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From: hinsenk@cyclone.ERE.UMontreal.CA (Hinsen Konrad)
Subject: Re: talk & travel
In-Reply-To: p9260668@qub.ac.uk's message of 16 Feb 1995 14:35:51 GMT
Message-ID: <HINSENK.95Feb17180019@cyclone.ERE.UMontreal.CA>
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References: <elnaD3oBsD.IE7@netcom.com> <3hvns7$or3@mordred.cc.jyu.fi>
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 1995 23:00:19 GMT
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In article <3hvns7$or3@mordred.cc.jyu.fi> p9260668@qub.ac.uk (Christophe Meudec) writes:

   s one problem with esperanto which doesn't seem to have been mentionned,
    Esperanto is an empty skeleton, there is no tradition of speaking it
    (or writing it for that matter). 
   ...

Please let's not have this again. The assumptions stated here are simply
wrong, which can be proven in practice.

   If Esperanto is viewed as a 2nd language for everybody then it has to be 
   practiced regulary, for it will otherwise be forgotten (being French 

I managed to become fluent in Esperanto without ever using it actively
(I just read and listened to radio broadcasts). I know this is hard
to believe, and I was myself quite surprised, but it's true. I have
heard similar reports from others, so it's nothing exceptional.
However, I am not going to claim that it is true for everyone.

Currently, I speak Esperanto about twice a month for a few hours.
That has been sufficient to keep my level of competence above the
one I have for English, which I use daily at work.

   To conlude where are the Samuel Beckett of Esperanto, the shakespears, 
   the Molieres? the Prevert? where are the jokes? , where is the beauty 
   in the language? The Beattles of Esperanto?, one has to find some

There are literary works of all kinds in Esperanto, among them good
and bad. There is also a lot of music. As for jokes, you will
get some for free from time to time on soc.culture.esperanto. And
you will certainly recognize the beauty of the language if you
start looking at it seriously, instead of making wild guesses.

Reality is more important than all theories put together (and yes,
I am a theoretician in my field!).

--
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Konrad Hinsen                     | E-Mail: hinsenk@ere.umontreal.ca
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