Sucked in...

Esperanto is a strange little vortex that completely sucks you in.

It's so easy to go from "Why do you need a made-up language?" to "this is kind of cool" to "why isn't everyone doing this?" to "Oh, that's right, most people aren't doing this, are they?"

I seriously forget, from time to time, that Esperanto isn't like Italian, French or German and most people don't have "a little bit of Esperanto" floating around in their brains.

It's very similar with Interlingua.  Granted, only about 12 people and a dog speak the language, but when you start looking into it there's a real "well, why isn't everyone learning this?" aspect to it.  I would probably be throwing myself into it with more abandon if it was as well supported as Esperanto.  I like them both, really.  Esperanto is like the station wagon of auxiliary languages, while Interlingua is a vintage motorbike with a side-car.  You'll get further and take more people with you with Esperanto, but Interlingua seems like it would have more fun.

In an ideal world, every primary school would teach either/both Esperanto or Interlingua as an "apprentice language" - you could happily go on from there to learn another language, or you could just travel around the world using your school-yard Esperanto/Interlingua to muddle through...

Once you start looking at auxiliary languages, it's really hard to understand how a world can survive without them*.  Except that it does.  Every single day.  People use English if they need something international, and you can't quite convince the rest of the planet that a "made-up" language is better just because it's easier to use and faster to learn.

I'm currently using a German text-book to learn Esperanto, under the assumption that using German to learn something else will increase my German skills.  At least, that's what I'm telling myself.  The weird thing is I'm starting to pick up the Esperanto more quickly than the German, so I'm sometimes using the Esperanto to work out what the German description is saying, rather than the other way around.

I read a news article in Esperanto the other day, and I didn't need a dictionary to hand, even though I've only be learning it on-and-off for a few months and I only have a smattering of vocabulary.  It's insane.  It makes you think everything should be this easy.

It makes you forget that, for most people, I may as well be talking about Klingon.

I'm completely sucked in, but if I want to find other suckers like myself, I'll have to find people who have already been pulled into the vortex.  The weirdest and saddest thing is that, once you get sucked in, you think "hey, it's better here!" but you just can't drag anyone in with you...



*Well, not so much with Volapük, though - which is just hilarious.  I think most people must start by giggling like a school boy whenever they see Volapük for the first time.  I'm sure it's very rewarding once you get into it, but really, it looks just a bit like Flobadob.