Smaller national languages are better represented in Esperanto than in English. Also, I show off some of my Esperanto books.

I discuss why I decided to learn Esperanto–for its interesting body of original literature.

I was reminded about this book the other day as I was listening to a UCSD Anthropology podcast. As a child I was taught the typical anti-evolution Christian ideology. I’ve always been one to do my own research and make up my own mind about things. I finally got around to evolution in college where I minored in anthropology and learned of the ridiculously large body of evidence for this “just a theory”. To be fair, I read this book to get a reasoned opinion from the anti-evolution camp.

Reading this book made me realize just how baseless these arguments are. In that sense, I’d like to rate it higher, however I fear such a rating would be misconstrued. I think that most people who read this book already have an unrational bias against evolution and little-to-no real knowledge of the actual evidence. For those people, I can see how this book might reinforce their ideology. For that, I want to give it negative 5 stars.

Some advice for living: learn some critical thinking skills then apply them to your beliefs. If you’re right, they’ll stand up to actual scrutiny. If you’re wrong, be an adult and admit it. In my experience, those most sure about their opinions are those who regurgitate crap they’ve taken on someone else’s authority.

This review was originally posted on Goodreads. In response to a comment on book recommendations I wrote the following:

My recommendations will be a little idiosyncratic since I will only recommend things I’ve personally read, but here it goes.

I learned the bulk from my college textbooks (and classes), which while effective, are perhaps not the most compelling reading. My memory is a decade old now, but I think the main text was Biological Anthropology by Michael Park. There’s probably better ones.

As for books written for a popular audience, the clearest and most comprehensive case I’ve read is The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins. However, the problem with recommending this book is that Dawkins is notorious and can be a turn off. Why Evolution is True and Beak of the Finch are also good (though I’ve only skimmed these–who wants to read the same book 5 times?). I’ve also learned a lot from Stephen Jay Gould’s books.

But honestly, I would recommend reading Origin of Species itself in addition to something like the above. (Or at least the first half and final chapter.) While it doesn’t contain all the latest evidence, Darwin is very persuasive in his own right and does address many of the criticisms people are still using against him. It is telling to see what he said 150+ years ago and how discovery has borne him out. Also, it makes you realize how tone-deaf his opponents have been.

I didn’t realize it fully at the time, but the reader in the second half of this book is top-notch. Of course, Zamenhof’s few original poems are there, but you also get readings from his letters about creating the language, and a short biographical piece. There are running serials of correspondence and travel logs which is decent reading. Among the last of the selections are William Auld’s poem Ebrio and excerpts from Baghy’s Sur Sanga Tero and Tibor Sekelj’s book about his travels in the Amazon–all of which were originally composed in Esperanto.

My two textbook recommendations for new learners would be this book and the now out-of-print 3rd edition of Teach Yourself Esperanto. From these you can go straight into real Esperanto literature.

Note: This was originally posted in the How to Learn Any Language forum

Hello all. Since I’ve stuck with my language studies long enough to know it’s not a passing fad (4 months so far), I thought it might be nice to put together a member profile. I’ve always been an introverted bookworm and autodidact. The past 5 years or so have been a self-learner’s dream as universities have posted so much great audio and video lecture material. But since much of it is of the “freshman survey” variety, it occurred to me that I’d studied the equivalent of a couple bachelor’s degrees this way. At the same time, I got a job which required a lot of international travel and really became aware of how ignorant I am of other cultures (though I consider myself well above the average American in that department). It hit me that languages are this vast uncharted territory for me that, while worth learning for their own sake, provide direct access to the best that other cultures have to offer. So, as this post’s title says, my interest in other languages is as a means to access the literature of cultures of which I am ignorant as well as to deepen my knowledge of those of which I am familiar.

The most intriguing post I’ve read on HTLAL is this one by Dr. Arguelles wherein he describes his “ideal well-educated” person. This is exactly the approach I’ve taken to my own (non-language) studies.

ProfArguelles wrote: In general, I think that well-educated individuals in my ideal world should know a) the classical language(s) of their own civilization, b) the major living languages of their broader culture, c) the international language (English) if this is not one of these or a semi-exotic if it is, and d) one exotic language of their own choosing.

This sounds daunting, but here he crunches the numbers and it certainly does seem like a reasonable lifetime goal for me. Taking his criteria as a baseline, I’d like to have some competence in (roughly ordered by interest):

• Greek (Ancient)
• Latin
• Esperanto
• French
• Italian
• Old/Mid. English
• German
• Russian
• Hebrew
• Spanish
• Chinese

Notice that practicality isn’t an important factor for me. ;-) I’m 4 months into Greek, a month into Esperanto, and loving it.

Finally, a big thanks to all on HTLAL. I’ve picked up so much great information on how to go about my studies and reading about other’s success is a real inspiration.