Feel like helping somebody out? A few questions about your experiences with Esperanto
nmcdejong-ისა და 24 აგვისტო, 2014-ის მიერ
შეტყობინებები: 34
ენა: English
nmcdejong (მომხმარებლის პროფილი) 24 აგვისტო, 2014 13:40:30
My friend and I are doing a big study on Esperanto for school and we have a few questions for this community. We would be really grateful if we could get some answers from you!
- How did you get into Esperanto in the first place?
- Do you use the language outside of this website and Esperanto conferences?
- What do you think the future holds for Esperanto? Will more people start speaking the language or will the Esperanto community stay roughly the same size?
Thank you!
- How did you get into Esperanto in the first place?
- Do you use the language outside of this website and Esperanto conferences?
- What do you think the future holds for Esperanto? Will more people start speaking the language or will the Esperanto community stay roughly the same size?
Thank you!
patrik (მომხმარებლის პროფილი) 24 აგვისტო, 2014 14:23:39
nmcdejong:My friend and I are doing a big study on Esperanto for school and we have a few questions for this community. We would be really grateful if we could get some answers from you!1) My interest in languages brought me here. The language itself was the main attraction for me.
- How did you get into Esperanto in the first place?
- Do you use the language outside of this website and Esperanto conferences?
- What do you think the future holds for Esperanto? Will more people start speaking the language or will the Esperanto community stay roughly the same size?
Thank you!
2) I have used Esperanto with my meeting with foreign Esperantists and will have more opportunities to use it (I hope), since I plan to become more active within the movement.
3) Given the delicate geopolitical situation and the revelations of Mr. Snowden, things will not go in Esperanto's favor in the long run, unless the Internet remains open and free despite all that flak. I say so because the Internet brought Esperanto into the modern era and to a vaster audience, and anything that limits the Net limits us as well. I think that short of a celebrity endorsement or an order from the highest rungs of government (both unlikely and unwelcome, especially the latter), our gains will remain at their current rate.
Alkanadi (მომხმარებლის პროფილი) 24 აგვისტო, 2014 15:20:38
nmcdejong:1 - I started learning Arabic a long time ago. I found that learning languages are a lot of fun. It is very challenging but it is fun. However, when learning Arabic, I have been frustrated by the various dialects and lack of resources. I also noticed that natural languages have millions of grammar rules and millions of exceptions to such rules. Then one day, out of frustration, I searched Google for this phrase "What is the easiest language to learn". And here I am.
- How did you get into Esperanto in the first place?
- Do you use the language outside of this website and Esperanto conferences?
- What do you think the future holds for Esperanto? Will more people start speaking the language or will the Esperanto community stay roughly the same size?
2 - No, I just started learning. So far, I only use the language on the Lernu site. But, I have plans to write books and use it on Youtube.
3 - More people will start speaking it. I think it will acheive its goal of becoming an international language. If you search for news on Esperanto, you will see that it is growing. It is more important for a system to retain people then it is to gain new members. Esperanto has lots of people who have been speaking it for years. Based on apperances, it is a system that has NO trouble retaining people.
domestro (მომხმარებლის პროფილი) 24 აგვისტო, 2014 15:24:04
I was not immersed in other languages than Slovak in my childhood, so I learned English from a scratch. I hoped that learning English is enough and I hated German. But my brother loved German and I learned it as well (not perfectly). Both were useful for me in international contacts. But I still didn't feel comfortable. When I discovered Esperanto, it looked like easy access to international communication and I was curious who would speak Esperanto with me. I met a Slovak Esperantist and he persuaded me to learn Esperanto (what I was procrastinating for four years). Then I registered at lernu!, made net-friends and established an Esperanto club. This year I was at Somera Esperanto-Studado in Nitra and I felt like fina venko is coming. My Hungarian friend talked in Esperanto to shop assistant, because he doesn't speak Slovak. After SES I met a Japanese couple of Esperantists. Mentions about Esperanto in Slovak media are collected by our organization, some were in blogs of politicians. I myself am mentioning Esperanto for my friends. Maybe some of them will learn the mysterious "Esperanto" after several accidental mentions, as did I
domestro (მომხმარებლის პროფილი) 24 აგვისტო, 2014 15:39:55
And, answers:
My relative was Esperantist, but he didn't speak Esperanto with family. After his death I wasn't interested in Esperanto until the Year for Priests, when I learned Pater Noster in various languages, including Esperanto.
I use Esperanto on the Internet (lernu! is minor contributor here), in Esperanto club (monthly meetings), occasionally with tourists (like the Japanese couple) and at conferences. I have not active Esperantists in my family.
Esperanto will become fully used international language, like is German or Spanish. It will be taught in schools and pupils will learn it. I know a family where mother is Esperantist from childhood and both children learn Esperanto from childhood, but not natively. This is future, because native speakers will deform Esperanto, like every natural language.
My relative was Esperantist, but he didn't speak Esperanto with family. After his death I wasn't interested in Esperanto until the Year for Priests, when I learned Pater Noster in various languages, including Esperanto.
I use Esperanto on the Internet (lernu! is minor contributor here), in Esperanto club (monthly meetings), occasionally with tourists (like the Japanese couple) and at conferences. I have not active Esperantists in my family.
Esperanto will become fully used international language, like is German or Spanish. It will be taught in schools and pupils will learn it. I know a family where mother is Esperantist from childhood and both children learn Esperanto from childhood, but not natively. This is future, because native speakers will deform Esperanto, like every natural language.
patrik (მომხმარებლის პროფილი) 25 აგვისტო, 2014 08:22:22
domestro:And, answers:Esperanto is international enough, yes. Only the community must grow further. The thing is that I do not believe that non-Esperantists would just stand by and watch us progress should things go well for us. Too much optimism is too often the prelude to a tragic sobering disillusionment.
...
Esperanto will become fully used international language, like is German or Spanish. It will be taught in schools and pupils will learn it. I know a family where mother is Esperantist from childhood and both children learn Esperanto from childhood, but not natively. This is future, because native speakers will deform Esperanto, like every natural language.
Should things go our way, the progress of Esperanto will inevitably upset the status quo, most especially an officialized Esperanto under the aegis of the EU, something I dread the most (for such officialization will certainly turn Esperanto from a universalist ethic language* into a mere pan-European ethnic language.) Also, this progress is mostly due to the Internet, something we Esperantists can't control. So it is in our interest that the Internet remain open and free not only for us but also for the rest of humanity.
*-This concept I took from [url=www.slideshare.net/goberiko/en2013-gobbo-eoliverpoolpresentation]this slideshow[/url] by Dr. Federico Gobbo.
morfran (მომხმარებლის პროფილი) 25 აგვისტო, 2014 09:15:41
nmcdejong:- How did you get into Esperanto in the first place?[list=1]
- Do you use the language outside of this website and Esperanto conferences?
- What do you think the future holds for Esperanto? Will more people start speaking the language or will the Esperanto community stay roughly the same size?
Read about it as a kid in Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld series. Didn’t encounter it again until college, when I came across the Teach Yourself book. The cleverness of it fascinated me, and I quickly became one of the only two Esperanto geeks in my entire college.
I did when I was in college and for a short time afterward, but, with a few exceptions, I’ve had little occasion to since. It has become, for me, the contentious argot of a handful of internet sites.
Not a lot. The Internet has made it more accessible to language hobbyists and other niche demographics, but mastering a new language — even a simplified one like Esperanto — is a significant time investment, and most people will continue to prefer putting their language-learning efforts into something offering a more compelling, practical reason to stick with it.[/list]
sudanglo (მომხმარებლის პროფილი) 25 აგვისტო, 2014 11:15:43
This is the future, because native speakers will deform Esperanto, like every natural language.Oh no they won't. The handful of native speakers of Esperanto that there are already have no influence on the language and in the future this will remain so.
The native is speaker is not the model to be copied, unlike with natural languages.
But even with natural language not all native speaker are the same. The model is the speech and writing of the educated native speaker. In Esperanto the corresponding person is the spertulo.
And in any case the social pressures acting on the language are simply not the same as they are in a natural language.
kaŝperanto (მომხმარებლის პროფილი) 25 აგვისტო, 2014 13:17:27
1. I was searching the net for something programming-related and ended up discovering lojban (another artificial language made to be "perfect" and based on logic). I read about it for a while and then discovered Esperanto. Lojban has almost no experienced speakers, while Esperanto has tens of thousands at least, so I decided to pursue the language that was more useful. I learned Spanish in school, and it seemed that all the annoying bits of Spanish were missing, and everything just made sense to me.
2. Not really. I try to introduce it to people, but in the US where I am there are very few Esperantists. I haven't been to a conference yet (was going to go to one in Russia this year, but...).
3. I believe that it will remain about the same percentage of the population as it is now. Perhaps if we acquire a great leader who exposes the language to the masses and makes it "cool" we would approach the fina venko. I could see it becoming attached to a popular TV show (like Dothraki from Game of Thrones) or movie (Elvish). Possibly the realization that English may be replaced as the US loses power might lead to acceptance of a neutral language as opposed to Chinese/etc.
There is a good TED talk by guy who is promoting Esperanto as a language learning aid for elementary/primary school children, and there is definitive evidence that learning Esperanto first leads to faster acquisition of other languages (and children actually use it to talk to one-another, which didn't happen even in my high school level classes with Spanish).
2. Not really. I try to introduce it to people, but in the US where I am there are very few Esperantists. I haven't been to a conference yet (was going to go to one in Russia this year, but...).
3. I believe that it will remain about the same percentage of the population as it is now. Perhaps if we acquire a great leader who exposes the language to the masses and makes it "cool" we would approach the fina venko. I could see it becoming attached to a popular TV show (like Dothraki from Game of Thrones) or movie (Elvish). Possibly the realization that English may be replaced as the US loses power might lead to acceptance of a neutral language as opposed to Chinese/etc.
There is a good TED talk by guy who is promoting Esperanto as a language learning aid for elementary/primary school children, and there is definitive evidence that learning Esperanto first leads to faster acquisition of other languages (and children actually use it to talk to one-another, which didn't happen even in my high school level classes with Spanish).
Alkanadi (მომხმარებლის პროფილი) 25 აგვისტო, 2014 13:33:53
kaŝperanto:Perhaps if we acquire a great leader who exposes the language to the masses and makes it "cool" we would approach the fina venko. I could see it becoming attached to a popular TV show (like Dothraki from Game of Thrones) or movie (Elvish).Esperanto is like bitcoin. Bitcoin was interesting and a bit nerdy, but once it got attention in the mainstream media and everyone started talking about it, then it its value skyrocketed. There are now ATMs for bitcoin. The same thing will happen with Esperanto. Eventually, one day, someone famous will talk about it and make it well known. Then its value will skyrocket as well.