Should Esperanto be a compulsory world wide second language?

Question

If so, would international understanding change and a new more peaceful world emerge?

Answer 1

No. But I recognize that, if an existing language were to be used as a compulsory second language, that there would always be the difficulty and politics of choosing one language over another. But thinking in terms of the wealth of languages out there, wouldn't it be unfortunate to have to learn a fabricated language? One with no real cultural or historical richness? Even if Esperanto would be easier to learn than many other languages, it would still be significantly more difficult for a Japanese person to learn than a Spanish person. In which case, who is to say that a fabricated language like Esperanto should resemble European languages more than Asian or African? In the end it almost seems that deciding on what kind of fabricated language would be used would be just as complicated as choosing an existing language to use.

Finally, I think that culture is probably the biggest barrier to world peace. A common language would certainly make things easier, but it takes a lot more than speaking, say arabic, to understand muslim culture or speaking Chinese to understand Asian values. It would help! But it wouldn't be the answer in and of itself.

Answer 2

I think have an international auxiliary language like Esperanto would be a wonderful thing. There are two big problems, however:

(1) Getting people to agree on what language would be chosen -- even choosing among the constructed languages like Esperanto, Reformed Esperanto, Ido, Volapuk, etc. -- would be difficult. Esperanto is the most popular at this point, but it has some very vocal detractors.

(2) More importantly, citizens of the USA are, by and large, resistant to learning other languages. Your typical American never has to interact with anybody in another country, has little to no interest in such interactions, and doesn't like being told that he "has" to do anything he doesn't want to, like pay taxes, keep his cigarette smoke out of the lungs of others, recycle, or put his child in a safety seat.

Answer 3

Of course!

"Experiments have been carried out on so-called propaedeutic Esperanto, i.e. the theory that teaching of Esperanto to first-year language learners, before they embark upon (for example) French or English, makes the learning of these languages more effective. What Helmar Frank's research at Paderborn and for the San Marino International Academy of Sciences shows is that one year of Esperanto in school, which produces a communication ability equivalent to what the average pupil reaches in other European languages after six to seven years of study, accelerates and improves the learning of other languages after Esperanto. The propaedeutic value of Esperanto was described for the first time by Antoni Grabowski in an article of 1908."

Answer 4

What would be the point. If Esperanto ever *did* become a popular language around the world, within a generation, it would have different dialects. Within 2 generations, it would have non-mutually-intelligible dialects. Within 1000 years, nobody would understand anyone else again. And that's only if you could *get* everyone to agree to speak the same language to begin with!!

During the first generation, Esperanto wouldn't be *anyone's* first language, so they wouldn't be able to use it to communicate clearly the way they do their first language.

And during the second generation, there would *still* be war everywhere you looked. Most wars are between 2 groups that *do* speak the same language. Look at Northern Ireland or Lebanon. The Vietnam war. The Korean war. *Any* civil war. Language is *not* related to war in the way you would like to believe.

Answer 5

The idea has merit, but Esperanto seems to have been given up on years ago. English has largely taken over as the great second language today. My ambition was to learn to speak Esperanto like a native...

Answer 6

heck no.

I am all for the world communciating with some common language, but Esperanto is incredibly latin based. That would ignore the awesome institutions of non latin languages, (that is to say japanese and greek) which are highly aesthetic as languages

any world wide languages would have to come by naturally and by mixing every known language together, because I have not seen a single constructed language that isnt' heavily based off another, (which is usually latin).

and english is at the very very bottom of the list of languages I think the world should speak i my book. much less a single country, it's too spastic and irregular, to an english speaker, the thought of a society that actually enjoys their own languge, that find beauty in their words is unknown, and hardly fathomable to the anglophone.

Answer 7

No, and maybe. It would take many, many years for that to come to fruition. The problem is the differences in educational systems and quality throughout the world. many children don't even attend school in poor countries. The western world would continue to thrive with or without a compulsory second language for everyone, while the underdeveloped world would still not have that advantage. So, most things would stay the same.

Answer 8

couldnt we all learn english insted of esperanto :)

but yeah, an international language would create unitity, which, in theory, creates peace.

but people would probably prefer thier own language over esperanto, causing it to be rarely used, unless it was enforced in schools and other places, kinda like in canada

Answer 9

making languages compulsory doesn't work. people resent a language which is actively imposed on them. your plan would finally kill off an already ailing artificial language.

and esperanto is nowhere near as culture-independent a language as ll zamenhof intended it to be. it is clearly european in origin and assumptions. in fact any spanish speaker would be able to understand large chunks of it without any prior familiarity with the language.

ho mia kor' ne batu maltrankvile
el mia brusto nun ne saltu for'
jam teni min ne povas mi facile
ho mia kor'!

Answer 10

No, I'm really bad at learning languages! Really, I got all U's at school. If everyone was speaking esperanto I'll be all left out with no one to talk to!!!