Esperanto was to become a universal language that would bring together enemies and friends in harmony across linguistic boundaries. This is how Ludwik Zamenhof, its inventor, a Jewish doctor in the Tsarist Russia of the 1800’s described his hopes for this language of peace:

“In Bialystok the inhabitants were divided into four distinct elements: Russians, Poles, Germans and Jews; each of these spoke their own language and looked on all the others as enemies. In such a town a sensitive nature feels more acutely than elsewhere the misery caused by language division and sees at every step that the diversity of languages is the first, or at least the most influential, basis for the separation of the human family into groups of enemies…This was always a great torment to my infant mind, although many people may smile at such an ‘anguish for the world’ in a child. Since at that time I thought that ‘grown-ups’ were omnipotent, so I often said to myself that when I grew up I would certainly destroy this evil.”

http://www.u-matthias.de/latino/latin_en.htm#3

I think of Dr. Zamenhof wistfully as I engage in wars of understanding with myriads voice-activated devices and customer service lines. I seem to be at war with each of them, and they are definitely at war with each other. My car navigation wants me to distinctly enunciate SAN FRANCISCO as two separate words, while my AT&T directory doesn’t recognize the word no matter what I do; United customer service wants me to speak in a natural tone while my medical clinic expects me to sound like a robot; the satellite TV service likes high voices while the teleconference service I use is distinctly biased against women. When asked how many languages I speak, I can proudly say Russian, English, Ukrainian, bits of German and French, in addition to Sears toaster, car GPS, Aetna help line, and many others. I used to speak WildfFre (telephone based voice recognition agent) but I am a bit rusty now so don’t try to speak WildFire with me.

Esperanto in its own language means “one who hopes.” I hope that in the very near future there will emerge an Esperanto for appliances and customer services. I want harmony and peace to reign in my car, in my home, and anywhere and everywhere I go. Please?!!!

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