Other ideas
#TheFutureIsYours Transversal and cross-cutting issues
Its time to decide for ONE official common language in EU. All nations will keep of cource their mother language, but will also learn at school the EU language in the same level. This will dramatically help the communication and cooperation between member states, but also with the rest of the world.
We can make it through referentum.
I vote ENGLISH.
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English is a horrible mess of a language, I vote for esperanto instead.
Zgadzam się! Esperanto jest najlepszym do tego językiem z już używanych!
Mi konsentas! Esperanto estas la plej bona elekto inter la jam uzataj lingvoj!
It appears that the votes are divided between English and Esperanto. Could we have both? Two official languages, so that everyone is happy.
When it comes to choosing an official unofficial language, I was thinking of Turkish (in Cyprus) or Luxembourgish (the national language of Luxembourg). For some reason, they are not official languages in the EU.
But with a leap of thought, I returned back to Esperanto and Modern Latin. If the EU forces upon us the curvature of cucumbers, they may even make us learn two languages other than our mother tongue(s). In this case, Esperanto and Modern Latin would be the easiest two languages to learn: Modern Latin as a unifying European lingua franca, and Esperanto as a global lingo.
But would I choose those for my children? No. They must learn something useful for their future: English and Mandarin Chinese, as well as mathematics and formal languages like C++, R and Python.
I agree ...
English and Mandarin Chinese, as well as mathematics and formal languages like C++, R and Python.
Also google's new language DART.
You cant write software code in any other language except English. All kids will learn English for this reason alone. English is my native language in IReland.
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English is the language of Brexit. It is not suitable to be the language of EU citizens. We need a truly European language: Esperanto
Esperanto <3
Esperanto
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Fully agree. English is the practical common language. Translating everything into 27 languages at great cost feels outdated. No one says that national languages shouldn’t be nurtured but it is also paramount that all EU citizens learn to properly speak English which is the global language of business, science, law, etc.
Je ne suis pas de votre avis, Philippe. Pourquoi devrais-je utiliser une langue qui donne un avantage au "native speaker" et me demande de consacrer des énormes efforts à son apprentissage ? Et croyez-moi, je sais dont je parle : cela fait plus de quarante ans que j'apprends, vive et souffle l'anglais, langue à laquelle je suis culturellement attaché. Mais la plupart des anglophones "par naissance" aura toujours un avantage sur moi, dans toutes les échanges linguistiques, dans des situations informelles ainsi que formelles.
Non, Messieurs les Anglais, j'oppose qu'on vous laisse tirer les premiers ! S'il y aura une langue communement utilisée en Europe, elle doit forcément être neutre. Pour le moment, je ne vois aucune d'autre qui servirait aussi bien que l'Espéranto (et encore je sais dont je parle : je l'utilise tous les jours, par écrit, dans les réseaux sociaux, dans des visioconférences et les rencontres personnels (cela avant la pandémie).
Je crains que cet enthousiasme pour l’esperanto ne traduise votre âge (et le mien puisque je sais au moins que l esperanto existe). Je ne pense pas que vous trouverez beaucoup de ‘Millenials’ qui savent ce que c’est.
Ah, je ne voudrais pas dévoiler mon âge, mais votre intuition ne vous trompe pas : nous tous les deux n'appartiennent pas à la groupe d'âge des millenials. :-) Quand-même, la plupart des gens qui apprennent des langues par Duolingo, p. ex., sont apparemment assez jeunes, et c'est maintenant là que les nouveaux espérantophones naissent, non plus par les cours traditionnels. J'en ai rencontré plusieurs dans des visioconférences ces derniers mois, et ils ont (pas toujours, mais assez souvent) déjà aquéri un niveau fonctionnel après quelques mois d'apprentissage. Bien sûr, une bonne maîtrise demande un effort encore plus à long terme, mais rien de comparable avec l'anglais (ou le français, d'ailleurs, pour ne pas parler d'autres langues européennes). Mon prof d'anglais disait toujours que l'anglais etait facile ... les premiers dix années d'études.
Je suis un intermédiaire entre les "millenials" et la "gen Z", et je connais l'Espéranto ! Cette langue est vivante depuis plus de 100 ans, donc plusieurs générations s'y sont intéressées. Ne vous inquiétez pas pour ça, les futures générations s'y intéresseront aussi. Esperanto ne estas morta lingvo :)
De plus, vous sous-estimez l'importance de la traduction. Contrairement aux idées reçues, la majorité des européens ne parle pas anglais. Si on arrête de traduire les documents produits par l'UE, que pensez-vous que cela va faire au projet européen ? L'UE n'est pas n'importe quelle structure internationale, ce qu'elle décide a des conséquences immédiates et bien réelles dans nos vies. Avoir accès à l'information dans nos langues maternelles ne devrait pas être une option. Accepteriez-vous que votre pays communique avec vous et publie ses lois dans une langue que vous ne comprenez pas ? C'est pourtant ce que vous proposez...
Et faire en sorte que tous les européens parlent très bien anglais pour avoir accès à ce type d'informations, cela ne ferait que déplacer les coûts actuels de traduction ailleurs (dans les cours de langues), et cela mènerait inévitablement à l'assimilation linguistique. Exemple : si en France on parle français (soit du latin abâtardi) et pas gaulois, c'est bien parce que les gaulois ont adopté la culture et la langue des romains. Et le même phénomène est en train de se reproduire aujourd'hui partout dans le monde avec l'anglais et la culture anglo-saxonne. Pour le bien de nos langues et de nos cultures, nous devons au contraire faire opposition à cette tendance !
L'esperanto è certamente molto più pratica proprio per le sue desinenze che fanno differenza tra sostantivi, aggettivi verbi e participi e rendono chiara la frase Inoltre non privilegia nessun popolo
I agree English is probably the best option as a common EU language. It has strong word separation giving a low learning index which makes is easy for adults to learn. English was chosen over German by the USA. This and other advantages like no daft genders, is why is has been adopted for air traffic control worldwide and also the language of medicine, science, engineering and technology. You can only write software in English so all children will have to learn English for this reason alone. English still has some defects which need to be fixed like the "th" sound, verb changes for person and tense etc. Of course all native languages should be supported for their literary and cultural value. ... LURO (Language for the United Regions of Europe!!) is an interesting attempt to design a common EU language. Esperanto is not a suitable language because of its 'many defects' e.g the use of suffix for verb tenses giving a high learning index making it difficult to learn for adults.
Lieber Ray Neville,
natürlich brauchen Sie sich mit der neutralen internationalen Sprache Esperanto nicht beschäftigen, wenn Sie das nicht möchten. Sie werden sicher weiterhin viele Möglichkeiten haben, Ihre englischen Sprachkenntnisse anzuwenden.
Wenn Sie nun allerdings schreiben, Esperanto sei schwer zu lernen, muss ich Ihnen leider widersprechen. Ich selber habe die Sprache als Erwachsener gelernt und konnte sie nach weniger als einem Jahr fließend sprechen.
Auch die Zeiten sind vergleichsweise leicht zu lernen, finde ich. Denn sie werden sehr regelmäßig gebildet (durch angehängtes -is, -as oder -os). Unregelmäßige Verben gibt es zum Glück nicht. Weitere Erleichterungen sind die regelmäßige Rechtschreibung, das logisch aufgebaute Wortbildungssystem und der internationale Wortschatz.
Wenn Sie möchten, könnten Sie dies in Ruhe nachlesen, zum Beispiel auch auf Englisch:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto_grammar
Dear Ernst Trabbe, thanks for your comment. I agree Esperanto is an elegant design and has advantages as you say. However, it has some fundamental flaws which make it difficult for adults to learn, especially its composite verbs for different tenses (high learning index), rather than separated words. This is scientifically established from trials. Personal experience can be exceptional. Perhaps the strongest case for English is that Software cannot be written in Esperanto (or other languages), only in English, which all children will have to learn in the future (most do today). So English seems to be the most sensible choice for a common auxiliary language for the EU and is most likely to succeed for this reason alone.
Lieber Ray Neville,
schön, dass Ihnen das elegante Design von Esperanto offenbar auch ein bisschen gefallen hat und Ihnen einige Vorteile deutlich geworden sind.
Soweit Sie dazu gekommen sind, sich auch mit der Geschichte der Sprache zu beschäftigen, ist Ihnen vielleicht aufgefallen, dass besonderes Engagement darauf verwandt worden ist, das Lernen so weit wie möglich zu erleichtern. Insofern ist es mir nicht nur selbst relativ leicht gefallen, die Sprache zu lernen, sondern auch vielen anderen, die ich kenne. Das gilt auch für die Bildung der regelmäßig verwendeten Zeiten.
Falls Sie sich jedoch auf eine praktische Studie beziehen, in welcher etwa der Lernerfolg in verschiedenen Sprachen gemessen und verglichen worden ist, geben Sie gern nähere Hinweise darauf (Autoren,Titel usw.).
Zweifellos ist Englisch heute eine sehr wichtige Sprache, die sich unter anderem auch als Fachsprache der Programmierer etabliert hat. Andererseits werden ja keineswegs alle Kinder Programmierer.
Tutti i comandi della programmazione si possono esprimere anche in esperanto; peraltro non c'è bisogno di studiare l'inglese come lingua europea per appropriarsi di qualche decina di parole, come non c'è bisogno di studiare l'italiano per apprendere le poche indicazioni di uno spartito musicale (fortissimo, andante con moto, ecc.). L'esperanto ha tantissimi vantaggi rispetto all'inglese (logica, regolarità, ogni lettera ha lo stesso suono, unicità dell'accento tonico) ed è di più facile apprendimento anche da coloro che hanno una lingua germanica.
I think one should be very careful when proposing a common language as it inevitably leads to the thought of one over others and which one would that be. In my view, this should be Esperanto but not as a common language but rather as an option. All I want is all national television stations, mobile operators and customers documents to have an Esperanto version as well as English or whatever else...then the people can make the choice.
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There is already one proposition for Esperanto as a European language:
Esperanto, a common and neutral language, designed to be easy to learn. A new tool for a more united European Union.
Please endorse it. There is no point in having multiple similar ideas otherwise the votes get split.
Esperanto is a badly designed language. It does not have a low learning index for adults.
Esperanto requires the unique pronunciation of 10 verbs x 5 tenses giving a high learning index of 50.
French requires the unique pronunciation of 10 verbs x 4 unique verb spellings plus 3 prefixes for the 5 tenses giving a high learning index of 43. It also has genders which even apply to adjectives - daft.
The verb sing in French requires the following unique processing and pronunciation requirements.
à chanter (to sing)
Je chante (I sing)
Je chanterai (I will sing)
Je voudrais chanter (I would sing)
J'ai chanté (I sang .. defect in English)
German requires the pronunciation of 10 verbs x 3 unique verb spellings plus 3 prefixes for the 5 tenses giving a learning index of 33.
English learning index is low at 23, which accounts for its ease of learning for adults and wide use.
English has some defects which need to be fixed.
Luro learning index is 15.
Lieber Raymond Neville,
danke für Ihren Hinweis auf den Lern-Index, den Sie Ihren Einschätzungen zugrunde legen. Ich habe da ein bisschen nachgelesen.
Offenbar gehen Sie davon aus, dass Wörter schwerer zu lernen sind, wenn sie sich aus mehreren Bedeutungseinheiten zusammensetzen. Aus meinen Erfahrungen mit agglutinierenden Sprachen kann ich Ihre Sorge weitgehend entkräften.
Zum Glück kommt es beim Lernen von Sprachen ja rasch zu Automatisierungen. Über sprachliche Muster, die wir beherrschen, brauchen wir kaum noch nachdenken. Je regelmäßiger eine Sprache aufgebaut ist, desto rascher können wir uns große Teile davon aneignen und sie praktisch anwenden.
Wenn Sie sich bei Ihren Beispielen auf einzelne Wörter (wie zum Beispiel "singen") konzentriert haben, ist Ihnen dies vielleicht nicht sofort aufgefallen. Soweit Sie möchten, sprechen sie gern einmal mit Menschen, die eine agglutinierende Sprache (wie Esperanto) gelernt haben, und fragen sie nach ihren Erfahrungen.
Lieber Raymond Neville,
danke für Ihren Hinweis auf den Lern-Index, den Sie Ihren Einschätzungen zugrunde legen. Ich habe da nun ein bisschen nachgelesen.
Offenbar gehen Sie davon aus, dass Wörter schwerer zu lernen sind, wenn sie sich aus mehreren Bedeutungseinheiten zusammensetzen. Aus meinen Erfahrungen mit agglutinierenden Sprachen kann ich Ihre Sorge weitgehend beruhigen.
Zum Glück kommt es beim Lernen von Sprachen ja rasch zu Automatisierungen. Über sprachliche Muster, die wir beherrschen, brauchen wir kaum noch nachdenken. Je regelmäßiger eine Sprache aufgebaut ist, desto rascher können wir uns große Teile davon aneignen und sie praktisch anwenden.
Wenn Sie sich bei Ihren Beispielen auf einzelne Wörter (wie zum Beispiel "singen") konzentriert haben, ist Ihnen dies vielleicht nicht sofort aufgefallen. Soweit Sie möchten, sprechen sie gern einmal mit Menschen, die eine agglutinierende Sprache (wie Esperanto) gelernt haben, und fragen sie nach ihren Erfahrungen.
La assoluta regolarità dell'esperanto nelle desinenze che fanno riconoscere subito la funzione grammaticale della parola, nella fonetica (ogni lettera ha sempre lo stesso suono), nell'unicità dell'accento (sempre sulla penultima), nelle caratteristiche del verbo (in qualsiasi voce verbale, il suono -a indica il presente, -i indica il passato, -o indica il futuro) lo pone incomparabilmente superiore all'inglese, sia nello scritto che nel parlato.
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Język angielski nie jest obecnie językiem żadnego państwa w Unii Europejskiej. Ja proponuję stopniowo wprowadzać, a później wykorzystać jako język Unii, podobnie jak pisani powyżej, Lingvo Internacia Esperanto.
Thanks for your comment. You are incorrect to say English is not the language of any EU country. English is the language of my country Ireland which is in the EU.
You can only write software in English so all children will have to learn English for this reason alone. Software coding is a basic skill like reading and writing and maths for all children in the future.
You cannot write software in Esperanto or any other language, EU languages or even Chinese or Japanese.
English has been adopted for air traffic control worldwide and also the language of medicine, science, engineering and technology.
English was chosen over German by the USA. More Chinese people are learning English than others learning Chinese.
The most efficient technology will always wins in the end (law of nature) ... so English will become the de facto world language.
Ad essere precisi i paesi che aderiscono all'unione europea indicano una lingua ufficiale. L'Irlanda ha scelto l'Irlandese come Malta ha scelto il Maltese. L'Inghilterra era l'unico paese entrato con lingua ufficiale Inglese. Ora, con la Brexit, almeno ufficialmente, in Europa non c'è nessun paese che parla Inglese. Quindi ha ragione il signor Amadeusz Terczewski...
In continental Europe, English is spoken as the official language in Gibraltar. In Ireland and Malta, English also has an official status, along with Irish and Maltese.
In the EU, we have 24 official languages. The union is multilingual. The EU citizens have the right to write to the EU institutions in any official language, and to receive a reply in the same language.
It would make communication easier if most people understood a single language – like English in North America, Russian in Russia, or Mandarin Chinese in China. But the EU is more like India: people speak different languages in different member states.
Voting does not solve the problem. Europeans do not learn the second language at school as well as they learn their mother tongue. See yourself (e.g. in this forum).
But people do “vote” by their choices: they study foreign languages. The EU language policy goal is that EU citizens master their mother tongue and two other languages. Let’s see how the EU succeeds.
Dear Ray,
your arguments might be more convincing if you were not a native speaker. For most Europeans it is a foreign language and always will be.
In America it succeeded because the majority of the immigrants were Colonists of the British Empire and the Founding Fathers of the USA used English to write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. That German was an option may well be a legend.
Indeed, “daft genders” are a problem in all Indo-European languages. English is not the only language that has done away with that.
The advantages for air traffic are not deniable, but in the other disciplines the influence of Latin, Greek, French and German must not be underestimated.
Since children have a natural aptitude for learning languages, it also doesn’t matter to them what language is used to program. They will use any language that is available, unless prejudice prohibits it. The limitation to English as a software language is due to the “first come first serve”
principle in all new disciplines. The first innovators impose their language.
The “th-defect” is a linguistic myth. These sounds are used in modern Greek, Spanish and the Scandinavian languages, especially Icelandic and Danish.
The verb tenses with complex verb forms in Esperanto are largely avoided and are to be regarded as an often unused linguistic potential.
In terms of values, English is the vehicle of many unfriendly take-overs, causing the extinction of many indigenous languages, especially in America and Africa. It is the language of an ethnic group that has turned its back on the EU after years of special privileges.
The past, present and future of Europe is multilingual. Esperanto can preserve that as a go-between language. Take it seriously!
Gerald Tucker
Europa Ein Staaten Gebilden, Die Derzeit sehr viele Sprachen Hat. Aber noch mehr Unterstützung Braucht, Das Die EU sich, weiterentwickeln Muss.
MfG
Sascha Becker
Come ho scritto altrove, ad essere precisi i paesi che aderiscono all'unione europea indicano una lingua ufficiale per il loro paese. L'Irlanda ha scelto l'Irlandese come Malta ha scelto il Maltese. L'Inghilterra era l'unico paese entrato con lingua ufficiale Inglese. Ora, con la Brexit, almeno ufficialmente, in Europa non c'è nessun paese che parla Inglese. L'Inglese rimane come lingua di lavoro senza che nessun paese l'abbia richiesta. Si chiede pertanto chi, in Europa, preferisce la lingua Inglese al posto della propria nazionale. Non sembra che l'abbia fatto neanche l'Irlanda che in pratica parla Inglese. Inoltre l'Esperanto come lingua di lavoro in Europa sarebbe una scelta molto intelligente e molto rispettosa dei diritti Europei e dell'Uomo.
OK, but I vote for Esperanto, who is a language with roots in all the main linguistcs groups of Europe, and, not beeing the mothertongue of any specific country, put evertbody at the same level.
If we use english instead, we in fact will be culturally (and not only culturally) just a colony...
Not only that, one can learn Esperanto in just a fraction of the time needed to learn english;
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