atlas of endangered languages

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Reply #26 - 2009 February 23, 7:23 pm
Serge Member
From: Tokyo Registered: 2006-04-04 Posts: 275

Brian_Barker wrote:

No mention of the obvious solution namely the global language Esperanto!

I see that President Barack Obama wants everyone to learn a foreign language, but which one should it be?  The British learn French, the Australians study Japanese, and the Americans prefer Spanish.Yet this leaves Mandarin Chinese and Arabic out of the equation.

Why not teach a common neutral non-national language, in all countries, in all schools, worldwide?

An interesting video can be seen at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid … 991452670.

A glimpse of Esperanto can be seen at http://www.lernu.net

What Google search string has brought you to this forum, Brian? My guess is, whatever it was, it has nothing to do with Japanese.

Don't we love them Esperanto partisans... Here's another one from a while ago: http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?pid=8954#p8954

And when Esperanto is mentioned, it's only a matter of a few posts before someone mentions... HITLER!!! :-)))

Reply #27 - 2009 February 23, 9:05 pm
woodwojr Member
From: Boston Registered: 2008-05-02 Posts: 530

Lojban.

~J

Reply #28 - 2009 February 23, 9:18 pm
Machine_Gun_Cat Member
From: auckland Registered: 2009-01-22 Posts: 184

I don't really see Esperanto in a very good light I must admit.

I can appreciate the good intentions behind it but to me it smacks of being a sterile and globalization orientated language devoid of the rich culture and history that build languages and make them such a joy to learn.

Secondly I don't like it because it uses the Roman alphabet, It may be because I'm a language nerd, but I personally think it's much more interesting when another language has a different visual element(writing) as well as sound element.

thirdly it isn't even that cross cultural anyway as it is mainly based on European languages.

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Reply #29 - 2009 February 23, 10:03 pm
sethg Member
From: m Registered: 2008-11-07 Posts: 505

I think Esperanto is interesting, but it clearly favors Europe and seems biased to me in that way. It's really just something for language dorks to learn... or people who don't want to learn pronunciation very well tongue

I have heard some fun stories of people meeting others who speak Esperanto and it's always a fun thing... because no one is really "fluent" in it, it's kind of a novelty to each of you, but a way to communicate nonetheless.

Reply #30 - 2009 February 23, 11:23 pm
cracky Member
From: Las Vegas Registered: 2007-06-25 Posts: 260

We should stop referring to it by name before more proponents show up from google search.

Reply #31 - 2009 February 25, 1:55 am
Machine_Gun_Cat Member
From: auckland Registered: 2009-01-22 Posts: 184

^たしかに　楽しい　ね　smile

Reply #32 - 2009 February 25, 7:27 am
ファブリス Administrator
From: Belgium Registered: 2006-06-14 Posts: 4021 Website

Esperanto bashing could be fun... but only for so long.

cracky wrote:

We should stop referring to it by name before more proponents show up from google search.

That would be brilliant, probably too late wink

I have a solution for that, I'm not kidding : if any more shows up with a 1st post here and a registration date after this post's date, the account will be DELETED along with the posts.

Reply #33 - 2009 February 25, 1:04 pm
Machine_Gun_Cat Member
From: auckland Registered: 2009-01-22 Posts: 184

^now that's some hardassed no nonsense troll smashing modship, nice. wink
This site totally rocks today, I don't know what I would do without this review feature

maybe from now on when we must refer to the unmentionable language we can say "エスペラント”　

Last edited by Machine_Gun_Cat (2009 February 25, 9:18 pm)