Feature about Esperanto, from The One Show, 11th January 2010. Presented by Arthur Smith, features Tim Morley, and Terry & Anica Page. First broadcast on BBC1 on Monday 11th January 2010
Esperanto needs to be a mandatory language in schools for it to become a practical universal language. I would definitely support and learn the language myself if that happened.
"Only" 2 million people speak Esperanto - sure, but that's still way more than I could possibly ever meet in my whole life time! English is my native language; I'm still learning the basics of Arabic, but I speak French competently enough to have long, flowing, nuanced conversations, and to do convincing, engaging public speaking. But English is still MY language, and French is NOT my language. Esperanto is different - it's a linguistic hand-shake, a neutral mid-point, if that makes sense.
@@arcticflower7223 Go ahead and learn Interlingua if that floats your boat. Good luck finding people to chat to! (FWIW the only people I know who've ever learned Interlingua were polyglots who were already very fluent in Esperanto, and who learned it out of curiosity. They've never actually used it for anything.)
What is this obsession with a neutral midpoint? Just learn an additional language and stop hating other people for having different mother tongues. I love the idea of speaking to people in their mother tongue when it isn't mine. Auxiliary languages make sense but that is such a bad case,
@@arcticflower7223 "hating other people for having different mother tongues" - not sure at all how you reached that conclusion, but it's the antithesis, really the total opposite, of the Esperanto movement, and of me personally. I have learned additional languages; I did GCSEs long ago in French, German and Russian; I passed a C2 exam in French this year; I'm currently studying Slovak; and I still teach French and Esperanto. Sorry, what was your point again?
I love the idea of Esperanto. I am learning French again, after years of forgetting the language. And the idea of learning esperanto too, as a basis to help me with my french language and other languages I choose to pick up seems good. I love to socialise and talk to people so knowing languages can help break down some barriers.
I think this is a brilliant idea all i have to do now is take the time to try and learn a little bit myself i don't even know why i am hesitant to but i will try to break that barrier maybe it is pride maybe it is laziness all in all it's ignorant not to at least try and learn some basic words
...[4] And finally, the fact that Esperanto exists doesn't *stop* anyone from learning other languages! Quite the opposite, in fact - I've met people who believed they were incapable of ever learning another language, and it was the confidence gained through becoming fluent in Esperanto (and the new contacts and friendships that resulted) that spurred them on to try other languages, particularly those of the people they had met through Esperanto.
Let's say you meet a mandarin speaker and fall in love at first sight. You only speak a bit of mandarin, and he/she only speaks a bit of English. By far the quickest and most effective route to getting to know that person through long, fluent, relaxed conversation is for both of you to learn Esperanto! You'll be discussing life plans and profound desires in months rather than the years you'd need to do it in English or in Mandarin.
Unu el la plej pozitivaj raportoj, kiujn mi iam ajn spektis pri Esperanto - bonege! One of the most positive reports I've ever seen about Esperanto - excellent!
@JSoundHysteria Thanks for stopping by. Couldn't agree more with "let's maintain the variety the world still has left to offer". Absolutely. Revel in it. I do. The idea of Esperanto, which seem to work well, is that it doesn't *replace* anything. It allows everyone to keep their own language and culture, but it provides a useful medium when people with two (or three, or fifty) different languages come together.
(2) Now, I've never fallen in love with a mandarin speaker, but I have met quite a few (and Japanese, and Korean, and Thai, and Vietnamese, etc.) And it's nearly always *much* easier to have an easy conversation with the Esperanto speakers amongst them than it is to use English. And typically, they've have 5 or 8 or 12 years of English at school/university, and often only 1 or 2 years of Esperanto - they still speak much better Esperanto. Go figure.
Many people have said the same thing, that Esperanto isn't neutral enough because it's based on European languages. But, although many 'new' and more neutral languages have been invented over the years, none have caught on like Esperanto. Also, interestingly, Esperanto is quite popular in China, Korea and Japan, despite its Europeanness.
Nice! Thanks for posting. Kiel esperantisto, mi ĉiam ĝojas trovi interesajn novaĵojn pri la Internacia Lingvo kaj esperas ke pli da homoj aŭdos pri ĝi ekde nun.
Aside from that, it's also meant to be nothing more than a 'second' language for the peoples of the world to speak, it's not going to replace english or swahili or russian or french or anything, it's just going to be something that's spoken across the world, so everyone can understand each other, so we can talk instead of fight all the time.
Again, nobody's claiming that having a common language is a *sufficient* condition for a more peaceful world; much else is also needed in many other fields, including teaching people about morals and ethics, yes. But it's not difficult to argue that - all else being equal - the ability to speak directly to other people, both friends and enemies, has to be a step in the right direction.
@JSoundHysteria What makes it less likely with Esperanto, I think, is that it's vastly easier to attain a very proficient level of Esperanto later in life compared to other languages; thus, even if Esperanto were THE international language, there would be relatively little advantage in bringing children up as first-language Esperanto speakers. Of the hundreds of Esperanto speakers that I've met, it's impossible to distinguish the first-language speakers from the others.
@ShelDeF Incidentally, the School of Education of the University of Manchester are doing a five year evaluation of the Springboard to Languages programme, so we'll soon be able to discuss actual results rather than just anecdotes. You can download their interim reports to date from the Springboard to Languages website. (It appears I'm not allowed to post links here, but you can google it easily enough).
@Hexenhammer0 @Hexenhammer0 Certainly the vocabulary looks very European, and as such it's easier for a "European-speaker" than for others to guess at the meaning of unknown words. However, there's more to a language than it's vocabulary, and (e.g.) the system of word formation in Esperanto has strong parallels with Chinese. For more info, Google for "Claude Piron European or Asiatic"
@ShelDeF Thanks for stopping by. I would love to see children leaving school being able to converse confidently in Japanese, Mandarin, or even just French or Spanish. Sadly, for the vast majority, that doesn't happen. Read up on the Springboard to Languages programme. No-one is suggesting that speaking Esperanto is likely to be of use professionally. But these are 7-year-olds - they're learning *how to learn*, and that works much more effectively with a simple language than a complex one.
Dankon por la video. Gxi estas interesa kaj utila por montri al la homoj kio estas esperanto generale / Thanks for sharing this video. It is interesting and useful when we want show what Esperanto is in general.
@morthim Good point; for the children concerned, it's their mother tongue, and there are an estimated 1000-2000 "native" speakers of Esperanto. For the vast majority of speakers though, it's a second language, and it's the *only* language that I'm aware of where non-native speakers very often attain a level of knowledge and fluency essentially indistinguishable from a first-language speaker. That's very rare with most languages, but it's the norm in Esperanto.
@CommanderMethos @CommanderMethos As I've said in other comments here, Asian speakers of Esperanto are generally *much* happier speaking Esperanto than trying any alternative, whether it's English, or Mandarin, or using interpreters. It's by far the most direct and most effective way to communicate, whatever one's language background.
I love that people are paying attention to this language, it's worth learning and more people need to learn it to get it understood as a useful global second language. I'm a little put off that it's so intensive in the Western European elements but that's logical considering its origin and purpose. A little less romance and a little more global would perhaps help (it wouldn't help me but that's not the point) but in the long run it's better than English for travel, internet communication, etc.
Jen iom stranga ideo, laŭ mi. Kial reinventi la radon? Google provizas nin per longega listo de kreitaj lingvoj "pli bonaj" ol Esperanto, sed preskaŭ ĉiuj naskiĝis mortaj, kaj eĉ la plej "bona" havas 100oble malpli da parolantoj ol Esperanto. Ŝajne vi iom bone esprimiĝas per Esperanto, do gratulon, vi ekrajtas iom kritiki ĝin! :) Plej ofte tiaj kritikoj venas de homoj, kiuj apenaŭ eklernis la lingvon sed tuj malkovras aferojn nepre plibonigendajn... Tamen, mi ne komprenas vian lastan frazon!
Well not only am I English speaking, English is my first language but I am an Englishman and fiercely proud one. God save the queen and rule Britannia are my bread and butter. If someone as nationalistic as me can take an interest in esperanto and its universal family ideal, then there is hope for all the others
Esperanto is a pool of knowledge I keep returning to.. To dip my toes in every few months. My vocabulary in the language is growing daily. I have a kindle ebook called Marvirinstrato : originalaj noveloj en esperanto, at first it was just a few silly looking words that made no sense whatsoever, each day it's becoming clearer and I'm now able to read the odd sentence or passage and understand it, but it's getting to the stage now where I recognise more words than not on any given page. I
@JSoundHysteria Good point, and the obvious answer of course is "nobody knows". What you suggest is entirely possible. It's also possible that the same will happen with English (or Spanish, or Mandarin, or ...)
@jaskamakkara However, Esperanto was conceived specifically with the aim of being as easy to learn as possible. And it is, measurably so, for speakers of any other language. Sure, speakers of Indo-European languages have an advantage for the first month or two, because the word roots are easier to memorise for them; but that advantage quickly plateaus, and it's perfectly normal to meet Asians with a year or two of Esperanto who speak just as confidently as their European counterparts.
@MatheusMendonca1 It depends on who you talk to. The high estimates place us at around 2,000,000 people. Low estimates put us between 50,000 - 100,000 speakers. It is difficult to know. However, we ARE scattered all over the world. You can find a few Esperanto speakers in almost any decent-sized city, anywhere in the world. As a frequent traveler, I can tell you that this is a fact.
@agormanvideos English is certainly the most widely used lingua franca than any other at the moment, although of course there are plenty of other inter-languages in different parts of the world. However, for at least half of the 20th century, it was French that held the top position, at least in international politics and diplomacy, and in business too to a lesser extent. People back then probably thought that this would never change in their lifetime either.
I sympathise with your skepticism about the motivation of any international political organisation, but there's a million miles between the UN and individuals like me who choose to learn Esperanto, for the fun and the mental exercise and the travel and the meeting people. If you're interested in direct contact with individuals from overseas, it's well worth the effort.
@anonymousbaby1970 I was an Esperanto learner before I studied linguistics. Learning the words wasn't the problem, it was learning their inherent part of speech. One example I remember is "seg'il'o" and "martel'o". The former is a tool for the inherent verb 'to saw'. The latter, the inherent noun "hammer" (and not a tool for the verb 'to hammer'). It's not difficult, it's just an easily avoidable burden on memory.
@tFighterPilot You're right to criticise the scene above where I speak Esperanto and students "magically" understand. I didn't write the script, and I don't think that part really shows anything useful. Esperanto is a language that needs studying to understand it. However, its structure is specifically designed to be as simple as possible to learn and use, while still being hugely flexible and expressive. Briefly, the amount of *memorisation* needed is *much* smaller than most languages.
It of course helps that most of the morphemes in Esperanto are based off of French words. Esperanto is based around morphemes instead of words, which of course was one of the things that lead to creation of Ido.
@michaelmays1 Esperanto makes a fine "stepping-stone language", as you put it. Being so much easier to get proficient in, it gives a much higher %age of pupils a positive, successful first foreign language learning experience than is usually the case, and thus gives them the enthusiasm and ability to attempt another. Not sure where you get the idea that Esperanto is "a bear to read/write" - spelling and pronunciation correspond exactly. It's easier to read than any other language I've learnt.
@ARussianBear If I may say so, that's a very Euro-centric view. :) When you actually *ask* Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese or Korean speakers of Esperanto whether they feel any inferiority or unfair difficulty next to their European counterparts, they generally say "absolutely not!" Certainly compared to the alternatives, i.e. they speak English, or we speak Chinese/Korean/etc., they say Esperanto is a fantastically accessible midway meeting point for us all.
@achickensandwich The structure of Esperanto certainly makes it waaaaay easier and quicker to learn than other languages. I've taught English, French and Esperanto to children and adults, and the Esperanto classes get miles ahead of the others in every respect. (BTW, the part of the clip above where foreign students "magically" understand Esperanto is misleading. I didn't write the script, and certainly wouldn't have done that bit if I had).
Esperanto learner before I studied linguistics ← Me too! However, "learning the inherent part of speech" of words never bothered me; in fact, I didn't even notice the "problem" until it was pointed out, by which time I was already having long conversations in Esperanto. It's just not that big an issue, particularly when weighed against the dozens of other factors that make Esperanto an order of magnitude quicker and simpler to learn than any other language I've tackled.
@TheMontageBW "draw this out further in a private message" ← please do. My short answer though: we've already said that claiming "perfect neutrality" is silly. It couldn't possibly be, unless it were completely but equally alien to everyone. However, it is still 100 times better for international communication than anything else on the table, be it a national language (English, French, Chinese, etc.), or simultaneous interpretation, or machine translation, or some other language project.
...[2] A relatively small percentage of language learners attain a level where they start to appreciate the culture of the host country. It's a massive undertaking to reach that kind of level. For many though, that's not the aim. Either they know it's an impossible goal, or it's not even relevant to them. In English classes across the world, how much time is spent on business terms, presentation skills, sales calls, etc.? And how much on reading novels or poetry?
@cryozo While it's true that Esperanto is superficially similar to latinate and germanic languages, the similarity really is only skin-deep. Beneath the surface lies a structure in which people from a huge variety of language backgrounds find themselves at home. At least, that's what I'm told by Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Israelis, Russians, Icelanders and others when I ask.
@Lepsaeus Euphony is a rather subjective measure. (Not sure anyone here is drooling either, and Interlingua hasn't been mentioned at all, has it?) Thanks for your, um, contribution.
@ShelDeF Here's an analogy - can you name a professional recorder player? Or two? Or none at all? I'm not saying there are none at all, but for the vast majority of adults, even for professional musicians, playing the recorder is not in itself a useful skill. However, by learning the recorder *first* in primary school, children learn about melodies, major and minor keys, reading music, rhythms, playing in a group, etc., all of which are valuable *skills* for later music study.
@SuperMoo2TheRescue Not going to shout at you for a perfectly reasonable question. :o) The problem with basic English is that it's a very reduced subset of a full language, and it places great restrictions on what you can actually say. It's very difficult to sound eloquent in it. The *structure* of Esperanto is very minimal, as un-complex as possible, but it delivers a vast power of expression. It's a full language that you can use for science, cooking, drunken arguments, flirting... the lot!
My first language is English. Mi segunda, Espanol. I am learning esperanto now since I am 62 and would like to acheive some fluency in a third in my remaining time.
@anonymousbaby1970 Yeah I agree, they forget to mention in this video that esperanto was made because it is a simple language and it's very easy to learn. For example Polish is an exceptionally difficult langauge, as is russian, and if you're a western european Asian languages may be very difficult however Esperanto is a very simple language just like english it doesn't inflect, conjugate or change very much at all.
@SifuTeddie As for irregularity, look into the distribution of meanings among basic roots. They were chosen arbitrarily, which disallows a linear form of derivation. Using an example from a previous conversation, 'martelo' is inherently a noun- the hammering tool, while the root of 'segilo' is inherently a verb, the suffix '-il' designating it as a 'sawing tool'. Tell me what's 'regular' about that.
@anonymousbaby1970 You're correct. It's far easier than any national language. I'm referring to the irregularities in semantics rather than the structures of the words themselves. I mean 'way too many' in the sense that most are unnecessary. All you would need to communicate is the past and future tense. Imperative, conditional, and the infinitive are superfluous.
(3) I should add, BTW, that there's no implied criticism of Asian learners of English in what I write. Mastering English is a *massive* undertaking, which very few non-natives even get near. English is a very easy language to speak badly, but an incredibly difficult language to speak in a way that approaches that of a native speaker. In contrast, Esperanto is a very easy language to start, and a very easy language to speak fluently, correctly, confidently and eloquently.
@anonymousbaby1970 Not just a paper - it's a 148 page book! Apparently I can't post links here, but if you go to bit.ly and type GCt71u after the first slash, you should reach the book.
@TheMontageBW As mentioned in other comments below, this option is of course open to anyone, and you can find a looooong list of them under "List_of_constructed_languages" on Wikipedia. Not all of the above list are examples of Esperanto-based langauges, but a good number are. The risible thing is, none of them agree on what features need "improving", or removing, or enhancing. Just accept that Esperanto works, that it has flaws like any big project has, and enjoy it!
You said it!!! "english is "really hard". You cannot imagine how EASY esperanto is... I can speak 5 languages, I can compare! The question is not : what do YOU need, It's: what mankind needs?
Esperanto is a great language. I really like it. I can speak to people all over the world. It's also an easy and beautiful language. Esperanto estas bonega lingvo. Mi ŝategas ĝin. Mi povas paroli kun homoj en la tuta mondo. Ĝi estas ankaŭ facila kaj bela lingvo.
@TheMontageBW Fair enough; I've already agreed that "completely regular" is a silly thing to say. However, I think it's entirely reasonable to describe its grammar as "free of the vast majority of the irregularities you find in most European languages". Because it is. And the fact that the verbal/adjectival/substantive nature of roots may be ill-defined bothers grammarians far more than it bothers Esperanto speakers and learners.
Excellent question, to which there are several answers. Firstly, your points actually describe English far more accurately than Esperanto, so if we're searching for a fair and equitable system of global communication, we already agree that there's a problem to be solved! Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese/Arabic speakers pick up Esperanto *much* more quickly than English, to a level where they are indistinguishable from their European counterparts. This *very* rarely happens in English.
@pigkkk2 As mentioned below, if you think Esperanto is purely European, you probably don't know much about it. Google for "Claude Piron European or Asiatic", read that essay, then come back and have a chat. Whenever I've asked Chinese, Korean and Japanese Esperanto speakers about it, they *all* say the same thing - in only a year or two, they speak *tons* better Esperanto than after 10 years of English at school.
Esperato estas facila lingvo! If everybody in the world focused in Esperanto for two weeks and studied it, the whole world would be speaking in Esperanto. Gxis revido!
I wonder if that reporter's accent got in the way of him learning the language, given he kept mispronouncing the language's name - Esperanto is pronounced with a long A, not a short one. Still, it's great to see Esperanto get some good publicity. Gonna have to learn that song the kids were singing.
@SlipAllCityToy Either type in ^ directly after the letter or the standard way to do it is to put x after the letter since that letter is not in the esperonto alphabet. Gxis revido.
@cryozo Also, as mentioned below, trying googling Claude Piron European or Asiatic - read that essay then come back and we'll carry on the discussion. The web address, if RUclips will let me post it, is here: claudepiron.free.fr/articlesenanglais/europeanorasiatic.htm
@ShelDeF You just state out of the blue that "Using Esperanto as a means to learn other languages is silly", but why do you think that? The children respond enthusiastically, they get to videoconference with children in other countries (Germany, Hungary and Slovakia so far), they get to use more complex grammar than they would be able to in (e.g.) French or Spanish, and they say they look forward to further study of other languages. What's not to like?
@michaelmays1 I've never quite understood the obsession with Esperanto's diacritics. Yes, the language has accented letters in its alphabet, much like every other language in existence that uses the Roman script. Even English makes occasional use of them, albeit much less than most languages. Esperanto's letters are included in many Unicode fonts, including Arial, Times New Roman and Helvetica. I can't really see what the problem is.
Difficult to say exactly how many people speak it - estimates range from 100,000 to two million - but here's a different way to answer it: "more people speak it, in over 100 countries across the world, than you could possibly hope to meet in a lifetime!"
@TheMontageBW I'm not even sure what "completely regular" means for a fully fledged, living language, but there's no arguing that Esperanto has waaaaay fewer exceptions and special cases to memorise than any European language. Not sure what you mean by "way to many verb forms" either. Use -is/-as/-os for past/present/future of any verb. Simple. If you want to do tricks like "estus faronta" etc. you can, but that's still simpler than the English equivalent ("would have been about to").
@jaskamakkara As I've mentioned in several comments below, if you think Esperanto is purely Indo-European, it suggests you haven't studied it very deeply. Try this article as a starting point: claudepiron.free.fr/articlesenanglais/europeanorasiatic.htm You're right in that some languages are more closely related than others, so for me - British - French or German are easier than Vietnamese or Finnish, but that doesn't mean any of those languages are *inherently* easier for everyone.
(3) I'm fluent in Japanese, and have seen that although of course many words have been borrowed from English into Japanese, the same is starting to happen with certain idioms. Of course, idiomatic phrases only START as idiomatic, only to become the norm hundreds of years later.
@TheMontageBW The word for the verb itself might not change in Chinese, but you need to learn other accompanying words if you want to give all the info about tense/aspect/mood that, in Esperanto, come with the suffixes. In any language, for simple or vague concepts, simple forms will do (e.g. "I go cinema"). For more nuanced, precise meanings, more words and/or suffixes are needed ("By then I will be on my way to the cinema" / "Tiam, mi estos iranta kinejen"). Regularity of EO still easier!
@in0eterminacy Thanks for stopping by. Could you clarify what you mean by "biases and assumptions" - what did you have in mind? Are you saying that this is a bad thing or a good thing? And can you give an example of a language or other system of communication, hypothetical or real, that might avoid the problem that you're describing? If you can specify what you mean in your above comment, I'll be happy to try to answer it.
@SifuTeddie There are six basic forms: esti, estas, estis, estos, estu, estus In addition, the participles are as follows: estanta, estinta, estonta, estanto, estinto, estonto, estante, estinte, estonte, estata, estita, estota, estate, estite, estote, estato, estito, estoto. I'm sure I've missed some; google 'Esperanto verb forms' and the first result will show them all to you.
It is skeptical about how international Esperanto really is. Some argue that as a international language, it is no better than English because its lexicon is derived exclusively from European languages. This makes it unconvincing to be a legitimate international language, when a international language could be more international than that.
Yeah, it's a fairly common argument... from people who've picked up "Teach Yourself Esperanto" and perused it for half an hour. It's reasonable to point out that the word stock is based on European roots, which puts African/Asian learners at a disadvantage in the early stages of learning at least. But the invariability of root spelling and meaning in Esperanto, together with the generative morphology, make it orders of magnitude quicker and easier to learn and to manipulate as soon as you're past your first 10-lesson introductory course.
Perhaps it is the ideal common language for Europe? I dont know... There was apparently a debate a year ago when Germany proposed English to be the only official language of EU in order to cut translation cost.
Mi bedaŭras ke Esperanto estas formita nur de radikoj de la eŭropaj lingvoj. Sed Ĉinio estas en la unuaj Nacioj ke adoptas Esperanto. Kaj ĉiam pli Rusaj, Japanaj, kaj Mezorientaj amikoj adoptas Esperanto. fakte la Usono ne havas sian propran lingvon, sed ankoraŭ parolas la anglan lingvon, tipe kiel brita kolonio. Mi havas ankaŭ Usonojn (USA) amikojn ke parolas Esperanto, tio povus esti maniero por elstari la deziron de rompi la submetiĝon kun la Brita Imperio. Ĉu vi volas vidi kial Esperanto estas preferebla? Provu traduki kion mi skribis per aŭtomata tradukisto. Tio ne estas lokaj kun lokaj lingvoj, eĉ malpli per Angla lingvo.
Oh, I'd love to speak Mandarin, and I may well find the time to seriously study it at some point. As has been pointed out loads of times in these comments though, picking up Esperanto is ridiculously quick, and I'm already using it almost every time I go abroad.
@JSoundHysteria Well, that's one reason; another reason is that they're phenomenally difficult to learn unless you were brought up as a child by a native speaker. You also say "people choose to speak in a way which is most comfortable to them, regardless of what their roots are (they simply don't care)", which seems to contradict your point that one national language could never displace another. If people see an advantage to using language X, they will, cultural baggage or no.
Yeah, I agree with what you said. It's not that Esperanto couldn't become the world language, it's just that there's no reason for people to learn it. English became such a desired language because of America's economic strength. With China's growing economic strength, I feel that Mandarin Chinese may become the next most sought language and after that, possibly Portuguese with Brazil.
The two issues of "language as communication tool" and "language as carrier of culture" are separate things, and they are too often confused and/or conflated, sometimes inadvertently, sometimes deliberately in order to mislead. (I'm speaking generally here, just stating fact as I see it, cccEngineer, and I don't mean that to be an accusation of any kind against you.)
Esperanto needs to be a mandatory language in schools for it to become a practical universal language. I would definitely support and learn the language myself if that happened.
Not only that, but if you watch Tim Morley's TEDx talk, it helps kids to pickup other languages.
Doominator, si esto ocurre el Esperanto no necesitara tu apoyo (Doominator, if it will happen Esperanto will not need your help)
Esperanto is far better for a cross-european language than a truly international auxiliary langauge
"Only" 2 million people speak Esperanto - sure, but that's still way more than I could possibly ever meet in my whole life time!
English is my native language; I'm still learning the basics of Arabic, but I speak French competently enough to have long, flowing, nuanced conversations, and to do convincing, engaging public speaking. But English is still MY language, and French is NOT my language. Esperanto is different - it's a linguistic hand-shake, a neutral mid-point, if that makes sense.
Not as much sense as Interlingua.
Or a useful language.
@@arcticflower7223 Go ahead and learn Interlingua if that floats your boat. Good luck finding people to chat to! (FWIW the only people I know who've ever learned Interlingua were polyglots who were already very fluent in Esperanto, and who learned it out of curiosity. They've never actually used it for anything.)
What is this obsession with a neutral midpoint? Just learn an additional language and stop hating other people for having different mother tongues. I love the idea of speaking to people in their mother tongue when it isn't mine.
Auxiliary languages make sense but that is such a bad case,
@@arcticflower7223 "hating other people for having different mother tongues" - not sure at all how you reached that conclusion, but it's the antithesis, really the total opposite, of the Esperanto movement, and of me personally.
I have learned additional languages; I did GCSEs long ago in French, German and Russian; I passed a C2 exam in French this year; I'm currently studying Slovak; and I still teach French and Esperanto.
Sorry, what was your point again?
I love the idea of Esperanto. I am learning French again, after years of forgetting the language. And the idea of learning esperanto too, as a basis to help me with my french language and other languages I choose to pick up seems good. I love to socialise and talk to people so knowing languages can help break down some barriers.
Mi amas Esperanto
Mi ankau
Mi amas akuzativon :-P
Mi ankau amas Esperanto
NE FORGESU LA AKUZATIVO!
Mi amas esperanton.
Amu esperanton kun mi.
Por trovi novajn amikojn, Esperanto estas mia plej utila lingvo.
I think this is a brilliant idea all i have to do now is take the time to try and learn a little bit myself i don't even know why i am hesitant to but i will try to break that barrier maybe it is pride maybe it is laziness all in all it's ignorant not to at least try and learn some basic words
...[4] And finally, the fact that Esperanto exists doesn't *stop* anyone from learning other languages! Quite the opposite, in fact - I've met people who believed they were incapable of ever learning another language, and it was the confidence gained through becoming fluent in Esperanto (and the new contacts and friendships that resulted) that spurred them on to try other languages, particularly those of the people they had met through Esperanto.
I rarely watch the one show, I wish I'd seen this. I've been learning esperanto since November, getting better every day!
Let's say you meet a mandarin speaker and fall in love at first sight. You only speak a bit of mandarin, and he/she only speaks a bit of English. By far the quickest and most effective route to getting to know that person through long, fluent, relaxed conversation is for both of you to learn Esperanto! You'll be discussing life plans and profound desires in months rather than the years you'd need to do it in English or in Mandarin.
Unu el la plej pozitivaj raportoj, kiujn mi iam ajn spektis pri Esperanto - bonege!
One of the most positive reports I've ever seen about Esperanto - excellent!
@JSoundHysteria Thanks for stopping by. Couldn't agree more with "let's maintain the variety the world still has left to offer". Absolutely. Revel in it. I do.
The idea of Esperanto, which seem to work well, is that it doesn't *replace* anything. It allows everyone to keep their own language and culture, but it provides a useful medium when people with two (or three, or fifty) different languages come together.
(2) Now, I've never fallen in love with a mandarin speaker, but I have met quite a few (and Japanese, and Korean, and Thai, and Vietnamese, etc.) And it's nearly always *much* easier to have an easy conversation with the Esperanto speakers amongst them than it is to use English. And typically, they've have 5 or 8 or 12 years of English at school/university, and often only 1 or 2 years of Esperanto - they still speak much better Esperanto. Go figure.
Many people have said the same thing, that Esperanto isn't neutral enough because it's based on European languages. But, although many 'new' and more neutral languages have been invented over the years, none have caught on like Esperanto. Also, interestingly, Esperanto is quite popular in China, Korea and Japan, despite its Europeanness.
Nice! Thanks for posting. Kiel esperantisto, mi ĉiam ĝojas trovi interesajn novaĵojn pri la Internacia Lingvo kaj esperas ke pli da homoj aŭdos pri ĝi ekde nun.
Thought this was excellent! Very impressed by impartial report. Makes a refreshing change!
Aside from that, it's also meant to be nothing more than a 'second' language for the peoples of the world to speak, it's not going to replace english or swahili or russian or french or anything, it's just going to be something that's spoken across the world, so everyone can understand each other, so we can talk instead of fight all the time.
Again, nobody's claiming that having a common language is a *sufficient* condition for a more peaceful world; much else is also needed in many other fields, including teaching people about morals and ethics, yes. But it's not difficult to argue that - all else being equal - the ability to speak directly to other people, both friends and enemies, has to be a step in the right direction.
4:00 Heh, stealth shoutout to lernu!
@ShelDeF "I don't use my languages just for work. I use it for fun, to socialize, to learn."
@JSoundHysteria What makes it less likely with Esperanto, I think, is that it's vastly easier to attain a very proficient level of Esperanto later in life compared to other languages; thus, even if Esperanto were THE international language, there would be relatively little advantage in bringing children up as first-language Esperanto speakers.
Of the hundreds of Esperanto speakers that I've met, it's impossible to distinguish the first-language speakers from the others.
@ShelDeF Incidentally, the School of Education of the University of Manchester are doing a five year evaluation of the Springboard to Languages programme, so we'll soon be able to discuss actual results rather than just anecdotes. You can download their interim reports to date from the Springboard to Languages website. (It appears I'm not allowed to post links here, but you can google it easily enough).
@Hexenhammer0 @Hexenhammer0 Certainly the vocabulary looks very European, and as such it's easier for a "European-speaker" than for others to guess at the meaning of unknown words.
However, there's more to a language than it's vocabulary, and (e.g.) the system of word formation in Esperanto has strong parallels with Chinese.
For more info, Google for "Claude Piron European or Asiatic"
"no reason for people to learn it"
@ShelDeF Thanks for stopping by. I would love to see children leaving school being able to converse confidently in Japanese, Mandarin, or even just French or Spanish. Sadly, for the vast majority, that doesn't happen.
Read up on the Springboard to Languages programme. No-one is suggesting that speaking Esperanto is likely to be of use professionally. But these are 7-year-olds - they're learning *how to learn*, and that works much more effectively with a simple language than a complex one.
Very interesting. I've heard of esperanto but thought it was another name for Spanish. I like how non-esperanto speakers can somehow get the gist.
G-SUS Christ. I know romanian and english, and i could understand most of your comment. This language is amazing.
Mi amas Esperanton!
Dankon por la video. Gxi estas interesa kaj utila por montri al la homoj kio estas esperanto generale / Thanks for sharing this video. It is interesting and useful when we want show what Esperanto is in general.
@morthim Good point; for the children concerned, it's their mother tongue, and there are an estimated 1000-2000 "native" speakers of Esperanto. For the vast majority of speakers though, it's a second language, and it's the *only* language that I'm aware of where non-native speakers very often attain a level of knowledge and fluency essentially indistinguishable from a first-language speaker. That's very rare with most languages, but it's the norm in Esperanto.
We named a street after Zamenhof here in Israel
@ShelDeF "you should stop by a school sometime"
@CommanderMethos @CommanderMethos As I've said in other comments here, Asian speakers of Esperanto are generally *much* happier speaking Esperanto than trying any alternative, whether it's English, or Mandarin, or using interpreters. It's by far the most direct and most effective way to communicate, whatever one's language background.
@ShelDeF "I learned [...] French and applied it to learning Japanese and Italian, German and Korean"
I love that people are paying attention to this language, it's worth learning and more people need to learn it to get it understood as a useful global second language. I'm a little put off that it's so intensive in the Western European elements but that's logical considering its origin and purpose. A little less romance and a little more global would perhaps help (it wouldn't help me but that's not the point) but in the long run it's better than English for travel, internet communication, etc.
Jen iom stranga ideo, laŭ mi. Kial reinventi la radon? Google provizas nin per longega listo de kreitaj lingvoj "pli bonaj" ol Esperanto, sed preskaŭ ĉiuj naskiĝis mortaj, kaj eĉ la plej "bona" havas 100oble malpli da parolantoj ol Esperanto.
Ŝajne vi iom bone esprimiĝas per Esperanto, do gratulon, vi ekrajtas iom kritiki ĝin! :) Plej ofte tiaj kritikoj venas de homoj, kiuj apenaŭ eklernis la lingvon sed tuj malkovras aferojn nepre plibonigendajn...
Tamen, mi ne komprenas vian lastan frazon!
Well not only am I English speaking, English is my first language but I am an Englishman and fiercely proud one. God save the queen and rule Britannia are my bread and butter. If someone as nationalistic as me can take an interest in esperanto and its universal family ideal, then there is hope for all the others
And here I was originally going to have to watch the video again, since YT's player doesn't do shuttling very well. Multajn Dankojn!
@teqfreak
Addition to what I wrote before: It would an honest way to have a European Language without establishing cultural dominance of one country.
Esperanto is a pool of knowledge I keep returning to.. To dip my toes in every few months. My vocabulary in the language is growing daily. I have a kindle ebook called Marvirinstrato : originalaj noveloj en esperanto, at first it was just a few silly looking words that made no sense whatsoever, each day it's becoming clearer and I'm now able to read the odd sentence or passage and understand it, but it's getting to the stage now where I recognise more words than not on any given page. I
I WANT TO LEARN THIS!!!
@JSoundHysteria Good point, and the obvious answer of course is "nobody knows". What you suggest is entirely possible. It's also possible that the same will happen with English (or Spanish, or Mandarin, or ...)
Tre pozitiva bildo pri Esperanto. Rara fenomeno.
@jaskamakkara However, Esperanto was conceived specifically with the aim of being as easy to learn as possible. And it is, measurably so, for speakers of any other language. Sure, speakers of Indo-European languages have an advantage for the first month or two, because the word roots are easier to memorise for them; but that advantage quickly plateaus, and it's perfectly normal to meet Asians with a year or two of Esperanto who speak just as confidently as their European counterparts.
@MatheusMendonca1 It depends on who you talk to. The high estimates place us at around 2,000,000 people. Low estimates put us between 50,000 - 100,000 speakers. It is difficult to know. However, we ARE scattered all over the world. You can find a few Esperanto speakers in almost any decent-sized city, anywhere in the world. As a frequent traveler, I can tell you that this is a fact.
@agormanvideos English is certainly the most widely used lingua franca than any other at the moment, although of course there are plenty of other inter-languages in different parts of the world.
However, for at least half of the 20th century, it was French that held the top position, at least in international politics and diplomacy, and in business too to a lesser extent. People back then probably thought that this would never change in their lifetime either.
I sympathise with your skepticism about the motivation of any international political organisation, but there's a million miles between the UN and individuals like me who choose to learn Esperanto, for the fun and the mental exercise and the travel and the meeting people. If you're interested in direct contact with individuals from overseas, it's well worth the effort.
@anonymousbaby1970 I was an Esperanto learner before I studied linguistics. Learning the words wasn't the problem, it was learning their inherent part of speech. One example I remember is "seg'il'o" and "martel'o". The former is a tool for the inherent verb 'to saw'. The latter, the inherent noun "hammer" (and not a tool for the verb 'to hammer'). It's not difficult, it's just an easily avoidable burden on memory.
@tFighterPilot You're right to criticise the scene above where I speak Esperanto and students "magically" understand. I didn't write the script, and I don't think that part really shows anything useful. Esperanto is a language that needs studying to understand it.
However, its structure is specifically designed to be as simple as possible to learn and use, while still being hugely flexible and expressive. Briefly, the amount of *memorisation* needed is *much* smaller than most languages.
It of course helps that most of the morphemes in Esperanto are based off of French words. Esperanto is based around morphemes instead of words, which of course was one of the things that lead to creation of Ido.
@michaelmays1 Esperanto makes a fine "stepping-stone language", as you put it. Being so much easier to get proficient in, it gives a much higher %age of pupils a positive, successful first foreign language learning experience than is usually the case, and thus gives them the enthusiasm and ability to attempt another.
Not sure where you get the idea that Esperanto is "a bear to read/write" - spelling and pronunciation correspond exactly. It's easier to read than any other language I've learnt.
@ARussianBear If I may say so, that's a very Euro-centric view. :) When you actually *ask* Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese or Korean speakers of Esperanto whether they feel any inferiority or unfair difficulty next to their European counterparts, they generally say "absolutely not!" Certainly compared to the alternatives, i.e. they speak English, or we speak Chinese/Korean/etc., they say Esperanto is a fantastically accessible midway meeting point for us all.
@achickensandwich The structure of Esperanto certainly makes it waaaaay easier and quicker to learn than other languages. I've taught English, French and Esperanto to children and adults, and the Esperanto classes get miles ahead of the others in every respect.
(BTW, the part of the clip above where foreign students "magically" understand Esperanto is misleading. I didn't write the script, and certainly wouldn't have done that bit if I had).
Gratulojn pro tiu honesta riportajho !
Esperanto learner before I studied linguistics ← Me too! However, "learning the inherent part of speech" of words never bothered me; in fact, I didn't even notice the "problem" until it was pointed out, by which time I was already having long conversations in Esperanto. It's just not that big an issue, particularly when weighed against the dozens of other factors that make Esperanto an order of magnitude quicker and simpler to learn than any other language I've tackled.
@TheMontageBW "draw this out further in a private message" ← please do. My short answer though: we've already said that claiming "perfect neutrality" is silly. It couldn't possibly be, unless it were completely but equally alien to everyone. However, it is still 100 times better for international communication than anything else on the table, be it a national language (English, French, Chinese, etc.), or simultaneous interpretation, or machine translation, or some other language project.
...[2] A relatively small percentage of language learners attain a level where they start to appreciate the culture of the host country. It's a massive undertaking to reach that kind of level.
For many though, that's not the aim. Either they know it's an impossible goal, or it's not even relevant to them. In English classes across the world, how much time is spent on business terms, presentation skills, sales calls, etc.? And how much on reading novels or poetry?
@cryozo While it's true that Esperanto is superficially similar to latinate and germanic languages, the similarity really is only skin-deep. Beneath the surface lies a structure in which people from a huge variety of language backgrounds find themselves at home. At least, that's what I'm told by Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Israelis, Russians, Icelanders and others when I ask.
@Lepsaeus Euphony is a rather subjective measure. (Not sure anyone here is drooling either, and Interlingua hasn't been mentioned at all, has it?)
Thanks for your, um, contribution.
Good video
@ShelDeF Here's an analogy - can you name a professional recorder player? Or two? Or none at all? I'm not saying there are none at all, but for the vast majority of adults, even for professional musicians, playing the recorder is not in itself a useful skill.
However, by learning the recorder *first* in primary school, children learn about melodies, major and minor keys, reading music, rhythms, playing in a group, etc., all of which are valuable *skills* for later music study.
@SuperMoo2TheRescue Not going to shout at you for a perfectly reasonable question. :o)
The problem with basic English is that it's a very reduced subset of a full language, and it places great restrictions on what you can actually say. It's very difficult to sound eloquent in it.
The *structure* of Esperanto is very minimal, as un-complex as possible, but it delivers a vast power of expression. It's a full language that you can use for science, cooking, drunken arguments, flirting... the lot!
@pitiponk1 Thanks for your constructive and informed comment. You make the internet a joy to inhabit.
My first language is English. Mi segunda, Espanol. I am learning esperanto now since I am 62 and would like to acheive some fluency in a third in my remaining time.
@anonymousbaby1970 Yeah I agree, they forget to mention in this video that esperanto was made because it is a simple language and it's very easy to learn. For example Polish is an exceptionally difficult langauge, as is russian, and if you're a western european Asian languages may be very difficult however Esperanto is a very simple language just like english it doesn't inflect, conjugate or change very much at all.
@SifuTeddie As for irregularity, look into the distribution of meanings among basic roots. They were chosen arbitrarily, which disallows a linear form of derivation. Using an example from a previous conversation, 'martelo' is inherently a noun- the hammering tool, while the root of 'segilo' is inherently a verb, the suffix '-il' designating it as a 'sawing tool'. Tell me what's 'regular' about that.
@anonymousbaby1970 You're correct. It's far easier than any national language. I'm referring to the irregularities in semantics rather than the structures of the words themselves.
I mean 'way too many' in the sense that most are unnecessary. All you would need to communicate is the past and future tense. Imperative, conditional, and the infinitive are superfluous.
@ShelDeF "You could use any other language and accomplish the same things as using Esperanto"
(3) I should add, BTW, that there's no implied criticism of Asian learners of English in what I write. Mastering English is a *massive* undertaking, which very few non-natives even get near. English is a very easy language to speak badly, but an incredibly difficult language to speak in a way that approaches that of a native speaker.
In contrast, Esperanto is a very easy language to start, and a very easy language to speak fluently, correctly, confidently and eloquently.
@anonymousbaby1970 Not just a paper - it's a 148 page book! Apparently I can't post links here, but if you go to bit.ly and type GCt71u after the first slash, you should reach the book.
@TheMontageBW As mentioned in other comments below, this option is of course open to anyone, and you can find a looooong list of them under "List_of_constructed_languages" on Wikipedia.
Not all of the above list are examples of Esperanto-based langauges, but a good number are. The risible thing is, none of them agree on what features need "improving", or removing, or enhancing.
Just accept that Esperanto works, that it has flaws like any big project has, and enjoy it!
Sounds like many languages, specially Lithuanian.
You said it!!! "english is "really hard". You cannot imagine how EASY esperanto is... I can speak 5 languages, I can compare! The question is not : what do YOU need, It's: what mankind needs?
Esperanto is a great language. I really like it. I can speak to people all over the world. It's also an easy and beautiful language.
Esperanto estas bonega lingvo. Mi ŝategas ĝin. Mi povas paroli kun homoj en la tuta mondo. Ĝi estas ankaŭ facila kaj bela lingvo.
Terry speaks an artificially constructed language in an artificially constructed city (Milton Keynes) 😂😂
@TheMontageBW Fair enough; I've already agreed that "completely regular" is a silly thing to say.
However, I think it's entirely reasonable to describe its grammar as "free of the vast majority of the irregularities you find in most European languages". Because it is. And the fact that the verbal/adjectival/substantive nature of roots may be ill-defined bothers grammarians far more than it bothers Esperanto speakers and learners.
Excellent question, to which there are several answers. Firstly, your points actually describe English far more accurately than Esperanto, so if we're searching for a fair and equitable system of global communication, we already agree that there's a problem to be solved!
Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese/Arabic speakers pick up Esperanto *much* more quickly than English, to a level where they are indistinguishable from their European counterparts. This *very* rarely happens in English.
@pigkkk2 As mentioned below, if you think Esperanto is purely European, you probably don't know much about it. Google for "Claude Piron European or Asiatic", read that essay, then come back and have a chat.
Whenever I've asked Chinese, Korean and Japanese Esperanto speakers about it, they *all* say the same thing - in only a year or two, they speak *tons* better Esperanto than after 10 years of English at school.
Haha li eraris. Ne estas "Adrian mi no povas vivi sen vi."
Estas "Adrian mi NE povas vivi sen vi."
Amuze
Esperato estas facila lingvo!
If everybody in the world focused in Esperanto for two weeks and studied it, the whole world would be speaking in Esperanto.
Gxis revido!
I wonder if that reporter's accent got in the way of him learning the language, given he kept mispronouncing the language's name - Esperanto is pronounced with a long A, not a short one.
Still, it's great to see Esperanto get some good publicity. Gonna have to learn that song the kids were singing.
@SlipAllCityToy Either type in ^ directly after the letter or the standard way to do it is to put x after the letter since that letter is not in the esperonto alphabet. Gxis revido.
@cryozo Also, as mentioned below, trying googling Claude Piron European or Asiatic - read that essay then come back and we'll carry on the discussion.
The web address, if RUclips will let me post it, is here:
claudepiron.free.fr/articlesenanglais/europeanorasiatic.htm
@ShelDeF You just state out of the blue that "Using Esperanto as a means to learn other languages is silly", but why do you think that? The children respond enthusiastically, they get to videoconference with children in other countries (Germany, Hungary and Slovakia so far), they get to use more complex grammar than they would be able to in (e.g.) French or Spanish, and they say they look forward to further study of other languages. What's not to like?
@michaelmays1 I've never quite understood the obsession with Esperanto's diacritics. Yes, the language has accented letters in its alphabet, much like every other language in existence that uses the Roman script. Even English makes occasional use of them, albeit much less than most languages.
Esperanto's letters are included in many Unicode fonts, including Arial, Times New Roman and Helvetica. I can't really see what the problem is.
Difficult to say exactly how many people speak it - estimates range from 100,000 to two million - but here's a different way to answer it: "more people speak it, in over 100 countries across the world, than you could possibly hope to meet in a lifetime!"
@TheMontageBW I'm not even sure what "completely regular" means for a fully fledged, living language, but there's no arguing that Esperanto has waaaaay fewer exceptions and special cases to memorise than any European language.
Not sure what you mean by "way to many verb forms" either. Use -is/-as/-os for past/present/future of any verb. Simple. If you want to do tricks like "estus faronta" etc. you can, but that's still simpler than the English equivalent ("would have been about to").
@jaskamakkara As I've mentioned in several comments below, if you think Esperanto is purely Indo-European, it suggests you haven't studied it very deeply. Try this article as a starting point:
claudepiron.free.fr/articlesenanglais/europeanorasiatic.htm
You're right in that some languages are more closely related than others, so for me - British - French or German are easier than Vietnamese or Finnish, but that doesn't mean any of those languages are *inherently* easier for everyone.
Hahaha mojose Tim!
Vere dolĉe vi babilas angle, mi ŝatas tiun britan akĉenton.
Congratulations to the journalist, very good job, very neutral.
(3) I'm fluent in Japanese, and have seen that although of course many words have been borrowed from English into Japanese, the same is starting to happen with certain idioms. Of course, idiomatic phrases only START as idiomatic, only to become the norm hundreds of years later.
@TheMontageBW The word for the verb itself might not change in Chinese, but you need to learn other accompanying words if you want to give all the info about tense/aspect/mood that, in Esperanto, come with the suffixes.
In any language, for simple or vague concepts, simple forms will do (e.g. "I go cinema"). For more nuanced, precise meanings, more words and/or suffixes are needed ("By then I will be on my way to the cinema" / "Tiam, mi estos iranta kinejen"). Regularity of EO still easier!
@in0eterminacy Thanks for stopping by. Could you clarify what you mean by "biases and assumptions" - what did you have in mind? Are you saying that this is a bad thing or a good thing? And can you give an example of a language or other system of communication, hypothetical or real, that might avoid the problem that you're describing?
If you can specify what you mean in your above comment, I'll be happy to try to answer it.
OMG! It's what the guy in the video kept saying! LOL
@SifuTeddie There are six basic forms: esti, estas, estis, estos, estu, estus
In addition, the participles are as follows: estanta, estinta, estonta, estanto, estinto, estonto, estante, estinte, estonte, estata, estita, estota, estate, estite, estote, estato, estito, estoto. I'm sure I've missed some; google 'Esperanto verb forms' and the first result will show them all to you.
It is skeptical about how international Esperanto really is. Some argue that as a international language, it is no better than English because its lexicon is derived exclusively from European languages. This makes it unconvincing to be a legitimate international language, when a international language could be more international than that.
Yeah, it's a fairly common argument... from people who've picked up "Teach Yourself Esperanto" and perused it for half an hour.
It's reasonable to point out that the word stock is based on European roots, which puts African/Asian learners at a disadvantage in the early stages of learning at least. But the invariability of root spelling and meaning in Esperanto, together with the generative morphology, make it orders of magnitude quicker and easier to learn and to manipulate as soon as you're past your first 10-lesson introductory course.
Perhaps it is the ideal common language for Europe? I dont know...
There was apparently a debate a year ago when Germany proposed English to be the only official language of EU in order to cut translation cost.
Mi bedaŭras ke Esperanto estas formita nur de radikoj de la eŭropaj lingvoj.
Sed Ĉinio estas en la unuaj Nacioj ke adoptas Esperanto. Kaj ĉiam pli Rusaj, Japanaj, kaj Mezorientaj amikoj adoptas Esperanto.
fakte la Usono ne havas sian propran lingvon, sed ankoraŭ parolas la anglan lingvon, tipe kiel brita kolonio.
Mi havas ankaŭ Usonojn (USA) amikojn ke parolas Esperanto, tio povus esti maniero por elstari la deziron de rompi la submetiĝon kun la Brita Imperio.
Ĉu vi volas vidi kial Esperanto estas preferebla? Provu traduki kion mi skribis per aŭtomata tradukisto. Tio ne estas lokaj kun lokaj lingvoj, eĉ malpli per Angla lingvo.
I'm reading coments of people arguing here... oh!
Esperanto was made to understand each other. Don't argue =(
Oh, I'd love to speak Mandarin, and I may well find the time to seriously study it at some point. As has been pointed out loads of times in these comments though, picking up Esperanto is ridiculously quick, and I'm already using it almost every time I go abroad.
Superfantazia! Ĉu ni vere devas daŭrigi montranta ke la lingvon efektive funkcias?
@JSoundHysteria Well, that's one reason; another reason is that they're phenomenally difficult to learn unless you were brought up as a child by a native speaker.
You also say "people choose to speak in a way which is most comfortable to them, regardless of what their roots are (they simply don't care)", which seems to contradict your point that one national language could never displace another. If people see an advantage to using language X, they will, cultural baggage or no.
Yeah, I agree with what you said. It's not that Esperanto couldn't become the world language, it's just that there's no reason for people to learn it. English became such a desired language because of America's economic strength. With China's growing economic strength, I feel that Mandarin Chinese may become the next most sought language and after that, possibly Portuguese with Brazil.
The two issues of "language as communication tool" and "language as carrier of culture" are separate things, and they are too often confused and/or conflated, sometimes inadvertently, sometimes deliberately in order to mislead. (I'm speaking generally here, just stating fact as I see it, cccEngineer, and I don't mean that to be an accusation of any kind against you.)