I remember when I was in about Grade 8, I read in a passage from my English class about the language called Esperanto, a man-made language that some linguists invented in hope of a better communication tool for the world. Back in the days it used to be a debatable idea. But shortly after, such debates were completely gone. They were cleared out by the fact that English as a global language is doing convincingly well. There is, at least in my opinion, no need and no place for this language to be used. The reason is pretty simple: popular languages such as English and French are commonly learned because there are real people in some (in fact, lots of) corners of the world that live in these languages. Learning such languages would open yourself a window into their thinking, cultures, lifestyles, and much more. If you learn a language that no community actually speaks, you lose the opportunity of stretching and educating your mindset while learning a language.
Today I got an email fron Lingq, the language-learning community that I'm subscribed to, announcing they've launched Esperanto as the newest language available in their resource pool. Below is a message I posted on the "wall" of Lingq on Facebook:
Hi Steve and fellow Lingq users, I was surprised about the launch of Esperanto. I've always believed it's way more meaningful to learn languages that are "alive" - the ones spoken by real people and used to communicate news, ideas, knowledge and cultures. In fact I am curious how many people today have interest in learning Esperanto when we have tons of real languages to choose from. And quite honestly, I doubt if it's a good idea to do so. I personally would never invest my time learning this artificial language, nor do I recommend anyone I know to do so. No offence to anyone, just wanted to share my two cents. Thanks. -- Rony
I know that you are sincere, but Esperanto is as alive as Chinese, English, German and so on. It even has native speakers - something that was not planned. I use it to "communicate news, ideas, knowledge and cultures" - and you copuld too.
ReplyDeleteBe careful not to exaggerate how widely English is used. I've been lost in Bulgaria, and failed to find an English speaker. Try looking for an English speaker in rural Spain.
I'm all for the learning of languages, but a truth needs to be faced. Learn Spanish and you’re at a loss In Germany, learn French and you’re illiterate in Russia, learn Japanese and you can’t ask for an ice cream in Portugal. So which language should we be learning? I would respectfully suggest that you take a look at Esperanto, a relatively new language which is easy to learn and use.
It continues to attract young speakers, and we'll hear a lot more about it next year, the 125th anniversary of the language.
Bondezirojn! Good wishes!
Your assertion that Esperanto is not a "living language" sounds amusing when one considers the thriving and vibrant Esperantist culture around the world. I have to wonder if your post is what has become known as "trolling". If that was your intention, it worked.
ReplyDeleteTwo points that Bill Chapman's comment left out are about the neutrality of Esperanto; whenever one learns a national languaguage they are always at a dis-advantage to the native speaker ;and the having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too effect of Esperanto's relative ease of learning while still being as eloquently expressive as the difficult-to-learn national languages typically are.
Anyway, thanks for the post and getting us talking about it. Dankon(thanks)