I know some of you are going to make fun of this, but my roommates and I are studying esperanto.

Why? Well, for one thing, it makes learning other languages easier (according to some studies done with German and French:

A control studied German or French for 2 or 4 years, depending on the study.

The experiement studied Esperanto for some time, then German or French—again, depending on the study. The experiement ended up learning the other language faster. They think this is due to how regular esperanto is. Apparently, once you learn one language other than your own, you can learn more).

Second, there are some websites run by people from all over the world in Esperanto, as well as magazines. These feature articles written in Esp. by people from all over the world.

I also like the ideology behind esperanto.

In any case, it’s a fun hobby. It’s the perfect langauge for creative writing, since it’s agglutinative (sorta like modular, think legos or Greek).

edit: I’m going to be writing articles for my fiancee’s website abotu Esperanto. I will link in this thread to those articles.

Mi lernas esperanton!

I know some of you are going to make fun of this, but my roommates and I are studying esperanto.

Why? Well, for one thing, it makes learning other languages easier (according to some studies done with German and French:

A control studied German or French for 2 or 4 years, depending on the study.

The experiement studied Esperanto for some time, then German or French—again, depending on the study. The experiement ended up learning the other language faster. They think this is due to how regular esperanto is. Apparently, once you learn one language other than your own, you can learn more).

Second, there are some websites run by people from all over the world in Esperanto, as well as magazines. These feature articles written in Esp. by people from all over the world.

I also like the ideology behind esperanto.

In any case, it’s a fun hobby. It’s the perfect langauge for creative writing, since it’s agglutinative (sorta like modular, think legos or Greek).

edit: I’m going to be writing articles for my fiancee’s website abotu Esperanto. I will link in this thread to those articles.

Gaddy,

Esperanto sounds like a very cool idea. 100’s of thousands of people speak it, right? Every living languages starts from somewhere I guess.

I’m skeptical about the study however. You said it yourself, I think learning any second language will make learning the next related language easier.

Have you ever tried learning Turkish?

I have been learning and it’s a wonderful language. The way words and sentences are built makes consitent logical sense to me like no other language I am familiar with. Especially the spelling of words, which are strictly phonetic (very few exceptions) - which is no doubt the result of its recent use of the latin alphabet.

. . . and I’ll be in Turkey next month with my wife, visiting her family that lives there!

Turkey is a fantastic place which I highly recommend everyone should visit . . . an absolutely astounding amount of history and natural beauty, and the people I know there are among the most welcoming and accomodating I’ve ever met.

—

Totally agree, Turkey is a beautiful country, with wonderful people. Atat?rk may have somewhat of a mixed legacy, but he did do one thing and that’s secularize the nation. Something we definitely need more of around the world!

:wink:

The story of Attaturk is a fascinating one.

A benevoilent dictator.