From: LAWCROWN@NUSVM.bitnet (Barry Crown)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.esperanto
Subject: Re: Esperanto - a difficult language to learn
Date: 12 Oct 92 09:45:42 GMT
Distribution: inet
Organization: The Internet
X-Unparsable-Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 17:25:24 SST

Cleve Lendon writes:
>
>The main design goal of Esperanto was to be easy to learn, and it is. Roots
>were borrowed from national languages so that they would be easy to recognize
>and remember.

This, of course, is the standard propaganda line for Esperanto.  I mean no
offence by this, because I recognise the importance of promoting the
language.  However, the trouble is that we end up believing our own
propaganda.

Esperanto undoubtedly is easy to learn if you are of above-average
linguistic ability and already know a west European language.  If you do not
fall into this category, you will not find it very easy to learn Esperanto.

One problem is, as Cleve pointed out, that Esperanto often abandons
structural consistency in favour of using "international" root words, which
are supposed to be easier to learn.  Unfortunately these words are not in fact
international at all, but rather Latin or West European in most cases.  If you
do not speak a European language - and most of the world does not - you have a
lot of learning to do.  My own experience of teaching Esperanto in Singapore
has persuaded me that it is a terribly difficult language for Asians to
learn.  So far as China is concerned, in an article which appeared
in Esperanto magazine this April, Professor Liu Xiaojun wrote that only
those Chinese who have already learnt English or French are able
to learn Esperanto easily.

The Esperanto movement has always been a largely European phenomenon and
(with the exception of the recent work of Claude Piron) the linguistic
problems of non-Europeans are generally ignored completely.  Most Esperantists
tend to believe their own propaganda and think that the language is easy
for everyone to learn.  In fact, however, even within the movement itself there
is evidence to suggest that many find Esperanto difficult to master.  First
of all, the percentage of people who successfully complete an Esperanto course
(other than short courses) is not particularly high.  If Esperanto really
were so easy to learn, one might expect a much higher success rate.
Secondly, there is the evidence of the "eternaj komencantoj" ("eternal
beginners").  Why do they find it so hard to learn the language, despite
an obvious sympathy for its aims?   Thirdly, it is clear that even experienced
Esperantists find it difficult to use the language correctly.  One only
has to take a look at any issue of Monato and one will find many mistakes
of syntax and use of vocabulary - and this from one of the more
prestigious Esperanto magazines.

There may well be other explanations for the matters I have mentioned
above, but I do feel that the inherent difficulty of the language is, at
least, a contributing factor.

Unfortunately the myth that Esperanto is an easy language has done a lot
of harm to the movement because it has prevented us from taking
steps to simplify the language.  I'm not talking here about reform
of the grammar or basic syntax.  For the reasons that are given
in the FAQ to this newsgroup, I am very doubtful of the benefit
of this type of change.  However, reform to the vocabulary is vital.

It is outrageous that one has to remember three different root words
to express the idea of editing: redakt-, redaktor-, redakci-.  Unfortunately,
all three forms are commonly used.  This is no isolated example.
Esperanto has three different words to express the idea of "prison":
malliberejo, karcero, prizono.  All three words (or grammatical variants
of them) appear in the latest issue of Monato.  Incidentally, Monato is
not a literary magazine.  It is only a news magazine.

Unfortunately, although most Esperantists pay lip service to the idea of
having a vocabulary which is easy to learn, in practice nothing is done
to remedy the present appalling situation.  If Esperantists only realised
that Esperanto is a *difficult* language for most people, they might be
more inclined to do something about it.

Barry