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Can you follow when somebody speaks fluently

by cyrille, April 29, 2014

Messages: 14

Language: English

whysea (User's profile) May 3, 2014, 2:14:12 AM

I can understand it very easily. To me, the speech in the video of cyrille's link is a moderate, fluent pace. It's quicker than some speakers, but I wouldn't say it is fast. Personally I have studied esperanto on and off for ~9 years but only in the last 2 years did I put in the effort to speak it fluently.

Mustelvulpo: Do any of you find it much easier to understand speakers of your native language as opposed to others when they speak Esperanto?
I understand English and Spanish, so it's easy for me to know what someone is saying in Esperanto if their native language is English or Spanish, but the downside is that it sounds very bad to me when their accent is strong. I understand them but all I can think is about the pronunciation mistakes they are making because of the native language. But I do think it's better to jump in and start speaking the language, even if you have an accent. It's just something I notice.

cyrille (User's profile) May 4, 2014, 7:25:40 PM

antoniomoya:
Nul besoin de parler si vite (No need to speak so fast).
Esperanto is not the mother tongue of any of us. For consideration for others, I think we should talk more calmly.
I simply tend to talk as usually, as I talk everyday to my daughters.
And believe me, listening everyday is a very good way to learn a language.

AllenHartwell (User's profile) May 5, 2014, 6:43:14 PM

Not yet. I tried watching Inkubo yesterday but they spoke too quickly for me. >.>

kaŝperanto (User's profile) May 5, 2014, 7:33:24 PM

Mustelvulpo:I find it easiest to follow Esperanto when it is spoken by other native English speakers. It's a bit tougher when I listen to speakers of other languages. After English speakers, the easiest to follow for me are speakers of Germanic or Slavic languages, then Romance language speakers. Speakers of Asian languages I find the hardest to understand. Do any of you find it much easier to understand speakers of your native language as opposed to others when they speak Esperanto?
It definitely is hard to follow people with strong accents, but I don't have much trouble understanding fluent speakers with many language backgrounds. I would agree that knowing their mother tongue allows you to decipher a strong accent, but this is true of any language. I sometimes wonder if romance language speakers have a harder time with their accents because there are more similarities between romance languages and Esperanto.

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