Esperanto

Why Donovan Nagel won't learn Esperanto?

Basically, because he believes studying Esperanto makes you a religious fanatic and a leftie.

I could have just passed by that, but he said something that triggered me.

"Now, I know this will probably stir up a beehive (I wish I could say I’m sorry but facts don’t care about hurt feelings)"

Your subjective opinions are not facts, Donovan. You could say you're sorry for expressing your opinion in a prejudiced and judgmental manner - because that's what you are doing - but in reality it's you who doesn't care about hurt feelings. You just call yourself "facts" because you are a pompous ass.
(Also, it doesn't stir up anything, because no-one cares about your opinion that much.)

Now, I don't much care about learning Esperanto, because it's boring and uninteresting and pretty unoriginal, and my reason to study languages is not to be able to communicate with people. I think I have enough languages already to not to try to get in a quickie to make it speedier to learn more languages, but I might learn it just because it is a quickie. Also, because my father knew it. 

So, without further ado,

"Esperanto has always been a means to a political end"

Bull.
I know that languages are carriers of mindset and ways of seeing the world. But Esperanto? No. Simply because it is a conlang.  

"Esperantistan is an ideologically homogenous landscape"

Bull. It's a way of communicating, and nothing else.

"Not only does it have no culture but its adherents are delusional"

There are many different definitions to culture, but as he says, Esperanto doesn't have a culture attached to it, which means that one doesn't need to waste time with acculturation when learning it. No "half third times twenty" or "ten seven" here.

"Esperanto evangelists aren’t just passionate – they’re fanatical"

I'm sure there are some fanatical Arabic lovers as well. 

"It might help you learn other languages but at the expense of time best spent on the language most important to you"

Well... of course you should spend time learning languages you want to learn, but if you learn languages to learn languages and to communicate with people, and knowing a language - any language - helps you to learn another languages easier, then you should learn the language that is easiest to learn, and Esperanto is one of those languages. It also comes without the cultural baggage, which makes it even easier to learn. No idioms. No culturally sensitive words. No complex courtesy phrases. Etc. It's just pure language, easy peasy. It doesn't take long, and if you know it, you will be able to communicate with a lot of people. So, you won't be "wasting" much time, if you decide to learn Esperanto.

"Esperanto has failed – not that we needed it anyway"

There has always been lingua francas, and these languages have been national languages, which have made them not suitable to be used as lingua franca, because if two nations are at war, they wouldn't want to use each other's language. During the WWII one could get into trouble just by knowing German or Russian. (Now, people got into trouble speaking Esperanto as well, but ah - what didn't they get into trouble for, really...) There was a need. Otherwise Esperanto wouldn't have existed. Duh.

Of course a living language is always more successful than a dead or constructed language, but has Esperanto failed? There's 2 million Esperanto speakers in the world. There's probably a couple thousand Native speakers of Esperanto. Generations of native Esperanto speakers.
Esperanto is a very young language. It's only 133 years old. English is about 10 times older, with even longer history in pre-modern forms. What will Esperanto be in 1000 years? 

"We’re rapidly losing endangered languages and more than half of them will be lost forever by the end of this century."

Now, this is the only reason I can accept as valid - learn an endangered language rather than a conlang. But he isn't saying this as a reason not to learn Esperanto. And he chose to learn Arabic... As far as I know, he hasn't studied one endangered language. He says he's interested in studying them, but - I am interested in everything between the core of the planet to the deepest space millions of light-years away, and it doesn't mean anything. Not one language was saved by interest alone. So, who is he to bash Esperanto learners for choosing to study that and not an Australian language?

International Auxiliary Languages

An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) or interlanguage is a language meant for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common first language. An auxiliary language is primarily a second language.

Languages of dominant societies over the centuries have served as auxiliary languages, sometimes approaching the international level. Latin, Greek and the Mediterranean Lingua Franca were used in the past, and Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Standard Chinese have been used as such in recent times in many parts of the world. However, as these languages are associated with the very dominance—cultural, political, and economic—that made them popular, they are often also met with resistance. For this reason, some have turned to the idea of promoting an artificial or constructed language as a possible solution.

The term "auxiliary" implies that it is intended to be an additional language for the people of the world, rather than to replace their native languages. Often, the term is used to refer to planned or constructed languages proposed specifically to ease international communication, such as Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua. However, it can also refer to the concept of such a language being determined by international consensus, including even a standardized natural language (e.g., International English), and has also been connected to the project of constructing a universal language.

Latin

Pater noster, qui es in cælis,
sanctificetur nomen tuum.
Adveniat regnum tuum.
Fiat voluntas tua,
sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie,
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem,
sed libera nos a malo.
Amen.
 

Esperanto

Up to 2,000,000 people worldwide, to varying degrees, speak Esperanto, including about 1,000 to 2,000 native speakers who learned Esperanto from birth.

Patro Nia, kiu estas en la ĉielo,
via nomo estu sanktigita.
Venu via regno,
plenumiĝu via volo,
kiel en la ĉielo, tiel ankaŭ sur la tero.
Nian panon ĉiutagan donu al ni hodiaŭ.
Kaj pardonu al ni niajn ŝuldojn,
kiel ankaŭ ni pardonas al niaj ŝuldantoj.
Kaj ne konduku nin en tenton,
sed liberigu nin de la malbono.
Amen.

Volapük

estimated 20 Volapük speakers in the world

So, Volapük is on this list for purely sentimental and nostalgic reasons. It was mentioned in the first book from which I learned about languages, Pikkujättiläinen. I think it even had some lessons, too.


O Fat obas, kel binol in süls,
paisaludomöz nem ola!
Kömomöd monargän ola!
Jenomöz vil olik,
äs in sül, i su tal!
Bodi obsik vädeliki givolös obes adelo!
E pardolös obes debis obsik,
äs id obs aipardobs debeles obas.
E no obis nindukolös in tentadi;
sod aidalivolös obis de bad.
Jenosöd!

Ido

Estimated: 500-3000? speakers


Patro nia, qua esas en la cielo,
tua nomo santigesez;
tua regno advenez;
tua volo facesez
quale en la cielo, tale anke sur la tero.
Donez a ni cadie l'omnadiala pano,
e pardonez a ni nia ofensi,
quale anke ni pardonas a nia ofensanti,
e ne duktez ni aden la tento,
ma liberigez ni del malajo.
Amen.

Interlingua

Estimated: 150-1500? speakers

Patre nostre, qui es in le celos,
que tu nomine sia sanctificate;   
que tu regno veni;
que tu voluntate sia facite
como in le celo, etiam super le terra.   
Da nos hodie nostre pan quotidian,   
e pardona a nos nostre debitas   
como etiam nos los pardona a nostre debitores.
E non induce nos in tentation,
sed libera nos del mal.   
Amen.

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I won't learn any of these, because they are all so stupidly Eurocentered. One could just as well learn Spanish and English and be done with it.