Esperanto...what a thing?

Question

It was supposed to be a universal languaje (for humans!!) but, does anyone speak or teach it??

Answer 1

all the european capitals have esperanto clubs and esperanto cafés - and so do many smaller cities. if you are an esperantisto yourself you can get lists of where esperanto is spoken in europe (and most other places on earth) and you will always have somewhere you know you can stay and eat whichever country you are in.

with a little more effort you can also do this with english of course - but the trouble with english is that wherever you are you meet only other english speakers. if you are truly interested in meeting people from other countries esperanto is a better choice.

the best thing of all is to speak the language of the country where you are. but if you are in (say) latvia you will find the language is hugely useful in vilnius but no use at all once you reach talinn.

esperanto had a very limited success as an international language, but if you believe english is an international language i am afraid you are just deceiving yourself.

Answer 2

Mi parolas la internacian lingvon!

Esperanto is a language, but not of any country or ethnic group: it is a neutral, international language.

"it has enjoyed continuous usage by a community estimated at between 100,000 and 2 million speakers."
According to Ethnologue.com, there are "200–2000 who speak Esperanto as a first language."

"Esperanto is considerably easier to learn than national languages, since its design is far simpler and more regular. Also, unlike national languages, Esperanto allows communication on an equal footing between people, with neither having the usual cultural advantage favouring a native speaker.

Esperanto's purpose is not to replace any other language, but to supplement them: Esperanto would be used as a neutral language when speaking with someone who doesn't know one's own language. The use of Esperanto would also protect minority languages, which would have a better chance of survival than in a world dominated by a few powerful languages."

"Several research studies demonstrate that studying Esperanto before another foreign language speeds and improves learning the other language."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaedeutic_value_of_Esperanto


Some links:

Info:
http://www.2-2.se
http://www.esperanto.net/
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/esperanto
http://claudepiron.free.fr/articles.htm

Courses:
http://www.lernu.net
http://www.cursodeesperanto.com.br/
http://pacujo.net/esperanto/course/
http://www.institutoesperanto.com.ar/

Quotes:
http://www.amuzulo.net/quotes.html

Wikipedia in esperanto:
http://eo.wikipedia.org

News in esperanto:
http://raporto.info/
http://es.chinabroadcast.cn/gj/
http://www.liberafolio.org/
http://gxangalo.com/

How To Talk Dirty In Esperanto:
http://mindprod.com/esperanto/dirty.html :-P

Answer 3

Esperanto is supposed to have over 2 million speakers worldwide. While you can still find people who teach Esperanto, and people interested in learning, it is largely a "dead" language today because English is serving the purpose for which it was invented.

You can find out a lot more about Esperanto, including where to take lessons at:

http://www.esperanto.net

Answer 4

I thought they used it as a go-between for computer translations... So if you were translating something from English to French, the computer would translate from English to Esperanto, and then Esperanto to French.

Answer 5

It was created with simple rules, they said that you could speak that language in 3 months. But nowadays the English is like the universal language. It's the at least 2nd offficial language in most of the counties.

Answer 6

It was supposed to be a universal language, but it didn't take off too well. I'm sure there are some books that could help you learn it.

Answer 7

Don't scoff at it ... a brave (European) experiment that failed.

I'm sure millions learnt it in the nineteen fifties. They were all idealists who realized they had little to gain personally.

The lesson - for human languages, you can't create something artificial.