[Esperanto] Esperanto Encounter

[Tomisimo]

[SPX]

That was interesting.

Has anyone here ever actually tried to learn Esperanto or at least considered it?

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by SPX

That was interesting.

Has anyone here ever actually tried to learn Esperanto or at least considered it?

Yes. I subscribed to a few Esperanto-only publications for a few years in the late 1980's and early 1990's. I eventually moved on to other interests.

[SPX]

Oh, wow. So you knew the language well enough to actually read it?

What do you think is going to happen with Esperanto? Will it just die out or do you think there will always be a remnant of people who will preserve it?

I think the concept is interesting, though it seems obvious at this point that English is the true "international language" and that the world will eventually have a single common language.

Regarding the latter, I don't see how it could be any other way. I read earlier today that 11% of the Japanese vocabulary are English loan words. I think that as the world becomes more and more globalized that all languages will intermingle to the point of becoming one super-language. It's not going to happen tomorrow obviously, but within 500 years I think considerable steps in that direction will have been taken.

[wrholt]

As I already knew English and Spanish, and had studied French, German, Japanese and Arabic for a few months each before I started "learning" Esperanto, I found Esperanto very easy to read. However, it does use some roots from languages that I am not already familiar with, so I do have to use a dictionary some of the time when context doesn't give me a clue about the meaning of a particular root.

I'm not certain about the future of Esperanto; there is a dedicated core who enjoy working with it, and the premise that (almost) who knows it has learned it as a second language so that no one has a native-speaker advantage is charming. However, these features are also its major weakness. It has, at the most, perhaps 2 million people who have learned it at some point, compared to Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, Russian, French, Hindi/Urdu, Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali, Persian, Japanese, Punjabi, and German having at least 100 million first and second language speakers. I think that it would take a very remarkable change in the world situation for Esperanto to become the worldwide lingua franca for most purposes.

[SPX]

Pretty interesting.

Were you ever able to actually speak it conversationally? I've heard something about how there is a network of people who know the language and that if you're a traveler then you're automatically welcomed into their home if you also speak it. Maybe you can elaborate on that.

[Caballero]

Anyone that knows Spanish and a little bit of English (or vice versa), should be able to understand most things written in Esperanto without too much dificulty. The "Essentialist definition" of Esperanto would be something like: Essentially, Esperanto is primarily a Romance pidgin with some words arbitrarily borrowed from English, and to a lesser extent German and Russian.

And 11% of Japanese vocabulary borrowed from English is a very miniscule amount.

[wrholt]

I never practiced speaking it enough to converse comfortably.

And yes, there is a network of Esperantists who are happy to at least socialize with foreign Esperantists who are visiting. I know some people who have travelled to Esperantist conventions in other countries, and I think I'd enjoy attending one. However, I have other interests that I am more passionate about that demand the little bit of vacation time that isn't already claimed by family visits and our annual end-of-summer week on Cape Cod.

[SPX]

Originally Posted by Caballero

And 11% of Japanese vocabulary borrowed from English is a very miniscule amount.

I can't say I agree with that.

How much of the Japanese vocabulary 200 years ago was borrowed from English. Probably very close to 0%. And now it's over 10% of the entire language? That actually seems like very rapid growth to me and 10% seems like a huge chunk.

Originally Posted by wrholt

I never practiced speaking it enough to converse comfortably.

And yes, there is a network of Esperantists who are happy to at least socialize with foreign Esperantists who are visiting. I know some people who have travelled to Esperantist conventions in other countries, and I think I'd enjoy attending one. However, I have other interests that I am more passionate about that demand the little bit of vacation time that isn't already claimed by family visits and our annual end-of-summer week on Cape Cod.

I hear you.

But I have been researching it quite a bit today and after I get a handle on Spanish I could see myself maybe investing some time on the side as a hobby to try to learn it. I think I like the idea of it being this little niche thing that has it's own small, but vibrant, community.

In case anyone is interested in playing around with Esperanto, I found this downloadable course (and you can even interact with a tutor, it looks like):

http://www.kurso.com.br/index.php?en

I think I'm going to try it out. I'm pretty intrigued.

[SPX]

In case anyone's interested, I just finished the Esperanto course I mentioned above.

It's interesting stuff. I was able to get through it in about 16 days, but I can't say it was easy. There are some concepts which are pretty confusing and foreign, and I will definitely have to go back and study some things more thoroughly to really have it down.

But I do think the idea behind Esperanto is compelling and I'm encouraged by the very active and vibrant community that surrounds the language. I'm going to keep pursuing it and march toward becoming truly conversational, if not fluent.

If anyone else is also interested, let me know. It would be nice to have someone to discuss the subject with.