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Esperanto, why not?


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Because it's very little used in the real world and it would have little practical value.

Hence the reason for the thread. If every country taught esperanto as a second language of COURSE it would gain practical value.

 

When the internet was invented did you claim it will never catch on because not enough people have computers?

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I read somewhere that it is a good language to learn as a child, because the grammar is constructed without the quirks that happen in real languages. Studying 1 year of Esperanto and 1 year of French, for example, is better than studying 2 years of French.

 

The Threefold Benefits of Esperanto

 

Experiments in teaching7 have shown that Hungarian pupils who had previously learned Esperanto learned English 40 per cent faster than those without Esperanto as a base; German pupils learned English 30 per cent faster in similar circumstances. Moreover, the Esperanto-based students attained, on average, about half a mark (scale: failed 1, excellent 5) better than the other pupils in mathematics, geography, their native language and, naturally, also in other foreign languages. Thus it has been proved that:

 

  • Esperanto learned through one tenth of the fatigue 8 so much shortens the necessary learning time of subsequent languages that this in itself is a sufficient reason to learn it.

 

Yeah, that sounds entirely reasonable - when I said 'practical value' I was thinking more in terms of communicating with others as opposed to enhancing learning of other languages.

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When the internet was invented did you claim it will never catch on because not enough people have computers?

 

No, of course not, but they're entirely different things - it'd be like comparing grapefruit and pool tables.

Esperanto has been around for over a hundred years and shows no sign whatsoever of going global anyday soon.

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Languages are deep seated in our culture. To give up our language would be like giving up our identity. The English culture has taken too many beatings over the last two decades. It is not ready for any more.

 

There are a few on here who would prefer us to be learning our kids Polari.

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I personally think children should learn Latin. It's got a real history and still works as a foundation language, but the grammar is a lot more complex.

 

I agree. It really helps with English - and it can make it easier to understand parts of other languages as well.

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