How Many Readers Speak Esperanto?

lifebouy asks: "I just read a story about a high school that teaches Esperanto. I've noticed the majority of Esperantists I have met are IT professionals, perhaps because it nurtures our need to explore new things. So I was wondering, how many Slashdot readers speak Esperanto? Has anyone else noticed the high rate of IT Esperantists?"

Comments

Learning Esperanto the fun way!

[deek]

For those who are interested in learning more about Esperanto, I recommend visiting this website. It even has its own rather unique mascot. Perfect for making people feel at ease ... I know that a green goblin-like character always works for me.

As Rimmer would say: "Bonvoro alsendi la pordiston, lausajne estas rano en mia bideo!" And I think we all know what that means.

DeeK

Esperanto for n00bs...

[PHPee]

Before reading this post, I have only heard about Esperanto a few times. I always assumed it was some sort of Spanish dialect or something, not knowing any better.

So, I did a bit of research and found that Esperanto is actually a very interesting language. Apparently it is an "artificial" language, created by Dr. L. L. Zamenhof and published in 1887. The concept was to to be a "middle ground" language, facilitating communication between people of different backgrounds or cultures. Esperanto is apparently much easier to learn than many national languages and was designed to be a straight-forward neutral language. Surprisingly, there are an estimated 2 million Esperanto speakers in the world.

Check out some of these interesting links that I found:
Esperanto FAQ
What, why, who and where info about Esperanto
Previously mentioned educational Esperanto site with the little green goblin, "Zam"

Re:There's an old saying that...

[amuzulo]

Yes, this urban legend is widely spread. The best "proof" I could find against it though was this reply to the editor of the National Review.