Radio~!:Is there a lot of pressure? I've never really experienced that, I tend to find that in speech most people are very relaxed, and often the people who are the life and soul of the trinkejo are those with the least accusatives

I must admit that I've only really learnt EO online, so maybe the experiences are different (I do know one Esperantist, and he's pretty chilled like me when we speak together... Then again, we're both English speakers and use Eng as our primary language...)

I have met many Esperanto speakers who happily spoke with very poor grammar, and no one corrects them. There are a very few Esperanto speakers who go around correcting people, but most people consider them rude.

Personally, I try to speak with correct grammar even in informal situations. But I feel completely relaxed, and I don't worry about it if I make a mistake.

I recall that as a beginner, I did worry about whether I was speaking correctly. But my worries were misplaced. No one ever corrected me or made me feel bad about my skills, even when I was a complete beginner and making a lot of mistakes.

Most Esperanto speakers are extremely helpful to beginners, very supportive and kind. Please don't worry about making mistakes when you speak. Relax and enjoy the language, and make some friends!

I just wanted to comment on the irony of calling 'biology' (bios+logia, Greek, widely used for centuries) a neologism, in comparison with 'vivoscienco' (vivus+scientia, Latin, newly created). The fact that 'neologism' itself is another Greek compound word makes the situation even more absurd.

On the "English bashing", what do you expect? They are natural enemies, both aspiring to become the universal language (and Esperanto is losing by an obscenely wide margin). On top of that, many people who are not native English speakers feel cheated when they know about/learn Esperanto, especially if they were forced to learn English, as opposed to doing it as a hobby. It's easy to take a laid back attitude about it when you are not the one who wasted thousands of euros on English courses along the years trying to get that job, or just to be able to communicate with foreign people, and then learnt the same amount of Esperanto in a fraction of that time with considerably less effort -and yet can't do much with it outside the conventions. That's thankfully not my case, but I know many people like that.

I have found that non-native English speakers who have achieved a good level of proficiency in English are some of the very most resistant to the idea of Esperanto.

No one wants to feel that they have wasted their time and money. Many English speakers will at least acknowledge the inequality of the situation, even if they don't personally want to correct the situation by learning something like Esperanto. Some proficient non-native speakers I have met are not quite so accommodating.

erinja:I have found that non-native English speakers who have achieved a good level of proficiency in English are some of the very most resistant to the idea of Esperanto.

I have noticed this also. I think it is due to the economic benefits many people receive by becoming proficient in English. Esperanto could be perceived as a potential threat to that.

As far as being easy to learn, I have to say that I find Esperanto to be the easiest language I have ever attempted. The first meeting I went to, I was able to understand about 80% of the conversation without a great deal of effort. We weren't discussing the weather, either. The two main topics turned out to be visa requirements for entry into various countries as well as whether or not pregnant ladies would be better served by visiting a midwife vs going to an obstetrician. I daresay, I doubt I my ability to have similar discussions in the national languages I have spent years trying to learn. I am betting many others have had similar experiences.

Tschai:It's easy to take a laid back attitude about it when you are not the one who wasted thousands of euros on English courses along the years trying to get that job, or just to be able to communicate with foreign people, and then learnt the same amount of Esperanto in a fraction of that time with considerably less effort -and yet can't do much with it outside the conventions. That's thankfully not my case, but I know many people like that.

I haven't met even a single serious student who claimed to have spent thousands on an English language course without gaining from it. On the other hand, I've been with hundreds of non-serious boys and girls who would spent years of their life, and money of course, and end up saying "Gawd Morrning! Mayee naam is xxxx. Haao can I help yoooo?" What would you call who can't even master a language in years? I'd say they aren't worth consideration.

Second, Esperanto is like Arabic or Hindi or Swahili - a useless language, a language of the streets. The moment you open your mouth to say something useful, your speech is littered with with words from Latin, Greek and, of course, English. This makes it as hard as any other language.

I'm insisting that my sister should learn a foreign language. She wants something easy and useful. I advised her to go for Interlingua instead.

Demian: What would you call who can't even master a language in years? I'd say they aren't worth consideration.

You would do well to have a chat with Hokan Lundberg, one of the founders of this site, and who created much of the course content here. He is Swedish and studied English all through school, but never really mastered it. It wasn't for lack of trying, he just doesn't feel that he has any natural talent for languages. However, his Esperanto is pretty much perfect.

Second, Esperanto is like Arabic or Hindi or Swahili - a useless language, a language of the streets. The moment you open your mouth to say something useful, your speech is littered with with words from Latin, Greek and, of course, English. This makes it as hard as any other language.

I don't really understand this. What makes Arabic, Hindi, or Swahili useless? To me, they are very useful if you want to do business in certain parts of the world. And what is the problem with a language containing Latin and Greek roots (Esperanto actually has relatively few English root words)?

I'm insisting that my sister should learn a foreign language. She wants something easy and useful. I advised her to go for Interlingua instead.

Wow.

Sorry, but this logic doesn't make much sense to me. Interlingua is pretty much all Latin roots, and you were just complaining that Esperanto has too much Latin? I don't really care if you want to recommend Esperanto to your sister or not, but your reasoning seems weird. Perhaps you can clarify.

Interlingua is grammatically more complicated than Esperanto, and I would not call it easier to learn than Esperanto, by any stretch of the imagination. Written Interlingua can be understood by speakers of most Romance languages, but good luck trying to find someone to speak it with (or texts for practicing your reading). If your goal is to have her learn a 100% Romance language, I recommend choosing a non-constructed one. Spanish, French, or Italian would be the obvious choices.

In any case, I doubt that she will learn just because you want her to. Learning any language takes work and internal motivation. I think we have pretty well proved that people who aren't interested in learning don't learn (hence the numerous stories of people who "study" a language for years, and still can't speak it beyond giving their name and age)

I'm insisting that my sister should learn a foreign language. She wants something easy and useful. I advised her to go for Interlingua instead.

Wow.

Sorry, but this logic doesn't make much sense to me. Interlingua is pretty much all Latin roots, and you were just complaining that Esperanto has too much Latin? I don't really care if you want to recommend Esperanto to your sister or not, but your reasoning seems weird. Perhaps you can clarify.

Interlingua is grammatically more complicated than Esperanto, and I would not call it easier to learn than Esperanto, by any stretch of the imagination. Written Interlingua can be understood by speakers of most Romance languages, but good luck trying to find someone to speak it with (or texts for practicing your reading). If your goal is to have her learn a 100% Romance language, I recommend choosing a non-constructed one. Spanish, French, or Italian would be the obvious choices.

In any case, I doubt that she will learn just because you want her to. Learning any language takes work and internal motivation. I think we have pretty well proved that people who aren't interested in learning don't learn (hence the numerous stories of people who "study" a language for years, and still can't speak it beyond giving their name and age)

My sister is a high school student and I showed her texts in both interlingua and Esperanto about mathmatics, algebra and LHC on Wikipedia. In her words ,"Interlingua seems to me an easy language. I'd opt for interlingua. What do you suggest?"
If I were not learning Chinese, I'd have gone for Interlingua myself. I've already gone through first five or six lessons and didn't find a difficulty.

As far as, the texts are concerned, I think there are thousands of articles written on wikipedia in interlingua. I've also got a dozen e-books in interlingua incluing Civilization e Lingua Universal and if she learns well I'll buy her Panorama (le magazin international del Interlingua!)

What I've felt is: Esperanto falls far short of the expectations of non-Europeans. It's too European. So I thought, if going European is the way forward then let's do it in an elegant manner!

After learning Interlingua she would atleast get the essence of basic Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese texts and there is no doubt that her English will improve. And interlinguists don't blame English for all the evils in the world!

Demian:My sister is a high school student and I showed her texts in both interlingua and Esperanto about mathmatics, algebra and LHC on Wikipedia. In her words ,"Interlingua seems to me an easy language. I'd opt for interlingua. What do you suggest?"
If I were not learning Chinese, I'd have gone for Interlingua myself. I've already gone through first five or six lessons and didn't find a difficulty.

My additional thoughts:
Interlingua is easier to comprehend straight off but harder to produce - in the end, it's neither really harder nor easier than Esperanto. Interlingua does make a good romance interlingua though (Romance speakers are used to that though), so it depends. If she likes the look of Interlingua more, she should learn it, if she likes Esperanto's look more, she should learn that.

As for who she can communicate with - Esperantists outnumber Interlinguists, but more people can understand interlingua. It's rather useless though when trying to talk to Romance-speakers, because they'll assume you're too rude to speak their own language to them (cough FRANCE ). The most useful language though in terms of European languages is Latin as half the world is practically exposed to it in some way (through English, French, Spanish and science mostly)

As far as, the texts are concerned, I think there are thousands of articles written on wikipedia in interlingua. I've also got a dozen e-books in interlingua incluing Civilization e Lingua Universal and if she learns well I'll buy her Panorama (le magazin international del Interlingua!)

More literature in Esperanto hands-down. BTW How often does Panorama come out? Is that monthly or quarterly? I can never remember

It's too European

Only in vocabulary, which is a necessary "evil" because quite frankly European words are more prevalent across the world than anything else. The grammar is rather analytical and reminiscent of Chinese and Japanese in some aspects.

After learning Interlingua she would atleast get the essence of basic Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese texts and there is no doubt that her English will improve. And interlinguists don't blame English for all the evils in the world!

Be careful with English - it's very similar to Interlingua vocab-wise but the Germanic languages have different ways of doing things especially regarding infinitives and logic etc. In fact, I'd recommend Swedish as a bridge-language for learning English over Interlingua any day - at least Swedish has "cognate" grammar while Interlingua is just Latin watered down (why water down Latin? It feels so naked without declensions!)

Just thought that I might add that, seeming as I've been around the mill a couple of times as far as conlangs go (oh, btw, while you're at it check out Lingua Franca Nova)

Demian:Esperanto is like Arabic or Hindi or Swahili - a useless language, a language of the streets..

I'm sure you didn't intend to slight your own country or anyone else's, but I would advise you to be more careful about making such statements.

As for your sister, she will be able to find many more fellow-speakers of Esperanto than Interlingua, so at least let her have accurate information about this before making a decision.