🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul24.071205.18490@syacus.acus.oz.au>,
ron@syacus.acus.oz.au (Ron Williams) writes:
>esz001@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Will Overington) writes:
>: 20th July 1992
>: 
>: MOTION Course on Russian, in English, with Esperanto mentions.
>: 
>: I put forward the motion that we should seek to create a course
>: on learning Russian, for beginners, with the instruction being
>: in English.
>: The course will use Esperanto, with its regularity and logical
>
>I would like to see courses on several languages offered, but have zero 
>interest in being forced to learn an artificial, relatively unused language 

No one is forcing anyone to do anything.
It was a suggestion of a (probably novel) opportunity.
Several people have liked it.

>as an intermediary - i.e. Esperanto. I find Esperanto to be an ugly language -
>I realise that this is just my personal taste, but I _am_ entitled to an 
>opinion. I also realise that there are quite a few Esperanto hobbyists out 
>there who would like to see their baby become the international language. I
>don't think it will happen, and therefore find these references to Esperanto
>to be an annoying irrelevance.

I feel that there are two issues here, namely whether Esperanto should
become the international language (which, if people start discussing
that issue, will quickly include whether it is intended to be the
international language or a second language for all and so on) and
whether Esperanto would be a useful vehicle for explaining grammatical
constructs.

>
>I don't want to offend, but as I said, I am entitled to an opinion, especially
>as I fully support the general idea.
>
>Ron.

You are not offending. You have stated your opinion in a polite manner.
Even if you are in a minority, or even a minority of one, your
opinion is still valid and deserves recognition.

When you say "the general idea" do you mean "learning Russian on the net"
or do you mean "Usenet University" itself.

If the former, then maybe the course can be constructed so that the
comparing to and contrasting with Esperanto can be in clearly marked
optional sections.