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Esperanto as a secret language

Alkanadi, 2015年5月11日

讯息: 29

语言: English

Alkanadi (显示个人资料) 2015年5月11日下午2:09:05

Have you ever used Esperanto to talk with your friends so that others won't understand you? Maybe, you were talking about personal topics and you didn't want people around you to understand?

gianich73 (显示个人资料) 2015年5月11日下午2:38:36

Alkanadi:Have you ever used Esperanto to talk with your friends so that others won't understand you? Maybe, you were talking about personal topics and you didn't want people around you to understand?
Never. Unfortunately, my friends do not speak Esperanto and I myself am not that fluent either.

robbkvasnak (显示个人资料) 2015年5月11日下午3:39:25

that wouldn't work here in our region since everybody is used to listening to other languages and more or less understanding what people are saying - especially since Esperanto is similar to English and Spanish (and Kreyol and Portuguese). But I can guess that somewhere in the middle of say Kansas or Arkansas this would work.

Tempodivalse (显示个人资料) 2015年5月11日下午4:45:50

Alkanadi:Have you ever used Esperanto to talk with your friends so that others won't understand you? Maybe, you were talking about personal topics and you didn't want people around you to understand?
I write my personal diary in Esperanto. A bit of safety, perhaps, should someone accidentally come across it. A polyglot well-versed in Indo-European languages would probably be able to guess the gist of it, but to the average person, it's not very intelligible.

If I were *really* paranoid, I'd use Volapuk - but I don't have nearly the amount of time needed to learn it to a level where I can just write freely and uninhibitedly. And Esperanto is more fun anyway.

AlphaBrewer (显示个人资料) 2015年5月11日下午6:08:34

Alkanadi:Have you ever used Esperanto to talk with your friends so that others won't understand you? Maybe, you were talking about personal topics and you didn't want people around you to understand?
I find this idea hilarious. I would, if my friends or loved ones knew Esperanto.

Christa627 (显示个人资料) 2015年5月12日上午12:54:06

I also write my journal in Esperanto (it keeps my brothers from reading it). I can't use it as a secret language for face-to-face conversation, as I don't know anyone else who speaks it malgajo.gif.

jdawdy (显示个人资料) 2015年5月12日上午1:41:54

Alkanadi:Have you ever used Esperanto to talk with your friends so that others won't understand you? Maybe, you were talking about personal topics and you didn't want people around you to understand?
Time for a cautionary tale: ridulo.gif

My wife (Russian-speaking Kazakh) and I were in Las Vegas taking a taxi. We were sitting in back chatting in Russian as the driver- a guy with a Spanish accent, who I assumed was from Mexico- took us to our destination. We dropped my wife off and I asked him to take me to the hotel. At that point he says, "Your wife is Russian?" and I said, "She's from Kazakhstan". He replies, "Oh, Almaty. I've been there."

I asked him, "What were you doing?" and he said, "I was a student" and proceeded, in perfect Russian, to say "at the Saint Petersburg Financial-Economics Institute". He was from Cuba, and had studied in the Soviet Union.

So, of course, he understood everything we said. Moral of the story: the people you might least expect to understand your "secret language" can surprise you!

grand_dan (显示个人资料) 2015年5月12日上午1:57:31

I have never. Because none of my friends know Esperanto, although I write some quick notes and reminders in it.

Alkanadi (显示个人资料) 2015年5月12日上午8:21:11

jdawdy:
Time for a cautionary tale: ridulo.gif

...He was from Cuba, and had studied in the Soviet Union.

So, of course, he understood everything we said. Moral of the story: the people you might least expect to understand your "secret language" can surprise you!
Interesting story. I will keep that in mind.

Tim Doner (the famous polyglot) was in a taxi and he heard the taxi driver speaking Wolof. The taxi driver was shocked when Tim talked to him in his own language.

I guess we have to be careful.

johmue (显示个人资料) 2015年5月12日下午1:40:11

Alkanadi:Have you ever used Esperanto to talk with your friends so that others won't understand you? Maybe, you were talking about personal topics and you didn't want people around you to understand?
I am doing that all the time. Mostly we are speaking Esperanto not for this very purpose, but because it's our usual language. Yet we use the fact that people around don't understand us to talk about things we probably wouldn't talk about in public.

I also regularly use Esperanto to pretend that I don't speak neither the local language nor English. For example when mormons or someone like that approach me.

What I don't do and recommend not to do is use Esperanto to exclude a particular person or a particular group from a part of the conversation.

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