| Pages in topic: [1 2 3 4] > | Esperanto - how 'alive' is it? How long to learn? Any online courses? Thread poster: Stefanie Sendelbach
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Hi there,
First of all, congrats on this new forum!
Since I first heard of Esperanto, I was fascinated by the idea of a new language, constructed so that everybody will be able to communicate with each other easily, no matter from which country he or she is.
Here are a few questions to those of you who know Esperanto:
1. Do you know about any estimates on how "alive" the language really is? How many people do actually use it to converse with ot... See more Hi there,
First of all, congrats on this new forum!
Since I first heard of Esperanto, I was fascinated by the idea of a new language, constructed so that everybody will be able to communicate with each other easily, no matter from which country he or she is.
Here are a few questions to those of you who know Esperanto:
1. Do you know about any estimates on how "alive" the language really is? How many people do actually use it to converse with others? My impression (which is not worth much) tells me that Esperanto is only used by very few people.
2. How long did it take you to learn the language properly - say, with a background in Roman languages (isn't Esperanto built up on the basis of Roman languages)?
3. Do you know of any (good) online sources and courses concerning Esperanto?
Thanks for any information.
Cheers,
Stefanie
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2004-06-26 21:25] ▲ Collapse
| | | | IanW (X)
Local time: 22:25
German to English
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| Native Esperanto speaker | Jun 26, 2004 |
Hi there,
When I was studying in France many moons ago, I actually met a girl whose first language was Esperanto. Her father was Japanese and her mother was English (or possibly the other way around) and they had met through an Esperanto network, married and spoke Esperanto at home.
Thankfully, she also learnt English and Japanese from her parents - imagine how hard it would be to learn another language if the only language you know was Esperanto!
All the b... See more Hi there,
When I was studying in France many moons ago, I actually met a girl whose first language was Esperanto. Her father was Japanese and her mother was English (or possibly the other way around) and they had met through an Esperanto network, married and spoke Esperanto at home.
Thankfully, she also learnt English and Japanese from her parents - imagine how hard it would be to learn another language if the only language you know was Esperanto!
All the best
Ian ▲ Collapse
| | | | Stefanie Sendelbach 
Germany
Local time: 22:25
Member (2003)
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | I never knew there were native Esperanto speakers!! | Jun 26, 2004 |
Wow. Thanks, Ian, for your reply. I am quite amazed. Never expected native Esperanto speakers.
Do you happen to know the network her parents are in?
Do you happen to know any Esperanto?
You say that, with Esperanto being her first language, the girl would have had problems learning any other language. Is Esperanto really that simple?
Stefanie
[Edited at 2004-06-26 18:52]
| | | | nordiste
France
Local time: 22:25
English to French
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| HAve a look at http://www.uea.org/ | Jun 26, 2004 |
Hi,
Have a look at the website of the Universala Esperanto Asocio , they also have an English version.
There is also the SAT "http://satesperanto.free.fr/kio_ang.html" which is not apolitical but more sicialist oriented.
I learned a bit of Esperanto a long time ago as a student and I once used it in Hungary as a student , when it was not esay for them to learn English (because it was the language of so-called "american capitalism" ). Esperanto is very easy, ... See more Hi,
Have a look at the website of the Universala Esperanto Asocio , they also have an English version.
There is also the SAT "http://satesperanto.free.fr/kio_ang.html" which is not apolitical but more sicialist oriented.
I learned a bit of Esperanto a long time ago as a student and I once used it in Hungary as a student , when it was not esay for them to learn English (because it was the language of so-called "american capitalism" ). Esperanto is very easy, the grammar is regular and the roots of the words are part latin, part german and part slavic (1/3 each).
I have almost completely forgotten it by now. Although the situation has changed in the Eastern Europeean countries I suppose that they are still some networks of speakers. I know some old members of SAT here in France ; they have an international congress (every second year I think) and they are very proud because "they don't need any interpretor nor tranlator !" ▲ Collapse
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kanajlo
Local time: 16:25
Esperanto to English
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| Esperanto Sources and Courses | Jun 26, 2004 |
Stephanie,
Esperanto is very well represented on the Web. If you would like to receive a list of URLs, please write to me at
[email protected]
I would also be glad to explain to you what the sites are all about, if you don't understand Esperanto.
Sincerely,
Kanajlo
| | | | kanajlo
Local time: 16:25
Esperanto to English
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| Esperanto Sources and Courses | Jun 26, 2004 |
Stephanie,
If you would like a list of URLs, please contact me. I will explain what the sites are about if you do not know Esperanto and if it is not obvious to you what the site is about.
Sincerely,
Kanajlo
[email protected]
| | | | | Quick answers | Jun 26, 2004 |
Hi Stefanie,
I pitched your questions to my brother (an Esperantist), and got back some quick answers - he can go on at length, but the library was closing and he had to get off their computer.
1. Do you know about any estimates on how "alive" the language really is? How many people do actually use it to converse with others? My impression (which is not worth much) tells me that Esperanto is only used by very few people.
A: Possibly hundreds of thousands. ... See more Hi Stefanie,
I pitched your questions to my brother (an Esperantist), and got back some quick answers - he can go on at length, but the library was closing and he had to get off their computer.
1. Do you know about any estimates on how "alive" the language really is? How many people do actually use it to converse with others? My impression (which is not worth much) tells me that Esperanto is only used by very few people.
A: Possibly hundreds of thousands. It is insanely difficult
to determine.
2. How long did it take you to learn the language properly - say, with a background in Roman languages (isn't Esperanto built up on the basis of Roman languages)?
A: Much less time than almost any language in the world except
Indonesian, however fast you learn languages...[and in answer to the question in parentheses:] Only partly.
3. Do you know of any (good) online sources and courses concerning Esperanto?
A: www.lernu.net
Hope this sets you off in the right direction.
Stephanie ▲ Collapse
| | | | Guy Penet
Egypt
Local time: 22:25
German to French
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| Esperanto learning | Jun 27, 2004 |
Hi,
I learned Esperanto in Germany when I was staying there for my studies and it only took me a few months with two hours per week to be able to speak and understand basic conversation. As already said by others, it is very difficult to assess the number of current speakers/users in the world since some of them once learned the language and are not even registered in any Esperanto organizations like UEA for instance.
I use it regularly : corresponding, reading, listen... See more Hi,
I learned Esperanto in Germany when I was staying there for my studies and it only took me a few months with two hours per week to be able to speak and understand basic conversation. As already said by others, it is very difficult to assess the number of current speakers/users in the world since some of them once learned the language and are not even registered in any Esperanto organizations like UEA for instance.
I use it regularly : corresponding, reading, listening to music.... One of my work providers is Esperantist and we use the language for work correspondence.
For the resources, you can find everything at http://www.uea.org/ ▲ Collapse
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Stefanie Sendelbach
Germany
Local time: 22:25
Member (2003)
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | Free online course | Jun 27, 2004 |
I just found a free online course for Esperanto. It consists of 10 lessons, which are available in various languages. Everybody gets assigned one mentor who is supposed to correct homeworks and answer questions.
Looks very nice. I think I'll give it a try and let you know how it goes.
Stefanie
Oh, here is the ... See more I just found a free online course for Esperanto. It consists of 10 lessons, which are available in various languages. Everybody gets assigned one mentor who is supposed to correct homeworks and answer questions.
Looks very nice. I think I'll give it a try and let you know how it goes.
Stefanie
Oh, here is the link: http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~martinw/esperanto/veb/lerni.html ▲ Collapse
| | | | Stefanie Sendelbach
Germany
Local time: 22:25
Member (2003)
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | Thanks for the tips | Jun 27, 2004 |
Hi Stephanie,
Thanks to you and your brother for the info. www.lernu.net indeed looks very good and I'll definitely read on there.
Cheers,
Stefanie
[Edited at 2004-06-27 09:10]
| | | | Stefanie Sendelbach
Germany
Local time: 22:25
Member (2003)
English to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Can you please make your list of links available for everybody? | Jun 27, 2004 |
Hi Kanajlo,
kanajlo wrote: Esperanto is very well represented on the Web. If you would like to receive a list of URLs, please write to me at [email protected] I would also be glad to explain to you what the sites are all about, if you don't understand Esperanto.
Thank you for your offer. I noticed that there are quite a lot of Esperanto courses, associations, online libraries, etc. available on the net.
A list of links would be very useful though. Would you like to post it here in the forum? That way, everybody who reads this thread and is interested in Esperanto can profit from your collection.
Thanks,
Stefanie
| | | | kanajlo
Local time: 16:25
Esperanto to English
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Stefanie Sendelbach
Germany
Local time: 22:25
Member (2003)
English to German
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TOPIC STARTER | A few links to get started | Jun 27, 2004 |
Here is some interesting info for beginners:
from Don Harlows' website ( http://www.harlows.org/don/esperanto/ ): Start by visiting the following three pages, reading them thoroughly, and perhaps printing them out: http://www.webcom.com/donh/Esperanto/rules.html This is a list of the so-called "16 rules of Esperanto grammar". Once you understand these, and how they are used, you will have 90% of what you need to know about Esperanto's morphology. Much of the other 10% can be found at http://www.webcom.com/donh/Esperanto/correlatives.html These are the "who, what, when, where, how, why, etc." of Esperanto, the only significant subsystem of the language not touched on by the 16 rules. With these two pages, you should have no trouble following the structure of written Esperanto, if not its content. For a bit more information on content, go to http://www.webcom.com/donh/Esperanto/affixes.html which will show you how to build words in Esperanto, using the three dozen or so prefixes and suffixes that the language makes great use of.
[Edited at 2004-06-27 10:58]
| | | | | | kanajlo
Local time: 16:25
Esperanto to English
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| Good Sites in and about Esperanto | Jun 30, 2004 |
Sundari and Venabili have found some excellent sites! Thank you both! I will list some more sites later. Lernu Esperanton!
[Edited at 2004-07-02 03:46]
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