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From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Re: Languages in the EC
Message-ID: <elnaD3nw6M.6D9@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <3h3ci5$qc8@agate.berkeley.edu> <3h5dv3$8sv@solar.sky.net> <3h826t$dv4@gabriel.keele.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 03:25:34 GMT
Lines: 54

u4d14@cc.keele.ac.uk (JM White) writes in a recent posting (reference <3h826t$dv4@gabriel.keele.ac.uk>):
>
>I am English and I would agree that English should be the European language.
>It is not because I don't want to learn foreign languages, in fact my German
>and French permit to read books and newspapers in those languages, but
>because English is spoken in major countries such as the US, Canada and many
>other places of course. 
>
This is typical nationalism. "The powerful countries support this; therefore so
should the weaker."          It is also self-serving: while I applaud your
study of French & German, any Englishman who supports English as the sole
language of Europe cannot be considered unbiased in his opinion.

>The learning of Esperanto is absolutley pointless, because hardly anyone
>(%wise) has any grasp of the language and it would be hopeless for
>non-Europeans to speak. 

This a priori judgement is not born out by observation. Esperanto is quite
successfully mastered by hundreds of thousands of Japanese, Korean and Chinese
students. In fact, Asia has recently become the site of the fastest growth of
Esperanto. Anybody who travels to a wide range of destinations can find
constant application of the international language. Esperanto speakers rarely
need to stay in hotels when they travel, for they have a network of friends
which extends throughout the globe. If you travel to Japan, or Russia, or Spain
you might find an English-speaker to help you order food, or buy trinkets (but
you must confess that reading ability of French & German is little help in
real-world situations); but the Esperanto-speaker will find friends with whom
to talk politics, share stories, see and discuss the local area, etc. It is
*not* pointless. The number of speakers is still rather small, but the success
rate of its application is quite high!

Three languages is enough for me, I don't see why I
>should need to learn any others, or why anyone should have to learn a
>language which is so pointless. Why can't we just keep the main three
>languages, English, Frecnh and German, for translation purposes, and
>announce English as the official language?
>
I doubt the residents of Portugal, Italy, Greece, etc. would be likely to
go along with this. Do your three languages do much good in Portugal etc.?
Or anywhere in Asia? Or South America?  Nobody "has to" learn Esperanto, or
any other subject, for that matter.  People on this thread have presented
a series of rational reasons for learning and utilising a neutral planned
language. Most of the objections have been emotional, and rooted in 
misperceptions about an attack on one's Mother Tongue. Let me be clear
about this: Esperanto was created as a *second* language which functions 
as an auxiliary tool to facilitate communication between persons of 
dissimilar native language. Where there is international interaction, 
there should be a minimum of nationalistic trapping. Esperanto could never
suppress local languages as English has suppressed Welsh, Manx, Apache, etc.
In fact Esperanto theory is well informed with the intention to
*preserve* linguistic rights of minority populations.

Miko.

