the language, I wish materials were more widespread. Mastering a language in a year or less (which is what many Esperantists claim) is very attractive to me :D
The language flows very well, and hopefully the people that study it are fluent. (like continuous speech, not I.............have...........a............etc. I support Esperanto all the way :) Its a great confidence builder in learning a language, and its another notch on my language belt. Besides, I accept the values and principles of Esperanto, and I'm sure the people that speak it are very similar to myself :) Edited by datsunking1 on 21 August 2009 at 5:04am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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