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Explaining Esperanto to Nesamideanoj

de BlackOtaku, 2011-oktobro-29

Mesaĝoj: 80

Lingvo: English

BlackOtaku (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 00:11:14

So, it would seem that I have not yet gotten bored with 'that one language that's the first option on all my Linux LiveCDs', so I figured this is a question I ought to ask now. okulumo.gif

How on earth do I explain Esperanto to other people that makes it sound worthy of respect and doesn't just boil down to the uninitiated as "So some Polish guy made an easier Spanish?" When people see me reading one of my books and ask me about Esperanto, I usually try to just say 'a language', but as you all can probably guess, that doesn't satisfy their curiosity, and I eventually have to just come out and admit that it's a "fake language". Citing that two million speaker statistic after saying "A guy made it" seems less like a saving throw that communicates that it is worth respecting and more like trivia clumsily tossed in a desperate attempt to justify why I'm learning it at that point. Heck, this is probably the only thing I've ever decided to do where my father seriously just doesn't get it at all (or will at least admit it openly).

How do you all explain Esperanto to the people in your life? How do people usually react to the idea of it?

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 00:25:33

"It's an international language. Someone created it more than a hundred years ago to be easy to learn. It's a way of communicating that puts people on an equal playing field; if I learn Spanish and you speak Spanish natively, then you have an advantage over me. But if we both learn an easier second language, then we can communicate on equal terms".

Lots of people say "Oh, that's cool" but then later make Esperanto jokes at me. It's annoying and not funny. Therefore I avoid mentioning it at all, until someone asks specifically, or until not mentioning it would require either a lie or a convoluted workaround.

pikolas (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 01:39:17

erinja:Lots of people say "Oh, that's cool" but then later make Esperanto jokes at me. It's annoying and not funny. Therefore I avoid mentioning it at all, until someone asks specifically, or until not mentioning it would require either a lie or a convoluted workaround.
Same here. Either they make jokes or they see you as a strange religious fanatic.

Which also makes me avoid mentioning it.

Bedaŭrinde.

Gilberto_ (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 04:59:14

Well, actually when someone ask me about Esperanto i just say, as some of you, that it's a language, when they try to inquire more i usually say that is a "synthetic language (sounds better than fake or invented) that was made to avoid communication problems, to be able to communicate with other human beings in an easy way and that it has helped a lot in some conlfits, that much that even Hitler and Stalin banned him and said it was a conspiracy language (maybe not totally accurate but it's true), in some way it makes it more interesting for people, and if i see them interested on it i suggest them to use the program "Kurso de Esperanto", so while they fil their mind with ideas about spies or something important, they can accomplish a chapter or 2 in that program and they can be "pulled" by the own language to learn it :3

lgg (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 06:28:35

I don't think it's correct to lie about "2 millions" of speakers, while in reality there's several dozens of thousands of young and socially active speakers, dispersed in the world and unable to create a thriving community.

Additionally, if you seriously use such profoundly idiotic terms as 'samideano', you're looking like sectant and your opinions are automaticly biased and invalid. Esperanto is just an old minority language, nothing more and nothing less.

Donniedillon (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 09:49:01

senkulpa.gif Looks like the trolls are out just in time for Halloween.

Miland (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 10:35:21

BlackOtaku:How on earth do I explain Esperanto to other people that makes it sound worthy of respect .. I eventually have to .. admit that it's a "fake language".
A "fake" would be something pretending to be a language. Esperanto is a planned language, but nevertheless a real one, not a fake. Many classics of world literature have been translated into it, and it is among the many languages in which greetings from the Pope are sent to the world every Xmas. You may find useful a video by the late Claude Piron.

It may be worth saying that Esperanto was designed to help bring about world peace - it was created in a situation of ethnic conflict in Bialystok, Zamenhof's home town, and this was an important motive for its creation.

But it is true that it has never had its big break. Attempts by Fascists, Communists and Nationalists to hinder it didn't lead to an increase in its popularity. Also since the end of WWII English has increasingly become the international professional language.

Two areas where I can see Esperanto possibly making a breakthrough are diplomacy, where it might serve as a linguistic handshake for people who find English difficult, and maybe as an international backpackers' language, which might, Providence willing, lead to greater things.

I also think that you might benefit from some background reading. Have a good look at the late great Don Harlow's The Esperanto Book and Sylvan Zaft's Esperanto: a language for the global village. I think you might also enjoy the story Peter Jameson's Secret Language. Zaft's webpage contains other materials on Esperanto that you might find interesting or useful, so have a good look at them.

Feliĉan legadon!

sudanglo (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 10:51:19

Why not say that Esperanto is the most interesting linguistic experiment ever undertaken by mankind.

Incidentally, I wouldn't be at all bothered about quoting any number you fancy for the number of speakers, since nobody can prove you wrong. Really, nobody knows how many people have some knowledge of Esperanto.

Any claim for the number of speakers of English, beyond the number of native speakers computed from censuses, must include a high proportion who don't speak the language well.

chrisim101010 (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 11:26:22

I usually discuss some of the stuff i have done with Esperanto. I normally start with something like "I wanted to learn another language, but I new it would take a long time to do so, so I never bothered. Then I discovered Esperanto, and thought, 'I can do that', and i did".

These days i can talk about some of the stuff i did in Europe, such as Hungarian goulash and Hungarian wine in the back yard of a blokes house in Budapest, and only Esperanto was common. Or that the different events usually consist of many people from the country, whom you do not meet in a youth hostel. Those details usually gain the respect of people whom i talk to. So far, I have never heard of a 'normal' native English speaking backpacker getting experiences like that.

Slightly of topic, but does the "M" in 'whom' act like the accusative, similar to 'Kiun'? I thought about that recently, and it has been bugging me ever since. Did i use "whom" correctly in the paragraph above?

sudanglo (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-29 11:40:40

To whom am I speaking?

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