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1) To alert the public to the importance of language learning and diversify the range of languages learned in order to increase pluralingualism and intercultural understanding. Why?. 2) To promote the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe.
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1) To alert the public to the importance of language learning and diversify the range of languages learned in order to increase pluralingualism and intercultural understanding Why? 2) To promote the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe 3) To encourage lifelong language learning in and out of school
But why learn an artificial language? Firstly, because tests show that you’ll learn other languages faster if you start with Esperanto first Secondly, because natural languages all have features that make learning a little harder, because the student has to cope with exceptions and things that make no sense to them
But why learn an artificial language? For example: Gender: English is the only language that I know that doesn’t assign gender to nouns. For example, all the Latin languages split their words into masculine and feminine. German has a neuter category too. The Scandinavian languages have “common” and “neuter”. Often, this is completely arbitrary, so hard to learn and memorise. For instance, the word for “girl” in German isn’t feminine! And how are you supposed to guess whether the French consider a table to be a boy or girl?! Like English, Esperanto doesn’t do this. The word for “the” is always “la”. It never changes in the plural. This means the student has time to actually learn the language, instead of stressing about whether a word is masculine or not.
But why learn an artificial language? Some words are hard to pronounce, which makes learning harder, and stunts confidence. For example, French very rarely pronounces letters at the end of words. Aller, allez, allais, allait, allaient … all are pronounced the same, something like English, “allay”. In other instances, words are pronounced differently but spelt the same. “I read the newspaper …” “and then throw it in the bin.” “this morning and then threw it in the bin.” Esperanto has a phonetic alphabet. There are 28 letters, each correponding to one unique sound. It is totally phonetic.
But why learn an artificial language? Numbers can be very hard. It is difficult to remain confident or follow a conversation when you’re busy working out what number was mentioned. In French, 97 is “four-twenties-ten-seven”. Esperanto’s numbers pose no problem. You only need to learn the figures from 1 to 10, plus the special words such as “hundred”, “thousand”, “zero”, and so on. 11 is “ten-one”. 21 is “two-ten-one”. 43 is … four-ten-three. Because all of the main European languages came from the same source, they all have very similar numbers for 1 to 10. Esperanto, of course, takes the common option, so once you have the Esperanto numbers, you’ve practically absorbed the others too.
But why learn an artificial language? A hard part of learning foreign languages involves fiddling with verbs. For example, an Italian would say “vado” for “I go”, but “andiamo” for “we go”. Similarly, the French use “tu peux” for “you can”, but “ils peuvent” for “they can”. Then you have to multiply these changes for the different tenses, such as future and past, of which there are three(!) That is a lot of different endings to learn Esperanto is totally regular. Every present tense for every verb ends in –as, no matter who the person is. “Mi trinkas” = “I drink”. “Vi trinkas” = “you drink”. The past tense ends in –is, so if you want to say “I/he/they drank/have drunk/were drinking/used to drink” you just use –is; “Mi/li/ili trinkis”. The future uses –os. “Mi trinkos” = “I will drink”. No exceptions!
But why learn an artificial language? When you learn a foreign language, it takes a lot of time. Sometimes, the learner runs into walls, and becomes very dispirited. This can slow their progress, hurt their confidence, and put them off languages for good. It’s hard to come a cropper using Esperanto, because it is perfectly regular. The student learns that they *can* use languages. They learn things that would take months or years in another language very swiftly. Plus, because Esperanto is taken from the common word stock of the European languages, the student actually learns the vocabulary that would be needed for further languages!
Nouns An o is a flag saying: Hi! I am a noun! pirato
Nouns can be hard to describe. What do you think a noun is? Friend Amiko Table Tablo Kato Cat Ideo Idea Nacieco Nationality Amikeco Friendship Vivo Life
Why is it important to recognise nouns? In most European languages, the noun decides which word is used for “the” and “a”, which words are used to describe it, and so on French: Le gateau délicieux La tarte délicieuse In German, EVERY noun has a capital letter at the start German: Ich trinke einen großenTee und ein großes Bier. Probably most importantly: Textbooks and exams use the word noun all the time. If you don’t know how to spot the noun, you’ll struggle to follow the instructions and answer the questions.
All these words end in the same letter. Which letter? blu a verd a ruĝ a griz a flav a blank a nigr a brun a
Adjectives An a is a flag saying: Hi! I am an adjective! bela pirato
An adjective describes a noun. Beautiful/handsome Bela leono Fast biciklo Rapida Big Granda knabo Blue Blua birdo Interesa knabino Interesting Eta / Malgranda frato Small viro Alta Tall Malnova / Maljuna amiko Old
Why is it important to recognise adjectives? In most European languages, you have to use special forms of the adjective depending on the gender of the noun. If you erase one particular noun and put in another, you have to remember to change the adjective too! French: Le gateau délicieux La tarte délicieuse In German, the adjective takes a different form depending on its position in the sentence. German: Ich trinke ein großes Bier. Das Bierist groß. Again, very important: Textbooks and exams use the word adjective all the time. If you don’t know how to spot it, you’ll struggle to follow the instructions and answer the questions.
Plurals A j is a flag saying: Hi! I am more than one! I am plural! belaj papagoj
Raising language awareness • Spot the adjective! blanka blua verda blanc vert bleu blanco verdant blau blu blank
Nouns and adjectives! La kato estas blanka. Le chat est blanc. La granda blanka urso estas sur la tablo. Le grandoursblanc est sur la table. • La brunaj leonoj dormas. • Les léonsbruns dorment.
