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How Universities View Esperanto | ||
Tags: Esperanto | College/University | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
| jae Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5474 days ago 206 posts - 239 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Latin Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, French | Message 1 of 8 23 September 2009 at 7:27pm | IP Logged |
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If you apply to an American university, and write that you are fluent in Esperanto, how does the university view this? Interesting? A waste of time? I'm not fluent in Esperanto, but I think it's really interesting and unique. Thanks! Edited by jae on 23 September 2009 at 8:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7031 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 2 of 8 24 September 2009 at 12:03am | IP Logged |
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Depends more on the person and University. In the University I attend here in Canada many professors do not like it. Odd thing is one professor that downright detests Esperanto does not speak other languages, but says the value of other languages. (I agreed with learning other languages.)
I think he was somebody looking from the outside and does not know any languages from the inside through use. (except English) In the University I attended last year in California to learn Esperanto, one of the the head linguists speaks Mandarin, Spanish, English and Esperanto. I think it would be useful there. The course counted as a credit to fulfill the language requirement for students. IMO probably interesting, but of course not essential for application. Edited by alang on 24 September 2009 at 1:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lemus Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6191 days ago 232 posts - 266 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese, Russian, German | Message 3 of 8 24 September 2009 at 2:54am | IP Logged |
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Put it on. If the university admissions people like one thing, it is a student who does something out of the ordinary and productive, like learning Esperanto. Working in how it shows you have a great respect for other cultures and a desire for international communication would help sell it a little more.
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| kottoler.ello Tetraglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5813 days ago 128 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Mandarin, French Studies: Japanese, German | Message 4 of 8 24 September 2009 at 3:05am | IP Logged |
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Definitely put it on. I highly doubt the admissions board is going to have passionate anti-Esperantists on it. They'll, like Lemus said, see it as something interesting and something that separates you from the average student.
I'm also in high school right now and I talked to a representative of Stanford University the other day and asked if I should take an additional advanced math course instead of another year of Chinese (like my parents think I should) even though languages is what I'm interested in and she scoffed. This may not go for every college, but one of the main things Stanford looks for is "passion for learning" and teaching yourself Esperanto just because you're interested would definitely fit that bill. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| maaku Senior Member United States Joined 5384 days ago 359 posts - 562 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 8 24 September 2009 at 6:28am | IP Logged |
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There's no reason not to mention it, but it generally won't carry as much as much weight as a natural language (in my indirect experience).
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| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6469 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 6 of 8 25 September 2009 at 3:08pm | IP Logged |
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I have to agree with alang; it depends on the person and the university. I teach English at an open admissions university, so teaching yourself Esperanto won't help a student to be admitted. We admit all students who graduate from accredited high schools in our state.
The primary linguistics instructor in my department had nothing nice to say about Esperanto; he thought it was a total waste of time. Students in some programs at our university are required to take a certain number of foreign language classes either in high school or at a university. It might be possible to take a proficiency test and get out of the requirement, but I don't know if anyone has ever tried to do that with Esperanto here. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5719 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 7 of 8 25 September 2009 at 3:55pm | IP Logged |
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It could go either way. You could end up having your application reviewed by an avid supporter of the Esperanto movement, or that person could not even know the language exists (explaining the matter could work out well - or not), or with really bad luck it could end up in the hands of someone who thinks "Esperanto is a giant waste of time, no sane person would learn it". In the latter case, having it in your application would likely not work out so well for you, and could tip the scales in favour of another applicant of equal merit otherwise. I've never been in that situation, nor will I ever learn Esperanto, but if it was me - and this is personal opinion only - I would leave it out, because that chance wouldn't be worth taking for me. But it would obviously be up to the individual whether they choose to include it...
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| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5487 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 8 of 8 25 September 2009 at 6:53pm | IP Logged |
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Even if I were to dislike Esperanto, I don't think I could see myself begrudging those
who have learnt it. Similarly, I doubt any sensible admissions committee would ever punish a student for having learnt the language. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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