12 ms·

I love the concept of esperanto but to be honest there are no practical uses for it. Fun language and it teaches you the concepts of others but as I said, not t

I love the concept of esperanto but to be honest there are no practical uses for it. Fun language and it teaches you the concepts of others but as I said, not that useful.

wishinghand 8y ago
> to be honest there are no practical uses for it I find this hard to believe as a conclusion anyone could come to. A universal shared language for international communication? People can keep their mother tongue yet no matter how provincial it may be, can still communicate effectively with the rest of the world?
- drugme 8y ago
  A universal shared language for international communication? In theory, yes - but not in practice. Which is precisely what the above commenter was saying.
  - em-bee 8y ago
    why not? because not many people speak it? that would be like saying, phones are not practical because not everyone has one. or maybe facebook or google+ are not practical because not everyone is on them. but that is a limitation that has nothing to do with any inherent quality of esperanto, only with it's lack of popularity which is something that can be changed without needing to change esperanto itself.
    - drugme 8y ago
      There's a big distinction between "not many people" versus "not everyone".
      - em-bee 8y ago
        yes, but all of these at one point had not many people use them. if that were a problem in itself, then they would never have become popular.
- krapp 8y ago
  Esperanto is no more "universal" or "shared" than any other European or Romance language, which is to say its idioms are "universal" only to a limited subset of humanity. Might as well just tell the world to keep using English, or make Westerners learn Mandarin.
- hannob 8y ago
  > A universal shared language for international communication? That is a very good idea. But in order to be successful such a language needs to be spoken by a large share of people internationally. The best language we have for this is English. It's not perfect, because in large parts of the world, particularly in Asia, many people don't speak it. But it's far better suited than Esperanto in almost every imaginable way.
  - the_duke 8y ago
    Before WW1, Esperanto was actually becoming popular and was taught in schools in parts of Europe. The nationalistic policies around WW1 and after put a stop to it. I think it's a tremendous shame... it would be so nice to communicate with everyone in a simple language. Note that such a language would not actually need to be actively spoken in normal live much. It just needs to be simple enough to be learn in a short amount of time and to have international backing so it is taught in schools.
    - drugme 8y ago
      Note that such a language would not actually need to be actively spoken in normal life much. Almost by definition - if a language isn't "spoken much" - it isn't really language. But rather a collection of rules and definitions.
      - chillacy 8y ago
        Latin isn't spoken much and we still call it a language: a dead language. Esperanto is still spoken, it's just a particularly uncommon (but not even the smallest) language.
        drugme 8y ago
        OK, I'll correct myself: "If a language is (or never has been) spoken much..."
        8y ago
- karmasimida 8y ago
  > A universal shared language for international communication Practical, but we already got one, that is English. Even this post itself is written in English to reach bigger audience. And I would argue Esperanto is hardly universal for the world, more for european languages.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    And for Europe, we had Latin before that for scholars and French for diplomats as it was largely Europe’s court language.
  - wenc 8y ago
    True, and some people would even call it "globish". (as in "globe") It's a form of non-native English that is as close to being universal as the world has ever seen. This is particularly noticeable in Europe. Due to the European Union's thinning/erasure of borders, there is an order of magnitude more inter-European travel and mobility than 10 years ago. And the most widely understood language between these travelers is English. In Barcelona, vendors would speak to Dutch and Chinese tourists in English. Even in Paris, famous for its disdain of English, the language is fairly widely spoken, not so much to accommodate the British, but visitors from the rest of Europe and the world. Folks quickly figured out that instead of learning multiple European languages (and even then, only be able to communicate with other Europeans and people from former European colonies), they could instead learn English and be able to communicate with not only Europeans but people from Asia, the Middle East, etc. English is used even among people of the same ethnicity. I was with a friend at a restaurant in Chicago's Chinatown, and noticed that my Cantonese-speaking friend had a hard time conveying her order to the Mandarin-speaking mainland Chinese waiter, so they both switched to English. The communication was successful.
  - beatgammit 8y ago
    I've heard it's reasonably popular in Japan, so there's that.
    - karmasimida 8y ago
      Only if you consider that 10% of Japanese vocabulary is already English or English-originated (as Gairaigo).
mycorrhizal 8y ago
One practical use that has been studied (only a little) is to use Esperanto as a stepping stone to learning other languages. Essentially the idea is that you can first spend a few months learning Esperanto and that might actually speed up the total time for learning a "third" language. I believe school systems in both the UK and France have experimented with this, both with promising results.
- porpoisely 8y ago
  We used to have a stepping stone to learn other languages. It was called latin. For some odd reason, we stopped teaching it in our public schools here. But the wealthy private schools still teach latin and give their kids and enormous leg up in their studies.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    As someone who took Latin in high school, the stepping stone argument always felt a bit disingenuous. There seemed to be a component of not wanting to admit it was being taught primarily because it was part of a traditional Classics education among Western upper classes. As opposed to a useful skill of some sort. I have absolutely nothing against traditional Classics though I’m not sure how good a fit they are with typical US public high schools today. However I’m pretty skeptical that a few years of Latin—as opposed to Spanish, German, or French (which I also took) or something else entirely—is a uniquely good use of time.
    - em-bee 8y ago
      any second language is a stepping stone to later languages. by the time you learn latin and then french, you might as well have learned french directly and then german or chinese. esperanto is different because it is easier to learn, so instead of taking years to mastery, you are done in a few months, and teachers can focus on proper learning techniques without fearing that students get demotivated because it takes so long. then you can apply those techniques to the next languages and hopefully come out ahead
BillChapman 8y ago
No practical uses! What! Over recent years I have had guided tours of Berlin, Douala (loo it up!), Yerevan and Milan in this planned language. I have discussed philosophy with a Slovene poet, humour on television with a Bulgarian TV producer. I’ve discussed what life was like in East Berlin before the wall came down and in Armenia when it was a Soviet republic, how to cook perfect spaghetti, the advantages and disadvantages of monarchy, and so on. I recommend it as a very useful and practical way to overcome language barriers. Take an unguided wander around the net. You wil find political stuff, religious stuff, scientific stuff - all in Esperanto.
- Mediterraneo10 8y ago
  Your experience may serve as a rebuttal to the OP about lack of "practical use", but with your couple of posts here I feel you are being very disingenuous and leaving some key things out that would put Esperanto in a bad light. Yes, the Esperanto movement does have a network of proponents around the world that is close-knit and local Esperantists are often willing to show a foreigner around. However, among them are so many weirdos and eccentrics that a person might well be served better by learning either English or the local language and getting all his hospitality and local information through that instead. When I was active in the Esperanto movement, it was common for my fellow Esperantists to joke or kvetch about how certain kinds of political movements or bizarre lifestyles would come out in force at congresses and make everyone else cringe, or how creepy or insufferable one's Pasporta Servo host turned out to be. Something as idealistic and unfashionable as Esperanto is bound to attract more odd people than when using a language like English that is more utilitarian and has less overt shared values.
  - beatgammit 8y ago
    There's some truth to that, but learning the local language for everywhere you want to travel is very difficult, and learning English can only get you so far. The great thing about Esperanto is that the speakers are very enthusiastic to speak it with other people, so you'll get better than average hospitality. You're also right about the weirdos, so you need to be very careful when selecting a host. I really like the idea of Amikumu, where you chat with people in Esperanto before meeting in person. Meeting more Esperantists is great because you can discuss experiences using Esperanto abroad. I am marginally into the language (I lurk about on Esperanto subreddits, have done the Duolingo course, and visit Lernu.net periodically), but I wouldn't call myself fluent or anything. However, I might try to use it if I go somewhere with generally weak English skills, like Japan or parts of each Europe.
chillacy 8y ago
Compared to other conlangs, esperanto is probably the most useful. Heck, compared to some natural languages, esperanto has a unique usecase of letting you join a very passionate language diaspora with members scattered around the world.

I love the concept of esperanto but to be honest there are no practical uses for it. Fun language and it teaches you the concepts of others but as I said, not that useful.

wishinghand 8y ago

> to be honest there are no practical uses for it I find this hard to believe as a conclusion anyone could come to. A universal shared language for international communication? People can keep their mother tongue yet no matter how provincial it may be, can still communicate effectively with the rest of the world?

drugme 8y ago
A universal shared language for international communication? In theory, yes - but not in practice. Which is precisely what the above commenter was saying.
- em-bee 8y ago
  why not? because not many people speak it? that would be like saying, phones are not practical because not everyone has one. or maybe facebook or google+ are not practical because not everyone is on them. but that is a limitation that has nothing to do with any inherent quality of esperanto, only with it's lack of popularity which is something that can be changed without needing to change esperanto itself.
  - drugme 8y ago
    There's a big distinction between "not many people" versus "not everyone".
    - em-bee 8y ago
      yes, but all of these at one point had not many people use them. if that were a problem in itself, then they would never have become popular.
krapp 8y ago
Esperanto is no more "universal" or "shared" than any other European or Romance language, which is to say its idioms are "universal" only to a limited subset of humanity. Might as well just tell the world to keep using English, or make Westerners learn Mandarin.
hannob 8y ago
> A universal shared language for international communication? That is a very good idea. But in order to be successful such a language needs to be spoken by a large share of people internationally. The best language we have for this is English. It's not perfect, because in large parts of the world, particularly in Asia, many people don't speak it. But it's far better suited than Esperanto in almost every imaginable way.
- the_duke 8y ago
  Before WW1, Esperanto was actually becoming popular and was taught in schools in parts of Europe. The nationalistic policies around WW1 and after put a stop to it. I think it's a tremendous shame... it would be so nice to communicate with everyone in a simple language. Note that such a language would not actually need to be actively spoken in normal live much. It just needs to be simple enough to be learn in a short amount of time and to have international backing so it is taught in schools.
  - drugme 8y ago
    Note that such a language would not actually need to be actively spoken in normal life much. Almost by definition - if a language isn't "spoken much" - it isn't really language. But rather a collection of rules and definitions.
    - chillacy 8y ago
      Latin isn't spoken much and we still call it a language: a dead language. Esperanto is still spoken, it's just a particularly uncommon (but not even the smallest) language.
      - drugme 8y ago
        OK, I'll correct myself: "If a language is (or never has been) spoken much..."
        8y ago
karmasimida 8y ago
> A universal shared language for international communication Practical, but we already got one, that is English. Even this post itself is written in English to reach bigger audience. And I would argue Esperanto is hardly universal for the world, more for european languages.
- ghaff 8y ago
  And for Europe, we had Latin before that for scholars and French for diplomats as it was largely Europe’s court language.
- wenc 8y ago
  True, and some people would even call it "globish". (as in "globe") It's a form of non-native English that is as close to being universal as the world has ever seen. This is particularly noticeable in Europe. Due to the European Union's thinning/erasure of borders, there is an order of magnitude more inter-European travel and mobility than 10 years ago. And the most widely understood language between these travelers is English. In Barcelona, vendors would speak to Dutch and Chinese tourists in English. Even in Paris, famous for its disdain of English, the language is fairly widely spoken, not so much to accommodate the British, but visitors from the rest of Europe and the world. Folks quickly figured out that instead of learning multiple European languages (and even then, only be able to communicate with other Europeans and people from former European colonies), they could instead learn English and be able to communicate with not only Europeans but people from Asia, the Middle East, etc. English is used even among people of the same ethnicity. I was with a friend at a restaurant in Chicago's Chinatown, and noticed that my Cantonese-speaking friend had a hard time conveying her order to the Mandarin-speaking mainland Chinese waiter, so they both switched to English. The communication was successful.
- beatgammit 8y ago
  I've heard it's reasonably popular in Japan, so there's that.
  - karmasimida 8y ago
    Only if you consider that 10% of Japanese vocabulary is already English or English-originated (as Gairaigo).

mycorrhizal 8y ago

One practical use that has been studied (only a little) is to use Esperanto as a stepping stone to learning other languages. Essentially the idea is that you can first spend a few months learning Esperanto and that might actually speed up the total time for learning a "third" language. I believe school systems in both the UK and France have experimented with this, both with promising results.

porpoisely 8y ago
We used to have a stepping stone to learn other languages. It was called latin. For some odd reason, we stopped teaching it in our public schools here. But the wealthy private schools still teach latin and give their kids and enormous leg up in their studies.
- ghaff 8y ago
  As someone who took Latin in high school, the stepping stone argument always felt a bit disingenuous. There seemed to be a component of not wanting to admit it was being taught primarily because it was part of a traditional Classics education among Western upper classes. As opposed to a useful skill of some sort. I have absolutely nothing against traditional Classics though I’m not sure how good a fit they are with typical US public high schools today. However I’m pretty skeptical that a few years of Latin—as opposed to Spanish, German, or French (which I also took) or something else entirely—is a uniquely good use of time.
  - em-bee 8y ago
    any second language is a stepping stone to later languages. by the time you learn latin and then french, you might as well have learned french directly and then german or chinese. esperanto is different because it is easier to learn, so instead of taking years to mastery, you are done in a few months, and teachers can focus on proper learning techniques without fearing that students get demotivated because it takes so long. then you can apply those techniques to the next languages and hopefully come out ahead

BillChapman 8y ago

No practical uses! What! Over recent years I have had guided tours of Berlin, Douala (loo it up!), Yerevan and Milan in this planned language. I have discussed philosophy with a Slovene poet, humour on television with a Bulgarian TV producer. I’ve discussed what life was like in East Berlin before the wall came down and in Armenia when it was a Soviet republic, how to cook perfect spaghetti, the advantages and disadvantages of monarchy, and so on. I recommend it as a very useful and practical way to overcome language barriers. Take an unguided wander around the net. You wil find political stuff, religious stuff, scientific stuff - all in Esperanto.

Mediterraneo10 8y ago
Your experience may serve as a rebuttal to the OP about lack of "practical use", but with your couple of posts here I feel you are being very disingenuous and leaving some key things out that would put Esperanto in a bad light. Yes, the Esperanto movement does have a network of proponents around the world that is close-knit and local Esperantists are often willing to show a foreigner around. However, among them are so many weirdos and eccentrics that a person might well be served better by learning either English or the local language and getting all his hospitality and local information through that instead. When I was active in the Esperanto movement, it was common for my fellow Esperantists to joke or kvetch about how certain kinds of political movements or bizarre lifestyles would come out in force at congresses and make everyone else cringe, or how creepy or insufferable one's Pasporta Servo host turned out to be. Something as idealistic and unfashionable as Esperanto is bound to attract more odd people than when using a language like English that is more utilitarian and has less overt shared values.
- beatgammit 8y ago
  There's some truth to that, but learning the local language for everywhere you want to travel is very difficult, and learning English can only get you so far. The great thing about Esperanto is that the speakers are very enthusiastic to speak it with other people, so you'll get better than average hospitality. You're also right about the weirdos, so you need to be very careful when selecting a host. I really like the idea of Amikumu, where you chat with people in Esperanto before meeting in person. Meeting more Esperantists is great because you can discuss experiences using Esperanto abroad. I am marginally into the language (I lurk about on Esperanto subreddits, have done the Duolingo course, and visit Lernu.net periodically), but I wouldn't call myself fluent or anything. However, I might try to use it if I go somewhere with generally weak English skills, like Japan or parts of each Europe.

chillacy 8y ago

Compared to other conlangs, esperanto is probably the most useful. Heck, compared to some natural languages, esperanto has a unique usecase of letting you join a very passionate language diaspora with members scattered around the world.