Sunday, December 22, 2019

Going Mad


Let me be the first person, after my wife, to break the news to you.... I am (or have I already gone) mad... I have learned one more language... In addition to half a dozen I already know (and have almost fully forgot). 
This time it's Esperanto... God forbid... I dare think you will not be the one to pronounce "He is crazy".... This is a special talk... What are the drives? They are many. And must be probed deep into me... For which I have no time. The long and short of it is that while working on those fucking warplanes I reclined every now and then and ... having typed ESPERANTO on the keyboard went over its essentials and foundations... As some stuff that could counterbalance the warplanes stupidity... My mind was overburdened with it...
 Maybe its other half asked for a counter balance. At any rate ... the fact is here. I've learned that language in passing. Yes, it's easy and all... An "ideal language". Its grammar can be learned in ... a couple of hours. Or four at worst (at best?). But like ANY OTHER language (easy as it is said to be) it needs PRACTICE. ALL languages become languages once one stops thinking about how to make its sentences into words... It takes TIME AND PRACTICE. Some features of Esperanto are pretty special. It DOES have its difficult points (though some say it has NO difficult points). As an old language learner, I could point them out directly... And as linguistic veteran, I can see its strong and weak points. Many of the former. Few of the latter. A long talk... A child of a certain Zamenhof (a Russian Jew who lived on the outskirts of Russia, where Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Jews and others merged into one stuff) he came up in 1980s with a planned language. Again... a long talk. But the idea's strong points overweight weak ones...

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