Monday, May 12, 2008

Esperanto

Go learn Esperanto!

What is Esperanto you ask? obviously you have not spent enough time around me. From Wikipedia:

Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language.[2] The name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book of Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. The word esperanto means 'one who hopes'. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy and flexible language that would serve as a universal second language to foster peace and international understanding.

Esperanto has had continuous usage by a community estimated at between 100,000 and 2 million speakers for over a century. By most estimates, there are approximately a thousand native speakers.[3] No country has adopted the language officially.

Today, Esperanto is employed in world travel, correspondence, cultural exchange, conventions, literature, language instruction, television,[4] and radio broadcasting.[5]

Some state education systems offer elective courses in Esperanto, and in one university, the Akademio Internacia de la Sciencoj in San Marino, Esperanto is the language of instruction.

There is evidence that learning Esperanto may provide a good foundation for learning languages in general. (See Propaedeutic value of Esperanto.)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a good introduction to a vast topic. After "Go learn Esperanto!" I think you should add "Go use Esperanto!" It is important to know how you can use the language, then take advantage of the benefits it offers. In particular I recommend the free accommodation service called Pasporta Servo.

Anonymous said...

And here you find most anything useful

http://chenero.googlepages.com/index.html

Jessica said...

We talked about Esperanto in my Phonological Acquisition and Disorders class. The professor apparently once took a correspondence course in Esperanto, or something like that. Maybe I'll learn some of it once I get back from the Czech Republic.

Ben Milton said...

Hey Patrick,

My blogs are www.themorningoil.blogspot.com < this is a collaborative one with me, Sims' sister Catharine and her friend, and www.themasterfade.blogspot.com < one I just started

Anonymous said...

Esperanto..... Elvish is so much cooler. On another note, now that you are back in town we need to hang out!