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Why learn Esperanto? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6362 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 1 of 140 11 August 2007 at 4:36am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I guess this may have been asked before, but could Esperantists please elaborate.
Other than being easy, what advantages does Esperanto offer? Esperanto has about 2 million speakers, Hebrew about 4 million native speakers. If I have time to learn either, I would choose Hebrew with no compunctions. The main reason is that compared to any living language Esperanto sounds bland and artificial. It just sounds wrong to me. But I have to admit the prospect of learning a language in 3 months sounds intriguing. If you went through the experience, please share why you did it, and if you have any insights in retrospect. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6263 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 2 of 140 11 August 2007 at 5:48am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I don't think you can compare Esperanto to Hebrew or any language group like that. Yes, Esperanto has comparatively few speakers (though there has never been a census and so the numbers cited range very widely between 100,000 and 10 million; most say a few million). However, the speakers are spread throughout the world. It's an advantage and a disadvantage: there is no country where you can be sure that the majority of people will understand you if you speak Esperanto (Brazil would probably come closest), but on the other hand you can find Esperanto speakers anywhere and they are ready to accept you into their homes and show you places regular tourists won't see, just because you speak Esperanto. Other languages lack this spirit of community, because speaking another language is (for the native speakers and a lot of non-native speakers) just a matter of upbringing, not one of personal choice. Wherever you want to travel, if you speak Esperanto you can look up the local Esperanto speakers, talk to them and meet them, maybe get to stay for free at their homes but at least have people who will gladly share with you their culture - and interpret for you and make sure you get local prices if you don't speak the local language.
If you want to visit Israel, learn Hebrew. If you want to visit Japan, learn Japanese. If you want to visit Brazil, learn Brazilian Portuguese. If you want to visit West Africa, learn a few dozen local languages. However, if you are interested in more than just one foreign country's culture, if you want to experience lots of cultures, Esperanto provides easy access. Even if you can't actually travel lots (though knowing Esperanto makes traveling cheaper), Esperanto organizations regularly organize international meetings. Every day of the year there is an Esperanto event somewhere, not counting clubs, and there is nothing that equals them in their celebration of diversity. For example the Internacia Seminario is an 7-day Esperanto New Year's party for youths taking place in a different German city every year. Even though it's always in Germany (unlike the biggest Esperanto arrangements, that switch country every year) and most of the participants are students, who traditionally don't have much money to spend on traveling to far-away countries, there are always more than 50 nations present, from all continents. Part of the appeal of Esperanto for me is also that, since it's a personal choice to learn it, the people who learn it usually have some things in common: open-mindedness, thinking independently, high level of interest in other cultures, interest in languages... So you're more likely to find interesting people in a crowd of Esperanto speakers than in a random crowd. Also, when meeting Esperanto speakers, there's a good chance you can practice not just Esperanto, but also any and all languages you're learning. At Esperanto events there's usually a special area called "Alligatorejo" where people must not speak Esperanto and must not speak their native language; it's a lot of fun. If you are rather afraid when it comes to actually speaking a language you've been learning with native speakers, you will appreciate that Esperanto puts everybody on the same level: everybody has had to learn it, so there's no need to be afraid, nobody can look down on you for making a mistake, provided they even notice it. This also mixes into the notion of neutrality (that Esperanto doesn't belong to any country or any religion), which the creator of Esperanto held very high because he was born in a city where Russians, Germans, Polish and Jews each tried to force their language on each other as a way of dominating each other. Nowadays I believe it has become less relevant to our lives, only some conflict parties like Israelis and Arabs or maybe French and English Canadians might prefer a neutral language to speaking the language of the other, even if they speak the language fluently. Actually, Esperanto organizations will organize an Israeli-Arab 'peace conference' shortly, where ordinary people from both sides can meet, talk and learn about each other. As for the sound of Esperanto: that's a matter of taste. I think Esperanto doesn't sound bad, but others have told me that they really like the sound and yet others do not like it. But there are quite a few poets writing in Esperanto and bands making music of all genres in Esperanto - have a look at this thread with Esperanto links, I posted some sites there where you can sample Esperanto music and literature. In the same thread I also reviewed a lot of free courses and there are a few links to further replies about Esperanto, including a very interesting article by polyglot Claude Piron. I originally learned Esperanto because I was fascinated by the speed and ease with which you can learn it. I was 14 and I thought that if it's really that easy to learn I could just do so without investing much effort, bring myself one step closer to my goal of speaking all language, and if it wasn't that easy I'd just leave it and wouldn't have wasted any effort. However, I must warn you that learning Esperanto can be addicting, the way you can just whiz past everything is an immense feeling of success. Right now I have come to like Esperanto for more than just the ease. For example also the expressiveness: due to the affix system, you can express a lot of things in Esperanto that you wouldn't be able to express that way in any other language. This really adds to the feeling of the language being *your* language and enables people to become fluent very quickly. I also like the way Esperanto organizations are quite ready to subvention or pay your travel costs to international youth conferences ;-) I travelled to Lithuania last month, will travel to Sweden this month and Spain next month all because of Esperanto, and I could have taken part in an Arabic or Russian immersion language course this summer, too, so I'm definitely biased towards Esperanto. A lot of people don't like that Esperanto speakers tend to recommend and defend Esperanto very strongly; they don't realize that these are not missionaries but extremely satisfied 'customers'. Edited by Sprachprofi on 11 August 2007 at 5:58am 10 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6229 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 140 11 August 2007 at 7:36am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Sprachprofi, just one question.
How long did it take you to learn Esperanto? I'm just wondering which language I should "nail down" after I've done with German which will take just reading more books now. My options are either Esperanto, Mandarin or Italian. Now, I've heard that one of the reasons for learning Esperanto is to help you learn other foreign languages. How true is this statement? Is the difference really visible? Personally, I'm interested in Esperanto because it is a noble cause to bring more peace and harmony into this world, and I want to contribute to this movement. It is probably the most "noble" language on my hit list. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6263 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 4 of 140 11 August 2007 at 9:37am | IP Logged | ||||||||
At that time I wasn't member of any language-learning forums and didn't know much about learning techniques or language learning logs, so I can't tell the time period exactly, however I did a ten-lesson e-mail course and finished each lesson within 2 weeks, not studying hard either, so that would add up to finishing the entire thing in less than 5 months. The course, which was offered for free by the German Esperanto Youth, actually leads you very far in your knowledge of the language. For example, one text in the last lesson is a page-long non-fictional text about Esperanto organizations, conferences, congresses, Pasporta Servo and other services such as could appear on Wikipedia. Most of the lessons featured a continuous story between a boy and a girl though. One disadvantage of the course was that it didn't contain any recordings (Lernu didn't exist yet), but when my tutor invited me to a weekend meeting in Berlin, I was able to understand spoken Esperanto right away and by the end of the first evening I was speaking it without many pauses too. The participants of the first ever Esperanto congress, who all learned Esperanto just from books, had similar experiences. Ever since then I have just been practicing my Esperanto by using it, e. g. in chats, voice chats, by reading, at meetings and now also with my boyfriend. I should warn you that the chance you'll fall in love with a foreigner is really high if you speak Esperanto...
According to experiments, Esperanto is similarly useful as Latin in this respect, and considerably easier to learn. For example an English Canadian school had two classes: one would learn French for 3 years and one would learn Esperanto for 1 year and then French for 2 years. After that time, the pupils in the second class spoke French at least as well as the pupils in the first class. Esperanto helps you learn other foreign languages in the following ways: - you will be able to recognize words when learning Romance and Germanic languages - your understanding of grammar will improve; for people who don't know any foreign language yet it would actually make sense to first learn about grammar in a language with few rules and no exceptions, because it's less confusing and easier to understand, even if e. g. the Accusative case or noun-adjective agreement were kept. After that they would find it easier to learn a language with similar rules which applies them only in a haphazard manner. - your understanding of logic and of how languages work will improve; the affix system and liberal word combination system broaden your horizon. Esperanto will both force you to look at the heart of things (e. g. if you don't know the word for 'glasses' you could refer to them as 'vidilo' = seeing-tool), and to open your mind to the possibility of new words. For example: 'vidinda' - seeing-worthy = [German: sehenswert]; 'forregali' - away-give_gifts = to make somebody leave you by giving inappropriate gifts; 'malsekvi' - opposite of follow = go in the opposite direction than indicated The beautiful thing is that when you know Esperanto, you don't have to learn these words, your mind will spontaneously create them (or a poet may create them for his works) and they will still be understood by others. I don't know any other language that allows you to do that, especially if you only know it as a foreign language. It feels liberating. Your mind can be truly creative, ignoring the boundaries normally set by those who say what's acceptable in a language and what isn't. In Esperanto, if the meaning of a word you create is understandable, it's right and nobody can tell you "we don't use feature X this way".
Yes, this is very wide-spread in the Esperanto movement (though the Raumists are content to just use the language and create culture in it). The idea that the world would be a more peaceful place if everybody could communicate with everybody else is definitely not limited to the Esperanto movement either, though it did inspire Zamenhof. Let me finish this post with a few lines of Dolcxamar (very popular Esperanto band) and my own bad translation of them; I think you may like them: Al kreanto evoluu - evolve, become a creator Efektivigu vian revon - realise your dream Universon vi konstruu - create a universe Al homar' donu celon - give a goal to humanity Ni bezonas junajn idealistojn - We need young idealists Kiuj donu fajreron al popoloj - who shall give a spark to peoples Idealistoj neniam maljuniĝos - idealists will never grow old P.S. there's a good book examining Esperanto called "Esperanto: A Language for the Global Village". It's by Sylvan Zaft (quote: "Esperanto is an artificial language just like a car is an artificial horse") and you can read it online at http://members.aol.com/sylvanz/gvcont.htm. It looks at various interesting issues, such as how English compares to Esperanto as a language of international communication, how natural Esperanto is, how good it is for literature, whether a yet easier language wouldn't be better, the Raumist movement and so on. Btw, Esperanto translations of literature are usually done by a native speaker of the *source* language, ensuring that every tiny nuance and every cultural reference is understood. Edited by Sprachprofi on 11 August 2007 at 12:58pm 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| LilleOSC Senior Member United States lille.theoffside.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6484 days ago 545 posts - 546 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 5 of 140 11 August 2007 at 10:50am | IP Logged | ||||||||
What Esperanto audio were you listening to? The first time I heard Esperanto, I was surprised with its natural and distinct sound. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tmesis Senior Member Mayotte Joined 6441 days ago 154 posts - 146 votes Speaks: English* | Message 6 of 140 11 August 2007 at 11:04am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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- Edited by tmesis on 17 February 2008 at 2:36pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 6974 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 7 of 140 11 August 2007 at 12:37pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Oh dear I think i'm going to learn Esperanto...
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| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6362 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 8 of 140 11 August 2007 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Sprachprofi, the example of Hebrew was in fact to point out that I would choose a natural language with a very limited scope over Esperanto. But your post is great, I'd probably read all of this like on Wikipedia for example, but it makes a whole lot of difference when a personal spin is put on it. I guess you hit the nail right on the head, Esperanto can't and should not be compared to natural languages. Its basic nature and definition makes any such comparison futile. I can see the appeal, and can appreciate it. I do, however, think many people (not me) would see much of the appeal as "cultish" and be turned off by it. I guess as you said it takes a certain kind of open minded person to do this.
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