ESPERANTO

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 9, 2 September 1931, Page 4

ESPERANTO

INTERNATIONAL w TONGUE advantages stressed in interesting address. TALK TO ROTARY CLUB. "Esperanto," the international language, was the subjeet of an address delivered to the Rotorua Rotary Club on Monday by Mr. Joseph Major, a visiting French journ'alist and prominent Esperantist- Mr. Major outlined in most interesting form, the nature and advantages of this well lcnown intemational tongue. "X begin by apologising for the bad English you are going to hear. A year ago. I could not understand your beautiful tongue and my spoken English is Still broken English. Being specialised in French tuition, I am not even supposed to excell in English, but, believe me, I am not talking with a false aecent — as Maurice Chevalier, the f amous film star — I make my mistakes quite naturally," said Mr. Major in opening his address. The difficulty of intercommunication between peoples of different nationalities, he said, had always been a problem of great importance but never so important as at the present time, when the ramifications of traVel and commerce were so extensive, when the probiems of daily life tended to become more international, and when a rapprochement between the peoples of the world as distinct from Governments, appeared to be the only hope Of peace. In addition, the onward march'of science, including telephony, telegraph, radio and broadcasting, the aeroplane and, more reeently, the talking pictures — all had been consistently retarded in the international field by the absence of an anxiliary language had been univerwith the world-wide plea for peace on earth and goodwill toward all men, made the need for the immediate removal of the ancient, linguistic barrier, by means of the acceptance of a universal auxiliary tongue, a real and "pressinsr necessitv."

Advantages Admitted. Teh advantages to he obtained nationally and internationally hy the adoption and use of an international, auxiliary language, hd been universally admitted and recognsed for some time past, and the world in general was at the point of utilising such a language. The question, however, arose: "which language is most suitable for international use?" There were three possible replies to this qeustion, viz, (1) A modern European language; (2) a "dead" language (such as Latin or Greek) ; and (3) a constructed neutral language. The first appeared to have strong claims, but may be discarded for obvious reasons: the difficulty of learning any modern language and the national jealousy which would arise — if an agreement could ever be reached — among the other nations whose languages were not acceptedThe so-called "dead" languages, often proposed, are too difficult to learn and their vocabularies are deficient so far as modern needs are concerned. For instance, to describe an aeroplane " a telephone or a radio set in Latin is impossible. The Tkird Choice. These two posibilities being unsuitable, only the third remained, an artificial, neutral langqage. Such was Esperanto. Time did not allow him to talk about the history of Esperanto, nor about its internal structure, and he would content himself by mentioning its biggest advantages. It was extremely easy to learn, to speak and to write. It was declared pe'rfect by philologists. Esperanto had now been in actual use for over 40 years and bad never failed when put to the most searching, international tests. It should be elearly understood that Esperanto was not intended to displace, supersede or disturb any national language. On the contrary, experience had proved that the study of Esperanto greatly assisted in the learning of other languages and in obtaining an insight into one's mother tongue. Esperanto had beqn carried on in English schools where one class was taught Esperanto in a first year and French in a second one; this class knew more French at the end of this second year than another class which had two years of French tuition. Espernto opened the linguistic eye and encouraged us to talk in foreign tongues. Easy to Learn. The time required to learn Esperanto was a mere fraction of that which was necessary to acquire any national language. It could be learned in a few weeks, according to the time devoted to the study, by anyone of ordinary intelligence and it could be self-taught, the average Englishspeaking person could identify about 75 per. cent. of the Esperanto roots. The phenomenal development of the Esperanto movement was revealed in the following brief survey. There were now thousands of Esperanto study groups scattered throughout the world, the language was taught in day classes in hundreds of schools and in innumerable evening classes in all the countries of the world. Although few people in New Zealand had opportunities to trayel abroad, Esperanto, nevertheless, offered much to New Zealanders, to the student, the business man, the collector, the lover of literature, to anyone interested in peace or in any other interantional movement, Esperanto would without doubt he of the greatest use and assistance. There were Esperanto groups in Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton, Masterton, and Wellington and hundreds of scattered Esperantists all over New Zealand. Language of PeaceThe promoter of Esperanto, the genial Dr. Zanenhow, had always an idea that he merely created an altruist means for peace and understanding for all the people of the world. Since the recommendation of the League of Nations for the tuition of Esperanto in the schools of the different States, Esperanto had been quickly growing as a stronghold of international understanding. Rotary, directed by very practical men, did not fail to notice that the adoption of Esperanto would not only be a practical means of cultivating eostly and tedious translations, but also would help the members from the various countries to understand one another. Becoming increasingly international, Rotary was abliged to-day to choose an international language.