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Thread: Who else is psyched for the DuoLingo Esperanto course?!

  1. #1

    Who else is psyched for the DuoLingo Esperanto course?!



    ĜI OKAZAS!!!

    https://www.duolingo.com/course/eo/e...peranto-Online

    For those of you who don't know, Esperanto is a constructed, international auxiliary language that is super easy to learn. Because of the way it's laid out (no grammatical irregularities, letters are consistently and phonetically pronounced, etc.), the average student can pick it up in a matter of weeks or months rather than years. I must admit that it has a reputation these days for being a very geeky hobby; but once you feel the rush of talking to someone whose mother-tongue you don't share, especially about topics that are pertinent to libertarians and non-interventionists, it's hard to stop coming back to it. And, at long last, after decades of most decent home-instruction courses and books for the language being out-of-print, the acclaimed, free language-learning platform DuoLingo is preparing to launch their EO course next month in beta. To date, 15,000 people have already signed up to be notified of its release.

    The reason I bring it up here (aside from it being awesome news in and of itself) is that I see this as a very rare opportunity for libertarians, anarchists, and agorists to learn and utilize this language as a tool...not only for forging international friendships and business relationships, but for engaging in outreach to a very broad-minded segment of the global population that has always had a propensity for defying cultural and political divisions - leading to the wholesale persecution of Esperantists under the totalitarian regimes of Nazi Germany and the USSR. Stalin himself derided Esperanto as "the language of spies"; and if that's not enough of a reason for any libertarian to jump at the chance to learn and use it, I'm not sure what is.

    Oh yeah, there have also been studies which suggest that learning Esperanto can actually make you better at learning other, more widely-spoken languages too.

    For those who are curious, some relevant links:

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

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...liary_language

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaed...e_of_Esperanto

    Last edited by BuddyRey; 03-22-2015 at 09:57 PM.
    "When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you - pull your beard, flick your face - to make you fight, because once they've got you violent then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor. "

    ---John Lennon


    "I EAT NEOCONS FOR BREAKFAST!!!"

    ---Me



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  3. #2
    Is there a growing demand for folks with knowledge of Esperanto?

  4. #3
    More cunning linguists.
    Pfizer Macht Frei!

    Openly Straight Man, Danke, Awarded Top Rated Influencer. Community Standards Enforcer.


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  5. #4
    Cool! It sounds like a neat opportunity.


    I thought you were talking about the tequila.


  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Ronin Truth View Post
    Is there a growing demand for folks with knowledge of Esperanto?
    I'd be lying if I said you could make boatloads of money as a result of picking up this language (for that, you should go with Mandarin), but it definitely has some sweet perks. For example, Esperantists pretty much invented what is now known as "couchsurfing." Pasporta Servo is a network of people in about 100 countries who host Esperanto-speaking tourists in their private homes for free. Many people who wouldn't otherwise have been able to afford international travel, or for whom language would have otherwise presented a barrier have been able to spend time abroad and make some great friendships as a result.
    Last edited by BuddyRey; 03-22-2015 at 10:17 PM.
    "When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you - pull your beard, flick your face - to make you fight, because once they've got you violent then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor. "

    ---John Lennon


    "I EAT NEOCONS FOR BREAKFAST!!!"

    ---Me

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Danke View Post
    More cunning linguists.
    Those aren't linguists. They're just language students. Linguistics is a wholly different discipline from translation and such things.
    Quote Originally Posted by Torchbearer
    what works can never be discussed online. there is only one language the government understands, and until the people start speaking it by the magazine full... things will remain the same.
    Hear/buy my music here "government is the enemy of liberty"-RP Support me on Patreon here Ephesians 6:12

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by heavenlyboy34 View Post
    Those aren't linguists. They're just language students. Linguistics is a wholly different discipline from translation and such things.
    Well, they're still cunning.
    "The Patriarch"

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    Cool! It sounds like a neat opportunity. I thought you were talking about the tequila.
    If you drink enough of that stuff you'll probably speak Esperanto effortlessly.



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by heavenlyboy34 View Post
    Those aren't linguists. They're just language students. Linguistics is a wholly different discipline from translation and such things.
    This is true...though I think there's a case to be made that Esperanto is a helluva "gateway drug" to linguistics, far more likely than most ethnic languages to tune the mind of a monoglot so that he or she can begin to notice patterns and pick up on the nuts and bolts of how a language works. I took Spanish for years in school and had what most people would consider a fairly good private school education, but before dabbling in Esperanto, I had no real picture in my mind of what an infinitive actually is, or how transitive and intransitive verbs affect a sentence differently.

    At the very least, Esperanto is a fun educational toy for aspiring language-learners to cut their teeth on; and at most, it might be very handy tool in our long-term mission of destroying communication barriers and chipping away at the edifice of state power. Either way, I can say for sure that it was a worthwhile endeavor for me, and it deeply enriched my life in many areas. For example, I finally have some non-'Murrican friends now!
    "When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you - pull your beard, flick your face - to make you fight, because once they've got you violent then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor. "

    ---John Lennon


    "I EAT NEOCONS FOR BREAKFAST!!!"

    ---Me



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