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From: neal@druny.UUCP (Neal D. McBurnett)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: World languages (intro to Esperanto)
Message-ID: <11@druny.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Oct-85 15:58:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: druny.11
Posted: Thu Oct 17 15:58:31 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Oct-85 05:48:17 EDT
References: <2376@sjuvax.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
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We've discussed Esperanto before in this newsgroup, and I've been
meaning to send out a description of my trip to "Esperanto-land"
in Germany and Hungary last summer.  (Quick summary: it was great,
accents were not a problem at all, and I'll probably go back to
Bulgaria and Israel for more fun next year.)  Until I write that up, here
is the "basic intro".
____________________________

First "what is this Esperanto thing, anyway?"  That's a hard question.
The pat answer is "the international planned language, used by millions of
people in over 80 countries.  It was specifically designed to be
easy to learn and politically neutral."

One recent development which should interest computer scientists is that
the European Economic Community has funded a research effort to try to use
Esperanto to help them deal with translating official documents among the
nine languages they use.  This should result in software to translate
from Esperanto into each of the languages, and vice versa (with help provided
by the author to resolve ambiguities).  I think this capability
could provide a powerful incentive for people and organizations all over
the world to pay more attention to Esperanto.

Esperanto is much more popular elsewhere than it is in the US, chiefly because
other people deal with "the language problem" every time they travel more than
a few hundred miles in any direction.  It is especially gaining popularity in
China and Japan.  There are more than a million speakers in the world.  This may
seem like a small number in relation to the number of English speakers, but
I like to think of it this way: a much higher percentage of Esperanto speakers
in foreign lands are the sort of people I would like to be able to converse with.

Esperanto does me the most good when I travel, especially to
the eastern european countries (where English is less popular....) I
currently have a list of over 50 interested USENETers (including some in
Holland, Sweden and Norway.) In August of 1985 there was a meeting
of the Universal Esperanto Association in Augsberg where I had the opportunity
to meet several thousand esperantists from scores of countries.  Where
else could you do that?  Scientific organizations also hold meetings: e.g., I
attended a Cybernetics conference in Budapest this summer.

There are about 30,000 books published in Esperanto (half original, half
translated), a hundred regular publications, and dozens of regular
radio programs worldwide.

How easy is it to learn?  Some say between 4 and 10 times easier than other
natural languages, with all their exceptions, special cases, and idioms.
In a month of studying it during the evening in my spare time (on my own)
I got to the point where I could frequently (slowly...) understand the gist
of articles from a Chinese magazine without referring to a dictionary.
After a year I was able to understand rapid-fire conversation on most
topics, speak somewhat fluently, and edit a newsletter without making
too many errors.

I have lots of material on-line, including a 3000 word dictionary with parts
of speech.  For further information, send mail to me or to one of these groups:
   Esperanto League of North America, Box 1129 El Cerrito, CA 94530 303-653-0998
   Free Postal Course, Esperanto Information Center, 410 Darrell Road,
	Hillsborough, CA 94010 (send a self-addressed, stamped envelope).
   Various local organizations (especially in CA): ask me for one near you.
-Neal McBurnett, {mcvax!seismo!}ihnp4!druny!neal
 Boulder CO, Usono	303-538-4852