Re: Uusisuom, Unilang, auxlang discussions in CONLANG

In a message dated 4/24/01 8:00:55 PM, exponent@TECHNOLOGIST.COM writes:

<< I'm relatively neutral about auxiliary languages (I even tried to learn

Esperanto just for fun) but I notice that there is at some level some sort

of hidden dislike towards auxlangs from some people. I'm sure they wouldn't

like to actually admit it but perhaps it is a sense of futility. Rick

Harrison wrote in his personal treatise (his *opinion*) about why he thinks

auxlangs fail that "The quest for an auxiliary language that everyone will

embrace is similar to the quest for a perpetual motion machine -- futile." >>

    If I can add my two cents, I think most people (the ones who don't know a
morpheme from a metamorphosis) wouldn't think as far as to think a universal
auxilliary language would be futile.  In the experience I have had (with
Americans), it's not so much a cynical view they adopt, but a fearful one.
Many people I've talked to view Esperanto as a vague, communist plot to
overtake the world.  They find it inherantly evil to try to get people to
speak another language for anyone else's sake (note: these are usually the
same ones that insist all imigrants should speak English the second they
arrive, an accent being mildly tolerated).  And anyway, I see Esperanto as a
success, even though not every person on the planet knows it and his/her
natural language.  It's there if you need it, if you want it--and if you do,
it gets results.  I think that should be the ultimate goal of any auxilliary
language.  But anyway, no more.

-David

P.S.: I did hear about someone who had a little sister whose class was taught
Esperanto in third grade.  It was in either Utah or Nevada.  If Utah, I
question the motives of the teacher...

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