Benefits Of Esperanto

Esperanto was created in 1887 by Dr. L.L Zamenhof to unite everyone together as a global language. It has been 132 years since then, and although Esperanto has now reached nearly 2 million speakers today, it is safe to say it may have failed its original goal of becoming a global language. Despite this, however, Esperanto has been found to have many other benefits and possible uses. For example. Using Esperanto, we can help fix our failing foreign language education in America. With the help of Esperanto, we can start delaying brain diseases such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s, we can make our citizens more culturally aware, make our citizens more skilled socially, and as a country we can start entering business deals and what-not on an equal playing field to the rest of the world. Esperanto is easy to learn; it was designed to be easy to learn. Zamenhof based Esperanto off the other Romance and Germanic languages often are spoken where he lived so that it would be easy for everyone to pick up. Thanks to this, Esperanto can be learned in as little as 3 months fluently. You can start having conversations in Esperanto with other Esperantists in only a few weeks depending on how much you study, how you study, and your previous foreign language knowledge. There are also many benefits of Esperanto such that by learning Esperanto first, even spending a few months on Esperanto, can help you learn French twice the speed it would’ve taken you had you not studied Esperanto at all. There have been quite a few studies on this, and unfortunately, none have been done for languages aside from French, considering each language learned is easier than the previous it is safe to say by learning Esperanto first can help with any language one decides to learn next. The fact is that here in America the majority of the citizens are monolingual, and don’t have a desire to learn another language. They don’t see a reason for it and given how hard it can be to learn another language, there’s no motivation for it. If most Americans were able to pick another language to be fluent in, overnight, without putting in any effort, just wake up fluent, no one would argue or decide not to. Being bilingual is a highly sought-after skill for employees to have, it opens new doors, new ways of thinking, more music, books, and movie to properly enjoy. Although there is not a method for learning any language of one’s choice overnight yet, there is Esperanto. An easy, and quick language to learn that can help us learn other languages faster and with much less brain damage. Esperanto could serve as a sort of, gateway language per se. Like how in elementary school were taught to play the recorder to help introduce us to music and playing instruments, Esperanto would introduce everyone to learning a foreign language. It would make learning languages after that easier to learn. Though Esperanto can help make learning other languages easier and much faster, it's still not something that can occur overnight. However, if we start with this approach, having everyone learn Esperanto, eventually it in a way could feel like an overnight process for future generations. If we can get most Americans fluent in more than English, they can speak it to their children. Children will pick up on it, and they will grow up to be bilingual, and even multilingual. Learning a language for future generations, can and will be a piece of cake. It is not that there is anything wrong with English, it works well for us in America. However, language learning is a helpful skill to learn and to know. Being bilingual works parts of your brain that can help to keep it active unconsciously. In a way, it’s like how we must work out to keep our bodies in shape and healthy. However, the cool thing with bilingual brains is whenever they switch languages, they are working their brains in the way the brain needs to be active without even trying. It’s a natural process. This is a theory as to the reason knowing more than one language can delay brain diseases such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s. There have even been studies to show that it can help stroke victims heal faster. Keeping your brain sharp also helps with other cognitive skills, especially social skills. Specifically, when it comes to emotions, and emphasizing with others. For whatever reason, bilinguals seem to be better at understanding other people than monolinguals, as well as also those that enjoy reading. I bring this up to show it’s not that necessarily knowing another language that helps you become more empathetically aware, but more so it for whatever reason works a similar part of your brain needed to help out with such skills. Doing things such as reading can help a lot, and just keeping your brain in shape. The thing is that, although I find reading fun, a lot of people do not. If your fluent in another language however and must switch languages to do things like playing a videogame or watching a movie this is a more natural process your brain will do without you even thinking much about it and it exercises your brain. Imagine how cool it would be if we could keep our bodies in shape without having to put in any effort? Another thing that many people fail to realize is that being multilingual in America is much more needed than most think. Although many would agree as I stated above we could learn a language overnight we would all be more than willing to do so but because of the effort needed many Americans don’t believe its worth it. America is an English-speaking country Afterall, and around the world, most people are at least familiar with basic English anyways. However, businesses are struggling to find bilinguals in America due to this thinking and translators can only take us so far. Due to this, bilinguals get paid more than monolinguals and are more sought after. Although if everyone was multilingual, we probably wouldn’t be paid more than monolinguals, it would help business a lot and America as a country in general. The thing is that most other countries' politicians and people high up can speak more than one language and it’s the norm for them. For them it’s weird and almost a disadvantage in a way for us Americans that most of us can only speak English. It makes us look a bit ignorant, and in a sense, it can make us act ignorant as well. When I was in school, it was drilled into our heads that we needed to be openminded. That was one of the most commonly discussed topics during my elementary years. Teachers always talked about their importance. However, how could you truly be able to step into someone else’s shoes, or see things their way, if you can’t speak their language? There’s been a few studies done and a lot of articles about the theory that our personality changes based on language. There isn’t a lot of hardcore evidence on it but given how different the grammar in each language can be, it does in a way seem like it could be true. Many bilinguals discuss how they feel like they’re an entirely different person when they switch languages. For example, often people feel when speaking Japanese more like a selfless person vs English because in japan they don’t say the “I” or “You”. In English however, we say those words often. So, the personality shift makes sense. The truth is that language learning is difficult however if we can put in the effort needed to learn languages and become more multilingual, our children and their children and so on will be able to be without much effort. They will be able to experience all these benefits, and we will too. As a country we will be more open-minded, more socially aware and skilled, our brains will be sharper, brain diseases like Dementia and Alzheimer’s can be delayed, and all we simply need to do to get started on this path is start learning Esperanto. Learning an easy language first, to help lead to a multilingual America.