I was a little anger when i knew that the statement on this pagewas an April fool message.

We are working to set our web pages in just one language, Esperanto, due to the increasing costs for the number of languages officialy used by the EU. The web pages will be published only in Esperanto from April 1, 2011.

Perhaps, I do not fancy this fool day and was taken into the shock and was scolded by my friends for sending wrong info.

I thought it was the EU has achieved that milestone and it would be a good source of evidence for us in to take the steps to do the same.

I wouldn't be too angered. It's a good april's fool joke IMHO (since it does address a serious question, but clearly is joking as using EO only would cause more problems than it would
solve at this time, as not enough people speak it...)

Unfortunately I don't think Asean is in the same position as the European Union, the differences between the different nations are too many and too large unlike the European Union. There is a good foundation though, as (in theory) Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have good national values (let's forget about corruption when we say this ). But Vietnam being communist (although more capitalist these days), and some countries being political unstable doesn't help.

I do like the idea of an Asian Union though. I wonder what would happen to countries like Australia, New Zealand, but most importantly China?

(Off topic-ish: Do you guys have April's fools day in Malaysia? We don't really concentrate on it here in Australia at a personal level but companies and TV shows like to do little April's fools jokes.)

ceigered:Unfortunately I don't think Asean is in the same position as the European Union, the differences between the different nations are too many and too large unlike the European Union. There is a good foundation though, as (in theory) Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have good national values (let's forget about corruption when we say this ). But Vietnam being communist (although more capitalist these days), and some countries being political unstable doesn't help.

I do like the idea of an Asian Union though. I wonder what would happen to countries like Australia, New Zealand, but most importantly China?

(Off topic-ish: Do you guys have April's fools day in Malaysia? We don't really concentrate on it here in Australia at a personal level but companies and TV shows like to do little April's fools jokes.)

I don't think it needs to take the same political views to have the esperanto in the meeting. What i meant is the ASEAN meeting which is conducting in English and we need to fork out the tax payer money to pay for the translation. If the Reps are equipped with two languages, one of their nation and one esperanto, we saved the paper and we save the money. Besides, the use of English would be less. I do agreed with the late Mr Piron on his short film on youtube. He was the one who changed my view of life to learn Esperanto. Without watching his clip, i still feel English is the best despite i have bad English.

There is no other organisation in ASIA besides ASEAN. The APEC is out of Asia region. Thus it is good choice that Asia Esperanto Movement to help the ASEAN countries to establish Esperanto association. Now thus far, i know only Vietnam has the Esperanto association and Esperanto is not popular there too according to participants in last year event KS. English is still the street language.

Nope, only a handful people in Malaysia like this stupid event called april fool. They are mostly the teens.

EoMy:Nope, only a handful people in Malaysia like this stupid event called april fool. They are mostly the teens.

Hehe. I guess it seems silly to people who don't have the holiday in their country. It's a very European informal holiday after all.

What i meant is the ASEAN meeting which is conducting in English and we need to fork out the tax payer money to pay for the translation. If the Reps are equipped with two languages, one of their nation and one esperanto, we saved the paper and we save the money.

Well, not necessarily. It's rather problematic, since all the reps speaking Esperanto will alienate them from their home countries. The SE Asia region is largely made of developing countries, and so using Esperanto officially there might be risky for countries that haven't got the inertia to keep developing without having to cooperate heavily with the more developed nations of the world. So, the adoption of Esperanto would probably have to happen on a wider scale, so the small growing EO community in SE Asia isn't alienated.

Of course, English would need to be regulated somehow. It amazes me how much English is used amongst youngsters from SE Asia... But introducing a common language that reflects the needs and culture of the region, it is a very big conundrum... Anyway, that's my part of playing the devil's advocate, I can't think of any more issues at the moment that might need thought over...

ceigered:
Well, not necessarily. It's rather problematic, since all the reps speaking Esperanto will alienate them from their home countries. The SE Asia region is largely made of developing countries, and so using Esperanto officially there might be risky for countries that haven't got the inertia to keep developing without having to cooperate heavily with the more developed nations of the world. So, the adoption of Esperanto would probably have to happen on a wider scale, so the small growing EO community in SE Asia isn't alienated.

I don't understand what alination would occur. Aren't Esperantists are promoting Esperanto for a common cause ?

If the people of ASEAN can have a common language, how life will be changed, from difficult to easy. No matter where we travel, we don't have to worry about the communication problem. The Thais can communicate with the Singaporeans, Malaysians, Loas etc. In their respective countires, they speak their languages.

I hope you understand the geographical situation. Not just you know the Bahasa Indonesian you know the ASEAN. I have observed you in many posts, you kept on using Bahasa Indonesia and telling the readers you know this much and that much.

Please pardon me for speaking my minds. I love your frindly nature to help many people here on the forum, sometimes, we need to support with the facts. The facts are changing faster thant the speed of light.

Gxis.

EoMy:I don't understand what alination would occur. Aren't Esperantists are promoting Esperanto for a common cause ?

It would alienate the people who have never heard of Esperanto nor heard of it. In the end, to accomodate for them, we'd maybe need to translate anyway. No matter how hard we sell Esperanto, we can't convince everyone, at least not straight away.

If the people of ASEAN can have a common language, how life will be changed, from difficult to easy. No matter where we travel, we don't have to worry about the communication problem. The Thais can communicate with the Singaporeans, Malaysians, Loas etc. In their respective countires, they speak their languages.

I do agree that speaking a common language would be easier but a unified language wouldn't do to well I'd imagine. There is too many differences between all those countries politically and socially, and that would undermine any efforts to bring in a common language. And would it not also upset those worried about cultural invasion from the west? To them, Esperanto might be just as bad as English, only easier to learn.

We need a strategy that allows these people to be included somehow I think. But that is a difficult challenge, as we've seen in Europe, where Esperanto can still be considered a fringe hobby and not very popular. What unifying force can we use with ASEAN, and how can we get many people included? A more disturbing question for us might be, is Esperanto really necessary? Is there another language, or communication strategy that we could use.

I hope you understand the geographical situation. Not just you know the Bahasa Indonesian you know the ASEAN. I have observed you in many posts, you kept on using Bahasa Indonesia and telling the readers you know this much and that much.

Please pardon me for speaking my minds. I love your frindly nature to help many people here on the forum, sometimes, we need to support with the facts. The facts are changing faster thant the speed of light.

I do not mind. It is important for us to discuss this no doubt, as it saves later generations from having to - provided they bother reading these posts . I unfortunately am very much still unlearned about the region though, so I do not fully understand how close ASEAN is. I assume though it is less close together than the European Union, since I do not see much military cooperation between member states. Possibly the environment is not ready for that, since South East Asia is politically sandwiched between the US and China, and that might make things harder.

(also, I forgot to mention this, but we must also consider that if Esperanto does become the common language, what will happen to the translators previously employed to translate for governments. I would feel sorry for them, without jobs...)

ceigered:I assume though it is less close together than the European Union, since I do not see much military cooperation between member states. Possibly the environment is not ready for that, since South East Asia is politically sandwiched between the US and China, and that might make things harder.

Many have forgotten now, but for former Australian PM was talking up the idea of an 'Asian Union' along the lines of the EU just a few years ago. (It was scolded as a 'thought bubble'.) Such a union is probably very far away as yet, but people are talking about it and thinking about it.

(also, I forgot to mention this, but we must also consider that if Esperanto does become the common language, what will happen to the translators previously employed to translate for governments. I would feel sorry for them, without jobs...)

Recently I was surprised to read a newspaper article criticizing the Japanese govt. for not having an English-speaking foreign minister, nor any English-fluent minister, who could talk to the international media during the recent crisis. The article said that although a good translator was on hand, it would be better for international people if they heard the words from the horse's mouth, due to the loss of nuance, feeling, etc. when words are translated. Goodness me, what a thing to complain about! And that poor translator, who slaved for years to become super-fluent in English, to get a complaint like that.

I rest my case here as the thread is going away from the main topics.

Just before I ended this, ASEAN is aimed at economy cooperation but not military exercise. But the EKA Esperanto-Kongreso ASOAN is under way. If we are so passive, thus it never be happening.

One region and the next region is not the same in political and cultural. What the west cannot achieve does not meant the east cannot do it. Words of encouragement should be a bliss rather than having worries for unforseen affairs. The worries do not come up with analysis. What is the point of saying so.

The translator can switch job, be a teacher or translate the books into the esperanto from their mother tongue. Do we say what will happen to the tobacco company that should be close down and many people will be jobless and tobacco company should be remained in operation.

It needs to have someone to learn the Japanese language or the journalists bring their own translators. Thus, a common language should be an vital item to consider. Now, the west is all the time demanding A and B but why not they also do something that the East C and D.

Isn't esperanto meant for international communication ?

For those who like to know better of ASEAN, welcome to fly airasia.

EoMy:The translator can switch job, be a teacher or translate the books into the esperanto from their mother tongue. Do we say what will happen to the tobacco company that should be close down and many people will be jobless and tobacco company should be remained in operation.

Except cigarettes and smoking kill people, translators (normally) don't . But, how would you feel if your government said "OK, we're going to do something that's going to take away your job, because we no longer need it" (provided you like or need your particular job)?

We could say that with the internet teachers are now useless and they should all change jobs, but it's not a very nice way to deal with the issue. Translators normally have a passion for language, and for acting as a mediator, or standing between two people of different languages and understanding the two sides of the story, so I'm sure they'd like to continue doing that rather than being told "sorry, you're evil, go find another job".

I'd might be working towards translation, I don't want to be left in a world where we don't need them

So, there's a lot of jobs out there in the world we 'don't need'. But they exist because people like those jobs, or because people don't want to do things the hard way and want someone else to do them. It might not be "perfect" but I don't want everything to be perfect...

Like I said before though, that's one side of the story. We must weigh that up with the other sides.