Esperanto

http://www.lingq.com/

Steve Kaufmann talks about Esperanto and French Immersion

Category:

Education

Tags:

• language
• learning
• Esperanto
• LingQ
• linguistics
• French
• immersion
• culture
• online
• languages

[powerdriller10]

Any way, Steve has a point, he wants to see a language rooted to a land. Esperantujo exists in the mind of 2 million people, dispersed around the world. but, it does not have a land. In know that in Brazil are entire neighborhoods where Esperanto is spoken almost the same as Portuguese and that even children play soccer on the streets yelling in Esperanto. But, that must be extended ten-fold to become real. Brazil has enough territory to allow a piece of land for Esperantujo.

[lingosteve]

@powerdriller10 Why not vote for Esperanto at LingQ? I will definitely study it if we get it up at LingQ. I am sure others will too. See the recent post at my blog, The Linguist on Language.

[bluetigerfish90]

I agree Steve We should teach people how to learn. We should also teach them how to think for themselves. I studied philosophy in college, and these are two of the main areas a philosophy degree helps with.

[lingosteve]

@bluetigerfish90 And we will probably offer Esperanto at LingQ in a short while.

[hilbert2547]

Steve you are totally wrong! Languages are in a steady process of evolution I do not understand the german which was spoken 500 years ago, for 120 years only 2 percent of the italians spoke the present day italian. Esperanto is very natural you can express things you cant in other languages

[lingosteve]

@hilbert2547 I am no more wrong for not being interested in Esperanto, than you are wrong for being interested in it. An artificial language like Esperanto will not evolve like natural languages spoken by everyday people in real countries.

[lingosteve]

What is your point? I speak 11 languages and have no interest in Esperanto right now. I am not childish enough to dislike languages, including those that I have no interest in learning.

[Chali1971]

Esperanto has lots of books, poems, songs. I am sure you havent ever been on a esperanto meeting yet. It is wrong to say that esperanto has no culture because it is based on vocabulary of european languages. There you can see people dancing and singing in esperanto, having joy and laughing, what is also witness for culture. There have been lots of "natural languages" (in your understanding) that have been killed for ever, Esperanto is still spoken. Now tell me what is a "living thing" ?

[cdvantuyl]

Antaux 60 jaroj mi lernis Esperanton. Por mi gxi estis vojo al la mondo. Mi havas kelkajn geamikojn kiuj fakte ne parolas angle. La forto de Esperanto estas ke gxi estas interkultura.

[thejulesblog]

"esperanto, latin, ancient greek, aboriginal languages" Why do you use those examples? esperanto is not a dead language!!

[powerdriller10]

There are some Esperantist neighborhoods in the region around Sao Paulo. Watch the youtube video called "Gerda Malaperis" (which is a staged and didactical play of a police novel filmed in Brazil) and see if you can recognize the place. Brazilians are leaders developing Esperanto learning materials. "Gerda Malaperis" is a story more didactic than literary, written by a Swiss guy who as Steve Lingo was poly-linguist, only 400 root-words are used, but they are expanded to 4000 meanings.

[mkelvin10]

@powerdriller10 I am brazilian, but I haven't heard about places where Esperanto is spoken here. Actually, I think brazilians are lazy about language learning. If really there is that place here in Brazil, plase tell me where.

[Kuracisto]

Mi tute ne konsentas kun li. Per Esperanto, mi tuŝas (ekkonas) la kulturon de la tuta mondo, pli profunde ol per la naciaj lingvoj. Mi denaske parolas la portugalan, sed mi lernis la hispanan por studi en Madrido. Kaj mi tre ŝatas la hispanan, sed per ĝi mi ne bone rilatiĝis kun la hispanoj. Per Esperanto, mi profunde kaj detale ekkonis la hispanan kulturon. Kaj tio okazas pri ĉiuj popoloj. Do, ne temas pri la Esperanta kulturo mem, sed pri la ponto, kiun Esperanto kreas.

[leshark]

The good thing about esperanto is that its easy to learn (especially for an english speaker). You can probably pick it up in a month... i've heard its a good way to ease yourself into romance languages, because the grammar is similar. Plus a lot of the vocab is similar too.