ESPERANTO
In the last few years, I have developed an afinity to languages. I was raised in Costa Rica, speaking Spanish and at home we spoke both Mandarin and Taiwanese. We were fortunate enough to attend private schools that were trilingual. Besides Spanish, we had to learn English and French. I am not as fluent in Mandarin as I am in French, and I am not as fluent in French as I am in Spanish. Spanish has a slight similitude to Portuguese and Italian, so I tend to pick up on these last two fairly well.
In August of 2002 I was living in Masirah, an island off the coast of the Sultanate of Oman in the Middle East. I worked very closely with people from India, Pakistan, and the natives from Oman. So it was then when I took interest in learning very basic Arabic and Hindi. I am still disappointed that I did not go beyond what I needed to know in order to survive while there. But I was only there for three months and most of the locals knew English anyways. I think both Arabic and Hindi are extremely fascinating, but extremely difficult as well.
I have encountered several moments in my life at different levels, personal and professional, where I was thankful to know several languages. I would like to say that because of such skill I have saved lives and I am a financially secure, but that's not quite the case.
So in my efforts to stay awake on my working marathon this holiday week, I have been researching about languages over the internet. Google is such an amazing tool! I've heard about Esperanto before, but I didn't know much about it. I've heard a couple of songs from a Mexican pop group called Kabbah and they had a couple of really good songs in Esperanto. It sounds like a fascinating language, apparently easy to learn and it is very "international".
Here's what I found:
Americans have long heard the cliche that "Wherever you go, people speak English." In fact, at most ten percent of the world speaks English! Often, in other countries, only people in the best hotels of the largest cities can use English, and even they are often not very fluent. Anyone who has visited a foreign country and struggled with the language barriers understands this. Americans are at last discovering what the rest of the world has long known: there is a real need for an international language.
Fortunately, there is such a language... Its name is Esperanto. It was created by Dr. Ludwig L. Zamenhof, a Polish physician, who published it in 1887. Of the many projects and proposals for an international language over the centuries, Esperanto is the only one that has stood the test of time and is being spoken today. It is in daily use by millions of people all over the world, and the number is growing constantly.
Many international meetings are held in Esperanto. Some of the largest international firms put on special advertising campaigns in Esperanto. Hotels, restaurants and tourist resorts compete for the patronage of the Esperanto-speaking traveler.
Esperanto's impressive success as the language of international communication is due to three basic advantages. It is easy to learn. It is politically neutral. And it has many practical uses.
Esperanto is much easier to learn than any other language. In fact, it can be learned in a quarter of the time needed to learn a national language! The spelling is easy: each letter has exactly one sound. The pronunciation is easy: there are no strange combinations of letters to create new sounds, and the accent is always on the next to last syllable. The grammar is easy: there are only sixteen basic rules, with no exceptions. (That means, for example, that there are no irregular verbs.) The vocabulary is easy, too: many international words are used, such as telefono (telephone), biologio (biology), and matematiko (mathematics). Esperanto gives a very "natural" impression in spoken or written use; and, because of its high ratio of vowels to consonants, it is often said to resemble Spanish or Italian.
Esperanto also uses prefixes, suffixes, and interchangeable endings to reduce the number of words to be learned.
In short, Esperanto has been rationally constructed for ease of learning. This has made it especially popular with busy men and women who cannot spend years learning a foreign language, which would be useful in only a small part of the world.
Esperanto is neutral... The second major reason for Esperanto's success is that it is neutral. It belongs to no one country. Many people in America and England say that English is already spoken so widely and is such an "important" language in the world that it should be officially adopted by all nations as the international language. This view is very unpopular in many countries.
This attitude is not merely because English is one of the most difficult languages to learn. The newer nations of Africa and Asia are very reluctant to accept English (or any major language) for international communication because of the political overtones.
The Western nations have also shown their sensitivity to questions of linguistic equality.
Esperanto is not the property of any one nation, group of nations, or social class. It belongs to everyone. It has no political or historical implications to hinder its acceptance. Every person who uses Esperanto is on an equal linguistic footing with all other Esperantists. Esperanto's popularity in smaller nations and in Asian countries, such as Japan, is largely due to this neutrality. This promotes a spirit of friendship and brotherhood among Esperantists which is quite impressive to everyone who sees it in use.
Interesting, huh? After reading about it, I have decided that I would love to learn it, it has all the basics from other languages that I already know. There are some free basic courses online and they seem fairly easy. I just signed up for one and I am ready to add it to my resumé.
In August of 2002 I was living in Masirah, an island off the coast of the Sultanate of Oman in the Middle East. I worked very closely with people from India, Pakistan, and the natives from Oman. So it was then when I took interest in learning very basic Arabic and Hindi. I am still disappointed that I did not go beyond what I needed to know in order to survive while there. But I was only there for three months and most of the locals knew English anyways. I think both Arabic and Hindi are extremely fascinating, but extremely difficult as well.
I have encountered several moments in my life at different levels, personal and professional, where I was thankful to know several languages. I would like to say that because of such skill I have saved lives and I am a financially secure, but that's not quite the case.
So in my efforts to stay awake on my working marathon this holiday week, I have been researching about languages over the internet. Google is such an amazing tool! I've heard about Esperanto before, but I didn't know much about it. I've heard a couple of songs from a Mexican pop group called Kabbah and they had a couple of really good songs in Esperanto. It sounds like a fascinating language, apparently easy to learn and it is very "international".
Here's what I found:
Americans have long heard the cliche that "Wherever you go, people speak English." In fact, at most ten percent of the world speaks English! Often, in other countries, only people in the best hotels of the largest cities can use English, and even they are often not very fluent. Anyone who has visited a foreign country and struggled with the language barriers understands this. Americans are at last discovering what the rest of the world has long known: there is a real need for an international language.
Fortunately, there is such a language... Its name is Esperanto. It was created by Dr. Ludwig L. Zamenhof, a Polish physician, who published it in 1887. Of the many projects and proposals for an international language over the centuries, Esperanto is the only one that has stood the test of time and is being spoken today. It is in daily use by millions of people all over the world, and the number is growing constantly.
Many international meetings are held in Esperanto. Some of the largest international firms put on special advertising campaigns in Esperanto. Hotels, restaurants and tourist resorts compete for the patronage of the Esperanto-speaking traveler.
Esperanto's impressive success as the language of international communication is due to three basic advantages. It is easy to learn. It is politically neutral. And it has many practical uses.
Esperanto is much easier to learn than any other language. In fact, it can be learned in a quarter of the time needed to learn a national language! The spelling is easy: each letter has exactly one sound. The pronunciation is easy: there are no strange combinations of letters to create new sounds, and the accent is always on the next to last syllable. The grammar is easy: there are only sixteen basic rules, with no exceptions. (That means, for example, that there are no irregular verbs.) The vocabulary is easy, too: many international words are used, such as telefono (telephone), biologio (biology), and matematiko (mathematics). Esperanto gives a very "natural" impression in spoken or written use; and, because of its high ratio of vowels to consonants, it is often said to resemble Spanish or Italian.
Esperanto also uses prefixes, suffixes, and interchangeable endings to reduce the number of words to be learned.
In short, Esperanto has been rationally constructed for ease of learning. This has made it especially popular with busy men and women who cannot spend years learning a foreign language, which would be useful in only a small part of the world.
Esperanto is neutral... The second major reason for Esperanto's success is that it is neutral. It belongs to no one country. Many people in America and England say that English is already spoken so widely and is such an "important" language in the world that it should be officially adopted by all nations as the international language. This view is very unpopular in many countries.
This attitude is not merely because English is one of the most difficult languages to learn. The newer nations of Africa and Asia are very reluctant to accept English (or any major language) for international communication because of the political overtones.
The Western nations have also shown their sensitivity to questions of linguistic equality.
Esperanto is not the property of any one nation, group of nations, or social class. It belongs to everyone. It has no political or historical implications to hinder its acceptance. Every person who uses Esperanto is on an equal linguistic footing with all other Esperantists. Esperanto's popularity in smaller nations and in Asian countries, such as Japan, is largely due to this neutrality. This promotes a spirit of friendship and brotherhood among Esperantists which is quite impressive to everyone who sees it in use.
Interesting, huh? After reading about it, I have decided that I would love to learn it, it has all the basics from other languages that I already know. There are some free basic courses online and they seem fairly easy. I just signed up for one and I am ready to add it to my resumé.
posted by George CP Lin at 7:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home