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Natural languages are 200 times more difficult

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Ubutumwa 18

ururimi: English

Alkanadi (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 26 Ruheshi 2016 10:35:46

The average natural language is 200 times more difficult than Esperanto.

http://easiestlanguage.info/The_Easiest_Language_2...

Matthieu (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 26 Ruheshi 2016 11:09:54

Most people here will agree that Esperanto is significantly easier to learn than other languages, but "200 times" is ludicrous.

Vestitor (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 26 Ruheshi 2016 11:48:13

I just read through this. I can't say I disagree with his general idea in terms of spreading Esperanto, but it's not as 'scientific' as he makes out. Someone needs to edit the copy because it is atrocious in places (which is a disgrace for someone purporting to hold an MA degree).

There is a link to a website from the pdf which goes to a very 1990s sort of site with some admirable, if well-trodden, ideas. However it is bathed in the sort of 'this is the American way of life...' claptrap which is at odds with the suggested international outlook.

Does this (from the site) describe the reality of the U.S. (or any other country for that matter), or rather an idealist view of what people hope for it to be (since 1776)? Is it a vision unique to the United States? I think not:
We support the American way of life which promotes:

Life, liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness for all. Promotes: use of scientific knowledge, research and discussion for solving problems rather than violence. Promotes: love, kindness, helping each other, creating and sharing resources. And discourages violence, greed hate, ignorance, apathy by the expectation that no-one should bring harm to another by their actions or inaction. Humans should be humane.
Further down he thinks the terrorist supporters allowed into the country should all be deported...

I'm posting the above, not to make a political point, but to question whether this is a balanced promotion of Esperanto, or one resting upon a questionable basis.

Alkanadi (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 27 Ruheshi 2016 09:44:15

Vestitor:...or one resting upon a questionable basis.
As we say in my culture, "question everything!" Don't be afraid to be critical.

Vestitor (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 27 Ruheshi 2016 13:24:23

On the other hand you don't want to be so open-minded that your brain falls out.

erinja (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 27 Ruheshi 2016 17:48:53

Esperanto could generally do with fewer promotional materials that are so enthusiastic that they contain information that isn't factual. If you go over the top in your promotion, people can't tell the truth from the exaggeration and they are likely to take even the true parts as some kind of dishonest sales pitch.

This is one of my pet hates of promotion of Esperanto, materials that are so unprofessional and over the top that no one in their right mind would read them and think "Right, I want to learn this language!"

Alkanadi (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 28 Ruheshi 2016 08:40:47

erinja:This is one of my pet hates of promotion of Esperanto, materials that are so unprofessional and over the top that no one in their right mind would read them and think "Right, I want to learn this language!"
Very true.

I think the context is about word memorization and so this fact probably is true that Esperanto words are 200 times easier to memorize. For example, imagine you have to learn Birdo or पक्षी. Which is easier? I would guess that Birdo is 200 times easier.

In any case, you are right that propaganda doesn't serve the purpose of promoting Esperanto. On the other hand, I have a lot of faith in people to be discerning.

Alkanadi (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 28 Ruheshi 2016 09:33:53

erinja:This is one of my pet hates of promotion of Esperanto...
With this in mind, are you aware that creating a thread on Lernu automatically gives it 3 views.

Also, when posting replies to threads:
1 view - for reading the thread
1 view - for typing a message "Aldoni mesaĝon"
1 view - after being redirected back to the thread after the post is published.

Also, when a thread has 10 pages, and a user reads all 10 pages, it is counted as 10 views.

erinja (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 28 Ruheshi 2016 11:21:05

Alkanadi:For example, imagine you have to learn Birdo or पक्षी. Which is easier? I would guess that Birdo is 200 times easier.
I am not sure why you would arbitrarily suppose that "birdo" is much easier than "pakshi". Though "pakshi" is Hindi, it is probably easier to learn than "birdo" if you speak any Slavic language, since in this case your language's word for bird is already likely to be some variation of "ptak" or "ptitsa"
In any case, you are right that propaganda doesn't serve the purpose of promoting Esperanto. On the other hand, I have a lot of faith in people to be discerning.
Wow. You look over the scope of world history and you see what masses of people have done based on encouragement from advertising or propaganda or their own leadership, incredibly foolish or hateful things, and you conclude that people have good ability to be discerning? It must be comforting to have such a view. I don't share it.

Bruso (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 28 Ruheshi 2016 16:35:34

Alkanadi:For example, imagine you have to learn Birdo or पक्षी. Which is easier? I would guess that Birdo is 200 times easier.
Sure, if you have to learn Devanagari just for that one word.

Once it's learned, the rest are much easier.

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