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Domain: esperanto-usa.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to esperanto-usa.org.
Comments · 12
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Re:There is a problem
According to Doktor Esperanto (my girlfriend recently did a report and discussion on Doktor Esperanto's original booklet, which I have unfortunately been unable to find online) you can learn his entire grammar in a single hour. Here are some links to learning materials: http://www.esperanto-usa.org/lessons.html
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languages should make sense... try esperanto
It's a big waste of our time to keep using senseless languages. Esperanto is fully developed, totally consistent, and consequently actually more expressive than languages like english.
http://www.esperanto-usa.org/ -
Well, I didn't before this post.I did know what it is, thanks to Red Dwarf. I went and signed up for a free ten lesson course which I found on ELNA's "How can I learn Esperanto?" page. I've just completed the first lesson. It took about twenty minutes of reading and excercise and would be equivalent to about a week's study in German.
Programmers will love this language. It's the Python of spoken languages!
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Well, I didn't before this post.I did know what it is, thanks to Red Dwarf. I went and signed up for a free ten lesson course which I found on ELNA's "How can I learn Esperanto?" page. I've just completed the first lesson. It took about twenty minutes of reading and excercise and would be equivalent to about a week's study in German.
Programmers will love this language. It's the Python of spoken languages!
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Re:plural acronyms
I saw an essay by Arianna Huffington on Salon regarding this very subject just a few weeks ago (December 17.)
From the essay:
"Things only got worse the next morning when, while reading the New York Times, I came across not one, but two examples of apostrophes being put in the wrong place -- including one in a column by my hero, Paul Krugman."
"Flummoxed, I got ahold of the New York Times' manual of style and, to my horror, discovered that the paper's rash of apostrophe errors had not been the result of sloppy copy-editing but a conscious executive decision to ignore the rules of proper punctuation."
So, if Ms. Huffington is correct, the NYTSG does indeed allow it's authors to debase the language. While the New York Times may be a respected publication, and might even be considered some form of authority, I'd be inclined to stay with the established rules of grammar and punctuation that have served us well for a very long time (e.g. Strunk & White.)
She also covers the pluralization of acronyms, and lays out the (proper and generally accepted) rules quite clearly. And this comes from a person for whom english is not her first language.
From her bio:
Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was sixteen and graduated from Cambridge University with a M.A. in Economics. At twenty-one she became President of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union.
I would say her credentials are quite respectable.
The placement of an apostrophe has been a pet peeve of mine for quite a while with the most egregious offense lately being the title of the movie "Bridget Jones's Diary". Or maybe that just the british way of doing things...
We've got to keep people on their toes, or Mr Twain's vision may indeed come to pass. Of course, it might just be easier to switch to Esperanto. -
Re:The chinese internet
Actually, I have regular (almost daily) conversations with mainland Chinese Esperantists, in Esperanto of course. Not to mention Vietnamese, Koreans, Iranians, and people from other locales whose viewpoints I don't "normally" get to hear about here in the USA.
Now, for all I know, they are all military intelligence officers, monitoring 'net usage. For all I know, they could be working for the U. S. military. But they sure sound like they are legit.
Se oni jam parolas la lingvon, iru al Karelia au alia babilejo en GEIB.
If you don't already speak La Lingvo Internacia, check out any of ELNA, eo.org, UEA, or just Google for "Esperanto". Be prepared for a lot of hits nowadays.
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Re:Great Reason to Learn Esperanto
Absolutely. However, there's a lot of visceral inertia (I can say that in public, can't I?) to overcome before most people will consider learning any other language. It's tied up pretty deeply in their personal and cultural identity. Witness the vitriolic attack by the (clearly under-informed) AC who replied to you first.
Personally, I think it's just fear. Fear by people who are used to being very competent at what they do, of being put in a situation where they aren't the Alpha for a while. I lucked out, picked up Esperanto in high school because I found it very geeky and I was a stone geek. All the other kids laughed, which was nothing new. I'm very glad I spent the amazingly short time to learn the basics; now I'm reading translated literature (some of it from Chinese!) at a fairly advanced level, with ease.
As for the attacker, sigh
- La Multlingva Inform-Centro
- Esperantic Studies Foundation
- An examination of some of that "visceral inertia"
- For you Canadians
- And the Britons
- Aussies, too
- The misleadingly-named Esperanto League for North America, which really means "The USA" here
- And finally, for fun, just when you thought Shatner had done it all
Iru. Jenu. Lernu. Ghuu.
- La Multlingva Inform-Centro
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Re:It's times like these
However, unlike Prof. Zamenhof (the creator of Esperanto), Tolkien did not intend or even imagine that his languages or scripts might be adopted by real-world populations. He invented them as an intellectual or linguistic game, and later as historical and cultural background to his stories. It is in that sense, not in the evangelical Esperantist's sense, that Tolkien fans pursue them.
that said, it's a sad comment on society (especially geek society here on
there's even some online courses;
check it out: http://www.esperanto-usa.org/ -
Esperanto
Well, all that time I spent learning Esperanto won't be in vain now! After they use the key to decrypt, the fun will just be beginning!
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Missing link
Sorry, forgot to include these links in prior message: Esperanto.org, the Multlingva Inform-Centro, and the Esperanto League for North America, three good starting places. Now go do some research!
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Re:Less of English only?Esperanto has a couple of valid claims that make it a better choice as an international language. The first is that, all things being equal, it is easier to learn than any other language. This claim assumes the obvious point that "any other" doesn't include languages which are extremely similar to, or derivatives of, your native language. The second claim is that Esperanto is relatively "neutral", in that it isn't the native language of any nation; therefore, if everybody spoke it as a second language for international communication, nobody would be at the psychological disadvantage of speaking to someone in their native language.
Case in point: Americans have this perception of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Claudia Schiffer, and Nina Hagen as being dumb; this perception may or may not be accurate, but much of the perception is due to the fact that these people speak imperfect english, or speak it with an accent. The native speaker always has a psychological edge.
Esperanto has 16 grammatical rules, and no exceptions. It is highly regular, avoids noun genders, and all verbs are conjugated exactly the same way. It is very easy for Westerners to learn, and easier than any Western language for Easterners. There are, at last count, over 2 million Esperanto speakers, although this estimate is admittedly optimistic, as most "Esperanto speakers" have limited experience actually speaking the language. This means that about one in every 3000 people has some working knowledge of Esperanto.
Esperanto needs much wider acceptance before it can became a linga franca; English, at the moment, enjoys that status. However, as most Slashdotters would agree, just because something is the de-facto standard, doesn't mean either that it is the best choice, or that it should remain the standard, eg. Windo[(ws)(ze)].
Esperanto can be learned so rapidly, that if you have any interest at all, I recommend that you check it out. You can get a working knowledge good enough read the usenet groups or participate in the IRC rooms within a couple of weeks of regular study (an hour). There is even a free 10-lesson email course with tutors which provides all of the foundation you need to start communicating. The Esperanto community is, in a lot of ways, much like the Open Source community, and I'm constantly suprised that I don't see more cross-polination between the two groups. You will notice, however, that KDE comes with fairly extensive Esperanto language support.
Even TravelLang has an English/Esperanto translator, and some of their translation software uses Esperanto as the medium language, much as XML can be used as a many-to-many point of translation.
More information can be found at:
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Esperanto Info
Esperanto was not invented for that purpose. Esperanto's purpose is to be the one foreign language everybody in the world would study. That way any two people would have a spoken and written language they could use to communicate.
Esperanto is alive and well on the Net. Use your favorite search engine to find links. Here are some: