I’ve been buzzing about how much I’ve gotten from studying Esperanto — it even scratches my Universalism itch — and think many others might get something out of it, too.
If you’re at the UUA General Assembly, be sure to visit the Unitarian Universalist Esperanto Network table at the Culture Company booth (#334) in the exhibit hall. Tell Sherry Wells (no relation) and Neil Blonstein and whomever else is there that Scott sent you.
So how does Esperanto square with Multi-Culturalism? My diversity pitch has always been if you want diversity, then please study a non-European language… preferably one of the African click languages, or Japanese.
So if culture is mostly about language, what to make of a language that seeks to replace ’em all?
I smell a strawman argument and won’t bite.
And a falsehood: Esperanto has never claimed to be more than an international auxiliary language.
Esperanto is a wonderful tool for developing a true multiculturalism. Its propadeutic property (something it shares with all other languages, but is more efficient in) means that learning Esperanto first makes the learning of Japanese or an African click language (I’m intrigued to know why those particular suggestions, when one could learn the native language of one’s own hometown—dxwlәšucid in my case—or a currently needed immigrant tongue like, hereabouts, Sgaw Karen?) If I learn isiXhosa, I am unlikely ever to have a chance to be multicultural with it (multi- means something far broader than bi-); I may occasionally be able to use it with linguistically gifted, broad-minded Zulus, Sothos or Afrikaners, but mostly I’ll be limited to Xhosas as conversation partners. Same goes for Japanese. Whereas it is not uncommon (will happen hundreds of times next month in Havana!) for a lunch table to have a Bulgarian, a New Caledonian, a Nepalese, a Brazilian and a Canadian all chatting away in a truly multicultural way facilitated by their common tongue, Esperanto. And if the table’s big enough they may be joined by that Japanese and South African we mentioned earlier.
Yeah, Mr. Baar built himself a strawman.
Sorry, that should have read “learning Esperanto first makes the learning of Japanese or an African click language much easier“. In my case I learned Japanese before I learned Esperanto, and I love them both, but I learned my Swahili (not a click language, but quite African nonetheless) after I learned Esperanto.
My knowledge of Esperanto is fairly minimal, but I will look for the Esperanto table when I visit the exhibit hall on Sunday.