6 ms·

Thanks for posting this. I'm hoping now that Esperanto is on Duolingo, we will see an uptick in Esperanto speakers.

ben_w 9y ago
Duolingo is certainly how I got into it, both because it has a course and because {Esperanto makes learning languages easier and Duolingo has a lot of interesting languages to learn}. That said, I feel the Duolingo courses in general don't have enough content, and the Esperanto course seems to be on the short side even then.
- cmmike 9y ago
  Clozemaster might be a useful complement to the Duolingo course - lots of content for Esperanto as well as a bunch of other languages. https://www.clozemaster.com https://www.clozemaster.com
  - ben_w 9y ago
    Thanks! I've installed it on my tablet, and it seems good. :)
balsamicus 9y ago
The recommended metric is DAU.
biotech 9y ago
Genuinely curious - why are you hoping to see an uptick in Esperanto speakers? I'm not sure I see the advantage of Esperanto, although I do find constructed languages fascinating.
- caryhartline 9y ago
  It is a much easier and possibly the easiest language to learn especially for those who already speak a latin-based language. In some cases, people can be thought of as fluent with a couple months of learning the language. It's also not tied to any particular nation which makes it easier for people to adopt without feeling like they are just being taken over by another culture. This is all to say that Esperanto is genuinely better as a second language for Europe and the Americas if not the world.
  - learc83 9y ago
    The fact that it's much easier for those who already speak a Romance language means that it's still is tied to particular nations. >This is all to say that Esperanto is genuinely better as a second language for Europe and the Americas if not the world. English is as close to a global lingua franca as we've ever had. There's just so much momentum behind it, that it would take something world shaking to change that. I think we'd be better off trying for an artificial language that is mostly mutually intelligible with English if the goal is really widespread adoption.
    - schoen 9y ago
      Zamenhof had a famous ethical argument about this (it begins "Ofte kunvenas personoj de malsamaj nacioj kaj komprenas unu la alian", 'People of different nations frequently encounter and understand one another', and you can find a lot of copies of it online, although I didn't immediately find an English translation). He felt that it was unfair that native speakers of a language that's used in international communication will have an advantage in fluency (and learning effort) compared to non-native speakers, and argued that these were reasons that the eventual international language should not be any community's native language. However, he was also fighting (and is still fighting) very significant economic or incentive issues. Even before the era of English as an international language, there was always an obvious incentive to learn the most widely spoken or prestigious language or languages in one's region -- such as the language of a nearby large, rich country. People still feel that incentive today and the benefits of learning specific languages of wider communication or languages of prestige can be very tangible. And there are definitely people who feel that it's unfair that they have to learn English rather than English-speakers having to learn their language (and it is!), but many of them learn English anyway because they can clearly see the benefits. Having a really apparent worldwide Schelling point of "everyone in the world in going to learn this" or "enough people already know this that it's clearly useful for international communication" would help Esperanto tremendously, and Esperanto did have momentum of that kind at one point, but according to the Esperanto Museum in Vienna it seemed to lose it in the course of the World Wars.
      - 9y ago

Duolingo is certainly how I got into it, both because it has a course and because {Esperanto makes learning languages easier and Duolingo has a lot of interesting languages to learn}. That said, I feel the Duolingo courses in general don't have enough content, and the Esperanto course seems to be on the short side even then.

cmmike 9y ago
Clozemaster might be a useful complement to the Duolingo course - lots of content for Esperanto as well as a bunch of other languages. https://www.clozemaster.com https://www.clozemaster.com
- ben_w 9y ago
  Thanks! I've installed it on my tablet, and it seems good. :)

balsamicus 9y ago

The recommended metric is DAU.

biotech 9y ago

Genuinely curious - why are you hoping to see an uptick in Esperanto speakers? I'm not sure I see the advantage of Esperanto, although I do find constructed languages fascinating.

caryhartline 9y ago
It is a much easier and possibly the easiest language to learn especially for those who already speak a latin-based language. In some cases, people can be thought of as fluent with a couple months of learning the language. It's also not tied to any particular nation which makes it easier for people to adopt without feeling like they are just being taken over by another culture. This is all to say that Esperanto is genuinely better as a second language for Europe and the Americas if not the world.
- learc83 9y ago
  The fact that it's much easier for those who already speak a Romance language means that it's still is tied to particular nations. >This is all to say that Esperanto is genuinely better as a second language for Europe and the Americas if not the world. English is as close to a global lingua franca as we've ever had. There's just so much momentum behind it, that it would take something world shaking to change that. I think we'd be better off trying for an artificial language that is mostly mutually intelligible with English if the goal is really widespread adoption.
  - schoen 9y ago
    Zamenhof had a famous ethical argument about this (it begins "Ofte kunvenas personoj de malsamaj nacioj kaj komprenas unu la alian", 'People of different nations frequently encounter and understand one another', and you can find a lot of copies of it online, although I didn't immediately find an English translation). He felt that it was unfair that native speakers of a language that's used in international communication will have an advantage in fluency (and learning effort) compared to non-native speakers, and argued that these were reasons that the eventual international language should not be any community's native language. However, he was also fighting (and is still fighting) very significant economic or incentive issues. Even before the era of English as an international language, there was always an obvious incentive to learn the most widely spoken or prestigious language or languages in one's region -- such as the language of a nearby large, rich country. People still feel that incentive today and the benefits of learning specific languages of wider communication or languages of prestige can be very tangible. And there are definitely people who feel that it's unfair that they have to learn English rather than English-speakers having to learn their language (and it is!), but many of them learn English anyway because they can clearly see the benefits. Having a really apparent worldwide Schelling point of "everyone in the world in going to learn this" or "enough people already know this that it's clearly useful for international communication" would help Esperanto tremendously, and Esperanto did have momentum of that kind at one point, but according to the Esperanto Museum in Vienna it seemed to lose it in the course of the World Wars.
    - 9y ago