What do you think of Interlingua?

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• Why do you think it "sucks"?

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  by enermazing on November 4th, 2009

• for me part of what makes a language interesting is the culture that goes with it. the music. the food (in whatever country it's spoken). the cute girls that you get to practice on. made-up languages--sign language included--there's none of that. for me it's a shell of an experience.

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  by Don Quixote el Manchego on November 4th, 2009

• I'm sure you, as a linguist, know that a language (in any of its forms) and culture develop together, that language is part of and essential to culture. So maybe Interlingua is simply not old enough, or not spoken by enough people?
  
  Apart from that, wouldn't a shared language help to develop a shared culture? Or, at least help people from different cultures to share their experiences, exchange opinions - and maybe find some common denominators?

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  by enermazing on November 4th, 2009

• absolutely. all of those things are true and important. but for me there's something amazing about the history and organic development of language. tracing documents from charlemagne's time to see when french and german started diverge/emerge. looking at the 1400yr. old language of the qur'an and comparing it to an arabic news website. or even digging deep into old and middle english to better understand how modern english ticks. that thrills me. and amazes me.
  
  exchange is great, but i'd rather see everyone speaking 3-4 languages each and be able to communicate ideas in the flavor of the moment as opposed to a frankenstein hodge-podge where no one has native jokes and the history of the constituent parts is muddled or unavailable.

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  by Don Quixote el Manchego on November 4th, 2009

• re: history and organic development: that is one of the things i appreciate most about interlingua, that it is not as artificial as esperanto, but based on the roots (vocabulary & grammar) of a small, defined set of languages. it may be assembled, but it has a long history
  - sorry, must stop, the owner of the computer just arrived ;)

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  by enermazing on November 4th, 2009

• i'm back, for the moment - the computer is my husband's, plus i am sitting at his desk in order to use it ;)
  
  what i want to add is this: it is not difficult to interest someone who knows 2 or 3 languages already in learning more. but it is very difficult to motivate someone to learn a second language, especially as many people had bad experiences in school, shut off when they hear the word "grammar", and in general believe they are just "not good at learning languages". interlingua has all the components and advantages that would make it an excellent, and quickly rewarding pre-course "how to learn a language" (for anglo/roman native speakers), and i'm surprised that this hasn't happened long since

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  by enermazing on November 4th, 2009