From:   Steve Belant
     	sbelant /c`e/ cello.gina.calstate.edu

To:  Letters to the Editor
     National Public Radio
     All Things Considered
     atc /c`e/ npr.org

RE:  LANGUAGE LEAKS OIL

Dear Editor:

Concisely:

Add oil leaks to a growing list of why we need a truly neutral
global inter-language.  ATC reported that the crew of the ship
leaking millions of gallons of oil into the ocean was not able
to communicate in English with people trying to tell them how to
avoid or minimize the oil leaks.

One solution to avoid such situations in the future would be to
begin teaching children an internationally neutral language like
Esperanto _which could be mastered in a fraction of the time of
national languages_.  Contrary to conferences conducted in other
languages, international conferences conducted in Esperanto, such
as the World Congress in Prague this summer, are not dominated by
native speakers of certain languages.  The number of English
speakers has been dropping in proportion to the quickly growing
non-English speaking populations.  The dream of a world which can
communicate with itself can be realized only once we can all use
a quickly learnable non-primary language in which communication
on an equal basis becomes possible.

Full explanation:

Add oil leaks to a growing list of why we need a truly neutral
global inter-language.  ATC reported that the crew of the boat
leaking millions of gallons of oil into the ocean were not able
to communicate in English with experts trying to tell them how to
avoid or minimize the oil leaks.  I know it may shock some, but
the proportion of English speakers to the world population has
been consistently dropping since World War II, falling to fourth
place in the ranking of most-spoken languages in the World Book
of Facts--due to increase in populatoin of non-English speaking
peoples.  A language which could be learned twice as fast as
English could be mastered by the vast majority of non-English
speakers in one-third the time and effort it would take for the
vast majority of non-English speakers to learn English.  The
neutral non-national language Esperanto has been shown in studies
to be able to be learned _three to five times faster_ than
national languages.  This is because Esperanto is not haphazard,
but a planned, evolving language.

Even if everyone could learn English, there will still be native
and primary English speakers who will have a tremendous
advantage, leaving those who are most in need of the boost of
connecting with the rest of the world without a means to do so.  
For example, on the Internet, newsgroups are overwhelmed by U.S.
participants except for soc.culture.esperanto which no one
country or national language dominates. Likewise, international
conferences conducted in Esperanto, such as the World Congress in
Prague this summer contrary to conferences conducted in other
languages are not dominated by native or primary speakers of any
one language.

In an effort to try and alleviate language problems, the United
Nations and the European Union are spending 25% and 40%,
respectively, of their budgets on translating and interpreting
primarily among a very few languages--discriminating against
those for whom those languages are not primary.

The idea is to popularize a language we could all use as a non-
primary language--thus it would become the language to be used
primarily for international communication, one the whole human
race can all call its own, rather than having to ask anyone to
struggle in someone else's native tongue.  The dream of a world
which can communicate with itself can be realized only once the
revolution in global communication technology is accompanied by
the use of a language in which communication on an equal basis
becomes possible.

Steve Belant
Sacramento Delegate
Universala Esperanto-Asocio

More information available at:
http://www.webcom.com/~donh/esperanto.html
or call Esperanto League for North America 1-800-ESPERANTO (1-800-377-3726)