2006-10-26T19:09:30Z https://www.thenewfederalist.eu/Language-courses#comment1306 2006-10-26T19:09:30Z

<p>This article appeared here two months ago and there still have been no reactions. How curious !</p> <p>I am glad to see though that several language-related articles have now been published here, but it completely baffles me why several facets of the EU/multilingualism issue are almost consistently omitted from any discussion :</p> <p>1) The readiness of so many young Europeans to become such willing victims of Anglo-American linguistic neo-colonialism, and to sacrifice without protest years of their lives to studying English - a language that few will ever master actively to anything approaching native-speaker level. At the same time, most native-speakers of English enjoy the privileged position of not having to study any second language at all. Is this linguistic democracy and fairplay in action ?!</p> <p>2) Which second language should British pupils learn anyway ? Those few who do study a second language usually learn French, but German has more native-speakers in Europe. And neither of these is much use when holidaying in the sun in Spain, Italy, Greece or Turkey.</p> <p>3) Surely the obvious and most rational solution for everybody is an easy-to-learn common, second language, such as the non-ethnic <a href="http://www.uea.org/info/angle/an_ghisdatigo.html" class="spip_out" rel='nofollow external'><strong>Esperanto</strong></a>, already in <a href="http://www.eventoj.hu/2006.htm" class="spip_out" rel='nofollow external'>everyday</a> practical use ? And besides, it offers an excellent introductory <a href="http://www.springboard2languages.org/home.htm" class="spip_out" rel='nofollow external'>springboard</a> for learning other languages more efficiently later on.</p> <p>Just why the obfuscation regarding Esperanto ? Is it just because of lack of information, or is it stubborn resistance to, and fear of, the unknown - « Ignoti nulla cupido » ?</p>