Esperanto is an artificial language constructed in 1887 by the eye specialist Dr Ludovic Zamenhof. Having experienced ethnic divisions and language barriers growing up in Poland, he aimed to create an easy-to-learn second language that could transcend cultural and political differences and further international peace. Although Zamenhof’s goal of a universal auxiliary language was not realized, today there are 1.6 million Esperanto speakers in more than 90 different countries. Using an alphabet comprised of five vowels and 23 consonants, Esperanto is based on Indo-European languages. Its grammar has logical rules with no irregular verbs, and its spellings are phonetic, making Esperanto about five times easier for a native English speaker to learn than French or Spanish. While some Esperanto speakers still advocate the adoption of the language worldwide, other proponents see its value primarily as a language-teaching tool. Esperanto is on the curriculum in countries including China and Hungary, but it is not taught in British schools because it lacks an associated culture. Its lack of culture is a common criticism levied at Esperanto, yet its neutrality was intended to foster equality between speakers. Detractors also argue that Esperanto’s linguistic roots give an unfair advantage to speakers of European languages. The newer constructed language Loglan is based on logic and uses the world’s six most widely spoken languages – Arabic, Mandarin, English, Hindi, Russian and Spanish – as its vocabulary’s source.