Why Esperanto?

[LooksAeterna]

Here's the relevant part of my original comment:

It's good to have fun playing with Esperanto. However:

1. ( 1:00 - 1:23 ) Esperanto is hardly free of cultural bias: ask the Chinese or Japanese.

2. ( 3:30 - 4:00 ) It would be worse to destroy all grown languages than to destroy all except one.

3. I think most people do not even know (how to properly use) their own language and should be burdened with as little other languages as possible.

[LooksAeterna]

@KapStuf "The question is not whether it's culturally neutral"

Well, regarding the truth value of my comment on 1:00 - 1:23, THAT IS in fact the only question. Whether that question is important or not is another subject.

"but whether it's adequate to communication across cultures."

For that we wouldn't need Esperanto over English, not that I am advocating anglo-saxon hegemony, mind you. But if the Chinese will prefer Esperanto over English - I am all for it. I doubt it though.

[LooksAeterna]

Dear readers, there is a set of trolls who are obviously bent on wasting my time and energy wherever I post and who, instead of using rational argumentation, revert to a malicious mix of superimpositions, ad personams and other logical fallacies and mere rhetoric (if it isn't stupidity) for what seems to mainly aim at removing the original comment from sight. Hence I deleted my prior reactions to this and merely restate my original statements. RATIONAL reactions welcome.

[LooksAeterna]

(contd.) I am sorry for having addressed this troll AGAIN and thus contaminated the commentaries of this video.

Here's the overall strategy the troll employed:

csun. edu/ ~dgw61315/ fallacies. html #Argumentum%20ad%20nauseam

Remove spaces in above line. I will not get into an analysis in the numerous logical errors that were used otherwise.

As regards 1:00 - 1:23 the Europan bias of the E-inventor remains obvious to the cognoscenti. Tough shit.

Please move on to something that matters.

[naamatt2]

@LooksAeterna

Actually, Zamenhof knew that people wouldn't want to give up their Native language, so he had an idea: Everyone will speak their native language, but Esperanto will be the L2. It's much easier than English. :-)

[mechatech70]

@LooksAeterna 1. Esperanto is easier for the majority of the world, as the majority of the world uses an alphabet.

2.Nobody wants to destroy all languages. languages are wonderful, beautiful things, and the cultures attatched to them are often wonderful. Of course, I am a linguaphile.

3. This is foolish. I am guessing you are american (as am I). This is a bad opinion. Even if you do not speak your language perfectly, it should not stop a person from learning other language. See my reply to #2.

[LooksAeterna]

@mechatech70 It is amazing how persistent people are in arguing about this totally inconsequential topic in a way that is totally irrelevant to my point.

Look: I don't give a damn what you think. I was commenting the video and am in no search of a debate.

[LooksAeterna]

@mechatech70 Now in order to help those who are too lazy or too obtuse to listen to the video I am commenting not to ejaculate another inane retort, I will point out that this "2." in my original comment was directed at

3:30 - 4:00

of the video in context of the naively favorable mention of this monster George Soros who has been walking corpses all his life starting at age 14:

sweetness-light. com/ archive/ george-soros-on-helping-the-na­zis-during-the-holocaust

Remove spaces.

[mechatech70]

@LooksAeterna For someone not looking for a debate, you seem to be setting yourself up for one. I have no desire to debate either: opinions are like a**holes, everybody's got one, and it's dam* hard to get rid of 'em.

[LooksAeterna]

@mechatech70 ...and your guess is wrong, nor am I an English native of any other kind, nor at all a friend of anglo-saxon hegemony. But given the quality of your reply, I wouldn't doubt for a moment that YOU indeed are from the US !

[mechatech70]

@LooksAeterna Given the quality of your reply, I am guessing you were raised without manners. Opinion is not evil, my friend, the world is built upon it. Learn not to insult people, but rather to politely say "I wish not to argue that point" or anything of the sort. We will listen. And yes, I am American, and proud of it, because I can show that even here in America, despite wide belief, we have more manners than the likes of you.

[LooksAeterna]

@mechatech70 Not reading properly and persistently wasting my time is already insulting. Nazis and fascho-communists often were just as formally polite as you demand, it means nothing to real humans. Look at the preceding spam-avalanche, it is high time this depravity in behavior rather than formality is being properly named after its nature.

I ask just one thing: stop wasting my time with this nonsense ! It is telling how your latest reaction again evaded all relevant points.

[nakedmambo]

@LooksAeterna Such arrogance. The list of claims above is neither original nor as catastrophic to Esperanto as you seem to think. The European vocabulary bias is already acknowledged, the rest are mere hollow opinion; and you have the temerity to behave as though you offer something more substantial. Chiefly by reeling off a lot of bluff. The classic homo unius libri, posing as something more. You keep expressing dismay at replying, yet still do it. You have no other outlet, troll.

[LooksAeterna]

@nakedmambo "The European vocabulary bias is already acknowledged"

Not in the video, and my original comment was obviously commenting that only. So your "already" is a good clue to what your state of mind must be.

Leave me alone finally with your opinons, the pros and cons of Esperanto or the paralympics. Neither am I at all further concerned with "alternatives". All I did was comment on "1:00 - 1:23", something which though explicitly mentioned somehow continues to escape your dylsexia.

[nakedmambo]

@LooksAeterna "Leave me alone"? You're the one who returns with the same tantrum after a year's absence; and with a conspiracy theory that a gang of 'trolls' is targeting you, when two separate people have challenged you. Such melodrama. You've probably had too much of an easy ride among your social circle, with everyone treating you like a genius; people easily get self-deluded this way.

Leave everyone else alone with your tired opinions.

Was misspelling 'dyslexia' a weak joke?

[LooksAeterna]

@nakedmambo "You're the one who returns with the same tantrum after a year's absence"

That year of absence would prove to anyone with a hint of intelligence that I am returning only forced by someone replying to this totally uninteresting subject, sadly however by troll who is fighting with windmills that have nothing to do with what I said. And that is precisely why I am asking you to leave me alone.

[LooksAeterna]

@nakedmambo "misspelling 'dyslexia'"

Interesting that you cannot even distinguish misspelling from typo where the effort to get rid of you quickly brought down the l before the s. It figures that you would impute your own lack of education ontome just so you con continue wasting my energy and time.

[nakedmambo]

@LooksAeterna Kiss my arse you neurotic fool.

[nakedmambo]

@LooksAeterna No-one is asking for the destruction of natural languages and no one honestly thinks Esperanto is without cultural bias, I think the vocabulary favours romance languages.

Now to the matter of your arrogant attitude. You seem to think you have the only worthwhile angle on anything, but you're not a philosopher, you just have a photo of one as an avatar. Your weakness is demonstrated by remarks like 'try it on your grandma'; which it seems you cowardly deleted later.

[nakedmambo]

@LooksAeterna "I think most people do not even know (how to properly use) their own language and should be burdened with as little other languages as possible."

So does that mean non-English people have to be burdened with second-rate English to communicate globally? No cultural bias there eh? Ask the Chinese and the Japanese. You have no clue. Drop this pretence of aloof academia, it's a fake. Next time you use your little "red herring" phrase, try and apply it with meaning.

[Telstar85]

Saluton. Bonan videon, mi favoratas ĝin.

[nakedmambo]

@LooksAeterna You've probably moved on by now. Nonetheless I also think you're wrong. And the two chief reasons it seems Esperanto appeals to Chinese people is that English is harder than Esperanto - where applicable the results speak for themselves - and that the building of words in Esperanto is very similar to how Chinese builds words. The phonetic nature of Esperanto means it is just sounds, and limited ones at that, which appear in almost every language.

[nakedmambo]

@LooksAeterna Seems anyone who questions you is considered a "troll". Clearly you don't know the meaning of the word, and little else besides. None of your statements made any convincing arguments, so were not worth quoting. Once you get that chip off your shoulder, you might be able to engage people.

[Believer977]

@LooksAeterna Yep, you speak several languages except the actual language in question....so therefore your position is superior and the direct experience of Asians who actually speak the language in question are all wrong/stupid.......Obviously! How could I have missed that logic, lol. I shall take your suggestion since you are obviously more intelligent. I'll go waste my time with someone who mistakenly believes that sounds being similar does not = cultural bias. Good day sir, best wishes :)

[LooksAeterna]

@Believer977 A string of logical fallacies as usual.

Please study and practice Walton "Informal Logic" before speaking with me. Your behavior earned you a blocking, troll.

[Believer977]

@LooksAeterna Informal Logic? I would be interested in learning how one can logically make conclusions that Asian people who learned to speak a given language perceive a cultural bias without even getting the opinion of said people who actually speak said language fluently....and when the relevant opinions are known and are 100% to the contrary, you can still conclude that a cultural bias is indeed perceived by those people without considering that you yourself are the one who is biased....lol

[Believer977]

@LooksAeterna Native English speakers (who learned Esperanto as a secondary language) spoke with Native speakers of various Asian languages (who learned Esperanto as a secondary language, many of whom have also studied other national language). Your "obvious cultural bias" argument has been brought up many times to Asian speakers when people talk about the implications/features of Esperanto and most English speakers have heard this argument because it's such a popular fallacy. It's not true.

[Believer977]

@LooksAeterna You and I may be able to sense a similarity when learning German (like my paper vs. papier example) but people who have an Asian-like native tongue do not experience this when learning a second language, even if they are learning another Asian language. I would imagine Euro-centric people learning Esperanto may develop a vocabulary slightly faster, but due to the simplicity of the grammar and that learning one word is usually equivalent to learning 10 words, it's still simple.

[Believer977]

@LooksAeterna I'm basing my claim on conversations that a few native English speakers I know of have had with Asian speakers (chinese/japanese/koreans are among them) about this issue (using Esperanto as the medium). I was not very concise or detailed on the reason so I will explain further. Native English speakers like you and I may assume (and logically so) that because many of the roots of words in Esperanto are derived mainly from latin/euro centric words....(cont.)

[Believer977]

@LooksAeterna Chinese students studying English for 6 years (over 3k hours of class in a University) were compared to a group who studied esperanto for only 150 hours. The Esperanto speakers actually had a more fluent mastery than the Chinese attempting to learn English. It's only meant to be a common auxiliary language, not meant to replace any national language. It serves it's purpose extremely well because it's the easiest language in the world to learn, regardless of your mother tongue.

[alkantre]

persone mi sxatas la ideon de esperanto kiel alternativa NACIO cxar mia nacio (Usono) nur scipovas dauxrigi siajn priridindajn militojn kaj konstrui siajn fiajn hontomurojn.

La angla komecis per formortigo de multaj lingvoj en la britaj insuloj mem. Poste en Ameriko cxi formortigis amason da indigxenaj lingvoj, estigante lingvan unutonecon tra la tuta NordAmeriko. Cxu oni ne povas legi la skribajxon sur la muro? Baldaux gxi formortigos ecx la cxinan mandarinan!

[ErraticEcho]

mi esperas ke vi fartos bone je viaj Esperantaj studoj

(I hope you do well with your Esperanto studies)