Again I'll write my question in English as hopefully more people will notice this post (besides everyone of my followers know English even if they are Polish so whatever xD).
I know only two languages: Polish as my mother tongue and English. A few months ago I decided to learn Esperanto. This language is simple, pleasant to learn and sometimes even more logical than English.
However when I speak to my friends and family they are always like "why do you learn that language? No one actually speaks it!" which actually pisses me off just a little (don't worry @teetotaller - I'm not talking about you - you just kindly asked :D).
As an English teacher I personally think that there is no such thing as "wasting your time learning language". If there is at least one person in the world that speaks certain language it's fine (in terms of Esperanto there are around 1,000 "native speakers" and less than 200,000 speakers who know Esperanto as their second language).
Personally what do you think about the idea of learning Esperanto? Do you have any personal experience with this language? Or did you meet any Esperantists?
@aetios@kawen.space
@aetios Yeah, I even saw some Esperanto-only instance. That's why I think I'll get plenty of replies ;)
@robert_wolniak
Thanks for the mention... 😅
I think it's cool. Not for me because if I had the time to learn a new language, I would choose something that I can use for work which would be more beneficial (you know my circumstances) - but just like you I do think that learning a new language is always a good idea. Whatever that language is.
@teetotaller Actually the conversation we had on Signal made me write this post so you're welcome :D
I just wonder how many people are there with the same attitude as my parents for example :D
@robert_wolniak @teetotaller matter of perspective. Personally i would like to learn more practical language: Chinese, Russian or Spain. Or japanese (becouse is cool and I would love to see some anime in oryginal). But still I think it is good to learn sth new.
@seachdamh @teetotaller Oh I feel you in terms of Japanese :D That would be so cool to know it!
Thanks for sharing your opinion with us ;)
I have several points:
1. you will not be immersed, frustrating your learning
2. there are comparatively few available resources
3. it is a european language and you already speak two of those
4. the group is rather elite, so you may make some good connections
Because of 1 and 2 it will take you an unreasonable amount of time to learn compared to the benefit, IMHO. But, these elite things are more useful than appearance lets on. In terms of do I think it is good to do... my thought is that if are a linguist and you are cutting out time you could spend learning chinese to learn esperanto then that is foolish. However, if it is an extra thing, then I don't see an issue, but I would make sure to get the important languages first, which is english, and then chinese.
>Do you have any personal experience with this language?
I do not speak it.
>Or did you meet any Esperantists?
I have met two who speak it. One of them also speaks Klingon. The other is my mother.
@fluffy
Oh my god, the last paragraph... 😁
it is a european language and you already speak two of those
@fluffy @robert_wolniak @teetotaller By place of origin and mostly by vocabulary, too, but the grammar of Esperanto is quite different from most European languages. Some people have compared the word construction to Chinese (though the connection would be accidental).
@robert_wolniak I learned it a bit, but it was only working while I did it together with my siblings – having people to talk/write to seems really crucial for language learning, at least for me. Now I am barely able to slap together a sentence, and even that only because it's such a simple language.
If you are into that I would also recommend playing some of the games that randomly have an Esperanto translation, e.g. Slay the Spire.
@robert_wolniak I have been speaking Esperanto for a couple of years now. It is far easier than any other language I’ve used, and has been the most pleasant to learn (along with French, though for a different reason). I’ve had the chance to meet several Esperantists from other countries and it was a great joy to be able to talk with them using neutral means of communication.
On the internet, I use the language every day, and am now trying to study its grammar in detail, since I find the ideas behind it fascinating. It’s certainly not true that no one speaks it, but you may have to look for those who do; it might be comparable to other languages with a lower number of speakers.
(As for the number, I’ve seen estimates in terms of millions, too. I would certainly expect it to be well over 200,000, since some language-learning platforms have reported over one million people taking up the course. Of course, not all of those have learned the language well or kept pursuing it, but I would expect a large portion of them to understand it on a decent level.)
My personal approach (which I don't consider to be the sane approach, or maybe even a sane approach) is that I want to learn a language either because I want to speak it with people (or read it), or because it's inherently interesting in some way -- for me that boils down to interesting grammar or word formation. So, if I wanted to learn a language now for reasons of curiosity, I'd have a few candidates ahead of Esperanto. From the ones I'm aware of: Lojban (due to unambiguity and very LEGO-like word formation), UNLWS (because it has so little in common with all the other languages), Japanese (because it appears to be extraordinarily compositional for a natural language).
Once again: my approach might be weird in many ways, and it's nice that we have people who generate internal enthusiasm in a large variety of different ways.
🔻
