Why don't you come to your senses?
December 11, 2006 2:20 PM Subscribe
yeah, that's hip alright
posted by parmanparman at 3:06 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by parmanparman at 3:06 PM on December 11, 2006
Incubus is actually a pretty good flick.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:29 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 3:29 PM on December 11, 2006
I watched all two minutes of the first link, partly out of curiosity to hear Esperanto spoken (clunkily, but no worse than NPR English, I guess), but mainly in hopes that the rat would shit on his shirt. No such luck.
Here's a guy who was shot for Esperanto.
posted by languagehat at 3:54 PM on December 11, 2006
Here's a guy who was shot for Esperanto.
posted by languagehat at 3:54 PM on December 11, 2006
Do ya think he knows he has a rat on him?
posted by LordSludge at 8:48 PM on December 11, 2006
posted by LordSludge at 8:48 PM on December 11, 2006
I will confess that when I was about 13 I made an attempt to learn Esperanto. Blame Harry Harrison, I was a fan of his Stainless Steel Rat books and every one of them included at least one plug for Esperanto.
In all honesty, the idea of a synthetic language as a universal second language is pretty nifty, it'd sidestep the problem that a natural language used as a universal second language could be seen as unfair. However, I think its pretty well established at this point that people just don't really bother with synthetic languages, the Esperantists have been trying for over a hundred years and its never gotten anywhere.
But right now English is pretty much the universal second language (or trade language, or whatever you want to call it), and since its a natural language that means there's a degree of resentment and cultural muscle flexing.
Also, as an aside, to those who claim that Esperanto is a fantastically simple language to learn, I would guess that it'd be roughly as difficult as Spanish or any of the other European languages for a native speaker of Japanese to learn. Its sentence structure and essential grammar is mostly Indo-European-like, additionally its vocabulary (like that of most European languages) involves sound combinations which are difficult for the Japanese to master. A few of my Japanese classmates have commented that the most annoying and difficult part of learning English is the theta sound and the fact that we use multiple consinants between vowls. The whole "r" and "l" thing isn't that much of a big deal, or so they say.
posted by sotonohito at 9:21 PM on December 11, 2006
In all honesty, the idea of a synthetic language as a universal second language is pretty nifty, it'd sidestep the problem that a natural language used as a universal second language could be seen as unfair. However, I think its pretty well established at this point that people just don't really bother with synthetic languages, the Esperantists have been trying for over a hundred years and its never gotten anywhere.
But right now English is pretty much the universal second language (or trade language, or whatever you want to call it), and since its a natural language that means there's a degree of resentment and cultural muscle flexing.
Also, as an aside, to those who claim that Esperanto is a fantastically simple language to learn, I would guess that it'd be roughly as difficult as Spanish or any of the other European languages for a native speaker of Japanese to learn. Its sentence structure and essential grammar is mostly Indo-European-like, additionally its vocabulary (like that of most European languages) involves sound combinations which are difficult for the Japanese to master. A few of my Japanese classmates have commented that the most annoying and difficult part of learning English is the theta sound and the fact that we use multiple consinants between vowls. The whole "r" and "l" thing isn't that much of a big deal, or so they say.
posted by sotonohito at 9:21 PM on December 11, 2006
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posted by GavinR at 2:28 PM on December 11, 2006