“Star trek” Languages Inc.

You know, after visiting hundreds of really bad schools of English in half a dozen cities in Mexico, I thought I had seen it all. What a fool I was. Tonight as I was walking past our local branch of the University of Bugtussle (well, it actually has absolutely no connection with any university in Bugtussle, they just use the name “Bugtussle” because, well, I guess they use it because it sounds better than calling it the “University of Screw You”. This outfit has several buildings downtown and they are making money hand over fist by, frankly, cheating every poor SOB that walks through the door expecting a useful education. The main thing that students learn at this place is that there is no end to the number of ways that scam artists will try to steal your money.                

Simplified Spanglish; Donde es Doktoro Esperanto?

Hey, how about that Esperanto? And no, I’m not talking about a first baseman from the Dodgers, or the latest coffee concoction from Starbucks (although it sounds like it might taste good), but that attempt at creating an international language, by Pole Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof (1859-1917). He first published his work in 1887 using the pseudonym “Doktoro Esperanto” (‘Doctor Hopeful’). “Doktoro Esperanto”, what a great pen name, sounds kind of like some guy that el Santo el Emascarado del Plata might run into in the lucha libre ring.                                                          

Zamenhof began working on his idea as a teenager. Living in eastern Europe he had  variety in his language background. Russian was used in his home. Yiddish, Polish and Hebrew were used in the community. French, German, English, Greek and Latin were taught in the schools.

In his later life he proposed a world religion. He called it Homaranismo, which means “member of the human race”. This guy was full of good intentions, as his religion was predicated on peace, tolerance, and the unity of peoples. Not a bad place to start!