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Does international language work? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5590 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 1 of 91 12 January 2010 at 3:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello everyone. I would like to discuss WHY an international (well universal :P) secondary language hasn't caught on? Languages such as Ido, Interlingua, and Esperanto have a promising and great idea behind them, but why haven't they "caught on" so to speak? Personally, if it was a big enough group that spoke it and I could use it in business, I would gladly do so. I've been wondering why people aren't leaning towards an easier method of speaking for business and communication between nations.
P.S. A friend from Rio De Janeiro told me that Esperanto is BIG in Brazil! Can anyone confirm this? :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Halie Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6115 days ago 80 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 2 of 91 12 January 2010 at 4:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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English functions as an international language.
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| genini1 Senior Member United States Joined 5473 days ago 114 posts - 161 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 3 of 91 12 January 2010 at 7:18am | IP Logged | |||||
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It's a catch-22, not enough people speak it to make it worth the time to learn it for most people.
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| John Smith Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6047 days ago 396 posts - 542 votes Speaks: English*, Czech*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 4 of 91 12 January 2010 at 11:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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Because languages like esperanto are not really neutral. They are often based on the creator's native language. I doubt a Japanese or a Chinese person would find Esperanto as being more neutral than say French. What we really need is a language that isn't based on any known language dead or alive.
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| mpete16 Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 5527 days ago 98 posts - 114 votes Speaks: Tagalog, English* Studies: German | Message 5 of 91 12 January 2010 at 1:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
Zamenhof tried to make Esperanto as neutral as possible. He did a pretty good job at that. He also made it as easy to learn as possible for people from all four corners of the globe. We could add the 4 tones to Esperanto, making it more neutral for the Chinese, at the expense of making it ridiculously harder for everyone else. An international language should be easy to learn, otherwise, who would put the effort into learning it? English is the exception to that rule though. What we really need is a language that is easier to learn for everybody. I'm sure the Chinese will find Esperanto much easier than French anyway. Edited by mpete16 on 12 January 2010 at 1:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6475 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 6 of 91 12 January 2010 at 1:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Does an international language work? Yes. Visit Esperanto meet-ups, visit Esperanto families and you will see that Esperanto can fulfill all functions that French or any other language can fulfill, and it fulfills them just as well. It can be used for literature, music, movies, scientific exchanges, jokes and everyday talk, for loving and for breaking up, for being sad and for comforting, for being angry and screaming and for cheering.
There are many reasons why it hasn't found more wide-spread use yet. For example: - the vast majority of people haven't heard of it yet - some hear of it but don't have the means of learning it - many could learn it but won't until it is more wide-spread - Esperanto speakers have faced (and sometimes still do) persecution in a variety of countries in the past 100 years - it is of great economic interest to countries such as the USA, the UK, France, Germany etc. that their language be used internationally, so they have in the past prevented the spread of Esperanto, e. g. refusing a resolution to have Esperanto taught in schools worldwide despite scientists arguing clearly in favour. Smaller countries and non-European countries tended to favour these resolutions, e. g. Finland, Bulgaria, China, Japan... I believe that going from zero speakers to 500,000-2,000,000 speakers (depending on who you believe) within little more than a hundred years is a commendable achievement that many smaller languages would be happy to see. However, it is clearly short of the goal, and to achieve the goal Esperanto will need the support of a big player. Lately, Google has taken the role, and the media are reporting more and more about Esperanto as well. Still, people are reluctant to adopt a new idea before it's mainstream. The ones who work for Esperanto now are driven by goodwill and hope and the conviction that Esperanto is the best currently-available and viable solution.
Indeed, Brazil, along with Japan, Iran, Bulgaria and Cuba, has one of the biggest concentrations of Esperanto speakers. What's more, the movement is very active there, so even Brazilians who don't speak Esperanto will have heard of it. Here in Western Europe there are lots of Esperanto speakers but you wouldn't know because they don't go out and do stuff, just use the language for their private enjoyment. 8 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Aquila Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5486 days ago 104 posts - 128 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: French | Message 7 of 91 12 January 2010 at 2:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Does Esperanto as an international language work? You should read this:
http://www.2-2.se/
Esperanto is not completely neutral. The vocabulary for example is mainly based on Romanic/Germanic languages. But it’s in any case much more neutral then the languages we use now. Esperanto is meant as second language and it’s therefore more fair to use in international situations. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5526 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 8 of 91 12 January 2010 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
Where does this obsession with "neutrality" come from? In the past, it has proved completely irrelevant. Latin, Greek, Persian, Mandarin, Akkadian, English, French have all been universal languages, and they are all very, very far from being neutral. Ease of learning may perhaps be an advantage, but it hasn't prevented the above languages from gaining lingua franca status. I would say that neutrality and simplicity are almost completely irrelevant, the only things that matter are utility and force. Is it useful or even required to learn it, then people will. Otherwise they simply won't, no matter how easy or neutral or lovely the language is. 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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