nw2394:

I did toy with the idea of Mondlango - but it doesn't seem to have caught on. Esperanto may not be perfect, but it works and is being used.

Nick

This seems to be a very key point in favor of Esperanto - it is used. I forget who it was, but I once had an Ana Pana student who told me that he (she? I think he) had considered learning Ido, but finally settled on learning Esperanto because, according to him, if you speak Ido, then you can join an online chat group or mailing list and talk about Ido. If you learn Esperanto, you can join an online group and talk about cats.

I.e. people use Esperanto to meet other people worldwide with similar interests that don't necessarily have anything to do with the language itself.

nw2394:People say that the English are lazy when it comes to learning other languages. Actually that isn't quite fair. Speakers of other human languages would be just as lazy if other nationalities were as keen to learn their particular language. (My experience of many countries is that you go there and you can't stop them trying out their English on you).

It's worse here in the States, where people are not only lazy about learning other languages, but indifferent. With the exception of Spanish, which carries political and ideological baggage these days, most Americans simply never hear any other language spoken. Most never travel overseas and, notoriously, know little about the rest of the world. These are not stereotypes; they are facts.

I teach in a middle-tier university. Most students enter having had two or three years of high school Spanish. This is in Philadelphia, where there is a sizeable Spanish-speaking community, Spanish-language radio stations, etc. In short, the Spanish language is not exactly hidden away. Despite this, most of these students barely learn anything in their high school Spanish classes, and they're not much better after completing our "intermediate level" (yeah, right) university language requirement. They don't get better because they don't *want* to. They are openly resentful at having to learn a foreign language at all, because they see it as a waste of time. Everybody speaks English; case closed.

But I agree that it can be difficult even to try to speak another language, under certain circumstances--mainly tourist circumstances. When I've visited Montreal, if I'm in a restaurant and attempt to speak French, the server, even though a francophone, will immediately switch to English, upon hearing my accent. Those who work with the public just want to get the job done with a minimum of effort. I recall one time in a diner when a waitress came over and asked if she could take the ketchup bottle to another table. My wife and I hadn't said a word yet. She started in French and must have seen the look of concentration on my face as I tried to follow what she was saying. Without my uttering a word she switched to English *in mid-sentence*. "Je suis desolee de vous deranger---but if you don't need the ketchup..."

I learnt a very little French at primary school - but the school didn't really do it seriously.

I had four years of French in high school. After the first year, when I was just coasting, I acquired a real desire to learn the language. I worked at it. I had a few courses in college. I lived in Paris for three months. To this day, I take refresher courses and I read French magazines when I have the chance.

My French isn't terrible, but it isn't wonderful either. When the conversation begins to get interesting, I begin to struggle with the language. Even with all the time I've put in, my command of French is far from satisfactory.

When I learned Esperanto, one of my great surprises was how soon I was able to surpass the level of my command of French, both in speaking and understanding. That took less than a year of study with just a few books and limited conversation opportunities. I don't claim that my Esperanto is perfect, by a long shot. But linguistically I can run circles around what I can do with French, and that, I believe, is a very important fact.

It's not easy to get people interested in Esperanto. And should they begin to learn it, it's not easy to keep them interested when they discover that it's not *dead easy*. It takes work. But...when they get to that point where the language has wings and they discover that they can express themselves in it in unexpected and creative ways, that's when they understand how Esperanto is something special, and not just another language.

Learning to write and speak it is harder. It seems that is easy to learn an Esperanto word and, through the system of affixes, learn many words. Going the other way and trying to find direct equivalents for English words - well - it works of course, but it doesn't reveal the many words you can say with one root in Esperanto.

But eventually you will find this to be the most rewarding aspect of it. The hardest part of learning *any* new language is controlling the urge to simply translate from English (or whatever one's native language is). For one thing, most of us have only a dim idea of which English expressions are actually quite idiomatic and don't translate well at all. The powerful thing, however, is the discovery that Esperanto has rich resources for the formation of words that *don't* have simple English counterparts.

Consider the word "samideano". It's quite expressive but doesn't correspond to any simple English expression.

Or you might want to say that something is puzzling...maybe you'll use "kapgratiga"! This is the point where it really gets to be fun.

Cro Magnon:Also, I read that bilingual people are less likely to get Alzheimer's, and some people say I need all the help I can get.

Where did you read that?
Scivoleme,
Mar

AMIK-EMA:

Cro Magnon:Also, I read that bilingual people are less likely to get Alzheimer's, and some people say I need all the help I can get.

Where did you read that?
Scivoleme,
Mar

I've never read that specifically. However, I have read (in several newspaper reports) that older people who keep mentally active (do crosswords, play chess or whatever) have a slower rate of losing brain cells. Whether the link specifically to Alzheimer's disease follows I am not sure. Some of the newspapers seemed to be making that claim, but I don't think it was exactly what they were reporting that scientists had discovered.

Nick

Hi!

I don't know when I first heard of Esperanto. I think in Germany, most people "know" it but nobody can tell what it is exactly.
A few weeks ago, I heard an article in the radio, telling about the beginning of Esperanto.
I was so fascinated that I didn't get it out of my head. How does it sound? Are there really people still speaking it?
I thought it was like a fashion in the 1970s to learn it and then everybody forgot it...

Then I found this great website and surfed it for a while.
Now I get the "Vorto de la Tago" everyday and sometimes I read the grammar. Before I want to get deeper in it, I want to bring my studies in Portugues to an end, but it is interesting, that I understand much more of the Esperanto texts everyday, without really studying.
Perhaps because the words are quite similar to the Portugues, French, and sometimes even German words?

(sorry for my English )

Danii:
How does it sound? Are there really people still speaking it?

Yes, there are people speaking it. Even singing in Esperanto. To me it sounds most like Spanish - but not very much. It really has its own sound.

Try this page for some songs in Esperanto:

http://www.esperanto.mv.ru/Muziko/index.html

I think this site (lernu) has a German version (I assume your native language is German from where this forum says you are located)

Also this site

http://www.kurso.com.br/bazo/index.html?de

has a course in Esperanto that also has some spoken material and is available in many languages.

Nick

nw2394:

AMIK-EMA:

Cro Magnon:Also, I read that bilingual people are less likely to get Alzheimer's, and some people say I need all the help I can get.

Where did you read that?
Scivoleme,
Mar

Here is the research on the subject, thanks Enrike!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3794479.stm
Nick

I was actually in search of a secondary artificial international language when I came across interlingua. I avoided Esperanto because the name sounded like Español, which I never liked that language at the time.

(Ahora, me gusta español)

It was hard to find stuff on interlingua, and it wasn't as used as much as Esperanto so I switched.

It was my love to talk to people from other countries that got me started.

One day, i said i wanted to learn a language that is quick and easy, so that i could talk with people from anywhere in the world. I said it to my Grandfather (I'm only 14, but I'm proud). He said when he was in high school, he had to write about Esperanto. He told me how i could, in fact, talk to people from any country, and not have to know their native language, or them know yours.

I was happier then i ever was when he told me these things. My deep love to talk with people from other countries would become even easier!

I went onto my browser, searched a bit on Google, i couldn't find a good Esperanto site. But then, i noticed a sponcered site called Lernu! , i started the Bildoj kaj demandoj course, and knew then that this was the language for me.

Mia esperanto estas ne bone...

Cwhil:Mia esperanto estas ne bone...

Ne gravas (Its not important, or it doesn't matter). Ĝi pliboniĝos (It will get better (pli-bon-iĝ-os = more good become will)).

Amike, Nick