Taking the Pledge for the International Language Esperanto

The human race has many divisions, and one of the hardest ones to overcome is that of language. Various solutions have been used. Across the planet and throughout history, certain languages— Latin, French, English, Russian, Chinese— have been used as international or regional languages. But each of these languages can be quite difficult to learn— ask anyone who has tried to communicate to foreign citizens who may have spent many years in school learning English, but who still can’t speak it well enough to be understood.

The use of interpreters is another solution, but an expensive one. The United Nations and the European Union spend unholy sums just on interpretation and translation. Some have had hopes on computer translation, but so far computer translation programs have mainly been good for a joke. One program translated ‘have mercy on me, O Lord’ as ‘have a compassion on me’. And that’s a fairly good machine translation.

A solution might be found with widespread adoption of a simple-to-learn artificial international language. Such languages exist. The best known and most widely used of these languages, with about 2 million speakers, is Esperanto. Many books and magazines have been published since its creation over a hundred years ago, and shortwave radio broadcasts in it are found from such diverse sources as communist China and the Vatican.

And so, the question: would YOU be willing to learn Esperanto if 20,000,000 other people made the same promise? Imagine what a difference that would make to our world, as people from the most diverse linguistic backgrounds would be able to communicate with one another directly. Imagine the money that could be saved!

If you are willing, you can make it official by signing the pledge to do so at http://www.pledgebank.com/esperanto. Over 900 people have already done so, from many countries around the globe. You can also work for the goal by spreading the word about this cause in any way you can.

The idea of a pledge to learn Esperanto is actually nothing new. When the language was first published, the author ended the book with a promise form. The reader was encouraged to promise to learn the language if one million others had already signed the promise form. While the goal was not reached, enough people decided to learn Esperanto anyway that the language was off to a good start.

Suppose the pledge fulfils its goal, and you have to learn Esperanto? It’s not as difficult as you might think. Esperanto was designed to be simple to learn. There are no irregular verbs or grammatic complication, and a system of prefixes and suffixes reduce the number of vocabulary words to be learned. Studies have shown that Esperanto can be learned in a fraction of the time it would take to learn Spanish or some other national language. There is even free software for learning Esperanto at http://www.cursodeesperanto.com.br/bazo/index.php?en.

The languages of the world, fascinating as they are, create divisions between humans that it is difficult to overcome. Signing the Esperanto pledge may be a small step toward breaking down the barriers. Will you participate?

References:

Esperanto: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto

Kurso de Esperanto (free software that teaches Esperanto available in 23 languages) http://www.cursodeesperanto.com.br/bazo/index.php?en

Radio Vatican – Audio on Demand – Esperanto – http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/esp/on_demand.asp

China Radio International – Esperanto service – http://esperanto.cri.cn/