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Has Anyone Here Used the Pasporta Servo? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Esperanto |  | |
| brian91 Senior Member Ireland Joined 5442 days ago 335 posts - 437 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 17 04 July 2010 at 9:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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From wisebread.com:
''Travel presents the classic conundrum: If you have the money you don't have the time, and if you have the time you don't have the money. ''You can travel on the cheap if you have friends or relatives that you can stay with. But even if you have some, they probably aren't all over the world, so your options are limited. Suppose, in addition to them, you had another twelve or thirteen hundred friends willing to give you a place to sleep? And suppose they lived in close to 100 different countries? Well, you very nearly do: The Passport Service. ''The Passport Service is a book with names and addresses of well over a thousand people (the number varies from year to year) willing to host international guests in their home for free. All you can count on is a place to sleep, but you're reasonably likely to also get a home cooked meal, some tips on places to see and things to do, and very possibly a local guide. ''There's a catch, though: the service is provided in Esperanto, and only Esperanto speakers are invited. Fortunately, Esperanto is really easy to learn. Anyone willing to study 30 or 40 minutes a day for a month or two can learn Esperanto well enough to use the Passport Service, even if they've never learned a second language before. It's not a spur-of-the-moment thing, but as I said at the start, this is an idea for people who find themselves in the "time but no money" category. ''How it works The key item that you need is the Passport Service (Pasporta Servo in Esperanto) book. In it you'll find names and address with contact information for people willing to host Esperanto speakers for free. You can buy the book for about $25. Alternatively, you can get the book for free if you agree to list your own home in it. ''Hosts are allowed to set pretty much any conditions for guests that they want. A lot of hosts say no smokers. Many hosts only have room for one or two guests. Some hosts don't accept guests during certain months of the year. Many only allow guests to stay for one or a few nights. But many others open their homes with few or no restrictions--except that the guests speak Esperanto. "Once you have the book, look through it for people who live in the places you want to visit. Use the contact information to inquire with the details of your planned trip. Some places may be unavailable, but most will be glad to have you. Repeat for as many places as you want to visit. Show up and get free places to sleep. ''A free place to sleep is all that's promised, but in fact, you get a lot more. The people who list their homes are people who want to make a connection with foreign travelers. They'll want to spend some time talking with you about your home and your trip. They'll also want to tell you about themselves and the place you're visiting. You might imagine that it would be difficult to have such a conversation in a language you've only been studying for a few weeks, but if you give it a try, you'll be surprised and pleased. Esperanto really is that easy to learn.'' So has anyone here used this service? It would certainly inspire me to learn Esperanto. :D brian1991  Edited by brian91 on 04 July 2010 at 9:50pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| brian91 Senior Member Ireland Joined 5442 days ago 335 posts - 437 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 17 04 July 2010 at 9:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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For that matter, has anyone here used couchsurfing.org?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6907 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 17 05 July 2010 at 1:12am | IP Logged | ||
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Benny Lewis (Irishpolyglot here on the forum) is a couchsurfer, and has written about it on his blog.
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| fielle Diglot Groupie Japan maliora.com Joined 5268 days ago 53 posts - 69 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German | Message 4 of 17 05 July 2010 at 3:06am | IP Logged | ||
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I have done couchsurfing once, and it worked out pretty well for me. I personally have not used the passport service, but a friend of mine did use some sort of Esperanto staying-with-others-service, so I assume that this is likely what he did.
He seems to have had largely good experiences from what I've heard. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 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 5 of 17 05 July 2010 at 8:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I stayed with Pasporta Servo hosts in Stockholm and Montreal; it was a great experience. You should really ask my boyfriend though (e-mail through chucksmith.de), he's an American who travelled all over Europe and Brazil with Pasporta Servo.
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| ericspinelli Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5781 days ago 249 posts - 493 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Italian | Message 6 of 17 05 July 2010 at 10:10am | IP Logged | ||
I participate in CouchSurfing regularly as a host, guest, and local community member. I find it worthwhile and enlightening. As I don't speak Esperanto I will never be able to join Pasporta Servo, but I'm sure each community has its share of unique pros and cons. Even though I haven't gotten any language lessons per se, as someone studying Korean I definitely enjoy talking with the two Koreans staying with me currently. 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 7 of 17 05 July 2010 at 11:37am | IP Logged | ||
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I've hosted many people from couchsurfing, and also from something related called "the warm showers list", which is specifically aimed at bicycle tourists. I've hosted lots of interesting people who passed through my home town of Vancouver, Canada. What sorts of people you get will depend on where you live, naturally. Vancouver gets quite a variety of travelers from all over, so I've met a variety of people.
I haven't yet used couchsurfing while traveling, but I'm currently attempting to use it to find accommodations in Berlin next week, and I'll try to use it in Sweden also. I haven't yet used Pasporta Servo because I didn't feel that my Esperanto was good enough, but after my current week of Esperanto class in Slovakia I'll probably start using that too. Edited by doviende on 05 July 2010 at 11:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| brian91 Senior Member Ireland Joined 5442 days ago 335 posts - 437 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 8 of 17 05 July 2010 at 11:41am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the replies. Last night I ordered an old Teach Yourself Esperanto book for about £10 on amazon, and I'm
hoping that Esperanto will be the easiest language I've ever had he privilege of learning. :D 1 person has voted this message useful |
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