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Does anyone here want to learn Esperanto or already speak it and want a practice buddy?

If anyone’s wanting to learn I will totally tutor you for free (def willing to do video chats if you are), and if you already speak it but wanna practice I’m totally down to practice with you. Or and if anyone here is fluent or simply speaks it better than I do, please help me practice!!

Honestly I’m so obsessed with Esperanto, I want to become fluent, like I know all the grammar rules obviously and all that’s holding me back is learning vocabulary for every possible situation, I def know it well enough to teach it so someone else at a lower level than me (as in I might have to use a dictionary for a word here and there but I won’t lead you astray grammar wise and can tell when a translation is screwed up) and honestly helping others learn also helps me reinforce what I already know.

This is a little embarrassing but I have this ongoing fantasy of myself teaching a small class of adults Esperanto, at like a community center or (much more pie in the sky) at a college or something (like that’ll ever happen lol). It’s gotten to the point where I have like a day 1 curriculum mapped out in my head, down to images of what my power point will look like and optional homework assignments I will give people. Like you don’t even understand how much Esperanto is part of my life right now. So if you’re at all interested in learning honestly giving me the opportunity to tutor you (or even just talk about it with you) would be a huge gift to ME.

So yeah, and just to ask, how much do you guys know about Esperanto, if anything, what’s your opinion on it if you have one, or just wanna say something about it, please do.

Hey if you want a healthy argument you can try and convince me why another auxlang is better ;)

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MarkPaul · 26-30, M

Why not choose a language that has a practical outcome for you and your desired students?

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FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays · M

@MarkPaul Esperanto allows you to meet like-minded people. Don't you think Esperanto enthusiasts are into it for social fun?

Culture: Esperanto has its own culture, with over 30,000 books and 100 journals published in the language.

Community: There is a thriving international community of Esperantists.

MarkPaul · 26-30, M

@FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays Learning the made-up language Klingon also allows you meet like-minded people who find it fun to engage in non-productive activities. People here with any number of fetishes have like-minded interests that span the globe.

Learn how to cook and feed the world. That would attract a thriving international community of enthusiasts.

Zeuro · 26-30, F

@MarkPaul Jesus Christ have you never had a hobby in your life? You gonna attack the guy who likes collecting hotwheels for not “feeding the world” (are you saying I need to work in a soup kitchen??? Tf???) you are absolutely ridiculous.

Even if Esperanto weren’t a useful hobby (and it 100% is, I can share many ways it is if you’re open to it), who gives a shit? It’s certainly no more useless than doing jigsaw puzzles, are we not allowed to do jigsaw puzzles now cause it takes time away from feeding the poor? 🤦‍♀️

MarkPaul · 26-30, M

@Zeuro OMG. Why am I getting yelled at... again? I'm just bothered by so much effort being put into something that has no useful outcome. Hobbies are perfectly fine as some sideline activity to take a break. But, once you put hours and hours of study, training classes, zoom calls, lesson plans, and meet-ups, and who knows what else, it's beyond hobby status.

There are any number of ways to do meaningful things in relevant ways. You don't have to work in a soup kitchen. My point is attaching yourself to some niche language that has no chance of being universal despite its intended roll-out seems like an incredible waste of time. I could see you critiquing me for pointing out the obvious. But, this outburst is totally unexpected and over-the-top dramatic... if you ask me. I'm just trying to help.

Zeuro · 26-30, F

@MarkPaul okay again with the accusation of “yelling” when I’m typing on my phone….

There are a plethora of useful things about learning Esperanto, regardless of whether “La fina venko” is achieved and it becomes a universal auxiliary language. There are literal concrete benefits to learning it for individuals.

MarkPaul · 26-30, M

@Zeuro Let's start with 3 useful benefits and I will consider them as part of your appeal of my assessment. And, be certain the benefits are unique to this side-note language.

Zeuro · 26-30, F

@MarkPaul

1). Because Esperanto is such a uniquely easy language to learn, learning Esperanto is a springboard to learning other languages more quickly and effectively.

2) the grammar is incredibly intuitive to the point where you don’t just understand what the rules are, but you also understand why those are the rules. It can help you have a better grasp of grammar in even your own native language.

3) Esperantists as a community have a unique service known as the pasporta servo. It is a service where Esperantists from around the world offer other esperantist free lodging at their home when traveling. Speak Esperanto and need to go to Slovenia but have very little money for a hotel? Stay with a nice Esperanto speaking family for free. Hypothetically this could be a thing for other languages, but let’s be real, it isn’t.

4) the main reason people give up on learning other languages is lack of motivation. What is the remedy? A language that you learn so fast, that your progress is tangible enough that it gives you the motivation to keep learning and practicing.

5). Esperanto is a politically neutral language and has a diaspora of speakers in almost every country. By learning Esperanto you become a speaker of a language shared by a huge variety of nationals with different experiences and perspectives. Since it is very few people’s native tongue, you come at it on equal linguistic footing, the effort put into learning to speak to one another is not lopsided

Imma type more but sending this in case the page reloads and it gets deleted

Zeuro · 26-30, F

@MarkPaul 6) one thing you do know you have in common with other Esperanto speakers is a willingness to put in the effort it takes to learn a language so you can speak to people different from you.

Zeuro · 26-30, F

Those are the ones off the top of my head.

MarkPaul · 26-30, M

@Zeuro Look, I'm not telling you what do with your time. And, I can see you are passionate about this language (for some unknown reason). You literally could say any (real) language offers the same benefits as what you have listed "off the top of your head." I would have preferred to see your opinions validated with research though, but I acknowledge your feelings.

I do question your claim on item #4 and call for its elimination. As an analogy, some people give up on cooking because it takes time to gather the ingredients, learn how to measure, and have the patience for preparation and cooking time. So, those people resort to buying fast food and buying frozen processed meals. Choosing to take those short-cuts hardly provides the proper motivation (or any motivation at all) to become good cooks. And, they certainly are not qualified to call themselves cooks.

Zeuro · 26-30, F

@MarkPaul the thing is though, actually no, you can’t say the same thing about other languages, you really can’t

Zeuro · 26-30, F

@MarkPaul and if you want research, look up that experiment they did where 2 groups of students learning French, one learned Esperanto for 1 year and then French for 3, the other learned French all 4 years, and the ones who learned Esperanto first spoke better French at the end of those 4 years than the kids that studied French longer

FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays · M

@Zeuro But wouldn't that be true of first learning any one of the Romance languages, which is useful information? If students study Italian and then study French they will be better equipped to learn French also. And Italian is way more useful than Esperanto. Latin, a dead language, is probably more useful than Esperanto.

Zeuro · 26-30, F

@FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays Latin is definitely not more useful than Esperanto. The reason Esperanto is so useful in these cases is because of its ease of learning and regularity. You learn way more Esperanto in a year than you would Italian, so no, you wouldn’t get the same benefit from learning Italian instead of Esperanto

MarkPaul · 26-30, M

@Zeuro This obsession of yours with "easy" and "no effort" is a big part of the larger problem that is literally plaguing society. If you had your way, no one would know how to manage calculus, chemistry, and physics. Why? Because those are not easy. They are calculation-based and require effort and concentration.

I'm not one to tell people what to do, but looking for the easy way out to avoid effort is hardly a testimony for a productive life. Do you think programming AI, bringing to market new technologies, lifting off to space to travel to Mars is going to be done with ease and no effort?

Damn, dude.

FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays · M

@MarkPaul

If you had your way, no one would know how to manage calculus, chemistry, and physics.

We're well on the road to building robots with AI that can do all that complicated thinking crap.

Zeuro · 26-30, F

@MarkPaul bro, if you want everyone to be able to do it, you need to make it easy. Not everyone on earth needs to know how to do calculus or physics. We leave that to the dedicated few who have both the brain for it and the drive to put in the hard work it takes to learn that stuff.

With a universal auxiliary language, it’s completely different. If it’s too hard, people won’t learn it. And some people really struggle with language learning for whatever reason. It’s pretty darn silly to declare that a language you want as many people as possible to learn should be difficult for the sake of… what? Not letting people be lazy? That’s just dumb. Making something easy makes it more accessible. We need as many people as possible to speak languages. We don’t need nearly as many physicists.

Also it’s completely illogical to think by making a language easier for people to learn that no one would bother learning harder, unrelated subjects. If anything it will give them room to focus on the hard stuff MORE, cause they’re not bogged down by learning some unnecessarily complicated language

MarkPaul · 26-30, M

@Zeuro But, this isn't a REAL language and it will NEVER become universal as you fantasize it becoming. You seem to be suggesting because something is hard to do and requires effort, it won't be done, it shouldn't be done, and it's elitist. It is as though you are going out of your way to waste time on something that has no practical value.

Here you are with your claim that it's an "easy language" for people to learn without acknowledging it has no real-world usefulness. Do you really think listing Esperanto as a skill on a resume is going to gain any useful attention? You might as well mention that you post messages in an online forum as the cornerstone of your CV to see what that gets you. The bottom line: it's not resume-worthy and it's not a productive use of time.

Be productive.

Zeuro · 26-30, F

@MarkPaul oh my fucking god, you are hopeless. You’re the fucking elitist for saying people should have to struggle to learn a language. Fucking ridiculous

MarkPaul · 26-30, M

@Zeuro Well, that's disrespectful. You won't be able to travel to any country on the planet where a majority of that population will understand you. I'm just trying to help, so I don't know why I am the one getting yelled at for correctly pointing out that wasting time on a pretend-language has no merit.

Zeuro · 26-30, F

@MarkPaul dude I am so tired of you being purposefully obtuse

MarkPaul · 26-30, M

@Zeuro You are so rude. I'm sorry your pet-language isn't anything more than a fetish for you to parade in. Don't yell at the messenger and insult me because things aren't turning your way. I think you know I'm right. I'm sorry that upsets you.

Zeuro · 26-30, F

@MarkPaul no actually you’re not right, and you have no right to call a language with 2 million speakers (which is more than many natural languages) “nothing more than a pet language.” I never said I was a finvenkisto but clearly it bothers you that a language that is easy to learn has had so much success, therefore you feel the need to baselessly belittle it.

MarkPaul · 26-30, M

@Zeuro I'm not putting the language down... or you. I'm just saying it's basically a worthless pursuit because it's literally a niche interest that offers no redeeming qualities or serve any practical purpose. There are so many "real" languages that aren't that hard to learn. In case you don't know, even children learn languages all the time. And, you can too. So, maybe it's time to put your false pride away for a rest and just be gracious for once.

Zeuro · 26-30, F

@MarkPaul okay, I don’t know why but it seems like you are not understanding this very simple fact: there is NO LANGUAGE that is EASIER to learn than Esperanto. That is a fact. So your premise is wrong. Also, there are plenty of practical benefits of learning a language that even NO ONE speaks, so of course there will be even more from learning Esperanto

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