Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!xanth!mcnc!ecsvax.uncecs.edu!dgary
From: dgary@uncecs.edu (D Gary Grady)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Global Cultural Prototype
Summary: Esperanto and "neutrality"
Keywords: Esperanto
Message-ID: <1989Oct17.174223.14275@uncecs.edu>
Date: 17 Oct 89 17:42:23 GMT
References: <3366@ccnysci.UUCP> <2145@avsd.UUCP> <18291@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <1989Oct13.142526.13122@uncecs.edu> <1489@intercon.com> <2255@randvax.UUCP> <1497@intercon.com>
Reply-To: dgary@ecsvax.uncecs.edu.UUCP (D Gary Grady)
Organization: Datalytics, Inc.
Lines: 46

In article <1497@intercon.com> amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker) writes:
>I would be surprised if it was
>as easy to learn for someone from Indonesia or Tibet as it is for someone
>from Europe or the U.S.

This is, of course, obviously the case, and no one argues otherwise.
On the other hand, Esperanto is probably the easiest Indoeuropean
language for a non-Indoeuropean speaker to learn, which probably helps
to account for its current popularity in China, Korea, and Japan.

(And, for the record, not all European languages are Indoeuropean,
including such important ones as Hungarian.  It's interesting to note
that one of the most active Esperanto movements in Europe is in
Hungary.)

The claim of "political neutrality" stems from the fact that Esperanto
is not the language of any nation, and in particular not that of a
present or former colonial power.  I personally consider this
irrelevant, for what that's worth.

>Esperanto feels like linguistic monoculture to me, and I dislike that
>feeling.

Feelings are not always an infallible guide.

I heartily approve of your desire to learn languages.  I'm certainly not
suggesting someone learn Esperanto instead of another language - only in
addition to.  Fortunately, as research at Columbia and Sheffield
suggest, this need not cost a significant amount of time.  A second
foreign language comes much more quickly than a first for most people,
and the evidence is that someone taught Esperanto followed by, say,
French, learns as much French as if he'd studied it alone for the same
total amount of time.

I'm surprised to hear you say that there is no need for an agreed-upon
international language.  With business, science, scholarship, and the
arts happening on a global basis, there is an obvious and growing need
for intercultural communications, and it simply isn't possible for
everyone to learn everyone else's langauge.  At the moment the de facto
choice is (for historical and not linguistic reasons) clearly English,
though this could certainly change.
-- 
D Gary Grady
(919) 286-4296
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