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[–] dare_you_to_be_real 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

Dude obviously has way more time and effort invested in Esperanto than I probably ever will, so it's hard to really criticize him. If I went to an Esperanto convention, I'd expect everyone to speak Esperanto, or at least try to. Getting mad at that would be like going to an Apple convention and expecting their to be Linux or Windows booths. I'm not a linguist. Most topics of study came pretty easy to me, but despite growing up in foreign countries, I always had trouble with languages. I think that I will be able to pick up Esperanto. I will continue to try for some months. If I was expected to learn a totally different foreign language, I don't think that I could. I know that languages are one of the gateways into different cultures, but I don't think you have to have any fluency in some places language to get a lot out of a short visit.

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[–] LimeGreenTeknii 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago  (edited ago)

It's easy for him to say to learn a national language instead of Esperanto. Sure, it's one thing to learn Spanish if you live in the southern United States to speak with all the hispanics there. But what if you live in Europe near a border, and you're near three, four, or five different language communities? Most people have trouble learning one new language. If they don't, it's another thing to keep at it and become fluent.

Then imagine if you want to travel all over the world. Or imagine a convention for people all over the world. Sure, it's a good idea to sometimes speak English, or whatever language is easiest. But sometimes, I'm just going to meet someone who I have no languages in common with. Even if I did find an Esperantist from Russia who spoke a bit of English, it might be easier to just speak Esperanto if he's more fluent in it.

Esperanto isn't just an international language. It's also a practice language, since it's so easy. Consider this: What's the easiest way to convince a child he isn't meant to become a musician? Teach him the bassoon, or another difficult musical instrument. He'll fail and say, "Nope, it's too hard. I'm not musical." Instead, that's why we teach children recorders or bells in music class. That way, they can learn about rhythm and harmony on something easy first.

It's not just that Esperanto is easier to learn on, either. It also borrows its words from French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, English, German, and Russian. If you learn French after Esperanto, you'll recognize a ton of words. In fact, it might take less time to learn Esperanto and French than it would to learn just French.

I want to see this guy get back into the Esperanto community. He could be the change he wants to see. In fact, he might be happy to find that a lot of Esperantists already are learning other languages. I mean, Esperantists like learning languages and grammar already, so it's not a huge surprise.

I'd also tell him to do whatever to make krokodili not much of a taboo. Just relax when two English speakers just want to practice their Esperanto together, though. The easiest language to speak together isn't always the preferred one. Just make sure everyone is being considerate and agrees on the language of the conversation.

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[–] Aramande ago 

I honestly disagree that English is any better at being an intermediary language. I live in Sweden, and have lived in Sweden for all my life. We begin to learn English alongside Swedish from 1st grade.

One big problem that I see quite often, is people moving in from other countries with no knowledge of Swedish. Some of them want to learn, but end up having a very difficult time. Because as soon as a Swedish person hears that accent or realize you're missing vocabulary, he's very likely to switch over to English mode, just to make things easier. This means very little speech practice is available. It is still possible to learn Swedish, by (probably) years of self study.

No, I'd rather argue that Esperanto is a better language, because it makes everyone more equal. If you go to a country, and speak Esperanto with the locals, then sure, you will continue speaking Esperanto, but you'll have a very hard time with locals that don't know Esperanto or English (or any other language that you don't have in common). Esperanto can be used as a bridge between languages, because neither of you are local Esperantists, and if you're curious of how to say something in their language, you could just ask them about it. The only reason you'd have for not learning their language would be because you were not interested in their language.

I utterly love languages, whether they written for a computer program, or spoken with a friend on the other side of the world.