jbdp@jenny.UUCP (Julian Pardoe) (12/19/85)
In article h-sc1.842 (Re: Learn Janpanese or bust) Thomas Breuel <breuel@h-sc1.UUCP> writes: > For any foreign language, 2 1/2 years of intensive study is a pretty > short time if your goal is to become fluent, to speak without a major > accent, and to be able to read every-day publications without a > dictionary. To be able to write in a foreign language takes even > longer. Ah, but if you were to learn Esperanto you should be pretty disappointed if after 2 1/2 years of *very casual* study of you couldn't speak with a fair degree of fluency, write with ease and understand the spoken and the written language with no trouble at all. In fact, you should be able to get by after a couple of months study (if not less). Julian Pardoe ------------- University of Cambridge Tel: +44 223 352435 ext. 265 Computer Laboratory Arpa: <@ucl-cs: jbdp@cl.cam.ac.uk> Corn Exchange Street Janet: jbdp@UK.AC.Cam.CL CAMBRIDGE, CB2 3QG UUCP: mcvax!ukc!cl-jenny!jbdp Great Britain
urban@spp2.UUCP (Mike Urban) (12/23/85)
In article <297@jenny.UUCP> jbdp@jenny.UUCP (Julian Pardoe) writes: > >Ah, but if you were to learn Esperanto you should be pretty >disappointed if after 2 1/2 years of *very casual* study of you >couldn't speak with a fair degree of fluency, write with ease and >understand the spoken and the written language with no trouble at all. >In fact, you should be able to get by after a couple of months study >(if not less). In a Los Angeles Times article some time back, it was mentioned that one reason that Esperanto is spreading fairly rapidly in mainland China is because, while learning English is far more PRACTICALLY useful than learning Esperanto, Esperanto gives MUCH more language-learning "bang for the buck". It seems to be especially useful in China as sort of an "introduction to European syntax and roots" and makes it easier to learn another language like English later on. This, of course, does not address reasons why an American (or Brit-- sorry Julian) might want to learn Esperanto, but you can be certain that if you do decide to study the language you'll be genuinely astonished at how easy it is to acquire reasonable fluency. This "feeling of power" is unique to Esperanto, and thus you might find it useful as a cure for language-phobia in general. -- Mike Urban {ucbvax|decvax}!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!urban "You're in a maze of twisty UUCP connections, all alike"