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My English teacher really hates Esperanto | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 940 days ago 266 posts - 28 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese | Message 1 of 193 01 November 2007 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Today my English teacher talked about linguistics because it passionates her. She have a doctorate in linguistics so she probably knows what she is talking about. She then talked about languages that were dying all over the world and she said it was sad. I commented about Esperanto and her reaction was this answer in an angry voice: "I really hope this language dies". She said it is not a language, simply a university experiment. I said many books and movies were translated in the language and she said there was absolutely no cultural background related to the language and nobody speaks it in their daily life as a mean of communication.
She was really angry and said Esperanto was a "poor excuse" to try to attenuate the differences between cultures; she said creating a "fake" language was not the way to go. I wish I could go into more details but I do not remember everything she said exactly. I only remember how angry she was when I mentionned Esperanto, and she clearly mentionned it is not a language. When I said it was easier to learn than English, she said something around the lines of "Maybe it is for you. Good for you". I did not knew some people disliked Esperanto that much! | |||
| Volte Triglot Pro Member Switzerland Joined 1037 days ago 2909 posts - 167 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, Esperanto Studies: Latin, German, Japanese, Polish Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 193 01 November 2007 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's amazing how people can have knee-jerk, extremely emotional reactions on the strangest topics, and quite something to experience first-hand, as you've seen. I think that there's a strong correlation between how a community is seen (ie, as proselytizing too much) and people who have this kind of reaction; the two things seem to feed into each other. Regardless, Esperanto strikes me as fitting this paradigm quite well.
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| alang Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 1819 days ago 167 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Esperanto | Message 3 of 193 01 November 2007 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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I had a similar experience. My English teacher said Esperanto is totally useless. I asked why? The response was it is mainly European and it tries to be a world language. What I notice is if one is passionate about something, then a passionate dislike also occurs. Some forum members really like Esperanto and some really dislike it. It just has more of an impression when it is live and in front of your face. | |||
| masoris Diglot Groupie Korea, South Joined 888 days ago 48 posts Speaks: Korean*, English Studies: Esperanto, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 193 01 November 2007 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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I worried about your English teacher say Hangul is not a writing system. Because it is constructed and invented without relating any other writing system.
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| remush Tetraglot Groupie Belgium remush.beRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 866 days ago 62 posts Speaks: French*, Esperanto, English, Dutch Studies: German, Polish | Message 5 of 193 01 November 2007 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's better to avoid the subject with your teacher. She probably had an unhappy love affair with an Esperantist during her last holidays.
I see you are studying Mandarin. You can read about that (and Esperanto) on the site of Claude Piron: http://claudepiron.free.fr/articles.htm Le chinois: idées reçues et réalité and a few more, like: Psychological Reactions to Esperanto | |||
| masoris Diglot Groupie Korea, South Joined 888 days ago 48 posts Speaks: Korean*, English Studies: Esperanto, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 193 01 November 2007 at 6:06pm | IP Logged | ||
What your teacher said could be true. It is totally useless to get a job and to earn money, so many people said Esperanto is useless. | |||
| Chung Diglot Pro Member Joined 1754 days ago 1215 posts - 121 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Finnish Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 193 01 November 2007 at 10:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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While I don't hate Esperanto, I have no great love for it nor do I get carried away by it. In a certain way it reminds me of the purpose of creoles since Zamenhof designed Esperanto as way for people of different backgrounds to communicate with a common language. In my view it's even better for cross-cultural understanding when each of us learn the native language of each other. For example, I think that it makes more sense for me to learn Polish, so that I could speak with my Polish friend who speaks only rudimentary English, than it is for both of us to learn Esperanto of which neither of us are native speakers.
However, Esperanto looks like it's here to stay and I think that the teacher's reaction was excessive. I'm also a little surprised by the description of her reaction since most people who study linguistics (especially those with doctorates) are usually trained to be descriptivists and aren't hasty in passing judgement on what constitutes a "bad" or "good" language. | |||
| remush Tetraglot Groupie Belgium remush.beRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 866 days ago 62 posts Speaks: French*, Esperanto, English, Dutch Studies: German, Polish | Message 8 of 193 02 November 2007 at 7:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I know a few mixed couples who function perfectly well in Esperanto and who after years of trying did not succeed in having the partner speaking Polish.
My evaluation is that Polish is 20 times more difficult than Esperanto, so it is certainly better to learn Polish with your friend while you have her/him to correct you. You are probably not aiming at efficiency in your spoken relation. And of course, as Esperanto is relatively easy to learn, you'll have the opportunity to learn it later if you are really forced to. There is no better reason never to start :-)
Edited by remush on 02 November 2007 at 7:32am |
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