Esperanto

nia87

Hi there!!

Just a few questions about Esperanto for those in the know!!
How long would it take to learn?
Would it benefit future language learning?
The reason I ask is that I've already learned French and Spanish and would like to try something new and that might hopefully benefit future language learning, in particular German, Italian, Czech and Icelandic (the last two a little random I know but... why not??)

Thanks!!!

Aard

Esperanto is generally considered beneficial for language learning if the person is only learning it as their 2nd language, and more usually from a non-Indo-European background. Since you have learnt both Spanish and French, learning Esperanto would be a huge waste of time for you, unless you were considering joining the Esperanto community, which I gather you are not.

Italian should be a doddle for you - French and Spanish are very closely related to it. German is partially represented in Esperanto, and both Icelandic and Czech are not at all (unless you include the mild Russian/Polish influence for the latter).

Kwekubo

Learning any language will greatly help acquisition of future languages, Esperanto perhaps more than others; there are some trial projects in England with Esperanto being taught as a first "apprentice language" in primary schools to make subsequent languages easier/faster to learn.