<p>Ido still has a small speech community, so by learning Ido you join that community and you can communicate with fellow <em>samideanoj</em>. Note that the community is small, probably eurocentric, and aging. You are engaging in a very special and rare hobby, I'd say.</p>
<p>Second, Ido is to a high degree mutually intelligible with Esperanto, so learning Ido will give you access to Esperanto, too. However, if you want to become an Esperantist, you should of course learn the original Esperanto instead.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-19T10:35:51.320Z
No, I don't have time to learn useless language. I already understand a great deal of English and now I m learning Spanish. I was just trying to understand if they could be somewhat useful.  No matter how easy a language may be. If no use it in real life, it is practically useless.
Superhuman
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-21T09:37:09.947Z
@Superhuman usefulness entirely depends on your linguistic environment - there are people that never find Spanish (or even English) useful, and if you study linguistics, any language knowledge will give you *some* useful information for your study. You can sometimes deliberately construct your environment to skew it towards certain language, but based on my completely unsubstantiated gut feeling, no, neither Ido nor Esperanto would be useful to you.
Radovan Garabík
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-18T09:48:19.420Z
2021-10-18T09:48:19.420Z
Sir Cornflakes
<p><em>Note: the formulation of the question has changed after I submitted my response: originally it was about conlangs with Ido as a specific example. Hence my answer is not so much about Ido in particular, but conlangs in general.</em></p>
<p>Esperanto is widely spoken all over the world, and is thus practically useful for communication; less widely used languages either have their own enthusiasts' communities (eg toki pona). Other, more obscure languages won't have that.</p>
<p>But they can still be useful in a variety of ways:</p>
<ul>
<li>expanding your horizon: learning a new language gets you to think in a different way (see the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sapir-Whorf hypothesis</a>) from your native one. This is one reason toki pona was designed the way it was: the limited vocabulary forces you to shed aspects of meaning that are not essential for what you want to say. Klingon has a very lop-sided vocabulary, which again makes it easy to express some aspects, but hard to reason about others. This applies both to natural languages (through attached cultures) and constructed languages.</li>
<li>easier language learning: this is especially valid for Esperanto. A conlang is often more regular, so learners can learn about concepts of linguistics without worrying too much about exceptions to myriad rules. There is an actual programme (whose name escapes me) where Esperanto is taught as the first foreign language to school kids. This makes it easier for them to learn subsequent languages and they progress faster (even taking into account the additional time of learning Esperanto)</li>
<li>in-group communication: if you and your friends share an obscure conlang, you can use it to communicate in secret in public. Or you might find it easier to talk about a shared hobby (eg going to the extreme of jargon use by turning it into a language). Or you could write a secret diary in it.</li>
<li>more concise expression: in computing you have the concept of DSLs (domain specific languages). You can design a conlang which is suited specifically for a particular purpose (expressing emotions, describing inter-personal relationships, mathematics, etc). Natural languages are general purpose languages, but with a conlang you can hone in on areas that you are interested in, and ignore others. This again relates to linguistic relativity in a way.</li>
<li>game/recreational use: you can use a conlang as an 'exotic' language for NPC in games to make them more realistic. The player can then pick up the language (or learn it, if it is a more well-known conlang) and communicate with the NPCs. Or you could write songs in a conlang (who understands song lyrics anyway!) Or write poetry.</li>
<li>...</li>
</ul>
<p>I personally found Esperanto easy to learn, and when learning other European languages you notice a cross-over in vocabulary. As I learned other languages before, it didn't really give me a better understanding of languages per se (I'd actually studied linguistics by that time already), but I can imagine that it makes it easier to acquire natural languages. I'm not familiar with Ido, so I cannot say anything specifically to that.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-15T11:01:00.483Z
I'm not familar with either of them, I was just trying to understand to understand if they are useful in some ways.
Superhuman
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-15T11:06:50.377Z
I wanted to know if learning languages like that is not a bit like learning about Krypton planet from DC Comics. Based on what I found on wikipedia, it seems like ido is an improved version of esperanto so I thought it would be easier. May you please tell me in which country Esperanto is spoken.
Superhuman
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-15T11:29:13.650Z
@Superhuman Esperanto is spoken all over the world.
Oliver Mason
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-15T11:31:59.843Z
The only place where I've heard of Esperanto is on the web. Can you at least give me a country where it is spoken?
Superhuman
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-15T13:45:14.133Z
I have spoken it in the UK, and I personally know of speakers in France and Germany.
Oliver Mason
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-16T06:17:06.357Z
@SuperHuman "Can you at least give me a country where it is spoken?" — I am quite sure there are Esperanto communities in pretty much every country of the world. Maybe with the exception of DPRK and Vatican.
Radovan Garabík
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-16T12:22:30.437Z
@Radovan What about Ido since my question was about the easier Ido language?
Superhuman
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-17T10:50:29.777Z
@Superhuman well, Esperanto has a vibrant (though slowly declining) worldwide community, a lot of literature, radio broadcasts, huge online presence... I am not familiar with Ido community, but I guess apart from a handful of enthusiasts and some literature it has none of that in any significant volume. And the only significant reasons why Ido would be easier (depends on what languages you already speak, of course) than Esperanto is more familiar vocabulary for Romance language speakers, and the lack of accusative.
Radovan Garabík
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-25T12:04:09.557Z
@RadovanGarabík -- You can take the Vatican off that list. There is a rather active association of Catholic Esperantists and Pope Pius X was apparently rather in favour of the E-o movement. And the Vatican broadcasts in Esperanto as well several times a week.
elemtilas
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-10-15T08:38:38.423Z
2021-10-21T08:15:24.473Z
2021-10-21T08:15:24.473Z
Oliver Mason
<p>Constructed languages such as Ido are easy but is there anyway it is helpful. Do they have any purpose in real life other than being an experiment?</p>

<ido>
How is Ido helpful in everyday's life?
# How is Ido helpful in everyday's life?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-10-15)

Constructed languages such as Ido are easy but is there anyway it is helpful. Do they have any purpose in real life other than being an experiment?

**Tags:** ido


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-10-18. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Ido still has a small speech community, so by learning Ido you join that community and you can communicate with fellow *samideanoj*. Note that the community is small, probably eurocentric, and aging. You are engaging in a very special and rare hobby, I'd say.

Second, Ido is to a high degree mutually intelligible with Esperanto, so learning Ido will give you access to Esperanto, too. However, if you want to become an Esperantist, you should of course learn the original Esperanto instead.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: No, I don't have time to learn useless language. I already understand a great deal of English and now I m learning Spanish. I was just trying to understand if they could be somewhat useful.  No matter how easy a language may be. If no use it in real life, it is practically useless.  
> **username_2**: @username_0 usefulness entirely depends on your linguistic environment - there are people that never find Spanish (or even English) useful, and if you study linguistics, any language knowledge will give you *some* useful information for your study. You can sometimes deliberately construct your environment to skew it towards certain language, but based on my completely unsubstantiated gut feeling, no, neither Ido nor Esperanto would be useful to you.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2021-10-15. Score: 3

*Note: the formulation of the question has changed after I submitted my response: originally it was about conlangs with Ido as a specific example. Hence my answer is not so much about Ido in particular, but conlangs in general.*

Esperanto is widely spoken all over the world, and is thus practically useful for communication; less widely used languages either have their own enthusiasts' communities (eg toki pona). Other, more obscure languages won't have that.

But they can still be useful in a variety of ways:

* expanding your horizon: learning a new language gets you to think in a different way (see the [Sapir-Whorf hypothesis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity)) from your native one. This is one reason toki pona was designed the way it was: the limited vocabulary forces you to shed aspects of meaning that are not essential for what you want to say. Klingon has a very lop-sided vocabulary, which again makes it easy to express some aspects, but hard to reason about others. This applies both to natural languages (through attached cultures) and constructed languages.
* easier language learning: this is especially valid for Esperanto. A conlang is often more regular, so learners can learn about concepts of linguistics without worrying too much about exceptions to myriad rules. There is an actual programme (whose name escapes me) where Esperanto is taught as the first foreign language to school kids. This makes it easier for them to learn subsequent languages and they progress faster (even taking into account the additional time of learning Esperanto)
* in-group communication: if you and your friends share an obscure conlang, you can use it to communicate in secret in public. Or you might find it easier to talk about a shared hobby (eg going to the extreme of jargon use by turning it into a language). Or you could write a secret diary in it.
* more concise expression: in computing you have the concept of DSLs (domain specific languages). You can design a conlang which is suited specifically for a particular purpose (expressing emotions, describing inter-personal relationships, mathematics, etc). Natural languages are general purpose languages, but with a conlang you can hone in on areas that you are interested in, and ignore others. This again relates to linguistic relativity in a way.
* game/recreational use: you can use a conlang as an 'exotic' language for NPC in games to make them more realistic. The player can then pick up the language (or learn it, if it is a more well-known conlang) and communicate with the NPCs. Or you could write songs in a conlang (who understands song lyrics anyway!) Or write poetry.
* ...

I personally found Esperanto easy to learn, and when learning other European languages you notice a cross-over in vocabulary. As I learned other languages before, it didn't really give me a better understanding of languages per se (I'd actually studied linguistics by that time already), but I can imagine that it makes it easier to acquire natural languages. I'm not familiar with Ido, so I cannot say anything specifically to that.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I'm not familar with either of them, I was just trying to understand to understand if they are useful in some ways.  
> **username_0**: I wanted to know if learning languages like that is not a bit like learning about Krypton planet from DC Comics. Based on what I found on wikipedia, it seems like ido is an improved version of esperanto so I thought it would be easier. May you please tell me in which country Esperanto is spoken.  
> **username_3**: @username_0 Esperanto is spoken all over the world.  
> **username_0**: The only place where I've heard of Esperanto is on the web. Can you at least give me a country where it is spoken?  
> **username_3**: I have spoken it in the UK, and I personally know of speakers in France and Germany.  
> **username_2**: @SuperHuman "Can you at least give me a country where it is spoken?" — I am quite sure there are Esperanto communities in pretty much every country of the world. Maybe with the exception of DPRK and Vatican.  
> **username_0**: @Radovan What about Ido since my question was about the easier Ido language?  
> **username_2**: @username_0 well, Esperanto has a vibrant (though slowly declining) worldwide community, a lot of literature, radio broadcasts, huge online presence... I am not familiar with Ido community, but I guess apart from a handful of enthusiasts and some literature it has none of that in any significant volume. And the only significant reasons why Ido would be easier (depends on what languages you already speak, of course) than Esperanto is more familiar vocabulary for Romance language speakers, and the lack of accusative.  
> **username_4**: @RadovanGarabík -- You can take the Vatican off that list. There is a rather active association of Catholic Esperantists and Pope Pius X was apparently rather in favour of the E-o movement. And the Vatican broadcasts in Esperanto as well several times a week.  

---

