Esperanto and Esperantists (Full Version)

A short documentary on Esperanto and the people who speak it. This film was part of a student documentary workshop held in Toronto.

If you have any questions you can contact me at soroosh@rogers.com. Enjoy the video and don't hesitate to leave comments.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Esperanto
• Documentary
• language

[Moose6960]

@Kerry1King The purpose of Esperanto is to be accessible, so that all may learn and be able to communicate their thoughts, feelings, faiths and faults. For some reason, I don't see how a more complex language can be deemed an accessible one (many languages take years to learn, while Esperanto only takes months, perhaps even weeks if you work at it).

A language isn't a failure if it isn't "beautiful". In my opinion, all languages have something about them that's beautiful.

[Crossbowman]

Sounds like a mix between German and Latin.

I definitely want to learn this some day.

[Maglevspiritualgeek]

It's taken from Latin, Germanic, & Slavic languages but the grammer is similar to eastern languages.

[notquiteginga]

Wow -- mostly just sounds like a Romance Language, like Spanish or Italian, but then sometimes I hear things I think are English! So cool...

[abaezarojano]

@nakedmambo whatever... make the esperanto mandatory in the schools its impossible for political and social reasons. So, english is the "lingua franca" more used around the world. Thanks, about "language" I didn't notice that.

[nakedmambo]

@abaezarojano English has the advantage of less inflection and no awkward gender cases. The fact is however, tat about 70% of the world speaks either no, or inadequate English, it's just not global.

I think the British Empire did all the spadework for globalising English initially. The US certainly doesn't control world English; in the ex-colonies and most of Europe people use British-style spelling and speech patterns.

btw..language and not 'lenguage'.Constructive criticism.

[abaezarojano]

@nakedmambo you are right but between the europeans lenguages I think english is the easiest for 2 reason: 1 is a lenguage influence by latin, german and french. 2 the grammar is quite simple besides all the irregularities. Plus it is the lenguage of the US who controlls the world since the cold war.

[abaezarojano]

@morisien89 fuck off

[morisien89]

you speak english spanish italian and french ? you shoud write comments in another language because your english is horrible *

[nakedmambo]

@abaezarojano Clearly it isn't because your English is not up to scratch, and some other people are not even at your level. English is not an easy language, it's irregular and awkward for many foreign learners.  And it is only global for historical, economic and political reasons. Sign language also has no country, but it helps people communicate from a neutral position.

[Joyride37]

I like Esperanto. Sure it's an "artificial" language rather than native to a specific country/culture, but that's why it's so accessible.

It can be learned by anyone, without the vulnerable feeling that "this isn't my language" that many feel when visiting another country and learning a new tongue. It becomes your language. And it's quick and easy to learn too!

(at least for IE speakers. I've heard that speakers of non-IE languages find it a bit more difficult. That's understandable.)

[JasonDamisch]

saluton