Ha!

Imagine the English expression, "See ya later alligator," and the response, "In a while crocodile." translated into Esperanto!

I was thinking the same thing, Andogigi. Even if the translations were composed by the same person, they may have been done so at different times. The level of fluency of the translator could have changed in that period of time in both Esperanto or in English.

vejktoro:Ha!

Imagine the English expression, "See ya later alligator," and the response, "In a while crocodile." translated into Esperanto!

OK we're getting way off point I think (as usual when I jump in ), but this brings up an interesting point about learning languages: one can learn grammar and vocabulary with great expertise but one never really knows a language until you can speak idiomatically in it.

When I hear "foreigners" speaking English, I often listen whether they use strictly linear English or they decorate it with idiom. Listening to racing drivers speaking about their experience during the race is often like this, you might hear someone from (Germany for example) say "The track temperature was high, my car did not drive straight. I had problem with brakes!", and then you might hear someone else, (perhaps an Italian or a Brazilian) say the same thing as "It was hot as hell down there. I couldn't keep the car on the line. My brakes felt like I was trying to stop a horse!".

Esperanto has to avoid those ambiguities but even so I think it has developed a certain amount of idiomatic expressions, no?

vejktoro:Er... I don`t get it.

Of course English and Esperanto are different.

Forgive me if I am answering you in the wrong way, or if that was a rhetoric

I think (despite the way the reporter has spun it) that the people in the article have found a new way to differentiate via a program or computer (basically a new method to differentiate) between different languages, simply using Esperanto and English as the test bunnies - sorry, I mean guinea pigs... Although bunnies work well too. Mi demandas: Do they use rabbits in laboratory testing?

I suspect the ramifications of this would ultimately be new techniques in telling different authors or writing styles apart, but the report has left things unclear and I think he was trying to 'appeal' to a certain target audience (probably Esperantists and people with knowledge of the language) but he seemed to had failed.

And @ Ironchef - there is always 'Cxu vi pensas ke mi havas la inteligentecon de terpomo?' - I'm sure that works in any language (except for those who have no yet encountered the blessing that are potatoes).