I am able to clearly communicate my thoughts in English and Spanish. I love the idea behind Esperanto but do not want to waste my time learning it if it will not bridge any gaps in the language barriers that I have. So since I can not (yet) speak or write Esperanto. I was wondering how many of you have met a person who speaks Esperanto , but can not speak English or Spanish. If you have then it would at least profit me to some degree to learn Esperanto this summer.

There are several area in the world where neither English or Spanish are widely used in the general population. Outside of large city and touristic area of France, Germany Rusia... pretty much all of Europe apart from England and Spain. And that even more true in Asia and most of Africa.

That doesn't mean Esperanto will help you now. Remeber that as much as it is an idea to become the world's auxiliary language, it's far from there yet. But choosing to learn it may help make that idea a reallity.

Islander:There are several area in the world where neither English or Spanish are widely used in the general population. Outside of large city and touristic area of France, Germany Rusia... pretty much all of Europe apart from England and Spain. And that even more true in Asia and most of Africa.

That doesn't mean Esperanto will help you now. Remeber that as much as it is an idea to become the world's auxiliary language, it's far from there yet. But choosing to learn it may help make that idea a reallity.

I have made many friends who DON'T speak English, and I don't speak THEIR language either. I still sit in amazement that we can get along wonderfully and have NO communication barriers

Brandon you are just 17 and you already speak two languages, so I dare to forecast you will learn to speak Esperanto in only 2 or 3 months. You won’t ever learn any other foreign language that fast, so give it a chance, and you will find its use quite soon.

There's also a part you didn't mention about English fluency. I know some very good Esperanto speakers who can speak broken English. They do speak English, but certainly not fluently, and certainly not well enough to have a very deep conversation.

Also, you might not have thought very much about this, but don't underestimate the value of "meeting someone halfway". I know a good number of Esperanto speakers who speak English just fine, but feel ashamed of their skills and feel more comfortable with Esperanto, because it puts everyone on equal ground. As an English speaker, I avoid speaking English with people overseas, if I can. I feel like I'm imposing my culture on them, coming to their country and expecting them to speak to me in my language, rather than vice versa. I personally use English as a last resort; I communicate using Italian or whatever bits of the local language that I might happen to know, whenever possible.

And to answer your original question - I've met plenty of Esperanto speakers who don't speak English or Spanish. Most Esperanto speakers do seem to have another language besides Esperanto and their native language, but that third language varies. It's been Russian for some of them that I've met, or German, or whatever.

Also, the other perk that you get with Esperanto is a worldwide network of people who would love to meet you. I spent about 6 months working for a Swiss company last year, and I spent some time in the company's office in Bern, Switzerland. I contacted the local Esperanto speakers before I went, and it was like I had instant friends. I went out with local speakers 3 of the 6 nights that I was in town and had a great time. One of them spoke good English, one of them no English at all, and one of them... I honestly have no idea, I didn't ask him and I can't recall if he said he spoke English or not. But in any case, if I had only spoken English or Spanish, I wouldn't have been able to meet those local people, period, short of approaching random people in a bar and talking to them (and hoping they understood). And even if I had done that, I doubt if the random locals would have taken me on a tour of the city. The Bern Esperanto speakers took me to various interesting places in the city that I wouldn't have found otherwise.

The company was a bad fit for me, but in a way I regret that I'm not working for them anymore, if only because I probably won't get another chance to see the Bern Esperanto speakers!

Contacting local speakers before going somewhere strikes me as cheating. Is there anyone here who has found themselves in a foreign country and just ran into someone who spoke Esperanto but not English? How may have found someone who spoke English but not Esperanto?

I would, however, suggest that it could still profit you to learn some Esperanto anyway. Personally I am interested in the basic ideas behind creating a planned language. A good way of studying such things is to learn from the mistakes of others - this is where Esperanto really comes into its own!

Thank you all for the excellent response. I am still a little unsure about learning Esperanto , but I think I will give it a try. I guess that I will give it about 30-45 minutes of daily study. Besides how is it ever going to become an auxiliary language or even become more popular if people refuse to learn it because it is not a main stream language. Thank you all again.

rlsinclair:Contacting local speakers before going somewhere strikes me as cheating. Is there anyone here who has found themselves in a foreign country and just ran into someone who spoke Esperanto but not English? How may have found someone who spoke English but not Esperanto?

I have never run into someone who spoke Esperanto, period, regardless of what other languages they spoke as well. I do know people who have randomly run into Esperanto speakers, but at this point, Esperanto speakers just aren't numerous enough to make it very likely that you'll just run into one. I don't really think of it as cheating to contact people ahead. I view it in the same way has having friends in New York City, and contacting them before you visit. With Esperanto, it's like you have the friends there, but they just don't know you yet.

In any case, back to the New York example - I'm a native English speaker and I would still find it worth contacting the local speakers before I went. Not that I would have a communication problem there in general, but it would seem a shame to pass up on a whole community of people willing to show you around.

Brandon132:Thank you all for the excellent response. I am still a little unsure about learning Esperanto , but I think I will give it a try. I guess that I will give it about 30-45 minutes of daily study. Besides how is it ever going to become an auxiliary language or even become more popular if people refuse to learn it because it is not a main stream language. Thank you all again.

Even if you don't stick with Esperanto, if you want to talk to a lot of people, I would suggest learning a third language. An upper estimate for English speakers in the world is about 450 million. And an upper estimate for Spanish speakers is 350 million. Even if you take those numbers as fact (they are probably high), there are more than 6 billion people on this planet. Even assuming that someone spoke only English *or* Spanish (that the English and Spanish speakers did not overlap), you can do the math. Speakers of English or Spanish make up less than 1/6th the world's population.

rlsinclair:Contacting local speakers before going somewhere strikes me as cheating. Is there anyone here who has found themselves in a foreign country and just ran into someone who spoke Esperanto but not English? How may have found someone who spoke English but not Esperanto?

How about contacting local speakers *after* going? Is that "cheating" too? I'm not sure what it even means to speak of cheating in this context. Could you explain that part?

As for your question, I have run into Esperanto speakers, without looking for them, once. It was in a train station where I was reading an Esperanto book. A guy from Poland (as I soon learned) spotted the book and struck up a conversation in Esperanto. He did speak some English, but very poorly.

As Erin pointed out, there are plenty of people who speak English more or less well, but who *prefer* to speak Esperanto, not only because it's easier but because they don't have to "speak uphill" with a native speaker.