A Stubbon Attitude Doing Good To Nobody

Well, of course this is not a new idea. If it were, I would have no reason to believe that we are a stubborn species, that sticks to what more or less works instead of moving on to find alternatives that would work a lot better.

Have you been to touristic resorts? I am talking about those places where people from all over the world go to spend their vacation or holiday. The most widely spoken language in all of those places is, undoubtedly, the English language, which is native only to less than 8% of the total population of the world. The other 92% are born in social environments where languages other than English are spoken and taught in schools.

The English language is difficult and unpredictable. If you have not lived amongst native speakers, then a book or dictionary and a set of rules won't help you. You will still sound ridiculous for a myriad of reasons: bad usage of term, word with accent or stress on wrong syllable, vowel improperly pronounced in "that case", idem with a consonant, improperly conjugated verb, expression not usable in such instance, and so forth for a million exceptions.

People spend years and years trying to learn it and they still can't master it as a complete communication system. It is as if it had been planned to make non native speakers always sound non-native when using it, and thus detect illegal aliens at once. Millions have invested years trying to master the language of Shakespeare, only to find out after all that time, that simply they will never sound "natural".

But we are a stubborn species, like I said at the beginning. We insist on the continuation of doing that which has proved to work even if only with lots of weaknesses and imperfections, like trying to promote English as the "international language". It is too imperfect and too frustrating, the learning curve is way uncomfortable, the amount of time it takes is too long and the final results are too uncertain and unpredictable. Why do we, as a species, insist on such stubbornness?

Do we have a better choice? We sure do, or else why would I bother wasting my time writing this! The solution to a neutral, international language is Esperanto. Esper what?

You probably know nothing about it. Or maybe you do. However, it is most likely that you don't know what it is about, why it is easy to learn and certain to continue using until achieving mastering of the language without the need of teachers or lengthy or endless courses.

Here is the why. It is very important to understand each and every one of the following reasons. Please, pay attention to them and keep your mind open.

1. It is a language with a grammar consisting of a set of rules with no exceptions. If you apply the rule and the right word, you can not be wrong. This frees you from the "native" teacher to guide through the jungle of unknown "secrets". Once you know the vocabulary and the rules, just keep on going: it is more likely that you will become a "Shakespeare" writing Esperanto works than intending such goal with English or whatever your native tongue may be.
2. It might be redundant to specify as a separate item the fact that it has zero exceptions to the way words should be pronounced. If you know the simple rules, when you read a word you will know exactly how to pronounce it the first day you see the word, with or without "native" speakers around you.
3. It is a system that follows certain "human" rules as a communicating tool. Even though it was created in Eastern Europe before the end of the 19th century, it has been widely accepted by speakers of oriental languages, who have repeatedly declared Esperanto to be at least 1/10 as difficult to learn as English. Some people have simply declared that English will not be an option for them, since they have spent so many years, unsuccessfully, trying to learn it. Then they try Esperanto and suddenly they discover that "that is a real possibility". Incidentally, speakers of different oriental languages have also declared that learning Esperanto is a lot easier for them than learning any of the other oriental languages.
   
4. Even though this is the case only with a short population of the world, if you speak and write Esperanto and meet foreigners that also speak and write it, you will notice that their attitude is significantly more positive towards you if you talk to them in Esperanto than if you talk to them in English. You score, as human being, better with foreigners who speak Esperanto and English if you use Esperanto with them, than if you use English. The good thing is that those small numbers are scattered all over the planet. But this will change.
   
5. It is very inexpensive to learn it. You will find lots of Internet pages in Esperanto, and several dozens of courses to follow. Start with one, then complete another, then another. The time it will take from you to go from zero to comfortable proficiency will be no longer than 4-6 months. Of course, it could be less than that if you passionately dedicate an intense number of daily hours (5 or 6).

You are ready now to know that one of the best Internet sites to grab a good course from is at "lernu.net". You will find courses in lots of native languages. But believe me, sooner than you think, you will be using Esperanto with its Esperanto-Esperanto dictionary, which you will be able to find and use on line. Also, find a friend to chat with and your Esperanto will evolve even faster. And this is all totally free (for now).

I imagine the tourism professionals dominating the issue of language by learning "good Esperanto". I can also imagine the suggestion of all travel agents to the potential tourists: "Learn Esperanto. You will have a lot more fun wherever you go..." Why? Simply because the same message will be given in each country. Don't leave your country without mastering Esperanto and then you will really enjoy your trip.

The proliferation of Esperanto over the entire world would mean stopping the killing of local or regional "small languages". Within the national societies, national minorities with difficult languages would not have to learn the hegemonic one, but Esperanto instead. The language of the historical conqueror would be confined to certain areas, but not to the general extension of the country as a compulsory communication system.

This can be done! Let us talk to the politicians, convince them, make it a reality. Check for yourself how easy the language is. If you don't speak or have not studied several languages and Esperanto is the second one you will learn, it won't be too easy to accept as simple at the very beginning. Just keep on going, because it does not mater how difficult you might think it is, it is the easiest language in the world.

Ni lernu esperanton kiel eble plej rapide!
(Let's learn esperanto as soon as possible).

I found the following facts about languages in our world:

Dr Lazarus Zamenhof invented the artificial language Esperanto in 1878. [This language has 17 rules with zero exceptions, 5 vowel sounds and can be learned in roughly 10% of the time needed to learn a native language. FJF]

The six official languages of the United Nations are, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

There are about 6800 languages in the world.

There are 13 languages that are spoken by more than 100million people. They are Arabic, Bengali, English, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Malay-Indonesian, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Urdu.

The most commonly used language in the world is Chinese as more than 1billion people speak it.

There are more than 1000 different languages spoken on the Asian continent.

The Hawaiian language was not written down until 1819.

In North Africa, the Berbers have no written form of their language.

The only African country in which the entire population speaks the same language is Somalia.

In Papua New Guinea, there are villages just five miles apart that speak different languages.

The number of consonants in a language can range from six to 95 and the number of vowels from three to 46, depending on the sounds involved.

You can also read the original article.