THE LANGUAGE PROBLEM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 805, 24 December 1954, Page 5

THE LANGUAGE PROBLEM

Sir-I listened with great interest to the recent "Memo from the United Nations,’ in which the narrator described the complex translation system, One could not but admire the ingenuity by which a running translation into his own choice among official languages can be given to each delegate, or a complete translation of a whole address, All this is thanks to modern technical ingenuity and the existence of a few remarkable linguists who are prepared to give their services. But I listened in vain for any indication that the narrator was aware of another and infinitely easier and more effective solution to the language problem. In August of this year an_ international conference took place at Haarlem in the Netherlands, attended by nearly 3000 people from 28 countries, who spoke perhaps five times the number of languages which UN uses officially, No expensive equipment was needed, Though a few linguists were present, their help was not called on by their fellow delegates, who were linguistically quite ordinary people. All proceedings were in the one official language, and were immediately understood by all present. I refer, of course, to the 39th International . Esperanto Congress. Had any unprejudiced United Nations delegate been present, he would without doubt have gone away convinced that the true solution of the language problem lay here and not with his own elaborate arrangements.

E. RALPH

DEARNLEY

(Wellington).