‘Esperanto: A Language Looking for U.S. Voice’
Re: Esperanto (Part I, Aug. 3): UCLA linguistics teacher George Bedell remarked that “it is not going to happen.” If he means the whole world converting to using any one second language for international communication he may be correct. Despite its dominance, English will not be adopted in many quarters because of its difficulty and politics (the Russians and French would never agree for all business to be conducted in English, for example).
Esperanto, which did achieve status with English and French in the closing days of the League of Nations, could provide a way for delegates to international forums to communicate without the rigidity and expense of translation and the need to learn one of the official languages at any given gathering. Esperanto’s current usefulness and promise has been acknowledged by the less provincial British, whose largest special interest group in Parliament consists of 200 members devoted to promoting this language.
An ingenious network of delegates of the Universal Esperanto Assn. allows one to travel most anywhere and use the language--which can be not only more useful than English for basic communications in some areas, but allows one to have full conversations.
One does not need to travel, either--there are some 200 magazines on about any subject imaginable in the “international language” and millions of people throughout the world eager to correspond.
Those interested in local activities should contact William Glenny of the Esperanto Assn. of Los Angeles, 430 Peck Drive, Beverly Hills 90212.
SCOTT S. SMITH
Thousand Oaks
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