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Why learn Esperanto? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6474 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 25 of 140 14 August 2007 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Others have said Esperanto sounds like Chinese mixed with Italian and spoken by a Pole. ;-)
I believe that as long as Esperanto doesn't sound like any one language, it's okay. Particularly since the alternative, using mostly unique sounds, would be incredibly hard for everybody to learn to pronounce. Same as for the vocabulary by the way. Certainly the most neutral language would either use randomly generated word roots (though no generator is truly language-independent) or the same amount of word roots from each human language (which would come out to about 2 roots per language). This may be the most neutral approach, but it would make learning the language really hard for everybody. Zamenhof chose maintaining easiness over going all-out for absolute neutrality. Edited by Sprachprofi on 14 August 2007 at 12:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7185 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 26 of 140 14 August 2007 at 1:43pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Some questions for those speaking Esperanto.
1) What will the future of the language be? Do you see it becoming more popular? Why? 2) What's this about other people letting you stay in their houses if you speak Esperanto? Does this often happen? 3) Esperanto was created to be an easy neutral language but it is Eurocentric. Should we try to build an even easier language with a world feel to it? Would this be even better for the good of the world? Many people might well say well Esperanto is already established compared to other constucted languages but if we took this argument to its logical conclusion then nobody would choose to even learn Esperanto, instead prefering more popular natural languages. 4) Can you tell us other people's reactions to you when you tell them you speak Esperanto. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6573 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 27 of 140 14 August 2007 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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To me Esperanto sounds like Italian spoken by a Russian with an extremely bad accent.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6601 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 28 of 140 14 August 2007 at 2:35pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Edited by Serpent on 14 August 2007 at 2:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| awake Senior Member United States Joined 6640 days ago 406 posts - 438 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Spanish | Message 29 of 140 14 August 2007 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Yes. I think it is becoming more popular. The primary reason for this is the spread of the Internet. That makes international communication more accessible to everyone, so a language designed to facilitate that is bound to catch people's interest. Also, the Internet now makes available a lot of free resources for people interested in learning Esperanto. It's never been easier to learn, and it's never been more useful. I think it is growing and becoming more popular. Also, things like podcasts and streaming audio are making it even more accessible than it ever has been before.
You're referring to Esperanto's "Pasporta Servo (Passport Service)" Basically, many esperanto speakers agree to host other esperanto speakers in their home for free. If you join the service (which is free if you agree to become a host yourself), you get a list of everyone that's agreed to be a host. There are hosts in most major cities, and many smaller ones as well. The advantage of using the service is obviously financial, you save on hotel costs. But also, you get to visit a city and be shown around by someone who lives there, someone who knows all the cool hidden things that tourists would never know about (like that great out of the way restaurant, or the quaint museum out in the boondocks, or whatever). Plus it's a chance to make new friends all over the world. And yes, it does get used because it's such a fantastic deal. I've even known people to use it for travel within their own country (to different cities).
The problem is that natural languages are not suitable for the purpose of a general language for international communication. They say that English is the defacto international language, but that's greatly exaggerated. Plus, national languages aren't neutral. Do you think you could get a majority of the French to agree to learn English as the international language? Or a majority of the Americans or British to master French? Maybe, but I think a neutral language like Esperanto has a much better shot. And of the Easy to learn, neutral languages, Esperanto has a huge community of users and enthusiasts, a huge body of literature, established associations, groups and clubs spread throughout the world, and over 100 years of growing and proving itself. Maybe you could invent a better language than Esperanto (many have tried and failed to reach success in getting their attempts widely adopted), but would it be so much better to be worth throwing out Esperanto's other advantages? I doubt it. It would be like throwing out the baby with the bath water.
I don't usually bring it up. But sometimes someone will see an Esperanto book I'm reading and ask what it is. When I do tell people about Esperanto, the response is usually positive (they think it sounds really cool - they ask me how to say things in Esperanto, etc...) or politely neutral (sort of an indifferent, "oh that's a nice hobby" kind of response). I've had one person tell me it was a waste of time, but in general people's reactions have been positive. I've even convinced a couple of people to take it up and learn it themselves. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| karuna Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6338 days ago 47 posts - 46 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 30 of 140 14 August 2007 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I looked at Esperanto grammar introduction on Wikipedia and it looked very euro-centric, extremely regular, and sometimes not very logical. It has the definite article la, and practically the only explanation is given that it is similar to the English "the". I am still struggling with the article use in English and I have read several grammar books about article use but so far no has satisfactorily explained what makes the object definite. The example mi trovis botelon kaj deprenis la fermilon" is simply a copy of English sentence I found a bottle and took off the lid.
Perhaps, the articles in English is something very subtle and one simply has to learn by experience. I haven't succeeded so far. But it is not good that Esperanto borrows mysterious features that even cannot be easily explained by native speakers. It looks that the creator of Esperanto had not understood how sophisticated are the articles. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| LilleOSC Senior Member United States lille.theoffside.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6695 days ago 545 posts - 546 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 31 of 140 14 August 2007 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I don't much about Esperanto grammar, but I would becareful with Wikipedia. People do post false information there. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| karuna Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6338 days ago 47 posts - 46 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 32 of 140 14 August 2007 at 7:47pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Wikipedia might be faulty but the article is the first of the sixteen rules. Sorry, but it is not my idea of an easy language. I find Japanese grammar much simpler and easier to understand. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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