|
 |
Why Esperanto | ||
Tags: Esperanto | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
| Felixelus Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6842 days ago 237 posts - 244 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 33 19 March 2006 at 4:35pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Just wondered why you should learn Esperanto?
I've heard it'll make my study of French easier but I'm torn! Should I spend my month long holiday learning Esperanto or continuing my french studies? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7209 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 2 of 33 19 March 2006 at 6:12pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I spent probably 3 weeks of a holiday learning Esperanto and made a good bit of progress for such a short period of time. Having said that, my goal is to have advanced fluency in Spanish. That time could have been better spent on Spanish in my case. But, if I was just starting my Spanish studies, I think it would have been worthwhile to learn how to learn a language with Esperanto. Even a highly regular language like Esperanto probably would take an English speaker who's learning his/her first language 6 months of disciplined to aquire advanced fluency. But knowing that Spanish (or French) may take 2-4 years to aquire advanced fluency, putting 6 months in at the beginning to help other studies in the end seems a reasonable investment, assumming you find the ideas behind Esperanto appealing and would want to learn it even if you weren't going to study another language.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Felixelus Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6842 days ago 237 posts - 244 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 33 19 March 2006 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | ||
|
So did you feel better after studying Esperanto? Was learning Spanish easier?
I'm a very practical person and although I like the sound of Esperanto I cant help but feel I should be studying my French as it's more probable that I will use it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7209 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 4 of 33 19 March 2006 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | ||
|
The FSI says knowing a second language begins to help in 3rd language acquisition when the 2nd language is known at an advanced level (FSI/ACTFL 3). I'm not at that point in either language, therefore I shouldn't expect Esperanto to help my Spanish, although my Spanish did help Esperanto because of the Latin roots in both languages.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6872 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 5 of 33 20 March 2006 at 2:59am | IP Logged | ||
|
I am a supporter of Esperanto, and I encourage people to learn it if they are considering it. That said, I'm not sure it helped me in my Spanish very much, in fact there were times when I confused the languages, although I suspect that at the time I didn't know either very well.
Esperanto was one of the first languages I studied, for the purpose of learning other languages. Praticality wasn't much of any issue with me, somewhat to the dismay of my parents and friends when I told them my plan of attack. However, I do think it's valid...it's well known that it can introduce people to concepts that might not exist in their native language, and it introduces them in a totally regular context. For me English is my native language; the concept of case was rather foreign to me, no pun intended (in nouns are only declined in the accusative, as "-n" words, 'Donu al mi la libron' Give me the book). Ironically, I've found that learning other languages has actually helped me learn Esperanto better, or at least certain features in it. My advice: If practicality is your goal, stick with your target language. However, if you are willing to go off the beaten path a bit and learn something that has a somewhat unique spin to it (as Esperanto, in my opinion, certainly does have a very unique and subtle quality all its own), I do not think Esperanto would be a waste of your time. Those are my genuine feelings. I should also add I don't yet speak Esperanto fluently. It's a goal of mine, but first I need to learn a couple of others. However, I stand by what I said, because you don't need to know a L2 to perfection to have it help you with L3. Edited by Journeyer on 20 March 2006 at 3:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7108 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 6 of 33 20 March 2006 at 12:52pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm sure that's true, in fact I feel you can even receive a discount on your 3rd language even if your 2nd isn't advanced yet. For instance learning the French endings to some verbs was much easier for me because I knew Spanish's conjugations. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rkunz Diglot Senior Member United States learnthatlanguagenow Joined 6829 days ago 103 posts - 101 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 7 of 33 20 March 2006 at 4:33pm | IP Logged | ||
If you are trying to learn French, you should study French. In my opinion, studying a language in order to learn a different language is not a good use of time. That being said, I think it makes most sense to continue studying French and not Esperanto. I started studying some Esperanto, too, around the time I was first beginning my studies of Spanish. It's true that the vocabulary is similar... but I found that after studying Esperanto for a short while and then not coming back to it while I moved on in Spanish, I quickly forgot nearly everything about Esperanto. So, unless you think you are going to study Esperanto to an advanced level in the future, it does not make sense to study it. And even if you do want to study Esperanto, I would suggest waiting until after you've reached a high level in French before switching over. Studying Esperanto for a month will mean that you get a good grounding in Esperanto but unless you upkeep it, you will soon forget it, especially as you focus on French thereafter. I'm pretty sure your time will be best spent studying your actual target language (French) since this will be the grammar and vocabulary that you will be using in the future. From personal experience, I wish I had spent the time I put into Esperanto on Spanish since Spanish is really the language I wanted. Hope that helps you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7019 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 33 20 March 2006 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I agree entirely with rkunz. I can only see learning Esperanto useful if you had never learned ANY Romance language and wanted a "taster" as to what lay ahead. If you've already started your French studies, then stick to that. Edited by patuco on 20 March 2006 at 5:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
