Tim Owen - Had I known Esperanto would be this easy… [EN] - PG 2017

Description: Discover for yourself why you’ll never need a book 501 verbs in Esperanto. We’ll start from one-word sentences, work through all tenses for all verbs, and finish with you working out for yourselves how to say something as complicated as “Had I known Esperanto would be this easy, I’d have learned it already!” And we’ll do all of that in 45 minutes. Not only will it be you telling me how to say that sentence in Esperanto... I bet you’ll be thinking it too.
This video was recorded at the Polyglot Gathering in Bratislava 2017 (www.polyglotbratislava.com).

[@ProfessorBorax]

Such a shame there were so few people attending the lecture :(

[@rodrigosouto9502]

ProfessorBorax it's a polyglot encounter...

[@Mehki227]

I just counted and that's actually the standard number for a lesson learning class on my experience. So that everyone gets a chance to speak in class.

[@homosapien.a6364]

People should be grateful that they had a lecture about Esperanto 😆

[@esperantaformiko]

Yes, that's a shame, but, on the other hand, about 15,000 people have already listened to this wonderful lecture on the Internet

[@seanoriain8294]

Over 20,000 people have now listened to it! Mi elkore gratulas vin, Tim!

[@uosuaq]

Note: if you're a beginning (or even intermediate) speaker and this introductory lecture looks too simple to spend time on (certainly, at the start, you'll be thinking "yeah yeah, 'pluvas', I get it"), it's actually quite useful for Tim's explanation of how Esperanto uses tenses in a way that's not what you'd expect coming from English -- something that took me a while to pick up on, and I'm still working on it.

[@MrMirville]

The use of tenses in Esperanto actually mirrors that of Polish, Russian... Mi marŝas means I am going ( Russian Ya idu), mi marŝis or mi ekmarŝis is I walked (to some place : Ya poshol), I was walking or I used to walk (ya shol) is mi marŝadis, mi marŝos means I will walk (Ya poidu), mi marŝados (Ya byl idtu) means I will be walking, I shall walk. Russian also has the six participles of Esperanto that are rather used to form role adjectives and nouns than compound tenses though it is allowed.

[@TruFlyFox]

That little English "adjustment" of verbs that he mentions is a huge reason I run into trouble. I am glad he brought it to my attention. Good lecture!

[@EmperorMingg]

Tim is a fantastic lecturer and can really hold an audience!

[@MaxGarrett]

Dankon! I've started Esperanto on Duolingo and this talk was very interesting.

[@ZadenZane]

I don't know understand why the EU don't jettison French and English and make Esperanto their sole official language. I learned basic Esperanto about 38 years ago and I can still remember it today. The only thing I found difficult was the table of correlatives.

[@Alex-kr7zr]

Because of national pride, most likely. But yeah it should be like Latin for the Vatican, Esperanto for the EU. On the contrary, everyone already knows English, so no need for another language.

[@EdouardTavinor]

​@@Alex-kr7zrI remember when I moved to Germany i could immediately find work as an English teacher. Had I come from a non-English speaking country, this would have been much more difficult. I think using English as a second language had the disadvantage that it is a difficult language and that native English speakers have four year's advantage on non native speakers.

[@stateaidguy9731]

This guy has an amazing voice. He should be doing professional voiceovers.

[@lckmim]

The first time I ever heard it was in Gattaca. If you re-watch it, the announcements play in Esperanto.

[@michelleobama1854]

Bona filmo! Mi estas Esperanton komencato. Mi estas el Duolingo, ĝis la revido kaj saluton

[@user-kz8bt1os1i]

Very agreeable speaker indeed, I enjoyed it inmensley

[@geraldodamascenodealmeidaj2391]

Tre taŭgan instruadon! Mi gratulas vin ! Antaŭen kun via elkora dissiĝo de esperanto. El Brazilo ĉiam amike

[@mattheworegan5628]

7:40 Esperanto speakers find song confusing "Whip, ne ne"

[@fuitbythefoot]

No, it is not snowing. ne, ne negxas

[@juangarciadelrio7605]

Tre, tre bona video. Dankon pro via laboro. Vivu Esperantujo!!

[@rohin369]

Juan garcia del rio kio estas via unua lingvo?

[@eleirbag9937]

What a delightful lecture 🤓🎉Just great!

[@shawnkovac1042]

my favorite is Esperanto's 'how are you?' In English it has a very funny false cognate. Kiel vi fartas? = How are you? But more literally it is 'How do you "fare"?' in English. But 'fartas' looks more like 'fart'. So the closest English equivalent is 'how do you fart?' Absolutely hilarious!

[@TheMichaelK]

In German "gute Fahrt" means good journey 😄

[@davidbjornstad7759]

Thanks -- I had not made that connection.

[@theocelot6772]

"Ne" is the Korea word for "yes."

[@shawnkovac1042]

i always would chuckle when i see my Korean friends talking to someone else and they nod their head up & down, saying 'ne', because i equate 'ne' with 'no'. :) Yeah, the diverse ways that languages express things is fascinating. my favorite is Esperanto's 'how are you?' In English it has a very funny false cognate. Kiel vi fartas? = How are you? But more literally it is 'How do you "fare"?' in English. But 'fartas' looks more like 'fart'. So the closest English equivalent is 'how do you fart?' Absolutely hillarious!

[@alexf7377]

In Greek also!

[@baronmeduse]

@@shawnkovac1042 'But more literally it is 'How do you "fare"?'... I hadn't thought of that, though it seems to have been modelled on the French verb 'faire'.

[@cheeseymattybob]

I feel like that must be really confusing for the 2 Korean Esperanto speakers ;)

[@leenobody3249]

‘Had I known so few people would turn up I would have stayed in bed ‘

[@rodrigo53]

Your editor cocked it up, mate

[@thr0ne1997]

is that positive or negative :p

[@jod125]

@@thr0ne1997 Negative 🤣

[@saoirse7167]

Just a small grammar question: does anyone know whether or not nominalisation is used in Esperanto? For example, is it 'Esperanto lerni estas facila' or 'Esperanto lerni estas facile'? I assumed 'facila' until I heard 'facile' used

[@PolyglotGathering]

"Lerni Esperanton estas facile" is the correct version.

[@joekeating7225]

in this sentence 'easy' is an adverb so 'facile' is the correct form. If you want to you it as an adjective as in 'Esperanto is easy' that translates as 'Esperanto estas facila'

[@majkus]

To remember this 'rule', consider that Esperanto requires agreement between adjective and noun. And so, if you used an adjective here, it would have to agree with... with... right. Use the adverb.

[@dieterrooke]

facile lerni esperanto facila

[@somespeciesofpenguin]

majkus ...that's at once both a humorous and incredibly clever way to tell the difference between an adjective and an adverb! I'm always confused over it, because even though I "know" the differences, in practical use English often uses the same word for both an adjectival and adverbal use. I guess I just found a reason to be thankful for adjective agreement 😄

[@probrickgamer]

Enjoyable but the comment early in the lecture where you claimed to know more about confidential classified military info than Blair was silly

[@MrMirville]

Actually you need a book about the 501 most used verbs in Esperanto : even though they all have the same endings, they all have their particular rule of usage. You must know for instance that comenĉi (begin) is transitive and that if you want to use it in the intransitive sense (something that begins rather than beginning something) you must add -iĝi. Naski (giving birth) is always transitive while morti (dying) is always instransitive. Giving death, make die is mortigi. Eniri iun lokon means to enter some place while eniri en iu loko means to be going into some place. In practice there are irregular verbs. : what some languages subsume under one verb Esperanto divides into two verbs one to be use for present the other for the past or future. Mi naĝas means I swim (generally) and the past is mi naĝadis. Mi naĝis is "I swam to some place". The problem is that Esperanto in its present form tolerates very few ambiguities, while there is no clear rule to derive the meaning of a derived verb from a noun. Kombi means to comb and a comb is kombilo. Broso means a brush and to brush is brosi. Ruĝi means to blush when speaking of skin. Ruĝiĝi means to redden (e.g. under the sun). You have to know that perforti means committing a rape most generally while perlabori means earning something by one's own work.

[@mamusipipalisajelo5419]

a, ona li pilin pona suli tawa pona pi toki Epelanto la ken la ona o kama sona e toki pona kin. pona pi toki Epelanto la pona pi toki pona li suli mute.

[@jannanasi4444]

a! jan pi toki pona lon ma ni! toki pi lawa mi la pona pi mute lili li pilin pona tawa ona. taso ken la ona li pilin pi pona ala e pona suli pi toki pona (tenpo ni la mi lukin ala e sitelen tawa, taso tenpo kama la mi lukin. sina lukin e pakala la pakala tan ni)

[@mamusipipalisajelo5419]

@@jannanasi4444 a toki! pilin mi la toki sina li lon. tenpo mute la jan li pilin e ni: a, pona li suli suli suli la ona li weka e ijo mute tan toki li kama ike li pona ala a. ni li pilin mi ala. taso ken la ni li pilin ona.

[@weirdogirl1275]

Who else is remembering the Barenaked Ladies song “If I had $1,000,000” when this guy is talking about the conditional endings? Se mi havus milionon da dolaroj, mi estus riĉa.

[@KiwiCatherineJemma]

Thanks for this video, it is "good enough" to be useful and helping me learn. However this was "almost" a great video. But it is UTTERLY infuriating and frustrating trying to watch it. Keeping in mind that it is, (in part at least) a "lesson". You show the clear onscreen word graphics, (captured directly into the video apparently, and NOT just filmed with a camera) but just for a brief moment and you don't give us a chance to read them properly and concentrate on them, before you whisk it away from us and show us the presenter speaking again. Look, after you have established in the minds of the audience what the presenter looks like, we don't need to keep on seeing him 95% of the time. PLEASE show us the lesson material he is presenting on-screen MORE.

[@parnikkapore]

... It's a talk, unfortunately

[@joycelinlgbtq]

You know there's a pause button, right?

[@ogeidnomar4601]

You're watching this on KZbin. Just pause the video lol...

[@Pining_for_the_fjords]

Seeing as the end of a verb (except in the infinitive) always ends with s, I can't help but feel that this was a missed opportunity to incorporate person-endings in place of the s. It would eliminate the repetitive use of pronouns and make the language feel a little more like the Romance languages it's based on. Avoiding n to avoid confusion with an object noun or adjective, it could look something like this: 1st singular "I" -m 2nd singular/plural "you" -v 3rd singular "he" -l 3rd singular "she" -ŝ 3rd singular "it" -ĝ 1st plural "we" -s 3rd plural "they" -t

[@johnmurray2760]

Esperanto is not a project, but a living language with a stable agreed hundred+year-old foundation. Surely if the endings went by persons, the number of them would be the same as with pronouns. Esperanto may appear like a Romance language but in construction it is really not. It is made up of unchangeable morphemes or roots, which Romance, Germanic and other European / IE languages certainly are not.

[@MG-vo7is]

Sorry for giving your comment a thumb-down. That was a knee-jerk reaction. Yes, Esperanto has 70% vocabulary from Romance languages, but it's not 100% "based on" Romance languages like it seems. It also combines elements of Russian, Polish, German and English. 20% of the vocabulary comes from German, and 10% comes from the Slavic languages. L. L. Zamenhof took inspiration from Russian to use affixes liberally, which simplified how many root nouns a person must learn. (Think "coffee" and "coffee shop," the "shop" is affixed.) He use the simplicity of English conjugations for verbs. For example, there is one past-tense for "walk" --> "walked", which is used for all subjects. To say the same thing in Spanish, you would have five conjugations. Yo caminé, tú caminaste, ella caminó, nosotros caminamos, usted caminó, todos caminaron. Adding person-endings to verbs would cause confusion. Let's take "to sing" in present-tense. Mi kantas, vi kantas, li kantas, ŝi kantas, ĝi kantas, ni kantas, ili kantas. If we replaced the "s" with person-endings we would have "kantam, kantav, kantal, kantaŝ, kantaĝ, kantan, and kantail/kantaili/kantali. The first conflict is direct objects end with "n", so the "kantan (we sing)" would cause confusion ... unless Esperanto had exceptions to rules. Adding exceptions adds complications and confusion. So "ni kantas" is better than 'kantan" for "we sing." The reason Esperanto is so easy to learn is because of the simplicity of the grammar rules.

[@ALVARITO2370]

@@MG-vo7is it is easy only at the begining. Later it get dificilt to learn because of afix, sufix and prefix added to the words. A longnof timenis needed to learn it and It is confusing too

[@stefanogrillo6040]

This really sounds spanish and polish admixture

[@ZadenZane]

My old Esperanto textbook said it sounds like Italian. It doesn't, it sounds East European, more like Romanian or something like that 🤪

[@haktansuzer4307]

Marcelo agachate y conocelo

[@The_Wandering_Nerd]

Esperanto is easy until you're a native English speaker who needs to pronounce the word [ˈst͡sii]

[@kiwenmanisuno]

"Learning a language...means...I have to LEARN SOUNDS??? NOOOO!!!"