¿Esperanto? ¡¡so what do you think?

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Many people have a use for Esperanto, me for one.

Artificial? Like Sylvan Zaft said, "Esperanto is an artificial language like the automobile is an artificial horse."

As for being a uniting language, well it's a slow process, but one that is moving forward none-the-less. Don't believe me? Read on.

In a recent reprint of the Unua Libro (first book), editor Gene Keyes said that when he first started the project in 2000, he did a search for Esperanto on Google and it yielded over 1 million hits. At the completion of his task in February of 2007, the same search yielded over 34 million hits. Out of curiosity, after I had read that I did the same search and it yielded over 39.2 million hits. That's up over 5 million in two months. So it's growing. Slowly (or maybe not so slowly!)
The notion that it has no nationality would in actuality make it less useful since its purpose is to be an auxiliary language. With 120 years behind it and functions all around the world on a daily basis, there really can be no claim that it has no culture.
Obviously not everyone will find a use for it, and that's fine. However for those that take the time and bother to search out the other users, it's worth it. Of course searching out other users gets easier with each passing day.
Personally I have friends all over the world. Friends I wouldn't have had with out Esperanto.

Let's answer some specific concerns that many people have.
The language is Impractical and awkward?
The two million plus (as of 1995) people that use it says it's not Impractical. Two million was considered the functionally fluent level (IE: able to get by in the necessary elements when travelling) in 1995. Since 1995 the Internet has grown by leaps and bounds, and Esperanto right along with it.
Wikipedia hosts around 250 different languages. Esperanto ranks 20th in the most numerous articles category.
More than these languages to name a few.

21 Czech
22 Slovak
23 Hungarian
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias

Awkward?
Anything that is generally new to people tends to be awkward. That changes with practise. I can vouch for that personally.
Never use it? I think I answered that.
European based?
Ask the thousands of asian speakers if they'd rather learn Esperanto or English, French or one of the the other rule riddled languages (and ALL of their exceptions). The only reason that they would say any but Esperanto is because of the coverage that English has. That however is changing.
Pax Americana is coming to a close. Of course that will draw some scoffs. Naturally when you stand in a very small segment of history, you draw conclusions from that small segment. The Romans thought they would last forever too. The Nazi's were supposed to last 1000 years. Only 994 years short!
(Let's be clear on this. I view the demise of the Nazis as a good thing)
When you stand back and view history as a whole, and watch as history repeats itself, you can draw conclusions from a firmer perspective.
The real value of Esperanto lies in its desire to allow other languages to thrive right along side of it. As an AUXILIARY language, it serves as a means of communication between cultures, and allows tham to continue to grow and enrich human kind much as thay have always done.
The best observable item that says it's making progress is the fact that Esperanto (UEA) holds observer status (Class 'B') at the UN and UNESCO.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Esperanto_Association
The Iranians atempted to have Esperanto included in the League of Nations as a working language in the 20's, but the French killed that. They didn't want to loose the prestige of owning the "International tongue of diplomacy". The Americans pulled the same thing in the 50's.
Sooner or later, the $600 million plus that is spent on translation services at the UN and the similar amount spent at the EU is going to cause a big problem. (Actually, it already has). Then someone is going to go looking for a solution, and they'll find it right on their door step. The question has already been raised a number of times in the EU.
Think about this. What could you do with 1.2 Billion+ USD a year?
Christianity was very slow in making the progress that it did. Not without bumps either. Yet it took hold, and florished.
Hummm, similarity? Time will tell.

Research and draw your own conclusions.

Ĝis!...Show more

In the years since Esperanto was invented, it does not seem to have come to much. Indeed, examine such international concerns as the United Nations and Swissair and see if they do any sort of business in Esperanto. The artificial language known as Esperanto is little more than an intellectual curiosity now. And in most quarters, not even that....Show more

Esperanto is really a language you can explain all what you think and feel in it. It's a language like any other living language because you can translate all into Esperanto.
There exist already a lot of translated poems and books in Esperanto starting with works of Goethe, Shakespeare or Hugo and Andersen... And you can find quite a lot of writers who use this language for publishing books.
And the advantage of Esperanto? It's a neutral, regular and easily to learn language which offers the same rights for all nations, no giving more rights to any nation.
Some sources mean that there are more than 2 millions of speakers of Esperanto around the world, of course on different level because you have to learn this language, too.
But you can learn it easily in six weeks... because there is no exception in the grammar and words are taken from the European languages.
I wish it could be used in International conferences - and without translations...
ivoRi...Show more

In spite of the oft-heard joke ("You speak Esperanto like a native!") there are actually a couple of thousand native speakers of the language—mostly children of international couples who use Esperanto in the home because it is the only common language they share. In some cases these children are second- or even third-generation native speakers. I've met quite a few; they're remarkable.

The phenomenon of international marriages thanks to Esperanto is so common that some speakers jokingly refer to the language as Edzperanto (edz- = "husband/wife", peranto = "broker"), and there is even an Esperanto magazine for these families called Rondo Familia.

For more information:

The latest issue of "Rondo Familia": http://www.uea.org/rondo_familia/el.php?nro=48
More about native speakers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Esperanto_speakers...Show more

I don't understand what's so great about it. It looks like the romance languages, but nobody speaks it really. I think if someone to make an artificial language for easy communication, it should be as simple as possible (i.e. none of that masculine feminine crap). Esperanto really isn't, and I can't see its advantages over existing languages....Show more