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Esperanto - Do People Really Use It?

  Tags: Usefulness | Esperanto
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto Post Reply
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Serpent
Octoglot
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serpent-849.livejour
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 Message 17 of 32
20 June 2012 at 1:07am | IP Logged 
And the ad reminded me on how Cainntear said that "I've learned more in a week of X than in years of Y" is a very biased statement, as often a new method can help you systemize what you already knew, so you can't really judge how much you would've learned if you hadn't gone through what you consider less efficient now. As much as I despise classroom study, it's better as a main method than Rosetta Stone.
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Michael K.
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Speaks: English*
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 Message 18 of 32
20 June 2012 at 2:38am | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
And the ad reminded me on how Cainntear said that "I've learned more in a week of X than in years of Y" is a very biased statement, as often a new method can help you systemize what you already knew, so you can't really judge how much you would've learned if you hadn't gone through what you consider less efficient now. As much as I despise classroom study, it's better as a main method than Rosetta Stone.


?

I think this was posted in the wrong forum.
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Volte
Tetraglot
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Switzerland
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 Message 19 of 32
21 June 2012 at 12:01pm | IP Logged 
hrhenry wrote:
Volte wrote:

No language is particularly useful outside its language community.

Well, yes and no. As far as literature goes, most of the major languages and a fair
number of minority languages have had their most popular literature translated into
other languages. That doesn't really seem to be the case with Esperanto literature,
although I truthfully don't know.

Quickly reading the Wikipedia
article on Esperanto literature, I see there are a number of original Esperanto
works, but mostly it's other major literature translated into Esperanto. I don't know
if these original Esperanto novels have been translated to other languages.

Thinking about it, I wonder if there were more original works translated from Esperanto
to other languages if that wouldn't increase interest in the language.

That said, Esperanto's a fairly young language, so maybe given more time for the
original literature to flourish, more interest will come.
==


Some books have been translated out of Esperanto. Tibor Sekelj is a good example of an Esperanto author who's been translated into several languages, including English.

Tivador Soros wrote in Esperanto; I think a lot of his books are translated/getting translated into English. I'm currently reading his "Maskerado: Dancing Around Death in Nazi Hungary", in the original Esperanto. William Auld was repeatedly nominated for a Nobel prize in literature, and has been translated into English from Esperanto as well, but he's untranslatable, and I can't recommend the attempts that I've seen.

Other authors have been translated, but not into English. Sprachprofi likes to recommend "Fajron sentas mi interne", which has been translated into German, but not English, to the best of my knowledge.

Most English-language writeups on Esperanto literature are pretty dismal, including the wikipedia article. An exception is the "Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto" which I keep mentioning.

Edited by Volte on 21 June 2012 at 12:03pm
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Serpent
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 Message 20 of 32
21 June 2012 at 1:34pm | IP Logged 
Oops, thanks for the heads up about my RS post :D

Volte wrote:
There are plenty of events where you can just practice speaking Esperanto, including in Russia; only the hassle of needing to get a visa has kept me from going to ones in Russia.
I know there are big events, I was also hoping there's also something less intimidating. People often mention meetings of their Esperanto clubs but I guess the club/community in Moscow is big enough that nobody's interested in chatting with random people just for the sake of it.
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Volte
Tetraglot
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Switzerland
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Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 21 of 32
24 June 2012 at 10:51pm | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
Oops, thanks for the heads up about my RS post :D

Volte wrote:
There are plenty of events where you can just practice speaking Esperanto, including in Russia; only the hassle of needing to get a visa has kept me from going to ones in Russia.
I know there are big events, I was also hoping there's also something less intimidating. People often mention meetings of their Esperanto clubs but I guess the club/community in Moscow is big enough that nobody's interested in chatting with random people just for the sake of it.


Esperanto events vary a lot in size. Some of my favorite ones have had barely over half a dozen people.

Most Esperanto speakers I've met have been pretty interested in chatting with random people, and I'd say at least half seem incredibly patient with people who aren't fluent yet. I don't know how the Moscow club is, but the clubs I've visited have been quite friendly.
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Michael K.
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United States
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Esperanto

 
 Message 22 of 32
25 June 2012 at 3:05am | IP Logged 
Volte wrote:

Most Esperanto speakers I've met have been pretty interested in chatting with random people, and I'd say at least half seem incredibly patient with people who aren't fluent yet. I don't know how the Moscow club is, but the clubs I've visited have been quite friendly.


For a komencanto like me, that's really good to hear. I think the language's biggest strength is that more experienced speakers are willing to help out the beginners.

The only problem is I know of no places around me (I'm in Ohio) that I can use Esperanto in real life, except online. I thought one of the more prominent Esperantists on here said she didn't meet any other Esperantists IRL for a few years after she learned the language. Of course, online socializing is always an option, and for me as a very introverted person, that is probably a good thing and I'm more comfortable meeting new people online rather than IRL, but it seems a little sterile. As nice as online socializing is, nothing beats having a conversation IRL.
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Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6227 days ago
4474 posts - 6726 votes 
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 23 of 32
25 June 2012 at 8:00pm | IP Logged 
Michael K. wrote:
Volte wrote:

Most Esperanto speakers I've met have been pretty interested in chatting with random people, and I'd say at least half seem incredibly patient with people who aren't fluent yet. I don't know how the Moscow club is, but the clubs I've visited have been quite friendly.


For a komencanto like me, that's really good to hear. I think the language's biggest strength is that more experienced speakers are willing to help out the beginners.

The only problem is I know of no places around me (I'm in Ohio) that I can use Esperanto in real life, except online. I thought one of the more prominent Esperantists on here said she didn't meet any other Esperantists IRL for a few years after she learned the language. Of course, online socializing is always an option, and for me as a very introverted person, that is probably a good thing and I'm more comfortable meeting new people online rather than IRL, but it seems a little sterile. As nice as online socializing is, nothing beats having a conversation IRL.


Esperanto speakers aren't distributed evenly throughout the globe. Some cities have quite a few; some areas have almost none. It's incredibly easy to find people to speak Esperanto with in some large European cities. The USA is a bit harder; some regions really don't have many speakers at all, and people living there basically need to invite Esperanto-speakers to visit, or travel themselves.

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kujichagulia
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 Message 24 of 32
14 August 2012 at 1:51am | IP Logged 
I've had this debate about Esperanto's usefulness over and over in my head. Not
considering any other factors, I love studying the language (although, with great
effort, I've put it on hold to study Portuguese). I'm giddy as a schoolkid even when
I'm SRSing Esperanto vocabulary.

But I'm not really a club- or meeting-type of guy. I'd rather go to a cafe or
something with a few people and speak in Esperanto - but not about Esperanto.
I'd want to talk about the news, sports, entertainment. The Pasporta Servo is a good
idea, but for me I'd rather stay in a hotel when I travel.

Which brings me to another point. I have yet to meet anyone other than myself who
knows some Esperanto but who also enjoys watching sports. I thought about writing a
blog about sports in Esperanto when I reach some level of fluency. But who would read
it? Thoughts like those are what led me to put Esperanto on hold for now.


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