Kerry Taylor-Leech has also published an article on this blog, in response to my article, further making the case for aid workers coming in to a country learning about the local language ecology, and indeed learning a locally used language (a point you make too). She makes a good case for this using the example of Timor Leste. http://languageonthemove.com/language-globalization/english-and-development-aid-work

Sorry to prolong disagreement, but isn’t Esperanto highly Eurocentric? As someone with good knowledge of English and Spanish, plus not so good proficiency in Portuguese, Italian and French, it seems quite familiar with no real Esperanto study. You say it only takes 150 hours to learn, but for someone proficient in what languages to start with?

Sorry, once sent, I cannot edit it.

For your information, UNESCO recommended the use of Esperanto since 1954 and it would be 60 years of celebration in 2014.

Read the resolutions here.

http://www;lingvo.org/un

I was surprise to know that your perception of Esperanto is in the 80s but not in the internet age. I would not like to argue with your further. If you like to know more of Esperanto, contact the Australia Esperanto Association which just celebrated 100 years not too long ago.

May I know the aid workers do not need translator from the local to carry out the work, certainly, in your case it was teaching English, but if you are going to teach the Vietnamese how to conserve the fish, you either have to learn Vietnamese or get a translator to tag along the entire period of your stay.

Besides, the Glabal Voices, the 4th largest community media also has the Global Voices en Esperanto. Of course the other top 3, Wilki, Youtube and BBC, of the three, wilkipedia has Esperanto version long time ago, Youtube has Esperanto short films in hundreds if not thousands.BBC which pride to be world largest media has no Esperanto programme but China Radio International is going to celebrate 50 years of its Esperanto section.

http://eo.globalvoicesonline.org/

http://esperanto.cri.cn

Looking into the future is more important than the past, learning Esperanto needs only 150 hours. One can find Esperanto speakers in 130 countries.

Look, if transferring knowledge is the goal, a language with as few speakers as Esperanto seems a wildly impractical choice. Why would people with limited resources want to (or even be practically able to) access Esperanto classes or other ways of learning Esperanto?

Personally, I support aid workers (paid or volunteer) learning the language of their destination to better integrate with the community and better understand their workplace (a point A D Lee raises in a comment above). I think that’s much more valuable than expecting aid workers to learn Esperanto.

Thanks for picking me up on this. Cyndi. Of course native speakers and aid workers are of many ethnicities. I am quite conscious of that in my own experiences but I should have qualified para 3 to make that clear. The point I was making is that some aid workers can see the instance that they help with English as just another part of a skill-free “contribution” their host organisation is expecting of them, in contrast to meaningful work they want to do.

I agree English is extremely practical to access knowledge, but in my experience volunteers and aid workers who dislike “English work” have been genuine about making a contribution rather than in it to cultivate an image. The problem, I believe, is in people not thinking of their English as a skill that they’re supposed to transferring as part of their work.

I was pained down to my ass when I saw the word volunteer. How these volunteers are able to help the local people to gain some knowledge. English is almost equal to the white skin especially in Asia countries. The volunteering association whether is well organised or cheating on the volunteers as you can read more on the Cambodia orphanage issues.

If more people and government in the world could accept Esperanto, which is recommended by UNESCO for international communication, it would let the truly volunteers transferring their knowledge to the needy.

You can watch this video tape from the new agency. Certainly, the Esperantists are addicted to the congress instead of volunteering more as I have stated in my blog article in Esperanto Dependuloj de kongresoj

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hf_snNO9X8

The myth of English is the international language will go on for decades unless the governments in many countries can be less corrupted.

Despite the 2008 report from The Telegraph, the English crazy is not slowing down with my country is making English language a compulsory pass before the candidate can get the SPM certificate, the act, which will kill many talents and in the end, would have to be like Singapore, importing talents from overseas.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1582954/English-will-turn-into-Panglish-in-100-years.html

http://qz.com/96054/english-is-no-longer-the-language-of-t

English is almost indisputably practical; An aid worker favoring not being seen as contributing to Linguistic Imperialism should ask themselves why they are really trying to be an aid worker. Are they really trying to make a practical contribution to improving the lives of others, or instead primarily trying to cultivate a certain image?