There are many areas in the net which you can use for research, and also areas in which you can converse in a chosen language; for example French, Italian, etc. Theses are but a few of the indigineous languages of the world, but how many of you wondered what ever happened to the European language manufactured for unity in communications, business or otherwise...
you know... go on...
oh well I'll tell you then, it's . Well I suppose that the lack of enthusiasm is not held by all as there are still societies and groups who hold meetings etc on the net.
One of the aims for Esperanto was to avoid the need for expensive tranlations and translators, for the miasma of documentation that is used in the governing of activities within or reguarding the European Community. The only problem is that it would seem that translators for Esperanto would be needed to cater for the coutries with little or no involvement with this language.
The issue of language and identity is one which I am studying at the moment, it has given me quite a headache when I arrived at the question of language rights and whether or not all groups should (and effectivly - could) have the right to have representation in all areas of life, i.e. courts, schools, public buildings and places. These issues are tangled in a web of burocracy that insist on the financial implications of such rights. The confusion of which causes me some pretty big headaches in trying to assimilate a conclusive picture of how this issue is to be addressed from a linguist's point of view.
You can of course talk to foriegn language teachers about this, or enrole in various newsgroups and mailing lists. The lists of problems and languages suffering the control of burocratic stablisation (if this could be a correct term) is wide.
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