Esperanto

It seems to me that Mr. Kaufmann misunderstands the world. He takes a stance that English speakers worldwide take. In short and in the long run, they want English (which one?) to be the World Language. I wrote my dissertation on people studying English. The title is "Belongingness and Integrative Motivation in Second Language Acquisition". I, indeed, understand that motivation is the key to any learning. He doesn't see that Esp does have a history and its own culture - but they are universal

It's true, I live in Quebec and it's forbidden, from 1st to 12th grade to go to an english school (yeah, ridiculous) if you don't have one of both of your parents who is an anglophone OR that is not in army. So, a kid can go to school, he will speak french as well as a francophone, and speak english as well as an anglophoe, but won't be able to write a sentece without doing three mistakes in a word because they don't even learn the language they would be suppose to learn first.

Profetak, you can have that mentality without being a bi-curious tree hugger.

Just so people know, I think Mr.Kaufmann has a rather distorted vision of Esperanto's history and fundamental facts.

Actually as an aspiring Esperantist, I would like to offer my 2 cents on this.

Esperanto actually opens huge amounts of doors to heaps of different cultures. Lots of literature has been translated to Esperanto, and also original literature has been written. I'm not trying to convert anyone, just wanna offer my own view: I thought to myself "If I can learn Esperanto in a short amount of time and thus access tons of literature from various cultures, then why NOT do it?"

Jonne from Finland

I love the enthusiasm of Esperantists. It has become like a cause. But let's not ascribe to much to this cause. People are just as happy killing each other when they speak the same language (Civil Wars, ex-Yugoslavia). Often the passionate pursuit of ideals can lead to some of the worst excesses. I remain uninterested in Esperanto, at least for now. But one day we would be happy to have Esperanto at LingQ for those who want to learn it. All the more power to the Esperantists, with respect.

For those who are not motivated to learn Esperanto, just consider the fact that there are millions of people from all countries that speak it, and differently from an IMPERIALIST LANGUAGE, esperanto embodies all these cultures. It has a rich literature, with more than 25 thousand books published. It is taught at schools and universities all around the world. If you speak it, you'll have at your disposal an international service of free accomodations and esperantists will welcome you.