Archived Why Esperanto Suppresses Languages Diversity (A criticism of the international language) (christopherculver.com)
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Archived Why Esperanto Suppresses Languages Diversity (A criticism of the international language) (christopherculver.com)
submitted ago by Nameless
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[–] LimeGreenTeknii 0 points 2 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.