Esperanto Esperanto is an artificial language which was invented at the end of the 19th century. Esperanto Day is celebrated on 15th December. The date for the birthday of the language was not chosen by chance. It is the birthday of its creator – the Polish doctor and linguist L. L. Zamenhof.
L. L. Zamenhof wanted to create a politically neutral language that would promote peace and international understanding between people who speak different languages. He hoped that his new language would be an international language, that is, many people's second language. L. L. Zamenhof didn’t want to replace any national tongue.
Thinking up a new language L. L. Zamenhof tried to make it simple, so that any person can learn it. Esperanto is based on Latin and modern European languages like French, English and Polish. However, Zamenhof’s language has none of the complicated grammar rules of many existing languages. As for the vocabulary of the language, L.L. Zamenhof chose word roots which a lot of people could recognize. In this way, anyone who speaks a European language already knows a large number of words in Esperanto. All words are spelled as pronounced. The language is easy to read and speak.
Nowadays, Esperanto is the most widely spoken artificial language in the world. Up to 2 million people worldwide speak Esperanto. It is particularly popular in Europe, East Asia, and South America. The World Esperanto Association has members in 120 countries.
Most people learn Esperanto on their own. They use teach-yourself books or email courses. Most learners gain impressive skills in this language and can use it in real life.
Through Esperanto they make contacts with people from around the world. They read books and magazines from other countries and listen to international radio broadcasts. There are over 25,000 original and translated books in Esperanto and over a hundred Esperanto magazines.
There are also many websites, blogs, podcasts, videos and television and radio stations in Esperanto. You can find lots of online discussions in Esperanto about different topics on the Internet. People can use Esperanto versions of the social networks and other websites. Several computer programmes have an Esperanto version.
Learning a logical language can be a great way to exercise the brain and prepare for learning other languages. Several studies were carried out in Europe, United States, and Australia. In one study, a group of European secondary school students studied Esperanto for one year, then French for three years. The test showed that they had a better command of French than the students who studied only French for all four years. Similar results have been found in other studies. |