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Esperanto has become an important
part of my life.
I enjoy it immensely as an art form, but I also respect
it for its function and purpose. Here I provide some
information about Esperanto in the form of answers
to frequently asked questions.
Q. What is Esperanto?
Esperanto is a modern, living
language whose
foundation was constructed in the nineteenth
century by a young man from the town of Bialystok
(in modern-day Poland) named Ludovic Lazar
Zamenhof. He intended it to be a tool for international communication,
and hoped that such a language
would help to further peaceful relations between
nations and ethnic groups, and to end the
frustrating situations of linguistic inequality.
Q. Where is Esperanto spoken?
Esperanto is spoken all over
the world, in virtually every
country. It belongs to no nation. It is truly international.
Q. How many people speak Esperanto?
This is a difficult question
to answer because it would
be almost impossible to conduct a worldwide census
to determine the number of speakers. Furthermore,
the answer depends on how one defines the ability
to speak a language. An Esperantist can be advanced
and fluent or an absolute beginner. Whom exactly
would we count in such a census? However, the usual
number of speakers that is quoted to give people a
rough idea is 2 million.
Q. Is Esperanto intended
to replace
other languages?
No. Esperanto is intended
as a neutral international
tool which is ideally used in order for people of
different native languages to communicate
on a fair grounds.
Q. Is Esperanto really still around?
There's a mysterious myth
that suggests that Esperanto
is a thing of the past. This is absolutely not true.
The Esperanto Movement is not growing as quickly
today as it was several decades ago, but there is
no evidence to suggest that it's regressing.
Q. Hasn't Esperanto failed in its goals?
Esperanto has not been universally
accepted, and
it's true that there are relatively few speakers.
This is partly due to ignorance, and partly due to
psychological resistance to an "artificial" language
which tends to be perceived as a threat. However,
Esperanto has indeed succeeded in many ways.
It is used today by many people who learned it
for various reasons, but all of them have discovered
how extremely easy Esperanto is to learn, and have
tasted the beauty and power of consequential
simplicity. I have spoken with people with whom I
would not have been able to speak if it weren't for
Esperanto. It is unreasonable for me to expect
friends in other countries to spend a great deal
of effort to learn my native English in order to
communicate with me. Similarly, it wouldn't be
worth my effort to learn theirs. If we compromise
and learn a much easier neutral language, we can
share our thoughts, and progress together.
Q. Are there any native speakers of Esperanto?
Yes, in fact, there are.
When children are born to
an Esperanto-speaking couple, they may be raised
in an environment in which Esperanto is a household
language. It is believed that these children have
a significant educational advantage, especially
when it comes to learning other languages.
Q. Why should I learn
Esperanto when I could learn
a more important language like French, Spanish
German, Japanese, etc.?
There are many reasons. First,
you should consider
how much time and energy it would take to reach
an acceptable level of fluency in these languages.
Esperanto is said to be up to ten times quicker to
learn. This means that you could be fully fluent in
Esperanto in the time it would take you to be 10%
fluent in French. Of course, it depends on your
reasons for learning a language, but 10% fluency is
not very useful, even in an "important" language.
Also, Esperanto is unique because it gives you access
to minority cultures as well as a sort of supranational
culture -- that of the human race. If you learn
Spanish, you'll only be able to communicate with
speakers of Spanish (who almost all belong to the
culture of Spanish-speaking nations). Esperanto
opens the world from Brazil to Ukraine, Norway to
Thailand, Greece to Sri Lanka. Also, you will find
Esperanto very pleasurable to learn since you don't
have to wrap you mind around difficult arbitrary rules
of grammar with countless exceptions. Esperanto
takes rules to their logical conclusion by applying
them universally. You'd be amazed at how quickly
a beginner can start to express his/her thoughts
with just an introduction to the grammar and
a basic vocabulary.
Q. Where can I find more information on Esperanto?
There are numerous resources
on the Internet. Remember
that Esperanto is easy enough to be self-taught, and
that you need only: Internet access, a dictionary,
and some motivation to reach fluency in a relatively
short time (That's how I did it!). Do a search with
your favourite search engine or try these links;
they're a good start:
Then, once you've got it
all down :), come back
and view this site in Esperanto.
Here are some useful words
and phrases in Esperanto
along with sound files for each:
Saluton (Hello)
Kiel vi fartas? (How are you?)
Dankon (Thank you)
Pardonu min (Excuse me)
Ghis la revido (Good-bye)
Mi amas vin (I love you)
Je via sano! (To your health!)
Plian
trinkajhon, mi petas
(Another
drink, please)
Mi
shatas salti el aviadiloj
(I like to jump out of airplanes)
Chu
plachas al vi mia ajlpano?
(Do you like my garlic bread?)
Chu
vere? Ankau mia kuzo gladas siajn
purpurajn shtrumpetojn!
(Really? My cousin irons his purple socks too!)
