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From: hinsenk@cyclone.ERE.UMontreal.CA (Hinsen Konrad)
Subject: Re: Languages in the EC
In-Reply-To: u4d14@cc.keele.ac.uk's message of 8 Feb 1995 14:33:44 GMT
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Date: Thu, 9 Feb 1995 00:27:00 GMT
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In article <3hako8$785@gabriel.keele.ac.uk> u4d14@cc.keele.ac.uk (JM White) writes:

   I'm sorry, I didn't mean pointless in the way that it had no use in the
   world, rather that for me to learn the language would be pointless because I
   know no-one who speaks it. Not a very good start for a European language.

It's easy to find Esperanto speakers. On the net, in soc.culture.esperanto.
In real life, look for "Esperanto" in the phone book of any reasonably
large city.

   Does anyone have any figures on how many Europeans speak Espernato?

Nothing reliable. How would you count them?

   learn a language, you have to have some incentive, eg, going on holiday to a
   country, wanting to read in that language. 

Travelling is a good reason to learn Esperanto. Knowing Esperanto
helped me a lot when I arrived in Canada some months ago.

   Esperanto may have lots of texts which are comparable to any other language,
   but I have to doubt the availability of these resources to people who
   actually do want to learn the language. What I am saying is that many peoplw

They are accessible without problems, if you know how. But you will
know how after taking an Esperanto course. (The problem is that most
people don't know that they will know...)

   Just to totally change position, how long does it take to learn? As long as

Personal experience: four months of leisure-time study at home, with just
a textbook ("Teach yourself Esperanto") and radio programs to hear
the spoken language. After that, I could read soc.culture.esperanto
and contribute with the occasional use of a dictionary. After six months
I first met another Esperanto speaker, and was surprised that I could
speak Esperanto almost fluently. All that was about three years ago,
and by now I am an instructor in the Internet course and taking part
in the translation of a novel (as a serious project, not just for fun).
I'd claim that I know Esperanto better than English, which I learned
at school for six years and which I use professionally every day.

--
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Konrad Hinsen                     | E-Mail: hinsenk@ere.umontreal.ca
Departement de Chimie             | Tel.: +1-514-343-6111 ext. 3953
Universite de Montreal            | Fax:  +1-514-343-7586
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