I was sitting here yesterday and I decided to learn Esperanto, the international language, and so I looked it up. Esperanto is incredibly easy to learn, as there are only sixteen grammar rules. I have decided to learn Esperanto (I'm thinking it'll take about a day to learn all the intricacies). Anyone have any thoughts on this language (perhaps about why only 2 million, as opposed to 6 billion, people speak it)? I'm also interested to hear if anyone knows esperanto here.

I don't know what Esperanto is. Perhaps you could enlighten me?

Esperanto is an invented language (mid 19th century, I think), designed to be easy to learn. I think the idea was that it could be a common language everyone could speak without any colonial overtones.

The timing was unfortunate, though, as it was first put forward just as the British Empire reached its pinnacle, making English the de facto global language - something that hasn't changed since British dominance waned because America took over as the world's dominant culture more or less straight away.

Which is why the British and Americans are so comparativedly lazy when it comes to learning foreign languages - if we want to do business with the French or Germans or Japanese, they mostly speak English anyway, so we don't have to bother.

Esperanto's biggest problem is that it is not a living language, it is an artificial one. There is, for want of a better word, an "organic" component to language that cannot be faked, a richness and complexity that, just like the people who speak it, is irrational, maddening and delightful at the same time. Until Esperanto is the first language a child learns, until it is infused with the delight of children playing games with words and sounds, it will never be more than an academic curiosity.

Which, perhaps, is a pity. Good luck with it though, perhaps you can be the Shakespeare of Esperanto.