Has anyone here ever tried learning Esperanto to help in their language studies?

[frank.f.franky]

Learning Esperanto will give you a reason to watch Incubus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubus_(1966_film)

[burbuja0512]

I really don't want to come here and say anything bad, but overall, I think Esperanto is a total waste of time. I speak Spanish with 100% fluency and Brazilian Portuguese at about 50%. I know a handful of enthusiastic polyglots, including a guy who literally speaks 11 languages - and they all agree with me about Esperanto.

Here's why: If you want to learn a language to help you with Latin-based languages, just learn a language that is relevant and it WILL help you. For example, with my Spanish and Portuguese (plus my very basic French studies,) I was able to learn enough Italian to get by on a business trip. It only took me a few weeks with audio tapes in my car and I was ready to go! Maybe Esperanto would have helped but even so, would it be useful on a day to day basis? I'd rather take my Spanish and Portguese knowledge and use it to speak another language.

I also had no problem with the Catalan language on a trip to Barcelona. (Catalan btw is NOT a dialect of Spanish, it comes from latin) Didn't need to speak it- the client and partners all spoke Spanish, but I was able to understand everything that was supposed to be a 'secret' during negotiations. (Another business trip, sorry, that's the only way I can afford to travel)

And can Esperanto help with other non-latin based languages such as Slavic, Dutch, Afrikaans, or other Indo-European languages? Of course, but why bother with a made up language? Just learn the language in question.

And since we're all about saving time, I'll give my unsolicited opinion - be careful about which languages you learn. Some countries speak better English than imagined. For example, in Scandinavia, they use English as the lingua franca to communicate. German is extremely useful if you're in engineering or chemistry, but other than that, I have been to Germany more times than I can count and have yet to "need" German. They're just damn good at English. Same goes for many countries where they speak Slavic languages, though it definitely depends, and definitely don't learn Afrikaans since it's seen in SA as the language of apartheid. I've been to 60 countries and the only place where I truly can't get by is in China... and I don't think Esperanto would help me with that!


Anyway... sorry for the ramble. I have spent more hours than I can possibly count learning foreign languages, including living outside the US for 6 years, so I have passionately debated the Esperanto question on many ocassions. I would just really hate to see anyone learning Esperanto hoping that it helps them more than just learning a real language. But, on the bright side, the Esperanto community is very tight knit and it could be the doorway to a ton of fun with what basically amounts to a worldwide language club. They do have a lot of activities. So if you're doing it for fun, have a great time. If you expect it to help you more than learning a real language would, I would wholeheartedly challenge that assumption.

[leland.kirk]

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I appreciate the input!
What do you think of MIT OpenCourseWare as a method of language learning? It seemed most of the information I found about it were people using it to learn computer science stuff

[burbuja0512]

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I appreciate the input!
What do you think of MIT OpenCourseWare as a method of language learning? It seemed most of the information I found about it were people using it to learn computer science stuff

I actually haven't used their course at all.    To learn Spanish, I took the traditional route through junior and senior high, but even though I did two AP classes (Spanish and Spanish literature,) I still couldn't speak.     Then, I had an opportunity to move to Mexico, where I did for six years.   It was absolute hell the first few months, but being forced to speak is what really works.

Therefore, when I set out to learn Portuguese, I did a lot of self-learning through online tools and books.  Once I felt like I could conjugate verbs, I went to a language exchange online where I did a 'swap English for Portuguese' thing.   It was somewhat painful, but it really worked.     I learned Brazilian Portuguese well enough to use it in Brazil (for work) 6 months after I started learning.    I did eventually get my company to pay for a teacher, but she was really just good speaking practice.

I've had luck with French in France along with the Catalan in Spain and Italian in Italy that I mentioned before.   But the key is speaking.  Ha ha ha except with French.   I can't pronounce at all.  French people beg me to speak English.   


Not sure if that helps...

[jsh1138]

if you learn Esperanto, you can talk to absolutely no one with it. Spanish is a world language. take 3x the time and learn Spanish, you'll get more out of it

[clep3705]

If you learn Klingon, there are people at Comic Con you can talk to. And if you're really good, you might even get hired as a tutor by a wannabee. Klingon is the most spoken fictional language.

[burbuja0512]

If you learn Klingon, there are people at Comic Con you can talk to. And if you're really good, you might even get hired as a tutor by a wannabee. Klingon is the most spoken fictional language.

Ok you win the thread today!   That made me laugh so hard I almost fell out of my seat.

But in all seriousness, it does illustrate the point quite nicely.     I would like to point out that Dothraki is also a fictional language and I would probably choose that before I would choose Klingon.