Newsgroups: talk.politics.european-union,sci.lang,alt.language.artificial
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!rutgers!news.sgi.com!news.mathworks.com!howland.erols.net!netcom.com!elna
From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Re: Single European language: *NOT* European english
Message-ID: <elnaE0qJ04.Hu6@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <3273663A.3C0A@pp.inet.fi> <3281DA65.30C6@hildesheim.sgh-net.de> <elnaE0IKzp.2rE@netcom.com> <847643297.3094.0@ppp10.sgh-net.de>
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 02:02:27 GMT
Lines: 43
Sender: elna@netcom12.netcom.com

jgrantha@hildesheim.sgh-net.de writes in a recent posting (reference <847643297.3094.0@ppp10.sgh-net.de>):
>
>Though I have to note that, judging from other posts that I see about
>Eo, some seem to think that it isn't quite so easy.

I have seen this kind of claim from only *one* person, a Chinese 
gentleman who seems to enjoy railing at the perceived Eurocentrism
of the Esperanto word-stock, while doggedly ignoring the non-IE
features of the grammar and the advantages of E-o's potential as an
introduction to IE languages in general.
Learning *any* language is difficult; nobody would ever claim that
Esperanto can be learnt without effort. Yet I claim without fear that
E-o is *much* easier to learn than English, Russian or Japanese, 
especially for a Chinese person whose language is little related to any
of the four.e

>
>> Obviously artificial languages are not "necessary" for you because you have
>> not learned one!
>
>Um, no...and I might add that a person posting for the Esperanto League
>of North America is hardly unbiased. ;) 

Of course not! My writings are decidedly biased by my first-hand
experiences of Esperanto's real accomplishments. This is in obvious
distinction to others' a priori assertions based on extrapolations
from ignorance and rumour.

This has been a common aspect of these discussions which seems
quite out of place in a "sci." hierarchy: all-too often people
who have *no experience* about Esperanto accuse Esperantists of
overstating the case for this international language, simply because
the facts and statements of potential do not agree with some aspect
of prejudiced opinions of the know-nothings.

It is simply bizarre that one is called "biased" for having done some
investigation!!

-- 
Miko SLOPER              elna@netcom.com              USA  (510) 653 0998
Direktoro de la          ftp.netcom.com:/pub/el/elna   fax (510) 653 1468 
Centra Oficejo de la     Learn Esperanto! Free lessons: e-mail/snail-mail
Esperanto-Ligo de N.A.   Write to above address or call 1-888-2-ESPERANTO
