What is Esperanto?
Esperanto is an international language which does not belong to any particular nation. It was designed to allow direct communication between people. It is easy to learn, and has no exceptions. One page is sufficient to specify all the rules of its grammar.
Isn’t English the international language today?
Well, not exactly:
- Only 7% of the world population speak English as a mother tongue, while additional 7% have studied the language to a level of basic conversation.
- • In most of the countries, apart from tourist cities, the residents don’t speak English at all.
- • English is a language which is difficult to learn, with a large vocabulary and many exceptions and irregularities. It’s quite difficult to learn it to a high level.
- • In any meeting with English-speaking people, they enjoy an advantage – they have a perfect accent and a complete language mastery. When it comes to Esperanto, everyone is equal, everyone is at the same starting point, no one has an advantage over the others.
Why should I learn Esperanto?
- • Because there’s beauty in the simple but sophisticated and accurate structure of the language.
- • Because you can meet through it people from all over the world – and speak with them directly, without any mediating language, as equals – whether on the Internet or in a face-to-face meeting.
- • Because Esperanto attracts interesting people, all with a common denominator – their choice of the language.
- • Because it allows creating and enjoying original works – literature, poetry, music – especially for people whose national language is not widespread around the world.
- • Because you can participate in international meetings of Esperanto speakers, and no translators are needed. There’s a large conference, or congress, every year, each time in another place in the world, as well as a lot of other smaller meetings.
- • Because you can travel around the world, enjoying the hospitality of Esperanto speakers at their own homes.
- • Because after you learn Esperanto, it is much easier to learn other national languages.
Is it really that simple to learn Esperanto?
The language is easy to learn due to the following:
- • Simple rules of grammar
- • Every word is pronounced the way it is written. Dictations are pointless in Esperanto.
- • There are no exceptions or irregularities
- • The language is based on roots from which you can construct many words using a system of prefixes and suffixes. This way you can learn a large vocabulary relatively easily.
- • The Esperanto vocabulary is based on the European languages, but it also includes words from other languages.
- • The sound of the language is pleasant to the ear – it’s something between Spanish and Italian.
However, it’s still a language just like any other language in the world. Basic mastery of Esperanto can be achieved approximately ten times faster than mastery of English, for instance. But in order to achieve full mastery, you should invest time and effort.
Is there any Esperanto activity on the Internet?
Esperanto flourishes on the web. The language is ideal for the web – because it allows direct communication with people all over the world, without any intermediate language. There are websites, blogs, forums, podcasts, YouTube channels – all in Esperanto. There’s Wikipedia in Esperanto. In the Telegram messaging program, there are over 1,000 messages per day in the general Esperanto group, with activity taking place around the clock. Once they used to say that the sun never sets in the British Empire. It’s no longer true for a long time. But it can definitely be said about Esperanto, whose speakers practically reside all over the world.
But… is it really a real language that you can express everything with? Does it have words for anything?
Of course. It can be proved by the fact that many children grow up with it as their mother tongue. It has slang, jokes, songs, folklore, newspapers and magazines, literary contests, you name it.
Give me one sentence in Esperanto
Well, let’s start with the most important sentence: I love you – Mi amas vin.
So how can I learn Esperanto?
Everyone can find the way that suits them. Nowadays, it’s very common to learn Esperanto on the Internet and using the smartphone. Everything is free of charge, of course: