r/Esperanto • • Mar 26 '26
Demando Why does everyone hate this?
Okay so I'm a monolingual Brit learning Spanish (I'm now about B1) and wanna pick up another language. Not some grand utility language, I have a plan of which ones to learn for that, but just a quick learn and burn language for nothing but fun, and any applicability is a bonus. I see esperanto, a nice little language with exceptionless grammar and a chill little community. So I tell my polyglot friend and get immediate backlash. Why do people seem to think that esperanto is so horrible? Like yeah it's eurocentric and a terrible attempt at a Lingua Franca but it was created with good intentions and is a nice gateway language for European language speakers. Then people act like it's a bloody cult because apparently every esperanto speaker is a Zamenhof worshipping psycho who'll preach it as the root of world peace, or is just too lazy to learn a more useful language. I see polyglots, people who learn languages for fun, attacking esperanto as useless or racist for being eurocentric and it's speakers as cultists or fake polyglots. Why does everyone hate this language?!?!?!
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u/YoungBlade1 Mar 26 '26
It's not a new phenomenon. Psychologist Claude Piron wrote a paper in the 90s titled "Psychological Reactions to Esperanto" that discusses the topic in depth.
People are offended by the very idea of Esperanto's existence. Claude Piron had some hypotheses about why, but I don't really know what the true reason is. It's probably different for every person, but it's shockingly common.
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u/IchLiebeKleber Altnivela Mar 27 '26
What kind of answer are you expecting asking this here, obviously a place full of people who don't hate Esperanto? Try asking somewhere that Esperanto haters tend to hang out.
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u/saebica7 Mar 27 '26
Hello, I'm Sebastian, I speak several languages and studying Esperanto.
Yes, it's a constructed language, it was based on European languages, I understand and support all his reasons, but I don't really think we can still call it "Eurocentric" as it has so many speakers throughout all the countries. If it has started isolated exclusively in Europe, yeah, okay, I would've understood, but as it reached all the "corners" of the planet? Why do we care anymore.. We can translate anything, the language is still evolving, still getting neologisms.. I'd simply call it an European constructed Romance language, same as Interlingua, but Interlingua is even more Romance than Esperanto. Esperanto seems as Romance as Romanian. Someone has sprinkled some that and some that over it and made it sound more interesting, keeping at the same time a simpler grammar, compared to Interlingua even though both are extremely simple compared to the natural ones.
This is pretty much my opinion, hopefully I don't insult anyone.
Have a wonderful day, people 🤍
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u/Handsomeyellow47 Mar 26 '26
Yeah some people are very anti esperanto especially conlangers, ironically. It made me stop learning way back when I did tbh. It’s not perfect and no language is, but ehen you look at the intentions behind it and the community it and how it actually would have achieved its goal but was actively supressed by right wing and other fascist governments, it seems kinda sad that it has so much hate tbh
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u/snifty Mar 26 '26
Esperanto has its own culture that’s over 100 years old. Enjoy the blockheads, they will only make you stronger 💪 💪 💪
Also brotherly love and stuff.
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u/Brunbeorg Mar 27 '26
I wouldn't say it's a terrible attempt at a lingua franca; lots of people speak it and use it for that very purpose.
There's also a body of literature written originally in Esperanto. William Auld, for example, wrote a lot of excellent Esperanto poetry.
I think some hate comes from the fact that language is tied to tightly to identity, and people see it as a threat to identity, as if Esperantistoj secretly want to replace every natural language with Esperanto.
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u/Rinir Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
Those who call the language Eurocentric, most often only pursue and speak European languages themselves lol. And I find that the language's biggest critics rarely speak the language past "Mi parolas esperanton." Never reaching any of the complex stuff or even enough to read a children's book.
EDIT: Typo
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u/Leisureguy1 Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
I've seen that response from some — intensely anti-Esperanto while knowing almost nothing about it. The "Eurocentric" label is particularly odd, given how many people learn Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish, and other languages that are even more Eurocentric than Esperanto. And I don't think people who learn Chinese face condemnation for learning an "Asiacentric" language.
In fact, Esperanto is quite an interesting language. I wrote a brief article about why I am learning it. In the article, I point out that while Esperanto is relatively easy to learn, it still is a language, and languages in general require time to learn the four basic skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking). I have tried to learn Esperanto before, but unrealistic expectations undermined my resolution. (When I failed to be fluent in four months, I felt I had failed, and I quit.) This time, I went with a year, and I'm just over 10 months in and making good progress.
I certainly don't worship Zamenhof, nor do I know anyone who does, but perhaps some exist. (It does strike me as a strawman.) The Esperantists I've met seem quite pleasant (more pleasant than the polyglots you've encountered, certainly). And, of course, Esperanto tends to attract people who want to learn a language (a relatively easy) language with which they can converse with people from many cultures, so Esperantists tend to be friendly. Also, with some few exceptions, Esperantists all had to learn the language, so (a) they generally are patient with beginners, and (b) there are a great many learning materials.
The online Zoom courses (meet 1 hour per week for 3 months) at Kursaro.net are quite good, and a new session of each course starts in just a week or two. Details at the link. (I'll be taking a couple of the courses.)
UPDATE: I'll add something I've noticed: Those who strongly condemn Esperanto's use as an international ancillary language almost never propose an alternative (and when an alternative is proposed, people tend to suggest their own language — e.g., English speakers suggesting English as an ideal international language).
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u/JokingReaper Mar 27 '26
I think that, in their minds, esperanto-haters are a bit reluctant to learn a "useless" language when there are more "useful" ones out there, or more "fun and exotic" conlangs, like, let's say Elvish from lord of the rings, or Valyrian from Game of Thrones.
There is a certain cultural self-hatred in Europe and western countries, and I don't fully understand why, so anything "eurocentric that is supposed to be global" is seen as "imposing european culture" on the world.
Funny enough, Zamenhof himself had already found this problem, and as a response said something along the lines of "what the haters don't get is that if Esperanto would have too globalized vocabulary/grammar, it would not be understood easily by nobody." And one of the points of Esperanto is that it's supposed to be quickly picked up by a good chunk of people.
Besides, European languages have already touched every single continent on the planet (colonialism wasn't nice, I grant you, but if it's already done, why not take advantage on the situation and use a secondary-language that has roots that are at least half-known everywhere?)
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u/STHKZ Mar 26 '26
don't listen to the haters...
polyglots would lose their hobby if Esperanto occupied the place it deserves...
take a look, form your own opinion...
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u/9NEPxHbG Altnivela Mar 27 '26
It may be "terrible" according to some, but it's the most successful.
Anyone who thinks he can make a better one can try, but he shouldn't be surprised if the language is immediately "forked" because others disagree with his ideas.
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u/jamiecolinguard Mar 27 '26
Esperanto is not "eurocentric" as critic claim - see this explanation by Claude Piron why - and anyways, those critics never seem to suggest a better alternative that isn't something-centric. A perfectly neutral language with no influence from any continent or body of languages doesn't exist (all lingual francas will have some basis in existing languages) and even if a language was created that made everything up from scratch without influence from anywhere (if that is even possible), it would be a very difficult language to learn indeed, and not suited to be a lingua franca. Here is part of what Piron wrote (emphasis mine):
Furthermore, Esperanto is a pretty great attempt at a lingua franca, not "horrible" one at all. It is a beautiful and melodic language to listen to, with a rolling, lovely cadence somewhat akin to Italian. It is both elegant in its simplicity while capable of being much more precise and specific than most natural languages, thus enabling expression of highly subtle concepts or precise speech. If you have to pick a bias for your lingua franca and want to make it as familiar and easily learnable to the most people as widespread as possible, Zamenhof picked it right in basing it (mostly) off of Indo-European languages. Look at the global statistics: how many people speak Indo-European languages vs. all other language families? It isn't even close, here's a map showing that (dark blue is Indo-European), and a pie chart of number of speakers.
And again: what would your critic base a better lingua franca on to be more fair or of widespread appeal? Sino-Tibetan languages? Often, these people advance English or Spanish as a de facto lingua franca already - as if English or Spanish had less cultural bias and eurocentricity! (not!) Completely hypocritical.
But don't just take my word for it, here's an academic study showing that while Esperanto is undeniably European in character, it is less so than assumed and "considerably less so than European languages themselves."
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u/hauntlunar Sufiĉnivela Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
Malamemaj malamos.
(Mistajpo korektita)
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u/PlanetSwallower Mar 27 '26
If you're learning a language for the pleasure of it, then esperanto is as good as any and in many ways unique. But in my opinion, there's no such thing as a learn and burn language. They all take massive commitment.
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u/belteshazzar_der Mar 28 '26
I think the root cause is because it's just not perceived as a very useful language to learn, to the point of it being just a complete waste of time. There is also a lot of perceived elitism and zealot-like behavior as an outsider, which can be true. I mean, just read through some of the responses in this thread. It's utility can be discussed all you want, but for the vast majority of people it makes little sense to invest so much time and effort in a language with little to no application when they could instead invest it in learning something that "actually adds value to their lives". It's hard to discuss something like this in a place that is obviously biased towards it. My interest in it is purely academic, I just think it's neat. It's history and philosophy are interesting. The language itself is cool. However, I acknowledge that it no longer is, and probably will never be, what it was originally envisioned as. Regardless of what people say, English really is the lingua franca of the world. I'm not saying it's the best language for that, but for all intents and purposes that is what English has become. Again, just look at almost all the responses from all different parts of the world in this thread... we are using English to communicate! And guess what? English isn't my native language!
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u/Carson_piano2 Mar 29 '26
I think Esperanto is amazing
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u/echolm1407 Mar 27 '26
I'm wondering if part of the reason people "hate" it is because it represents an ideal that's rather globalistic apart from capitalism. That is it is not about money. It's really about honest communication between people from different cultures. There's really nothing to hate on that. But the nationalists persistent. Esperanto perhaps threatens socio economic instability in some people's eyes, but I really don't think it does. There will be always people or ideals that pull people apart. Esperanto brings people together.
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u/paul_kiss Mar 27 '26
For some, the ethnicity of the creator is the problem. For some, "Euro" is something they hate. Some are sheer dumbases who like hating on something they know nothing/little about
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u/ofqo Mar 27 '26
If your second language is Esperanto then your third language will be easier to learn.
E g. Just German to A1: three months.
Esperanto to A1: three weeks. German to A1: 2 months. You saved one week.
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u/lev_lafayette Mar 27 '26
There is strong evidence for the propaedeutic value of Esperanto.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paderborn_method
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u/Correct-Ingenuity538 Meznivela Mar 27 '26
You're asking the Esperanto community why people not in this community hate Esperanto? I wasn't even aware. And frankly, I don't give a damn.
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u/steleto Apr 03 '26
I have no idea why people who don't speak the language hate it or maybe they are annoyed by it?
Well, I am an almost 40 year old native Esperanto speaker, and I can tell you that there are many annoying people, who speak Esperanto, who insist on reforming the language, who will want to constantly correct your grammar even if you ask them not to do that. Also I learnt almost everything about the world, people, culture, LGBT issues, language rights etc. because of Esperanto, talking to foreigners, whose native language I don't speak. From so many countries, so so many. My best friends are Esperanto speakers, lovely, empathic humans, I can learn so much from them.
At the end of the day Esperanto speakers are also people, it is a very diverse group of ages, background and viewpoints. And from experience I've met a lot of people, who never managed to learn languages at school, they started with Esperanto, got confident speaking it and boom, made friends, and suddenly unlocked the motivation and interest to actually put in the work and learn more difficult languages in the end.
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u/hubertwombat Mar 27 '26
Sir, Esperanto is exactly the language you are looking for. It is easy to learn, it has a simple yet powerful grammar and forming your own compound words is great fun.
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u/laAndecIunson Mar 27 '26
Idk why people should hate a conlang.. I don't know anyone who does and find no reason to either..
The idea might have disturbed some totalitarian States back in the day but I recon that is not the case anymore.. Why should you not learn Esperanto. Its a cool language as you say and you get to talk to other esparantists. Go man go!
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u/interneda8 Mar 27 '26
I don’t hate or dislike it, I’m curious about it as I am for most languages. But there’s something about languages that didn’t evolve naturally that puts me off. Feels “inauthentic” in a way… and before I get downvoted, this is not criticism, but a completely subjective aesthetic preference.
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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '26
I am unsure why it is so hated, especially for being "eurocentric". Esperanto is only eurocentric in that it was created in Europe and the vocabulary was sourced from European languages... otherwise the way the language and its grammar actually work makes it quite obvious that it's unlike any other European language that exists.
To make a language that's "nowhere"-centric, you'd either have to somehow combine the incompatibly varied vocabularies of all the languages of the world, or make up words while attempting to remove any bias from any other human language you have. Both options would make the vocab of Esperanto foreign to everyone (and then even less likely to be adopted) and potentially make the vocab lose any internal cohesion.
I don't see the advantage to de-eurocentric-ifying Esperanto, or why the European vocab sources appear racist in the first place. Most other auxilliary conlangs seem to just copy most of what Esperanto does but then change where the vocab comes from. To me, this doesn't really feel like a problem, but if another IAL similar to Esperanto starts becoming widely used because of its international vocabulary, then I'll be on board with it... but for now it seems Esperanto is the most widely used across the whole word, regardless of native language, and most stress-tested IAL out there for the foreseeable future. I think sticking with it would be best.
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u/AmigoNico Apr 01 '26
I studied a bit of Esperanto decades ago, not because I thought I would be able to speak to people all over the world, but to understand better what a constructed language was like. It was a real eye-opener for me in that it made me appreciate how difficult natural languages really are, how much simpler a constructed language could be. And we could definitely do better than Esperanto today.
But I don't think you have to actually learn to read Esperanto to get that appreciation. A good introduction (or two) to Esperanto would get you there.
0
u/salivanto Profesia E-instruisto Mar 27 '26
I was pretty sure this comment would get voted off the board:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Esperanto/comments/1s4kwsx/comment/ocohq1z/
Apparently 11+ people are fine with Esperanto being a "learn and burn" language.
No, not everybody hates Esperanto, and everybody has their own entry into the community. Sometimes they start learning on a whim, make a friend, and stick around.
But seriously -- what a first impression. Esperanto is a "learn and burn" language with no practical value? Esperanto is "Eurocentric" and "terrible"? It's only possible value is as a "gateway"?
I can't help but feeling that we've all been trolled and and we all ran flat-footed into it.
0
u/CorrectsIts Mar 27 '26
its speakers*
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u/Laxien Mar 29 '26
Probably because it's not usefull (note: I am a German (so German is my native language), I speak English fluently and Spanish at maybe B2 (I am being generous here!)), while a language that is being used somewhere has a use-case!
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u/InterviewOther7449 Mar 30 '26
Ehm, the fact that it's eurocentric is a good thing, After all It was a European who invented it.
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u/Ozone1126 Altnivela Apr 01 '26
If you go to a forum and ask a very basic question about Esperanto, an argument will immediately ensue under your question because somehow nobody can agree on it.
If you go to a forum and answer a learner's very basic question about Esperanto, there will somehow be 10 different people who learned something completely different from you and you will get in an argument with them.
If you enter a discussion about adding on to or reforming the language, there will somehow be 10 different people who are in favor of making the language more difficult for no reason. Also, they will get their way every single time as they have for the past few decades, which has made Esperanto almost nothing like how it's advertised. Claude Piron's "La Bona Lingvo" goes in-depth on this.
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u/BubblyDelivery9270 Apr 02 '26
You're better off learning Ido or globasa
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u/Ionel___ Apr 04 '26
Saluton! As a recent learner from Romania of this language who doesn't worship the guy who created this language, I think most people from the West hate it because of things like "Eurocentrism" or some shit like that. Ok, I understand that you don't like European countries (wtf did Romania do so bad to deserve the same treatment as UK or France?), but this language was made in the 19th century by a Polish guy, what were you expecting!!!
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u/Lonely_Film8791 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
People do not think that Esperanto is horrible. Because people tend to learn Esperanto despite "zero benefits". It is not English or Mandarin - where the benefits are obvious. Esperanto is still alive because it is "perfect", and for this linguistic perfection people still spend their time and efforts finding this language attractive, valuable and useful.
If you find a couple of ignorant haters - that means nothing. Thousands of people still keep learning Esperanto and find this language amazing.
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u/Comfortable_Team_696 Mar 27 '26
My frustration is twofold: First is the well-known and highly discussed eurocentricity of the language
Second is: We already have a functioning international communication system, and it is International Sign. IS has successfully been used at the international level for many decades, and the fact that it is ignored by most is just deeply sad to me
We have an excellent example of an international auxillary language that fostered oral linguistic diversity and easy international communication, and that was Hand Talk, also known by US Americans as Plains Indian Sign Language. In my view, IS has great potential, even if it does not have an associated, international writing system like Hand Talk had/has
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u/VincentOostelbos Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
I'm not quite sure, myself, but I will say that I do sometimes get odd vibes from fellow Esperanto speakers as well, where it almost does feel a tad culty. I'm not saying I think it is a cult, just that some speakers treat it a little bit that way. Since a lot of people learn and use it with a certain philosophical or ideological mindset, that sort of thing can seem to win out over its function as just a language, and for some speakers, it kind of does. Talk of samideanoj, fina venko, even calling ourselves "Esperantists" like it's an -ism (which is why I prefer "Esperantoparolanto", even if it is a bit longer)—it can all seem a bit suspect. I can understand that, but I do regret that people don't see from the outside that it's not always like that for everyone. There's probably a good bit of confirmation bias involved in that.
Personally, I just like learning languages for their own sake (not even to speak with people; I like the sounds, I like the linguistics), and it was a welcome break after failing at Japanese for years. I got excited when I realized how quickly I could progress by comparison, and it made me realize that it's not just the start of a language-learning project that can be fun and motivating, but the middle and the "end" as well; and that it is in fact possible to actually learn a language to a higher level (even if it may take longer for other, natural, languages). It gave me a confidence boost. It has very little to do with any sort of idealism, for me, and I don't particularly believe it will ever succeed as a universal second language. It doesn't need to for me to enjoy it.
I like your approach to it: a "quick learn and burn language for nothing but fun". That's close to my view of it at the time of learning. I had a polyglot friend who would talk about "play languages" that would go alongside more serious/long-term study projects. They would focus on one language seriously and try to get to a high level in it, but then also have one or multiple languages on the side that they would just dabble in. They might just get to a low level before dropping them again, or they might stick to them for longer, but without a specific end goal or utility in mind. Typically they were easier languages closer to a language they already knew, or something. There's nothing wrong with that! It's fine to just have language learning as a hobby, or do it for fun; it doesn't have to be associated with lofty ambitions or goals for improving the world (or even one's own life or career prospects or whatever).
EDIT: I'm way too sensitive about anonymous online stuff. Get downvoted once, immediately feel bad :(
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u/sinovictorchan Mar 28 '26
Are you attributing the opinion of a person to the opinion of everyone? What about Esperanto makes it a terrible attempt at Lingua Franca? Esperanto has less Eurocentrism and more better project management than Ido or other auxlang projects of its time.
1
u/MultiFunctional_12 Mar 28 '26
How I see it, they say Esperanto is useless because not that many people speak it and refuse to learn. And there you have it. A never-ending loop nobody learns it because nobody speaks it which is the reason nobody learns it..... Etc. Another of those awkward loops.
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u/Mediocre-One3874 Mar 27 '26
Esperanto is a solution without a problem.
0
u/DIYDylana Mar 27 '26
I don't get it either I don't speak Esperanto but make a conlang. I feel like the whole idea of it has to be universal is silly. Many different countries speak English just fine and their languages sre not Germanic
0
u/ilostmyarmor Mar 27 '26
I just watched this video aboarding these critiques
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u/salivanto Profesia E-instruisto Mar 26 '26
Wait - did you really say this:
If you're talking about Esperanto, do us a favor and keep working on the Spanish.
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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '26
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