Anyone learning Esperanto?

OP

Only because they aren't as open minded as people like me. We Esperanto speakers are a unique bunch.

Reply 3

Purple Giraffe

12

I'm not going to state my opinion on Esperanto, I just want to know why you're interested in learning it. Is it to help you with other languages or to talk to other Esperanto speakers?

Reply 4

OP

Original post by helzz94

I'm not going to state my opinion on Esperanto, I just want to know why you're interested in learning it. Is it to help you with other languages or to talk to other Esperanto speakers?

Both those reasons are part of why I am learning Esperanto. But I also like the ideal of having a worldwide, universal language that will help connect the human race and break down barriers between different countries, cultures and races, thus making the world a better place.

Of course, this is an ideal....but if everyone in the world could speak Esperanto in addition to their native tongue, the world would be a better place for it.

In order to reach this goal of a universal language, it requires ordinary people such as you and I to learn Esperanto. There is a saying: 'be the change you want to see', so by learning Esperanto, I am doing my part in helping achieve this goal and to make the world a better place.

Esperanto is also a beautiful language, and meeting other Esperanto speakers is always a joy (many people from young to old speak the language now). Plus there are many good books, songs, radio shows, films and tv shows in Esperanto nowadays. And thanks to the internet, the worldwide community of Esperanto speakers is growing rapidly.

Reply 5

I can tell you I'd never learn Esperanto, and I'm a keen linguist. Languages have histories, cultures, peoples and sometimes states attached to them. That's what makes them interesting for me to learn. Esperanto doesn't entice me one bit :smile:

This isn't a post bashing Esperanto by the way, just my personal opinion towards learning it.

Reply 6

OP

What a bunch of *****. I get negative rep and a load of abuse just because I try and do something good for the world by learning Esperanto.

To anyone who doesn't want to learn Esperanto for these silly reasons you made up, you loss.

Reply 7

Original post by Raving_Hippy

What a bunch of *****. I get negative rep and a load of abuse just because I try and do something good for the world by learning Esperanto.

To anyone who doesn't want to learn Esperanto for these silly reasons you made up, you loss.

You moan about people negging you, yet you just quite clearly just negged me for giving my opinion. Hypocritical or what.

Reply 8

But yeah, seeing as you were rude and didn't respect others opinions. Esperanto is a pointless and cultureless language. If you wanna learn it, good for you, but I don't see 'what good you're doing for the world' by learning it. I rarely call languages pointless (as I genuinely believe the vast majority aren't), but I'd go as far as to say Esperanto is a pointless language.

Reply 9

OP

Original post by Gales

You moan about people negging you, yet you just quite clearly just negged me for giving my opinion. Hypocritical or what.

No, it's not hypocritical mate. Your opinion was ****, it was wrong and was worthy of a neg. Mine wasn't, as I tried my best to give a decent answer.

Reply 10

OP

Original post by Gales

But yeah, seeing as you were rude and didn't respect others opinions. Esperanto is a pointless and cultureless language. If you wanna learn it, good for you, but I don't see 'what good you're doing for the world' by learning it. I rarely call languages pointless (as I genuinely believe the vast majority aren't), but I'd go as far as to say Esperanto is a pointless language.

Esperanto isn't pointless. The point of Esperanto is to create a worldwide language. The point of language is communication, and the goal of Esperanto is to encourage worldwide communication.

It's not meant to be a culture language....it is SUPPOSED to transcend culture and allow easy communication BETWEEN different cultures. That's the point that you missed.

Reply 11

username451352

11

Original post by Gales

But yeah, seeing as you were rude and didn't respect others opinions. Esperanto is a pointless and cultureless language. If you wanna learn it, good for you, but I don't see 'what good you're doing for the world' by learning it. I rarely call languages pointless (as I genuinely believe the vast majority aren't), but I'd go as far as to say Esperanto is a pointless language.

I'd rep you if I wasn't out for the day.

Original post by Raving_Hippy

No, it's not hypocritical mate. Your opinion was ****, it was wrong and was worthy of a neg. Mine wasn't, as I tried my best to give a decent answer.

Personally, I'd say that the reason why you got negged is not because people think Esperanto is a bad thing to learn (personally, I'd wonder why, even if the world needs a universal language, it should be Esperanto), but merely because you come over as being a prick.

Gales' point is good - much of what makes a language interesting is its history. I for example find it fascinating that were I to learn Icelandic, I'd be able to read the old norse sagas without translating them first. If the purpose of language is simply to facilitate easy communication, then there needn't be a requirement of Esperanto, especially when it would require years of study by around 6.999 billion people. By learning Esperanto, you are by no means helping the world communicate universally, because noone speaks Esperanto anyway. You will break down far more language barriers by learning a language such as Spanish. Esperanto was created in order to be an apolitical method of communication - we seem to be getting along just fine at the moment. The only benefit of Esperanto as it stands is that Esperanto is utterly apolitical - which most people don't seem to care about!

Original post by Raving_Hippy

Esperanto isn't pointless. The point of Esperanto is to create a worldwide language. The point of language is communication, and the goal of Esperanto is to encourage worldwide communication.

It's not meant to be a culture language....it is SUPPOSED to transcend culture and allow easy communication BETWEEN different cultures. That's the point that you missed.

Unless a large country adopts Esperanto as its primary language, there is no more point learning to communicate in Esperanto than there is in learning Klingon - both are artificial languages, and both are spoken by few.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 12

Original post by Bakes0011

Esperanto was created in order to be an apolitical method of communication - we seem to be getting along just fine at the moment. The only benefit of Esperanto as it stands is that Esperanto is utterly apolitical - which most people don't seem to care about!

Exactly! Most people don't give two hoots about politics and language. People learn languages because of the cultures, history, peoples and regions attached to them. There's just no incentive to learn the Esperanto, other than to be unique and 'cool'.

Reply 13

OP

Closest minded biggots with nothing better to do than spout bull**** stereotypes about Esperanto as your usual excuses for not bothering to learn it.

Again, Esperanto is a beautiful language created with the ideal of making the world more connected. Anyone who dismisses Esperanto misses the point.

Reply 14

Original post by Raving_Hippy

Closest minded biggots with nothing better to do than spout bull**** stereotypes about Esperanto as your usual excuses for not bothering to learn it.

Again, Esperanto is a beautiful language created with the ideal of making the world more connected. Anyone who dismisses Esperanto misses the point.

Why create a language when there's plenty of other beautiful natural language out there to learn which actually have real advantages and uses?

Reply 15

toronto353

19

Original post by Raving_Hippy

Esperanto isn't pointless. The point of Esperanto is to create a worldwide language. The point of language is communication, and the goal of Esperanto is to encourage worldwide communication.

It's not meant to be a culture language....it is SUPPOSED to transcend culture and allow easy communication BETWEEN different cultures. That's the point that you missed.

I'd argue that the bits in bold are exactly why people don't learn it. Language is natural and evolves over time as there is a clear need for the language to evolve. A culture-less language (as it is essentially since it transcends language) is rather pointless because language is so deeply rooted in culture. It's almost oxymoronic to suggest a culture-less language.

Furthermore, you sort of have worldwide communication with English, Mandarin (there are quite a few speakers though concentrated to be fair) and Spanish among others so there's little need to have another language in there. A lot of people speak one (if not more than one) of those languages. How many people speak Esperanto.

Reply 16

OP

Original post by toronto353

A culture-less language (as it is essentially since it transcends language) is rather pointless because language is so deeply rooted in culture. It's almost oxymoronic to suggest a culture-less language.

No it's not. The point of a culture-less language is to create ease of communication BETWEEN cultures. You know, to solve the problem of language barriers once and for all. What's so hard to understand about that?

Original post by toronto353

Furthermore, you sort of have worldwide communication with English, Mandarin (there are quite a few speakers though concentrated to be fair) and Spanish among others so there's little need to have another language in there. A lot of people speak one (if not more than one) of those languages.

Not everyone in the world speaks either English or Mandarin. They are not the 'universal languages' that everybody seem to believe they are.

Original post by toronto353

How many people speak Esperanto.

How many people speak Esperanto depends upon how many people will open their mind and take the time to learn it. The goal is to have everyone in the world, or at least as many people as possible, speaking Esperanto, so it can achieve it's goal of being the universal language.

Reply 17

OP

Original post by Gales

Why create a language when there's plenty of other beautiful natural language out there to learn which actually have real advantages and uses?

If everyone in the world learned Esperanto, it would be THE most useful language of all, because it could be used in EVERY country in the world.

Most languages are only spoken in one, or a handful, of countries. The goal of Esperanto is that it can be spoken EVERYWHERE.

Reply 18

Original post by Raving_Hippy

If everyone in the world learned Esperanto, it would be THE most useful language of all, because it could be used in EVERY country in the world.

Most languages are only spoken in one, or a handful, of countries. The goal of Esperanto is that it can be spoken EVERYWHERE.

No one cares about it, let's be honest. It'll never take off. 90% of people wouldn't have even heard of the language.

Reply 19