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My Experiences travelling with Esperanto | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6437 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 1 of 14 31 October 2009 at 12:18am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Voyaging in Esperantujo.
By the request of the administrator of this forum, I'm sharing some of my experiences traveling around Esperantujo this summer. First, a bit of background about Esperanto may be worthwhile. Esperanto is a constructed language, created over a century ago. The number of speakers is unknown, but realistic estimates range from hundreds of thousands up to two million; an estimated 1000-2000 are native speakers. It is the primary language of some households and organizations, but isn't the dominant language of any larger region. Most people live their whole lives without ever hearing of Esperanto. Others live almost exclusively in it, for months or years. The internet has greatly increased the accessibility of Esperanto, but pre-internet traditions of international meetings and staying in other speakers homes remain strong. This summer, I spent approximately one month traveling with 1-3 of my Esperanto-speaking friends, visiting 3 events in 3 countries and staying with Esperanto speakers between them - I was hosted by the friends I was traveling with, with one exception. Due to the size of the events and my preference for anonymity, I won't name the events or the countries here, but this post closes with lists of events for those who might want to try one out. All three events lasted approximately one week each. This post also introduces some cultural terms and concepts, most of which I learned at events. The first event was aimed at young adults who speak Esperanto. We gathered in a large student dorm, abandoned for the summer, and started setting up. A perfectly normal Eastern European building was transformed into a slice of Esperantujo. Signs started to appear all over, in Esperanto, with everything from directions to bathrooms, information about event registration, to advertisements about Esperanto musical events. The important signs in the local language had Esperanto translations posted next to them. People started trickling in, from all over the world. Most were young adults. As at all Esperanto events with more than a few dozen people I've attended, people came disproportionately from nearby countries - it's simply more convenient to attend Esperanto events which are nearby. While the largest foreign groups were Russian, French, and German participants, and lots of local participants were present, countries such as China, the USA, Brazil, Slovakia, Slovenia, and regions such as Catalonia were also represented; I would guess that about half the attendees were from the local country and a handful of the most-represented foreign countries, and half were from the rest. The days passed quickly. There were parallel tracks of lectures in Esperanto every day, on subjects from historical and regional dances of several cultures, to political and religious views, to pen spinning. There were also classes for learning the basics of the local language, and any other language people wanted to teach, taught in Esperanto, though the relevancy varied - the Polish class for beginners taught useful phrases such as "you have big, blue eyes" - ask a non-prudish Pole what this means, because it's not what it sounds like. Most participants were fluent in Esperanto, but there were Esperanto classes daily for anyone who wasn't and wanted to improve, taught in the local language. Esperanto classes for learners at Esperanto events are a rather unique cultural experience. I didn't attend any this summer, but I did at one previous event, for intermediate speakers. At that event, there were about two dozen students, probably representing over a dozen countries and native languages. The language of instruction, Esperanto, was our only common language, and functioned quite well, but some kind polyglots were happy to translate occasional difficult words into Spanish, German, French, English, etc. Speaking of polyglots, one highlight of Esperanto events for some polyglots is the "aligatorejo". Literally this means "alligator place", from the Esperanto verb "aligatori" - "to alligator", which means to speak in a non-native, non-Esperanto language. The rules are simple: each participants writes his/her native language(s) down (a post-it note on the chest is common), a separator, and a list of other languages, excluding Esperanto, which s/he speaks. People then wander around and talk in pairs or small groups in whatever common languages they can find, but no one can speak his/her native language(s) or Esperanto. There tend to be fairly large groups speaking French and English, while those who non-natively speak Dutch or Swedish are lucky if they can find anyone to speak to (... because the native speakers of those languages aren't supposed to speak them - though it's relaxed and casual enough that native speakers of the less-spoken foreign languages often talk briefly to those who have learned them). I can usually find a few halting Italian speakers, and listen in on people trying to speak Spanish. There are generally a few Japanese or Mandarin speakers of various levels at the aligatorejo, sometimes including a native speaker or two. The aligatorejo doesn't always occur, but all it takes to start one is mentioning to the event organizers that you'll organize one, deciding on a large room that has some free space, deciding on the time(s) to hold it, and advertising it on the walls and the schedule. This is a remarkable trait of the Esperanto events I've been to - they're more open to anyone organizing almost anything than any other type of event I've seen, and are beautifully interesting, quirky, and unique as a result. On top of this, all kinds of small spontaneous events - I played a Brazilian instrument that looks like an oversized archery bow and sang in a language I don't know the name of - or even if it was a language. Lest you think that Esperanto events are like some kind of tedious summer school, I'll reveal a secret: a lot of the participants simply don't go to the lectures, which are entirely optional, because they stayed up too late partying. The Esperanto events with over a hundred people which I've attended have had discos, live concerts (usually primarily in Esperanto, though some people like to sing in national languages too - I've heard a bit of the local languages of the events, a bit of French, a bit of Russian, and then there are a few songs and concerts which I can only describe as "explosively multilingual"), and a "trinkejo", or place to buy drinks. "Trinki" is "to drink" (in the general sense, including water, tea, and juice), while "drinki" is "to drink alcoholic beverages". "Trinkejo" means "place for drinking", but the signs for it tend to be quickly and light-heartedly defaced to say "drinkejo", or "place for alcoholic drinks". Some events also have a "gufujo", or "owl-place", where people sit in small groups in dim light, listen to music, drink tea, and talk for hours about whatever they want to; some people almost live here while it's open, while others stop by to cool off from the disco or trinkejo, or to get something warm to drink between games at the "ludejo". The ludejo is the "game place", where people play board and card games, and the only one of these places to also be open during the day. After a week of enjoying the "mojosa" ("cool", abbreviated from "moderna juna stilo" - modern youth style) atmosphere of the first event, it was time to hop on a caravan to the second. "Karavanoj", or caravans, are gatherings of groups of Esperanto speakers going to, from, or between events - generally by conventional means of travel, such as trains. A night train and a few adventures later, I arrived at the second event. This event was one of the smaller and quirkier events I'm aware of. Almost all the participants were from different countries, and it was extremely fun. Esperanto was just a backdrop at this event - we talked to each other in it, but our focus was on what we were doing; I was by far the least advanced adult speaker there. The actual events had some unusual highlights - I spent 5 hours digging a friend out of quicksand that hardened into a slightly damp cement-like consistency around one of his legs - but as they aren't particularly Esperanto-related, let's proceed to being hosted by an Esperanto speaker. Esperanto speakers are a varied bunch - from Nobel prize winners and nominees, through translators and programmers, and onto squatters. Speaking Esperanto provides a glimpse into a wide range of people's lives. I was hosted by a former translator and grandmother, in a major European city; the friend I was traveling with met her years ago, but I'd met her just a week before. She spoke Esperanto extremely well, and was both nice about linguistic blunders and instantly able to provide translations of words like "eggplant" into Esperanto - though for politeness, I tried to dig through her massive dictionaries (English to her native language) for the few words I both needed and didn't know and couldn't easily explain in Esperanto, though this generally ended up with my pointing to the word in her native language after she couldn't understand my pronunciation - I had almost no knowledge of her language, and have never studied it. I don't know how well she spoke English, as we never spoke it with each other, though given that she could instantly translate a handful of Esperanto words I didn't understand into the corresponding English bird names, etc, I suspect she probably spoke it well. My host had a rather large book collection, including a lot of Esperanto books, which I enjoyed looking through, and she was talkative - mainly about her family. It was an interesting glimpse into a life very different from my own, and good Esperanto practice. As is customary in Esperanto hosting, staying there was free, and as usual in hosting, a bit of doing dishes or grocery shopping for the host certainly isn't required, but is polite during a longer stay. Moving on, I spent a while at the house of an Esperanto speaking friend in a less exotic area, catching my breath a bit - though this really didn't count as immersion of any sort, because we hardly spoke any Esperanto during these few days. It's not our strongest common language, and after a while in Esperantujo, many people like to spend a while speaking other languages. A few days later, I attended a third Esperanto event, somewhat similar to the first, but smaller. I enjoyed conversations, board games, live music, and all the other typical fun stuff. Esperanto is small enough that people are quite accessible - I took advantage to this to sit at tables with people conversing in Frisian and Portuguese, and I have to heartily recommend this course of action to any Esperanto speaker interested in languages. After all of this, the time had come to leave Esperantujo for the summer, and I gradually wandered home, toting as many Esperanto books and music CDs as I could carry - the first and third events had tables filled with Esperanto T-shirts and cultural goods, including translations and anthologies from an unexpected range of languages and cultures. For the sake of my privacy, I didn't provide the names or countries of the above events (and for anyone who can guess, I'd prefer you not to), but for the sake of anyone interested in attending events, there are a few webpages which have partial lists, in Esperanto. http://www.eventoj.hu/ has a list of events in 2009 and later, with short and sometimes helpful descriptions. http://www.mondakalendaro.org/ has lists of events and a map of where in the world some events are occurring in the current month. Given the large number of events, and their varied focus - some are for young adults, some for kids, some for people with certain interests, etc, I'd strongly recommend asking an experienced Esperantist for recommendations. Especially if you're in or willing to travel to Europe, the forum member "Sprachprofi" is a good person to turn to. A number of people have written about their experiences with Esperanto. I recently read "In the land of Invented languages", and think the author describes Esperanto fairly well. Good luck, and I wish everyone enjoyable immersions in every language they seek. 28 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5965 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 14 31 October 2009 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Thank you for writing that. It's very well done and informative. I haven't been very curious about Esperanto, and it is not on my current list of interests, but I understand where it comes from and how it's used a little better after reading your article. I will read more about it now.
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| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6468 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 3 of 14 02 November 2009 at 4:41am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I agree with what you wrote, Volte. Some notes of my own:
At the aligatorejo, I do get to practise my less common languages because you can always speak to a native speaker in them, as long as the native speaker responds in a different language. I just love the brain fog you get from speaking 5 or more languages within the same half hour, always switching. I'm likely to be organizing the aligatorejo if nobody beats me to it. About speakers being a varied bunch: so true! There are Communists and Libertarians and Anarchists and people from the middle of the political spectrum. There are devout believers of every religion, plus agnostics and atheists. There is an above-average amount of vegetarians and vegans, but also plenty of "ĉionmanĝantoj" (people who eat anything). There are 50-year-old rebels and 20-year-old conformists. There is definitely a bias towards people who think for themselves and make their own decisions, independent of what the majority in their country might think or do. People get along well though; I've never yet witnessed an argument that got uncivil - except on the subject of how to run an Esperanto event. Plus I really like how approachable everybody is. It's easy to make friends and to celebrate joyful reunions after not seeing each other for half a year or more. Even those who enjoy fame in the Esperanto world participate in the events like everybody else and you may find yourself sitting next to them for lunch. People like Prof. Reinhard Selten - holds a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences Patrik Austin - lead singer of the hot Esperanto band Dolchamar (try Youtube) Bertilo Wennergren - wrote the definite grammar reference of Esperanto Ulrich Matthias - author of the popular novel "Fajron sentas mi interne" Jean-Marie Leclercq - is in the Guiness Book of Records for singing in the most languages and so on... Finally, 2010 might well be dubbed 'See the world with Esperanto Year'. Dec 27th to Jan 3rd: big international New Year's party in Poland Jan 5th to 9th and Jan 7th to 11th: two international New Year's parties in Brazil Jan 10th to 23rd: Australian summer Esperanto courses Jan 10th to 31st: Travel Angola with a group of Esperanto speakers Jan 26th to 29th: New Zealand Esperanto congress ... From now, just the highlights only Feb 27th to Mar 6th: Mediterranean Esperanto Week in France Mar 31st to Apr 6th: International Youth Festival (IJF) in Italy Apr 2nd to 9th: International Spring Week (PSI) in Germany May 28th to 30th: Boating in Lithuania Jun 5th to 19th: Group travel from Europe to Mongolia with the Transsiberian railway Jun 19th to 23rd: All-Asian Esperanto congress in Mongolia Jul 2nd to 10th: Summer Esperanto Studies in Slovakia Jul 17th to 24th: Universal Congress (the biggest Esperanto meeting) in Cuba Jul 24th to 31st: International Youth Congress (the biggest Esperanto meeting for young people) in Cuba Aug 3rd to 9th: International Youth Week in Hungary Aug 8th to 11th: International Meditation Meeting in Korea Oct 9th to 11th: Autumn Esperanto Meeting in the USA -- this is where information is fading out, as traditionally many later meetings haven't created websites yet. 9 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7154 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 4 of 14 04 November 2009 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Thanks, Volte. Although I'm at best indifferent to Esperanto (excepting the extreme views expressed by Esperantophobes and Esperantophiles), I still find your account to make for interesting reading. Many of your experiences (especially the less formal events or non-linguistic stuff) are similar to what usually happens when travelling with Couchsurfing or Hospitality Club. People belonging to either of these two organizations also organize for themselves gatherings (e.g. Hospitality Club members organize summer and winter camps), outings or longer trips. The difference being that Couchsurfing and Hospitality Club cast wider nets, so to speak as they're not like Pasporta Servo which fosters connections between travellers who can use Esperanto as a common tongue.
In any case, the ideas of community, international camaraderie and openness still hold, regardless of whichever language is being used or promoted. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5984 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 5 of 14 18 November 2009 at 6:27am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Wow, this sounds like tremendous fun. I've never gotten excited enough to start studying Esperanto yet, mostly because I've always had another language on my plate. But this confirms what I've experienced before, with regard to the Esperanto speakers that I've met. They always seem to be fascinating people, and I think I'd like to meet more of them.
It's also interesting to hear about the diverse political opinions amongst Esperantists, since most of the ones I've personally met have been Anarchists, and there's a history of Anarchist Esperanto speakers in China that I've read about. Perhaps I should take a stab at Esperanto in 2010, if I can spare some time from my German studies. Thanks for the exciting story! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| parasitius Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5996 days ago 220 posts - 323 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Cantonese, Polish, Spanish, French | Message 6 of 14 29 November 2009 at 10:50am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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My strongest impression is that Esperanto sounds like the perfect cure for anyone who's previously had a lot of frustrating experiences with target language natives showing hostility to you for learning their language. By definition, I guess, all Esperantists are not just tolerant (the best one can hope for with most natural languages) but actually enthusiastic about speaking YOUR target language (Esperanto) with you. That would be a huge boost
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| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6468 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 7 of 14 29 November 2009 at 11:17am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Indeed, sometimes it's hard to convince them NOT to speak Esperanto with you (e. g. if they're also a native speaker of another language you want to learn). I also routinely recommend Esperanto for people who had a frustrating experience learning another language at school and think that they're not smart enough to learn a foreign language. Esperanto is the only language that "pulled me along" rather than me having to find the motivation to study day after day after day. Edited by Sprachprofi on 29 November 2009 at 11:18am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6437 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 8 of 14 29 November 2009 at 12:33pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I have a friend who's a very good Esperanto speaker, and a native English speaker. He was perfectly happy to have very long, very technical conversations with me at my first Esperanto convention, in Esperanto, despite the way I mangled Esperanto at the time. It was great fun.
Good recommendation.
Same here. It helped that studying it to a conversational level was such a fast process. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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