I’ve spent the last year and a half attending Italian language school. It’s about time. But it’s also very difficult – at my age, and because I have no gift for languages. However, I’m pretty comfortable navigating my own. I could argue part of my resistance stems from keeping a distance. I mean, would I love the Italians as much as I did if I knew them ‘that well?’. Allora, that’s just an excuse.
Yesterday, I listened to a podcast consisting of people from all over the continent. They had major complaints. Europeans find it unfair they must learn English; they can’t get jobs in science and must devote 5 years to learning the language. They’d rather not and that’s why they find it unfair. It’s all about time and most of us don’t have enough of it. Fair enough.
But what about Esperanto? The first time I heard about Esperanto was in Rome. A friend was a huge advocate. It’s grammar is consistent, you can learn it in one year instead of devoting 5. It lacks irregular verbs or complex grammatical rules. and is Latin based which helps with the root meaning.
Italy has 14 tenses vs 7 in English, I can’t tell you how difficult it is to learn. Don’t even get me started on the prepositions. When I lived in Paris I could speak basic french because I took it for 2 years in middle school. Italian is full of nuance. French is straightforward whereas Italian has 20 ways of saying the same thing. .
I have my final test in June and hopefully I’ll pass but I’m sensitive to those Europeans who refuse and opt out of opportunities that insist on a level of fluency in English, requiring several years of study.
Esperanto is great, I see the benefits but so far, it hasn’t caught on and probably never will. People are deeply rooted in their cultures and identities. We have emotional attachments to our native tongue. Esperanto continues to have a dedicated and passionate community, like my friend in Rome, but still hasn’t created a bridge long enough to connect the international community.
Here’s a foto of two guys who speak several languages. My guy’s on the left, his parents, aunts and uncles, even his sisters married people from other countries. When he married me he already knew English. He’s comfortable navigating several languages. His nomadic lifestyle has dictated this. The guy on the right speaks about 9 languages and didn’t start learning languages until later in life.
Some people simply have a gift; unfortunately, I do not.
Back to studying those irregular verbs and prepositions…