The Japanese linguist and Esperantist Tsvi Sadan in his blog has an encouraging entry about Esperanto, in which he quotes from Zamenhof's famous essay Esenco kaj Estonteco de la Lingvo internacia.

I have to disagree with what he says about English. I feel that someone will always have a free ride with widely spoken international languages, and in my opinion that includes Esperanto if it ever gets to the stage of development where there are an unprecedented amount of native speakers. I don't think it's necessarily something worth fighting against either, since it's the way the human world works.

Other than that though, meh, all's good I guess!

What exactly do you disagree with - is it his saying that the situation is unfair, or some other statement?

Miland:What exactly do you disagree with - is it his saying that the situation is unfair, or some other statement?

I'll copy it below:

Tsvi:Actually, the situation has even worsened since then with the ever intensifying hegemony of English, especially its US variety. Not being a native speaker of (American) English, I find the present situation totally unfair, as its native speakers are enjoying a kind of linguistic "free ride". I am also fully aware how absurd it is that I am writing this very blog entry in English.

The bit about "worsened", sort of the bit about "unfair" (fairness is an abstract, relative thing so it's hard to say that he's emotions he's describing don't exist, so I can't truly "disagree" there), and thus the sort of disapproving attitude to the status of English, which I feel makes things sound worse than they actually are, and exaggerates the power that the average English speaker (not a social or economic elite) has.

We're only human too, if it wasn't English that many in the world spoke, then we're simply do what non-English speakers do today and learn the world's most popular language. I don't think that's necessarily a bad situation as much as it is a fact of life of sorts (of course, some facts of life are not so quite as desirable, and not so much fact ).

Anyway, I apologise since I've digressed a lot here and made it sound like I dislike the blog or the writer's opinions, which isn't what I meant to do