Listen&Learn: Esperanto

Learn about the constructed language with over 100,000 speakers.

Pre-listening vocabulary

• construct: to build or create something
• invent: to develop something new
• universal: available to everyone
• phonetic: relating to the way words sound
• succeed: to achieve a goal

Listening activity

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:14 — 1.1MB)

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Gapfill exercise

Esperanto is a constructed . It was invented in 1887 by a Polish doctor named L. L. Zamenhof. Zamenhof’s goal was to create a universal second language so that people around the world could with each other. Esperanto does not belong to any country or , but like many languages in Europe, it uses the Latin and Latin root words. It was designed to be easy to learn, with simple grammatical rules and phonetic spelling. Although Esperanto did not succeed as a universal language, it is still used today. Over 100,000 people around the world can Esperanto. Some people have even raised children to speak Esperanto as a native language.

Comprehension questions

Discussion/essay questions

1. One problem with Esperanto is that it is more difficult to learn for people whose native languages don’t use the Latin alphabet. Do you think it is possible to create a language that is equally accessible to everyone?

Transcript

Esperanto is a constructed language. It was invented in 1887 by a Polish doctor named L. L. Zamenhof. Zamenhof’s goal was to create a universal second language so that people around the world could communicate with each other. Esperanto does not belong to any country or culture, but like many languages in Europe, it uses the Latin alphabet and Latin root words. It was designed to be easy to learn, with simple grammatical rules and phonetic spelling. Although Esperanto did not succeed as a universal language, it is still used today. Over 100,000 people around the world can speak Esperanto. Some people have even raised children to speak Esperanto as a native language.