Esperanto: Like a Native

An interview with 6 of the ca. 1000 worldwide native speakers of the constructed language Esperanto. Video on occasion of the UN International Mother Language Day 2015.
HOT NEWS! A few of us are currently doing an AMA on Reddit: / was_on_front_page_we_a...
User names:
verda_papilio = Lívia (Brazilian girl)
leo_esperanto = Leo (Polish/Japanese DJ in Germany)
steleto = Stela = Eszter (French/Hungarian in Brussels)
DJ_Kunar = Gunnar (German DJ)
Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed language in the world, spoken by as many as two million non-native speakers, according to some estimates. There are ca. 1000 native speakers. Esperanto is usually a learned language - a super-easy language that anyone can learn in a fraction of the time it takes to learn English or Spanish for example. Usually it takes only two or three weekends of learning to be able to communicate freely with people around the world. When people spent a lot of time in Esperanto meetings and with their Esperanto friends in many countries, they often choose to speak with their children in Esperanto, thus educating native speakers.
For more info on Esperanto, visit www.tejo.org .

[@owieri]

4:20 "i speak esperanto when i don't want anyone to understand what i say" fair enough

[@CenturionKZ]

ĉu vi scias Esperanton?

[@thediaxd3747]

@@CenturionKZ um..y yeah Sí sí..hombre

[@_perza]

@@CenturionKZ Jes, mi parolas iom de Esperanton

[@krystiankowalski7335]

@@_perza iom da Esperanto

[@_perza]

@@krystiankowalski7335 ho, dankon

[@djstapler]

Duolingo says I only know 118 words. I put Esperanto captions on this video and I understood about 70% of what they said! Esperanto is truly amazing

[@yniekac8851]

Yup same. I am 50% finished with the first levels in the course and i almost completely understood it without subtitles

[@SteevenPapiernikA]

Gratulon! Pero puedes continuar así, solamente practica, Lee mucho en esperanto y vas a ser mucho mejor!

[@Louisianish]

Interesting. I’ve never studied Esperanto, but I put subtitles in Esperanto on, and I’d say, between the spoken word and the written word, I understood about 80%. Besides English, though, I do speak French and Louisiana Creole, and I know a little Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. I think this language is really geared towards speakers of Romance and Germanic languages. Which makes sense. Those were the dominant language families of the time (and today) of both Europe and the world (in terms of the number of countries in which they are spoken and not necessarily the total number of speakers).

[@Ling74750]

You can clearly hear what their other native language is because they all have some sort of an accent. Especially the two guys who also speak German. It is a really interessting concept that native speakers of the same language have "foreign accents"

[@MrFlameRad]

think of them as dialects. like how people in Argentina sound Italian, yet they speak Spanish

[@Ling74750]

***** Great example :D

[@sevi1547]

+Roman74750 Probably because they were raised by "non-native" speakers who imbued them with their original accents.

[@k98killer]

The proper linguist term is always "dialect". The word " accent" presupposes some way to pronounce words that is universally considered the standard/correct way. That being said, the case can be made that a constructed language like Esperanto (which actually does have an international standardization process) does indeed have a standard pronunciation guide.

[@juani2929]

+nayrad m what? I sound like an italian?

[@camillachopinet3828]

It does sound as a mix between Italian, Spanish, Latin, German, English and Portuguese😂

[@isaackeller8586]

That Fact Guy German/English make up a lot of it too, which aren't romance languages.

[@issacmoore1561]

Also can't ignore the Greek in there. "Kai" sticks out like a sore thumb for me because it's one of the only Greek words I know.

[@user-ps1ue6vf3l]

Camilla Chopinet French too?

[@jadencarruthers3928]

I don't really hear much english things in it like I was unable to understand a word they said

[@jebvids2139]

It was supposed to be alot like all the European languages, so it could be very easy, and we could all speak in one language, esperanto, and make peace.

[@OnyxAgainstTheWorld]

Wish me luck. I'm trying to learn via duolingo

[@mauriciotrevino6380]

+Skepti Skunk How did it go?

[@amuzulo]

+Skepti Skunk Good luck! :)

[@FireFiveStar]

+Skepti Skunk I just started today and having already known spanish and english, and have been learning german for a few months makes it really easy.

[@cvbattum]

+Skepti Skunk Being trilingual (born Dutch, lived in France and learned English with the internet) already, the course was actually surprisingly easy.. Only found a few 'false friends'

[@TheChrississinLP]

+function86 As a native speaker of German and learning English and Spanish, I started Esperanto today as well and I understand a lot of it, I just need to learn how to speak it myself. And I think, lernu has pretty good courses for this.

[@beowulfcicero]

"It now has native speakers" is highly misleading. It's had native speakers since the 19th century. "Now" makes it sound like a more recent development.

[@camena5684]

My heart skipped a beat when the girl said "aliae linguae" so fluently without doubt. I let myself imagine for a moment that she was speaking classical Latin...

[@modernopoletto2266]

When was it?

[@fanaticofmetal]

Aliae Linguae? It's Aliaj Lingvoj. It's Esperanto, not Latin

[@Kalmaro4152]

It's very interesting, considering I can normally bullshit my way through all of the "Cool Kid Latin" that people use.

[@diouranke]

its interesting how people either seem to hate or love Esperanto

[@MartinSwitzer]

Yes, the divide is more or less the same as between those who have studied it and those who haven't. Odd that.

[@Peleski]

Hitler, Stalin and Franco hated it. That suggests something.

[@gomogo2000]

@@Peleski I hate it. Wonder what this means...

[@vibovitold]

I don't dislike Esperanto itself as much as I deeply dislike the concept of an artificial language in general. I believe in social reality (which includes languages) developing organically and naturally; not planned, designed or constructed. The delusion in case of Esperanto is obviously a harmless one, but it's still a product of the same 19th century socio-engineering mentality, which assumed society is sort of a clock that one can (and should) wind up just right. The mentality depicted in Verne's "The Mysterious Island" (as opposed to "Lord of the flies"). In short, I believe it's a waste of time, as it's impossible to have such a language ever catch on. In the pursuit of a more interconnected world, one should invest their effort somewhere else, where it could be more productive. Of course you may say like @MartinSwitzer: "the divide is more or less the same as between those who have studied it and those who haven't", but this is very much a fallacy. OBVIOUSLY if the concept of a constructed language doesn't appeal to someone, then they won't take up studying it. It's not like the two groups - learners and non-learners - were picked at random, and only then the great experience of getting to know the language turned sceptics into believers. There's an obvious selection bias at work here. That's my opinion in a nutshell. You guys are entitled to yours. But as long as it boils down to statements such as "Hitler, Stalin and Franco hated it, that suggests something", I really wouldn't expect it to do wonders for promoting the language ;) PS. For the record, I'm not an English native speaker, as you can probably tell, even though I'm fairly advanced. I mostly learned it in my twenties. That's where I invested my effort to be able to communicate with more people. Much better bang for buck if you ask me.

[@Klara9]

@@vibovitold Interesting point of view, but I have to say Esperanto also develops organically and naturally nowadays, as its inventor is long dead. So for me people can stop calling it artificial. It's a natural language now, shaped by its speakers. Every language that is really used by a critical amount of people will undergo natural evolution and become a "real" language no matter how it started. After all Indonesian and modern Hebrew are also constructed languages that a large number of people somehow agreed to use (again). All languages are made by people, not grown from trees or fallen from the sky, and in that sense all are artificial. Above a critical amount of speakers every language becomes planned/designed in the sense that it needs a set of clear rules decided by an appointed group of people, which are then laid out in books, dictionaries, encyclopedias and taught to kids at school. So the divide between artificial/constructed and "natural" might not be as clear-cut as you think.

[@Bivoladi]

honestly i don't think there could be a native esperanto accent because there is no such thing as an esperanto nation. there will always be a parent language accent.

[@nordique1664]

+Brian Fletcher Indeed. I think that actually makes it pretty awesome. There can be multiple native accents for one language.

[@violencia6164]

English dude. We have too many accents.

[@TheCobbleBros]

Well, an accent is formed (or even dilaects. In fact language itself can apply to this too) whenever a group of people are secluded from other people and they all speak the same language. I.e. when us Americans came to this country (don't ask what we did when we came here) we were secluded from the British. Overtime, we developed our own American accent. If an American were to grow up in the UK, however, they would still have a British accent due to being exposed to other people with British accents for all of their life. It's the same way with Esperanto speakers. They were exposed to the accents of their home country, and used that accent in their Esperanto, native or not. If a group of Esperanto speakers started their own country, however, there would eventually be an Esperanto accent. It is very unlikely for them to start their own country though.

[@drewstillexists]

TheCobbleBros Actually, historically, the British accent has changed a lot more than the American accent.

[@SurfinScientist]

TheCobbleBros: Though it is a bit antonymous to the spirit of Esperanto for speakers to start their own country, it would be good to adopt it as the common tongue in the EU. Not only does it originate in Europe with a founder who would've underwritten the general ideals of the EU would he be alive today, it is also quite easy to learn in my first impression. I started yesterday and intend to be sufficiently conversant in the language by the time the UK drops out of the EU. I speak English fluently (apart from almost-fluent Japanese, some German, and my native Dutch), but with the nutcases that are elected in political office in the US and the UK I feel not much cultural connection with the people who elected them, so I became convinced that a language not inherently associated with a specific culture or country is the way to go. Esperanto would be a great uniter of the people in the EU!

[@terrymadeley]

I like how, even though they were speaking the same language, you could still pick out different accents.

[@fanaticofmetal]

I mean yeah, the same goes for English

[@Peleski]

I love their accents. It would be so useful if people who worked in hospitality and ticket sales took a day or two to do a course in Esperanto. It would be so much easier to travel in out-of-the way places if simple requests were possible.

[@Evildea]

Hey this is very cool! I'm an Esperanto speaker, but not a native. I've however had the pleasure of living with an entire native Esperanto family during a period of time.

[@hanagreg]

how is someone an Esperanto native?

[@ratedpending]

Gergana Hristova born with two parents who have different first languages, so they use Esperanto to communicate

[@b.s.6728]

RatedPending - Please Don't Sue Me I thought it was just anyone who was taught it as a baby, alongside whatever native language they use in their country.

[@ratedpending]

Bee Stee it is, but that's the most likely scenario where someone would be a native Esperanto speaker. Though that could also happen as well.

[@ReidGarwin]

Your accent is sexy when you speak it, just being honest Evildea lol

[@ksfutbolplayer]

I'm gonna learn this language. It sounds so cool!

[@taynaraespinosa6934]

have you learned it?

[@curse_77]

@@taynaraespinosa6934 I wanna learn it in summer holiday! Wish me a good luck please :)

[@SophiesAmazingYoutube]

Have you learned it?

[@Neceros]

Yes, people should start learning many, many languages early as infants.

[@2DReanimation]

Why... really... That would just be confusing, I think, unless taught by a polyglot linguist. First and foremost a proper international English should be established, and taught to everyone as their first language. As it's already

[@2DReanimation]

...android phone... Too easy to missclick... ...already an established international language. And a pigeon version of it for babies could be devised, to establish a firm base to build upon. With revised, phonetic spelling, like Common in Ender's Game.

[@HairLikeARainbow]

Neceros Studies have been done and show that a child can be raised with up to 4 native languages, so why not! I plan to bring my children up Bilingual, and I hope they will value languages taught to them in school.

[@tmdsb2655]

Ellie Hart honestly, it all depends on interest. My first language was Chinese but I came to America when I was in second grade. Normally, you'd just forget the language because my family speaks English around each other also. The only reason I'm still fluent in Chinese is because I like the Chinese entertainment circle, and I put an effort to not forget it.

[@amineaboutalib]

@@HairLikeARainbow I can speak 4 languages, can confirm it's confusing af

[@RyanBuchananJ]

Mi lernas Esperanton. Mi uzas Duolingo. :D

[@baconrocksable]

:D kiom da lecionoj lernis vi gxis nun? :D

[@RyanBuchananJ]

Mi estas lv. 7 gxis nun. Mi ankau havas libro; mia libro enhavas vortlisto; gxi estas helpema.

[@baconrocksable]

Kio estas la nomo de la libro? o: se mi povas demandi o:

[@RyanBuchananJ]

Esperanto: Learning and Using the International Language

[@RyanBuchananJ]

La libro estas en la angla.

[@TheRealFlenuan]

If you want to learn Esperanto, I highly recommend that you use Duolingo to do so!

[@GabrielDayot]

The Real Flenuan Yes, Duolingo and Lernu! :D

[@TheRealFlenuan]

Gabriel Dayot Lernu! sucks.

[@GabrielDayot]

I'm just using Lernu for definitions. :)

[@BrianScottCarpenter]

+The Real Flenuan Bliubliu and memrise.com is also good

[@shanenanigans27]

Kafo estas en la kafejo.

[@IanCarter50]

Dankon, pro tio, ke vi montras al la mondo ke vere ekzistas denaskaj esperanto-parolantoj. Mi ja scias, ke multaj homoj ne akceptos, eĉ ne kredos tion ... sed vi prezentas la faktojn klare videblajn. Thank you for showing the world that there really do exist native speakers of Esperanto. I do know that many people won't accept or even believe it ... but you present the facts, which are clear to see.

[@ChaosTherum]

Yeah until like 2 days ago from what I had heard from other people esperanto was a joke. But after digging into it a bit I think I'm going to try and learn it.

[@IanCarter50]

ChaosTherum​ You can joke in Esperanto, but the language itself is not a joke.

[@HANSMKAMP]

ChaosTherum People that say Esperanto is a joke, obviously don't know a thing of it. They don't either bother to look what Esperanto really is and how it functions in several situations.

[@rickjones2509]

***** Very well put, Ian.

[@meusisto]

Mi volas eduki idon mian kiel denaskulo de latina lingvo.

[@IamWakon]

I think I could learn this language pretty easily.

[@GAm3rsK0ol]

+Wakon Music easier than any major language, but no language comes "easily."

[@XXfAzEXXXXd0gEXX]

+Nick Johnson Its a lot easier because of the easy pronunciations and grammar as well as the open structure of the words, but still, it aint comin easy

[@Phagocytosis]

It felt really easy to me. But I suppose I did spend a good amount of time learning a whole bunch of words on Memrise... but at least with this language, I never felt like I hit any kind of roadblock.

[@augustokonrad3572]

I recommend you duolingua. You are require to acess at least 5 minutes a day. Esperanto is very easy to learn actually.

[@Joesolo13]

Wakon it's designed to be easy to learn

[@krokodil191]

Is it just me, or it sound a lot like spanish?

[@alexanderfortier5488]

It shares a lot of stuff with spanish

[@RevolutionGamersHD]

krokodil196 That's the point, to combine all languages

[@EsperantoVarietyShow]

I hear that a lot. I also hear that it sounds like Italian, or Portuguese, or whatever language the listener may be familiar with.

[@CocoaCornflower]

It uses the Spanish vowels.

[@nad829]

it actually sounds a lot like catalan

[@missunderstood2274]

Sounds like Spanish (as a fluent Spanish speaker). What I love about Esperanto is that you can hear everyone using their own accents based on where they're from :)

[@ihaveproblems9779]

/hug

[@bmthnumber1]

It sounds like a mix of Romanian, Spanish and a bit of Italian. You can pick up some latin derived words, but the general intonation is kind of slavish, Romanian has quite a lot of Slavic influence.

[@tecramos]

Romanian has Getae-Dacian (the original "romanian") intermingled with Latin, Slavic, Germanic, Ottoman influences and generally what other countries trampled trough Romania.

[@thecorgi5534]

Spanish?

[@CDEbFGAbB]

It sounds like something between romance and slavic. I prefer interlingua. Much better and far easier.

[@MarcusTrawick]

I found the regularity of Esperanto's word-endings system to be easier than Interlingua. However, Interlingua , to me sounds a little prettier than Esperanto. I love both of these languages.

[@fanaticofmetal]

@@CDEbFGAbB Interlingua is garbage, it's really bad as a Romance conlang, the grammar is quite distinct from Romance languages and it isn't recognizeable when spoken. At this point learning Spanish is a better choice.

[@DoowiDoowi]

Bona video. Mi estas komencanta esperantisto kaj mi povas kompreni multe de la video. Dankon por la video. :D

[@EsperantaStelo]

Dankegon pro tiom bona laboro! Multas la subtitoloj! ¡Muchas gracias por un trabajo tan bueno como este! ¡Veo muchos subtítulos!

[@Skyrilla]

Amazing how many people are butthurt over Esperanto, like they're afraid of ''something''... it's quite unusual.

[@reanimationeas342]

I have heard people say Esperanto was transphobic because of only two gender pronouns. Even though the official Esperanto dictionary is difficult to change, nobody says that you cannot create a variant. For the record, I would be cool with someone inventing new words for Esperanto that include LGBT+ people

[@tanojiro]

@@reanimationeas342 Transphonic? This is anachronism, this language was created in 1908, these kind of debates were out of light in that time, beyond this, the world has a lot of languages that is just 2 genres.

[@reanimationeas342]

@@tanojiro I am only saying about what I read. I also know that Esperanto has not changed much since then

[@cannibaliowa]

​@@reanimationeas342 I'm non-binary/trans and I prefer "ri-" , instead of "li-" or "sxi" as the pronoun used for me, as well as using -ip- like one might use the feminine -in- or masculine -ich-, when the word has to be gendered. For example, Instead of saying "Mi estas viro" (I am a man) or "Mi estas virino" (I am a woman) , I say "Mi estas Viripo". While many people are kind and polite about it, some refuse to use my pronouns, opting to use "Li, Sxi, or even Gxi (It)" because it's "more grammatically correct" according to La Fundemento, except La Fundemento was written at a time where people knew significantly less about trans people and those who are LGBTQ+ in general. The language isn't transphobic, and I think it can adapt without a complete overhaul, but many people in the community fight back against any form of change, despite Zamenhof himself trying to change the language later. I'm very optimistic that we will see more LGBTQ+ Esperanto speakers in the future as the language continues to adapt, slowly but surely.

[@finleycastello6512]

I am sooo jealous of these people.

[@floridmonkey2723]

At least its really easy to learn

[@OnlyARide]

Don't be jealous, just lernu!

[@philipcooper8297]

Because they are good at something pointless? I have tons of skills as such.

[@thevitruvianman9781]

Jealous phillip you are.

[@weltgeist2604]

Use that Jealousy to learn the language.

[@anpegu2073]

I'm surprised, I can understand Esperanto without subtitles (with some difficulties, of course) and I've just discovered this language. It sounds like my native language.

[@thekingloficial153]

@JLang his native language is Spanish

[@fanaticofmetal]

@@thekingloficial153 More like Portuguese, sounds nothing like Spanish

[@TKZprod]

@@fanaticofmetal Sounds nothing like Spanish? "Mia nomo estas Leo, mi estas studento [...]" 0:37

[@jennyince8572]

Lovely to hear it spoken and such nice smiling faces too! Thanks for uploading this video x

[@user-pn2wi6zi2b]

Bele. Mi tre interesas en esperanto, kaj mi estas tre feliĉa por spekti ĉi tion videon. Dankon por vi afiŝis :).

[@olcarbonell5041]

Força esperanto!

[@homosapien.a6364]

Saluton mi estas Esperantisto Kaj mi loĝas en saŭdiarabo Kaj mi ankoraŭ lernas esperanton ❤️

[@ulrikof.2486]

Multan ĝojon por vi!

[@lepsikanolips4677]

La kvanto de malsamaj subtekstoj por ĉi tiu video estas nekredeble mirinda! Vere la ponta lingvo! The amount of different subtitles for this video is absolutely amazing! Esperanto really is a "language bridge".

[@craigs6045]

+Lepsikano Lips 'Da'

[@dyanideclet3672]

I speak English, took 4 years of Spanish in school. It KINDA sounds like spanish, but with a different in accents.

[@firielcasselius4033]

Wow I am learning esperanto a bit time ago, and I can understand almost all to they did say.

[@goomba008]

All their speeches sound so similar. I think after just listening to someone speak Esperanto for a few hours I could start to understand it ~70% (using a European languages background of course)

[@NoFrameHell]

+goomba008 I could pick up about that amount as well, since i've been studying a bit of latin, french, italian, can understand spanish and speak portuguese fluently. Learning German during middle-school helped quite a bit with some works such as "dankon" for example.

[@damianwyrebiak8143]

goomba008 Well... It was designed to be simple and easy to understand

[@CindyMcKee]

Enjoyable little film! Mi ĝuis, kaj dankas vin pro la kreado de tiu filmo.

[@arungogineni2055]

I love this video now because I am learning Esperanto and I understood a lot of it!

[@zsofia8]

Gratulojn, interesaj intervjuoj!

[@pietrovonherts]

Gratulon por la mirinda laboro.

[@Jcarr250]

The older german guy spoke a weird Esperanto-German mix...

[@TheLyle1997]

Umbrall and it sound better ^_^ (for mi)

[@mArs0x0h]

lyle milan ne pensas mi, sono hidan

[@TheLyle1997]

oh i forgot .. esperantist are German haters..

[@mArs0x0h]

lyle milan Mi estas german...

[@TheLyle1997]

i am so confused

[@verarb2001]

It sounds like a mixture between Spanish and Portuguese.

[@goroakechi1068]

Yeah it does!

[@elisabetepereira8624]

and English, French....

[@CarloGatto]

and italian! some words those people spoke are italian words

[@anshubehera2600]

+Edmond Manchester Genau!

[@ubizmo]

The author of Esperanto didn't know either of those languages. It's based mainly on English, French, and German, although there's some Latin thrown in too. Of course, many French/Latin words have cognates in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, so it's not surprising that some Esperanto words sound like they are taken from those languages. Phonetically, it's a bit closer to German and even Slavic languages. There are consonant clusters that don't occur in most Romance languages. There are no nasals comparable to what you find in French and Portuguese, beyond some (optional) nasalization of the 'n' in 'ng' words like "fingro" and "ungo".

[@juani2929]

this video blew my mind

[@Emilytea]

19. 6 languages. Meanwhile, I'm 19 and the closest I am to a language other than English is the French that I've been reading on cereal boxes all my life.

[@antoinecarignan7550]

+Emily2351 LOL

[@Klara9]

so young! what are you waiting for? learn esperanto and the world of languages opens up to you.

[@Klara9]

p.s. in the video I said 6 but now I speak 7 :D

[@frechjo]

Emily, just try it, it's not too hard to learn Esperanto. Give it a few moths of study and you'll see. I speak Spanish, some English and some Esperanto, and I've dabbled in French, German, Portuguese, and Mandarin. The easiest of them all is Esperanto I've heard of people break of their frustration with languages when they were able to learn Esperanto. And after a second language, a third one becomes easier, if you want to keep learning. I'm in my 30s and still learning, my grandma was in her 60s when she was studying French, and my grandpa in his 70s learning German. Being 19 (22?) is no excuse. Kaj gratulon al Connie (ĉu Klára?), pro via sepa lingvo! Kiun envion! d_(Ọ̣̃vỌ̣̃)_b

[@EldritchSunny]

@@Klara9 Nice! You're cool AF :D

[@PaulA-zp7hn]

Came across this language in a hard techno set (had to use translate to auto-detect the language) I had no idea it even existed, let alone that it's supposed to be an international language. Learning something new every day!

[@ra-rezonansaagentejoporsub2107]

Bela filmo! Dankegon!

[@apocalypticacorn6736]

Este idioma es muy similar a Espanol. Quiero aprenderlo ahora

[@elnuraliyev6513]

Yo puenso que tu puedes aprender este idioma fácilmente. Porque tu tambien has decido que muy similar. Y estoy aprendido tu idioma. Hacer 7 dias he empezado aprender.

[@unixtippse]

Ja ekzistas natura leĝo laŭ kiu videoj en esperanto nepre havu la plej eble teruran sonkvaliton, kaj ni neniam ajn malobeu ĝin!

[@rangxelodinamito4319]

Kie estas viaj altsonkvalitaj esperantlingvaj filmetoj?

[@Sprachprofi]

Ja estas decido de ĉiu filmfaranto ke li nepre malkvalitigu la sonon. Tute ne eblas ke ekzistas aliaj kialoj.

[@EsperantaStelo]

Mi kredas ke li ne helpas per tiu komento detrua, krom por vundi fierojn kaj homojn kiuj provas fari sian plejon (plie, kritiki ion kion vi ne sekvas ne plej lertas). Sed certe multaj ĉi tie konsentos ke se la video havus ĉiam bonan sonkvaliton ĝi estus nun oble pli spektata (Ĉu la alŝutinto povas kontroli kiam la spektantoj ĉesas spekti la videon? Ĉu la grafika analizlineo subiras kiam malbone eksonas filmero?). Mi eksciis danke al sperta jutubisto ke homoj kutime fuĝas el kinejo kie oni spektigas sonaĉan bildkvalitegan filmon, sed multe pli restas se la sono kvalitas eĉ se la bildkvalito sufiĉe aĉas. Laŭ mi la video refarindas pli profesie (mi page kontribuus por profesiigi ĝin) kun bela filmado (kvalita fono) kaj profesia sono. Mikrofono de filmiloj neniam taŭgas por bona jutubaĵo.

[@LaszloToth55]

+Martin Schmitt Mi komprenis ĉion tuj tute facile, kaj ne rimarkis ajnan malbonkvaliton kio malhelpu bonan komprenadon. Eble tiuj malpli bone regantoj de Eo provas transimputi komprenan malsukceson al supozita malbona sona kvalito... Cetere mi ne estas denaska Eo parolanto.

[@ELGUAPOIV]

I decided today that I will try to learn this language. I hope I will follow through because this language has a cool history and sounds really cool.

[@biancaok3745]

ive never heard of esperanto until now this is neato

[@atapuma5756]

This is wonderful! I like the sound of it and it's just amazing how easy it is to understand!!! I'm Italian but I speak also spanish and english (also i lived in Poland for a few months so, even though I can't speak it, I kind of got a little used to the sound of Polish and its very basic grammar) and I could understand like the 50% of what it was been said, which is really a lot considering it was the first time ever I heard esperanto. I'd like esperanto to be the european language. I don't dislike english but I feel like a language with both romance, slavic and german roots would be easier for everyone (except for irish people of course) and also fairer. Also the UK is leaving the EU so we have one reason more

[@dantedante839]

I noticed that everybody pronounced the letter R in a different way.

[@Klara9]

welcome to the world

[@baronmeduse]

@@Klara9 Well the original Zamenhof vision was that the 'r' was trilled, but native German speakers especially (some French too) use the gutteral 'r'. I don't think it sounds quite as good. The only reason it isn't 'corrected' is because it's not a language tied to a national culture.

[@Klara9]

@@baronmeduse If you ask linguists the letter R is the most diverse in pronunciation around the world, and often even within the same language community or country. Zamenhof said lots of stuff, but the diverse pronounciation from R really doesn't hinder communication within the Esperanto community. There are more important things like pronouncing vowels clearly. (when some Americans speak Esperanto, you don't hear if they are speaking in past, present or future, which is more of a problem)

[@baronmeduse]

@@Klara9 I don't disagree. I'm merely stating that it was so. Both sorts of 'r' exist together in e.g. Dutch (though many seem to believe it is only the guttural) . Personally I think guttural 'r' in Esperanto sounds ugly, but it doesn't, as you said, hinder intelligibility. I don't know about Americans (I assume this refers to U.S. Americans?), but poor vowel enunciation also exists among European speakers, I've heard it with my own ears. I always find it interesting that people seem to personally decide what they'll accept or reject from Zamenhof.

[@Klara9]

@@baronmeduse There are many different ways of pronouncing 'r' in Dutch for sure and I myself have always pronounced it rolling! Why is it so surprising? The guy has been dead for over 100 years and people use Esperanto as they see fit, just like any language ;) Also, Zamenhof himself was all for democratization of his language, he didn't see himself as having the last word. He used neologisms proposed by others himself. That's one of the reasons for success of Esperanto in the first place, many other language creators of the time were more despotic in attitude, which hindered their progress.

[@SaandviNorskSpill]

i have never studied this... but i know norwegian, english and french... and i can understand this perfectly... this is geniuos

[@jareddaigre4550]

It sounds like their speaking Spanish (I've studied Español for about 4 years), so I can understand quite without subtitles actually.

[@chocklad9]

I want to learn it.

[@dmytrodolzhenko349]

I want to teach it.

[@EsperantaStelo]

Try this flash course learn.esperanto.con + this game course www.duolingo.com/course/eo/en + practicing through facebook groups, skype, close associations to you, etc eo.ligilaro.wikia.com/wiki/English

[@chocklad9]

Thank you :D

[@2b-coeur]

Do it! I pretty much jumped in today and I'm not sure how far I'll get, but I'm going to try. I'm using Duolingo.

[@chocklad9]

Erulasse Aranel me too!

[@neilnachum1]

Google: The New Republic: Alice Robb: Speak Like at Native Esperanto. Historically The New Republic is one the the United States oldest and most important newspapers.

[@intuithue]

This is fascinating!

[@markmandel6487]

Tre ĝuinda filmo! Dankon pro krei kaj prezenti ĝin.

[@tablacordia]

Do you think this language could someday replace English as the main international language worldwide? :)

[@Vortarulo]

I'm an Esperanto speaker (although not a native). No, I don't think it will. And most speakers agree. It was intended to become the main international language in a time when English was only one candidate out of many. I personally think, English will stay the international language. But that doesn't mean other languages (including Esperanto) become useless.

[@pensulo]

The further evolution mainly depends on the marketing. Nowadays there is not a lot of good marketing for Esperanto. I wrote about the problems of the Esperanto propagation on Quora, www.quora.com/Language/How-could-a-universal-language-be-constructed-in-such-a-way-that-it-succeeds-where-other-constructed-languages-such-as-Esperanto-failed/answer/Lu-Wunsch-Rolshoven?__snids__=969432085&__nsrc__=4&share=1

[@ENOTERINE]

I think it should, but everybody knows, that scarcely the best solutions are choosen (because of fight between opposite interests). I am convinced that, if only 10% or 20% of children in the world were taught esperanto at school during 3 or 4 years, after 40 or 50 years, more and more families or students would be interessed. The problem is, that english is taught almost everywhere and esperanto not. Perhaps China will help, because a lot of chinese children cannot learn english easily, and for them esperanto is a lot more easy to learn... Some chinese schools use it as a "springboard" for languages...

[@EsperantaStelo]

I think it would eventually do so, when we all see we are wrong. Imposed lingua francas show they are replaced when the status quo changes... Greek, latin, spanish, french, german (science), english, and experts bet Chinese in Asia will be the next lingua franca there. Time will say if i'm wrong

[@pensulo]

ENOTERINE In the beginning it would be sufficient, that all school children would have one or two lessons about Esperanto and how it is used today. Then probably about 2 % of them would want to learn Esperanto (that's what happens in schools, where the children are informed about Esperanto). This would mean, Esperanto would become a lot more attractive to others - a lot of them would probably follow. This could work without any obligation to learn Esperanto.

[@masterleng3639]

I want to learn Esperanto and Sweden, both started thnx to duolingo 😄😊

[@IfYouMeetAWolf]

Floral Shoppé *Swedish Hoppas att du har lärt dig nu :)

[@masorisladua]

Kaj mi volas traduki la subtitlon al korea lingvo. Kiel mi povas kontrubui la tradukon?

[@i2Bwitchy]

Saluton! I've been studying Esperanto off and on over the past year and can read the language quite well, but when it comes to actually speaking it out loud...I just keep getting tongue-tied. I'm a native English speaker and only know tiny bits of French, German and Spanish (I don't have very many problems pronouncing German, but do have slight problems with French here and there) but I'm having the hardest time speaking Esperanto fluidly. I can do single words easy, it's just putting the words into sentences that I have to speak really slowly to pronounce everything correctly. Any advice on how to improve? I try to practice out loud as much as possible.

[@nohaylamujer]

While I was responding to someone's question on whether we think Esperanto sounds like Spanish (to my ear, it sounds more like an eastern European language), I mentioned that in the case of the Brazilian kids in the video, their Portuguese accent was so strong that Esperanto sounded... well, like Portuguese. I believe that this raises an interesting question: can you be considered a native speaker when you have such a strong foreign accent? Is native-speaker status based only on communicational competence? A person with such a thick accent would never be considered a native speaker by any standard if we were dealing with, say, English or Spanish. I wonder if this distinguishes Esperanto from non-synthetic languages: the fact that a foreign accent would not matter to consider someone a native speaker.

[@ClarkeMarek]

nohaylamujer Well, define "foreign." I'm not a linguist, but it's a given that dialects form up. Just because an accent or a dialect doesn't sound "native" to a certain region or language doesn't mean the person can't be a native speaker. As an example, I've spoken English all my life, lived in Texas all my life, my parents lived in Texas for most of their lives, and I've had people tell me that I speak with a New York accent. Given that the last 5 generations of my dad's side and the last two on my mom's side have never lived above the Mason Dixon, it's perplexing. (Though that might be because I had a speech impediment as a kid, and my speech teacher may have been from up north.)

[@nohaylamujer]

ClarkeMarek I, or for that matter the dictionary, would define foreign accent as one carrying over the sound and tone patterns of another language. By foreign accent in English I obviously don't mean a native accent, such as a NY accent or a Texas accent or a London accent or a Sidney accent, etc. I mean a Portuguese or a Spanish or Chinese or any other, well, foreign accent. I'm sure you get the idea. If you speak English in any of its regional varieties the you don't have a foreign accent. Now if you speak Esperanto, which doesn't have nasal vowels, using the nasal vowels of Portuguese, then you have a foreign accent. For this reason, I was wondering if the concept of native speaker in Esperanto studies is different from the concept of native speaker in general linguistics.

[@AlotOfSunInHeaven]

nohaylamujer Of course you can, the different national accents seeping through is the same as different accents. I had no problem understanding what the Brazilians were saying. :)

[@nohaylamujer]

So that would be a major difference between Esperanto and non-synthetic languages. Thank you for your reply.

[@nohaylamujer]

***** You raise a very interesting point. Although I'm not a native Spanish speaker I've lived in Argentina for many years and I've noticed the Italian cadence in the varieties spoken in Buenos Aires and some areas nearby (not in the rest of the country, though). But your analogy doesn't quite work since the majority of the people in BA are not Italian-Spanish bilingual as is the case with the Brazilian children or the German adult in the video, whose Esperanto is heavily influenced by their national language --BA people are simply speaking the local variety. Native speakers don't have a foreign accent --it is almost common sense. So my question remains: is the definition of native speaker different when it refers to speakers of an artificial language? I believe it is so.

[@jinig4833]

Funny. I once made up fake ancient "Old Esperanto" religious manuscripts supposedly from the 8-10th century... for some linguistic fun... like the our father prayer... made it kind of like modern Esperanto... but with even more latin elements... :P

[@jinig4833]

+DEAD DEAD xx Yeah. I don't have them anymore sadly (they were not much though) :( But basically, I made old documents pretending that Esperanto is an evolving LIVING language and so knowing how languages change, I made up fictional scripts to show how an Old Esperanto could have sounded like (had it existed). It's like, Old Esperanto would have evolved from vernacular Latin spoken to the very north of Italy in the 8th century (region of Milan and Venice), bordering Switzerland and Austria (hence they would have been affected by the High Germanic Vocabulary from the Germanic tribes, and that would explain why they have a lot of Old High German vocabulary words like "Tago", "ŝerci", "dika", "Hundo", "verŝajne", "Floso", "Fremda", "ŝildo", and some others which are of High-German origin). Of course the Yiddish folk who lived in Switzerland during the later Middle Ages also came in contact with the Esperantists and added their own share of words into that language. Also, to develop their own identity separate from other Romance Languages, the Esperantists learned Greek in order to borrow some vocabulary like, "kaj", "politiko", "akademio", "matematikon", etc... However the Yiddish came later in the High Middle Ages(middle Esperanto period), whilst in the Early Middle Ages, the Esperantists had more of a Latin, Greek Italian, and Old High German influence. I don't know too much as it is simply a fictional linguistic reconstruction so of course not every thing in the chronology will make too much sense nor did I think everything through of course. I was just pondering about it, and I'm not a classified expert linguist yet so I only gave you a general idea. Here would be a rough example (from memory) of Old Esperanto (10th century) our father prayer: Patiro Nyajstir, Kiu estas en la cielos. Sangtigadatur estuy viajstir nomonan. Viajstir regnum advenuax. Viajstir Volunt plenumiggux. Siqyel en la kielos kay en terroa. Danuax al ninn hodiaŭ niajstir kyudaggan panonem. kay dimmitye al ni niajstir debitas. siqyel ni dimmitius al niajstir debitors. kay ne kondukuax ninn en la tentationon. sed liberigun ninn d'la malbonox. Ameen. Something very similar to this, and the spelling would have been closer to Greek than Modern Esperanto, see? and the vocabulary would have been slightly even more latin.

[@Mr-TuPadre]

Esperanto estas tre Bela lingvo. Kaj vi scias!!!

[@bencebalazs5191]

Mi ne komprenas ion. Unu el la avantagxoj de Esperanto estas la lingva egalrajteco. Kiel interparoli egalrajte en Esperanto cxi tiel?

[@LaichzeitFX]

Im spanish and i can't understand a thing, so no, it doesn't sound like spanish.

[@JonWilliamEden]

It does to non- Spanish speakers

[@carlosmagalhaes7109]

+Jon Eden Yeah, but, I think Esperanto sounds much more like Romanian than Spanish!

[@carlosmagalhaes7109]

+Jon Eden Yeah, but, I think Esperanto sounds much more like Romanian than Spanish!

[@CocoaCornflower]

They are stupids, they think it sounds like Spanish just because of the name. Those who say that don't even know Spanish.

[@lepo8861]

It contain similar conjunction words like la is still the and mi is i and estas and so forth. It sounds like to like a gypsy spanish or Italian

[@Jagaimo_chan]

Its really hard to learn for I am not European. May be you can call it 'Common European Language' instead of the word meaning 'World language'.

[@amuzulo]

Strange, I have a Chinese friend who learned Esperanto in 5 months: blogs.transparent.com/esperanto/chinese-learns-esperanto-in-just-5-months/

[@Jagaimo_chan]

+mm z really? ive been china (mainland) for about 20 years and theres no institute where we can learn Esperanto. at least there was no ads in Wuhan for an Esperanto teaching institute i could see it. and many university in china dont even have Esperanto course as a foreign language. may be my narrow sight in china was to blame but i havent heard about any Esperanto boom or something.

[@Jagaimo_chan]

+Chuck Smith you know, therere still about many people in china cannot understand English artical used in highschool text book. the author of the blog you gave must be good at English - which IS a European language. in mandarin chinese language, there is no voiced stop such as "b d g j", we distinguish stops by aspiration. fortunately voiceless stops is usually aspirated in English so it will be fine to replace voiced stops using unasparated voiceless stop, but in Esperanto every voiceless stop should be pronounced unasparatedly so it may be hard for a chinese to distinguish "b" or "p", as i was even told by my English teacher that after letter "s" voiceless stop should be pronounced as voiced stop in English. and there is no difference between "l" and "r(in Esperanto)" in chinese even some people say "r(in Spanish)" sound instead of "l" sound in chinese and say "r(in English)" for "r " sound in mandarin chinese. it may be hard to understand Esperanto for a chinese guy without any learning experience in french, Italian, Spanish but only English in school teached by Chinese teacher. peraonal opinion though.

[@Jagaimo_chan]

+mm z 😊

[@amuzulo]

Well, the Chinese guy in the blog post said himself that he could speak Esperanto better than English after having studied English for 7 years and Esperanto for 5 months...

[@darjuz96]

Uh, it's very interesting. The esperanto language is very curious, because, heard it you can catch some words are kept from your language, and you understand that the language are costructed with other languages words. And can be easer to learn other languages thanks Esparanto. Maybe I try to learn it.

[@billyjoelarroyoperez1526]

Bele estas vidi, ke ekzistas denaskaj Esperanto-parolantoj. Mi estas entuziasma scii, ke mi lernas Esperanton kaj ke ĝi povas helpi min multe en la estonteco.

[@NIGHTSTALKER973]

cxi tiu video estas tre interesa =)

[@DevixScythian]

AZ ELSŐ MAGYAR!

[@Klara9]

persze, magyarországon nagyon sok eszperantista van

[@BBasi-pn7do]

nice . i like the idea. and sounds like easy language.

[@camilabautista8990]

Me enamoré del esperanto

[@mokkaveli]

The persons native accent really dictates how it sounds to someone who doesn't speak Esperanto

[@stefanokeller5710]

Pluraj rilataj materialoj, videoj, kaj aliaj pri la gepatra lingvo, pri la 21-a de februaro, la Internacia Tago de la Gepatra Lingvo, mesaĝoj de Unesko, afiŝoj, ktp. en diversaj lingvoj / Textes, posters, videos and links to articles, about the International Mother Language Day, the message of UNESCO in several languages: www.linguistic-rights.org/21-02-2015/

[@whateven7226]

This would be amazing to learn

[@duniaasqa3221]

Thank a lot for this video. It's motivated me. I made simple Esperanto video too 😊

[@MisterMander]

they should start implementing this language into school around the world

[@Klara9]

already happening

[@iDJMIXTRESS]

In what countries do people speak Esperanto?

[@johnkirby9181]

No countries.

[@OnlyARide]

Most countries!

[@MTsteelMT]

You can find Esperantists all over the world, but not very often in large concentrations.

[@EsperantoVarietyShow]

We speak it in the USA and anywhere else we can. :-)

[@mr.aldave8308]

In many countries around the world, a place where somebody speak Esperanto is Esperantujo, but there are a lot of people maybe the mayority in france.

[@naigkbc]

I can easily see myself speak esperanto. I currently speak English french and Im learning portuguese. Esperanto is basically a mix of all these latin languages.

[@KristoGeorge]

+Jean Kabese and more

[@HandSanitizerAttack]

I'm creating a language of my own :) . I hope it will become as popular as Esperanto, but I am not sure if I want to try to make it an international language. I chose very simple and common sounds to put in it, and the grammar will hopefully be simple as well.

[@phoneutria3037]

I did it too when I was a kid. I enjoyed it a lot! Im curious to know more about your language 😉

[@didierjanot]

Ĉu tiu filmeto ekzistas kun francaj subtekstoj ?

[@Sprachprofi]

Jes, mi ĵus transkopiis ilin. Notu ke ĉi tiu filmeto ankoraŭ ne estas publika, nur ĵurnalistoj rajtas vidi ĝin antaŭ la oficiala publikigo la 21an de februaro. Se vi disvastigis ĝin en socia retejo, bonvolu malfari.

[@latinmonsieur]

+Sprachprofi you are the same woman that helped duolingo's esperanto! I remember your picture, I am Brazilian and I am studying esperanto in duolingo, i hope someday i will be able to speak esperanto

[@martinkollarovic9376]

+Leon Naves good luck, I started this monday

[@2b-coeur]

I started today, having never learned a language before... I'm really hoping I stick with it and eventually become fluent! I'm not very ambitious or determined, but Esperanto *is* a very easy thing to learn compared with other languages.

[@latinmonsieur]

Erulasse Aranel Why don't you study any other language? Esperanto is supposed to be the language of the world, but it's not. Barely anybody speaks it, the chances you will find any speaker out of an Esperanto congress are near zero. You shouldn't choose to learn a language because it is easy, I am Brazilian, therefore I speak Portuguese, with hard work I became fluent in English and I intend to learn more languages. Is there any country that you are interested on? You could learn its language, for example, if you like anime stuff you learn Japanese. Learning a new language will be hard anyway but if you are interested in it you can learn anything.

[@CrimsonNorway]

I'm curious- what language(s) do you guys speak and how much Esperanto did you understand? I learnt Spanish for a few years at school (although I'm very rusty now) and I'm also fluent in both English and Norwegian- I felt like I got the gist of the conversations and felt like it was familiar.

[@EsperantoVarietyShow]

I speak Esperanto and German and I had no trouble understanding the film. :-)

[@RTYB]

I speak Spanish, English, German, and Polish, and I was able to understand somewhere around at least 30% of all that was said. At moments it was really clear (kinda like when epiphanic lucidity hits you). At other moments not at all.

[@13monther19]

I can speak English and Spanish fluently but I understand some words from very slowed down French (the language that I’m currently studying) also I can pick up some Esperanto because i studied it for a few months if they talk slowly

[@Petrhrabal]

it is incredible... I understand the language eventhought I do not speak it...

[@blah7983]

I learned (taught myself with duolingo and Telegram/ Telegramo) the summer before learning french so sometimes when practicing either language I end up doing “Francperanto”. Example of me during French I. And I pretty much use la for everything instead of le or les and skip out on indefinite articles in french if I’m tored that day. I don’t have the accents for Esperanto so. Salut! Je shatas la livre! Vous volas ce livre? Estas trés bona. Mais j’aime mieux via livre. Puis-je legi via livre? Wonder if anyone comprehends this.

[@EenGamer.]

Espanol Esparanto Espartano sound a lot like Spanish Coincedence i dotn think so

[@angelarturokooistra7671]

ever tried to learn it?? if not, then please go away. it indeed hears a lot like spanish. but it is about 10 easier to learn and is the most easiest language to learn.

[@Joesolo13]

Angel Aguanaris dont be so hostile. it is very similar to the romance languages.

[@EenGamer.]

Angel Aguanaris calm down m8

[@andresfernandoramirezmaldo1056]

I'm a spanish native speaker and... Yes and not, It sounds mostly like an italian accent but for me, as a native spanish speaker that language is a totally mix, I can't say is more spanish than other language. Indeed If It were like you say I would've understood it almost totally.

[@Shocker8MTA]

If you know Spanish Italian or Romanian will be much easier to learn Esperanto

[@niamhart221]

Will learning Esperanto help me learn Spanish?

[@Shocker8MTA]

+Nia WhoCraft hi...sorry i don't have time and also i don't want to learn spanish but if you want to learn ...just download Duolingo and start to learn what language you want

[@niamhart221]

I know but I am not asking you to teach :) I am asking will Esperanto help me learn the target language?

[@Shocker8MTA]

+Nia WhoCraft i don't understand but you can start to learn esperanto with duolingo from english

[@niamhart221]

+Tomescu Mihai Ok. Thanks anyway :)

[@Ginny6789]

Mi spektas ci tiun filmeton tre ofte kaj mi vidas ke mi nun tute komprenas sen subtekstoj 😄

[@davidmackie8552]

Gratulon kaj danko n!

[@johnkirby9181]

I think the problem with Esperanto is that while its goal of an international standard language is noble, it is actually not proper for use as an international language. This constructed language is still using a latin alphabet, which means it is built on western languages and can never truly break into the non-western world, which is over half the planet. China, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, The Arab World, Southeast Asia, Russian speaking countries. Thats over 4 billion people. This language can never break through on a large scale to those areas. A true international language must be constructed from scratch, not based on any previous languages. That is the best case scenario. Either that or continuing to use English as the universal language are the best plans.

[@user-lw8qy8kj7c]

that's why languages derived from Esperanto, like Interlingua, focus more on being a European auxiliary language rather than a global auxiliary language. some aspects of Esperanto are harder for Europeans to learn because they favor more global approach (ie. most European languages have either use the word "hospital" or something very similar, but Esperanto uses the word "malsanulejo" which is like saying "not-healthy-person place") but at the same time, some aspects of Esperanto are so eurocentric, they become quite difficult for non-European people to learn. most modern auxlangs are either more European, or more global than Esperanto.

[@celticharpchannel151]

The Latin alphabet is used by languages on all continents, so makes sense.

[@johnkirby9181]

No it is not. The fact that you are saying that even makes my point further. China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia, Africa. None of those areas use Latin alphabets. Comprendes?

[@CocoaCornflower]

They do in some African and southeastern countries.

[@johnkirby9181]

Yeah, key word "some". What about the 4 and a half billion people living in the places I mentioned. China, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh by themselves are 3 billion. Japan, South Korea, Myanmar, Indonesia, are another half a billion. The Middle East and North Africa is 500 million, etc.

[@Drirton]

Sounds like Spanish to me.

[@MaaZeus]

+Collin Willoughs My thoughts as well. The language has very strong latin/hispanic vibes, even the name sounds like its a word from those languages.

[@Drirton]

May as well call it Españolto.

[@Drirton]

Darris Hawks Thank you very much for explaining to me my own feelings. Without your input on how I personally think the language sounds, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. I said it once and I'll say it yet again because I'm clearly not the only one who feels this way. Esperanto. Sounds. Like Spanish. *TO ME.* Thank you, and would you kindly fuck off?

[@Drirton]

+darris321 Again, thank you for your input. i.imgur.com/KSuLGcF.jpg

[@augustokonrad3572]

It's because it borrows a lot from the romance languages (the ones that come from latin). I'm learning by the internet and think that it's way easier than spanish, and I'm a brazilian (speak portuguese)

[@rjp1007]

Bone, sed kial la knabo el Brazilio ne uzas la akuzativon?

[@lXBlackWolfXl]

I was wanting to know what they thought of all the 'secondary' speakers, aka people who AREN'T native speakers. I've read that there's considerable differences between the version natives speak and the one most people try to learn. I wanted to know what they thought of the Esperanto spoken by non-natives.

[@carlosmagalhaes7109]

It seems like Romanian!

[@ArthasMenethil96]

Nothing like it.

[@Joesolo13]

Carlos MGLS it's pretty much a romance language, so it makes sense the other ones are similar

[@DarkArcticTV]

Ancap

[@ArturoSubutex]

Go Esperanto! I'm just fed up with the predominance of English everywhere. Don't misunderstand me, I love English, I've studied English literature, I truly love the language, but it's just omnipresent, it's so hegemonic that it bothers me, there's too much pressure about it. All the f*cking time. Say you love football, but every one is telling you all the time: you know, you have to play football. Football is important. Play football. And if you want to play tennis a little bit, every one looks at you like you've gone mad and say: why don't you play football? Well, it's just annoying and that makes you want to play basketball, handball, volleyball, and why not a bizarre yet funny sport that was invented recently? Plus, English natives are always behaving like it's completely normal to speak English all the time and it's always the speakers of other languages who should make efforts. A few days ago I was having a casual café in Paris, we were 6; out of those 6 we were 5 French native speakers and there was 1 English native speaker who happened to speak French perfectly well (and who could understand me even when I was speaking very fast, which is a rare achievement for a non-native speaker in any language). Guess what language we spoke during the conversation?? English (!!!). Just because the Eng nat wasn't feeling like making an effort to speak French, this person forced 5 people to make the opposite effort instead. Plus, among the 5 French some had a level in English which clearly wasn't even close to the level in French of the English-speaking person. Just… why?? Why should WE make the effort when we're 5 to 1 and we're in Paris? And the worst part is, it didn't even shock me at the moment, but only afterwards when I thought about it again and realized how absurd it was. Open up to the world, they say - yes, we all are!! Only English natives don't. … All that just to say: I don't know if Esperanto is an answer but I think it might be a viable, interesting alternative language for international communication. And this world is glaringly suffering from a lack of alternatives.

[@ArturoSubutex]

***** I know you're not all like that… and to be perfectly honest I've met a group of Aussies this summer who were in Paris to learn French and who really made the effort to speak French all the time. Btw, a lot of those annoying Englishaholic people are actually non-natives. When I'm in Germany and speak German with a German, 1 German out of 2 answers in… English. And then I keep talking German, and the German keeps answering in English… Once I even explained (in German) that I preferred to speak German and the guy looked at me and answered me (in English) that he didn't want to speak German with me!! Fick dich!! which btw proved that he had understood me and that my German was not that bad! Of course I speak English better than German but how can I improve my German if Germans refuse to speak German with me?! Not only is it extremely rude, but it also prevents me from improving. Italians are no better. My mom is a native Italian speaker but she grew up in France and when she speaks Italian she has a slight French accent. Well, guess what? A lot of Italians answer to her in English… But she speaks Italian better than English and most Italians have an awful level in English. See how absurd it can become sometimes?? I know there are exceptions but I'd say that more than half of Europeans are like that. Perhaps they want to show off because they think that speaking English is impressive or whatever. But I'm just fed up with that.

[@ArturoSubutex]

+Patty FrechFrie Ok, I re-read my comment and I have to admit I've been too general. I was angry. Sorry. I withdraw two sentences: "English speakers are always behaving…" and "Only English natives don't." I know that a lot of English natives are learning different languages and all. And they're lucky because they can chose to learn different languages and discover a lot of different culture. While in non-speaking countries there is this pressure about English. Like someone shouldn't try and discover a culture or a language before his English is perfect, which actually never happens… I'm going mad again haha. I shut the hell up. I think you see my point :)

[@YouShouldRepeatThat]

+kifer75010GAB when I read your comments, I just wanted to hug you while telling you, "It's going to be alright my friend." Even though I'm a native English speaker, I wished the English language wasn't seen as the language status quo from an international standpoint. Just as your anecdote displayed, the expectation to speak English can prove to be restrictive when it comes to international relations. Even among my friends, many of them thought it was pointless for me to start learning Esperanto because I already know English. From my own experience though, I've seen that it's not just the English language that is expected to be known. I live in Southern California, an area with a vast amount of people who speak Spanish and/or came from Spanish speaking countries; with that said, when I told my parents I was going to take German in high school instead of Spanish, they instantly thought I was making a foolish mistake doing so. While I know my friends, my parents and any others that....

[@YouShouldRepeatThat]

+kifer75010GAB (it could be because I'm using the KZbin app but I maxed out the amount of characters for my first comment. I shall now continue the rest) ...anyone else that advocates a specific language does it with (usually) benign intentions but what it seems those people don't realize is that languages allow for people to do more than just simply talking. Through learning new languages, a person can connect with not only the native speakers of the language but their cultures as well. To use a metaphor, studying a culture but not the language used in the culture would be like a person looking into a swimming pool but not experiencing the water;when learning a language, the person is within the pool it's self, perhaps not in the deep end but still making a splash with the other swimmers. Language provides a gateway to various cultures that allows a person to feel and connect with new people of the world rather than just know of them. With all of that said, I feel for you dude.

[@jadeliu4992]

+kifer75010GAB I understand completely how you feel! I'm native in both Chinese and English, and I look Chinese, so the first time I went to France, I would ask people questions in French and they'd respond in English. That made me too embarrassed to continue in French and we'd just start speaking English. The same happens with some of my native French-speaking peers here in the U.S. It's super annoying.

[@SamiP-ik7vj]

Now imagine.... Esperanto dialects. (Never mind that with me, that leads to imagining one with "areal synonyms" eerily similar to Proto-Celtic noun, adjective & verb stems.) #TheDeadAreAlive

[@ENOTERINE]

Bedaŭrinde mi ne estas denaska parolanto, sed esperanto vere venigis en mi la deziron lerni pliajn lingvojn (krom la gepatra kaj la 2 kiujn mi studis lerneje). Dank'al tio mi nun kapablas paroli en pli ol 6 lingvoj. Unfortunately, I didn't learnt it while childhood, but esperanto GAVE me the desire to learn more languages than my mother tonge (french) and the 2 I was taught at school. Now thanks to it, I can use more than 6 languages.

[@cyril4046]

Same language, same currency, same units of measurement, same plugs (!), same army, same religion (=no religion), same space agency. Imagine how great a world without nation and senseless differences would be.

[@francescomazzoni9767]

really i don' t think so. language is part of the culture of a country and culture is sacred; you can't force people to refuse their tradition. This is the mistake many dictatures committed and we all know how it's ended.

[@cyril4046]

Francesco Mazzoni Yes, you can force people to refuse their traditions (if they don't do it by themselves). Example : putting an end to FGM. Another arguement ?

[@francescomazzoni9767]

+Cyril B of course some traditions are not human but bestialities, the point is that it is wrong to impose omologation. mankind is beautiful because of its differences

[@cyril4046]

Francesco Mazzoni It depends what you mean by "imposing". Was it wrong to impose the metric system ? Was it wrong to impose English as the international language ? Was it wrong to impose to drive on the right ? No. I can tell you we would be way more united if we spoke a single language. Just imagine a country populated with people who don't speak the national language.

[@francescomazzoni9767]

+Cyril B i see your point, but this is a very materialistic view, not everything have to be useful, we can't simply throw away our past like a old useless tool.

[@ceminay96]

Esperanto is too European. If you want to make an artificial language for everyone you need to use European, African, Semitic, Native American, Ural-Altaic, Chinese etc. all equally.

[@draconsic3139]

Cem Akgun Yes, that was its downfall. Unfortunately until we can get a linguist of Zamenhof's caliber who is willing to take their gaze off of the western world, any attempt to replace English as the lingua franca will fail. Esperanto is just another romance language.

[@jarahfluxman20]

What it needs is someone who, ideally, speaks English, Spanish, German, Russian, Swahili, Igbo, Mandarin, Hindi and Arabic to design it. With influence from al of those, it will truly be a world language.

[@jean-marclugrin1902]

@@jarahfluxman20 Not at all, a language is not a mixture of random rules and words, it must have some internal consistency to be usable. Mandarin is an isolate language and there is no way to mix it (in any meaningful or useful ways) with an agglutinative language (as Japanese, Turkish, Esperanto) or flexional language (as most indo-european). A language does not become international because you mix words from all languages, but because it does not pertain to anybody, is not linked to a country or population. Clearly Esperanto is much easier to learn (because of the vocabulary) for many european languages (covering still a very large population), but there is no credible alternative.. There have been tons of proposals of international language with better theoretical bases .. .they all failed to attract any follower because the result was only theoretically better but not really usable (they either change who would learned it more easily or made it impossible to learn for everybody). You can compare to Linux, it was not successful in its area (server) because it is a mixture of all pre-existing operating systems, but because it is free and self-consistent.

[@draeioskronos3721]

Fucking liberals always want multiculturalism. Why would you mix those shit languages with European languages.

[@ukiahduran6793]

That is so cool!

[@waltcamp45]

Dankon Sprachprofi! Mi estas nova studento di Esperanto. Tiu filmo instigas min!