🚀 go-pugleaf

Matthew Cunliffe <Ancient.ucs@durham.ac.uk> writes in a recent posting (reference <31166CB2.167EB0E7@durham.ac.uk>):
>
>Whilst a common language would be useful, it is perhaps more likely if
>one let a language become dominant through a general and gradual
>increased usage, as opposed to a forced common language.
>
I advocate wider choice in education. If students are offered classes in
English and French *only*, then those two languages will continue to be
dominant. If the schools offer Esperanto, Danish, Italian, etc. then
there might be an "organic" development in something like a free market
of languages.

The current emphasis on English as a *required* language (in Germany and
elsewhere) looks to me rather like an attempt to "force" a common language.

BTW the intention of most (if not ALL) advocates of Esperanto is that it
be a supplemental language, not that it displace any local tongue. English
and many other large national languages have aggressively combatted 
minority languages.
i
>I for one, do not mind speaking other languages for the time being, try
>to speak another European language on a regular basis to keep in
>practice.
>
Der Meinung bin ich auch!

If an Italian who also speaks French and Spanish meets with a Dane who
also speaks English and German, there is still no common language. This 
is why I advocate an agreement that all educated persons learn an
interantional auxiliary language, such as Esperanto.


-- 
Miko SLOPER                   elna@netcom.com         USA  (510) 653 0998
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