The Leonard Lopate Show

My daughter taught herself Esperanto starting in eighth or ninth grade. She founded an Esperanto club in her high school and recruited a few kids to join her. Last year there were no official meetings, but she claims she will revive it this year since she knows a few more kids who'd join her. She claims she speaks it because it's fun to learn and logical.

Personally, *I* think she likes it because its obscure and she likes being contrary. But to her credit, she really likes languages, both human and computer ones. She also likes logic, which apparently Esperanto exhibits.

FYI, there is a pop song in Esperanto (apparantly BAD Esperanto) by the band the "Sans Culottes" called "Li Kantu" and I have heard that there is a movie in Esperanto, starring William Shatner!

With credentials like that, who WOULDN'T want to learn it?

I learned Esperanto in 1993 and attended a three-week course at San Francisco State Unversity.

I have been a "delegate" for UEA for amateur (ham) radio and received a visit from a French nuclear plant security expert who saw my name in the "Jarlibro." He came out of his way to visit my little town (Yarnell AZ) to speak with me.

Unfortunately I was away from home that weekend so he left a message at the local post office.

I have taught the FREE 10-lesson email course and still have all of the lessons.

I have also used Esperanto for ham radio and genealogy.

There were two movies entirely in Esperanto: Angoroj (Agonies) and Inkubo (Incubus). Incubus was the movie that starred William Shatner - long before his time as Captain James Tiberius Kirk and his starring role in an episode of "The Twilight Zone."

For Catherine: Get a copy of the book "Peter Jameson's Secret Language" for a fictional account of one boy's problems with the teachers and principal of his elementary school.

It's available on line.

Vilchjo de Mesao Arizona, Usono where we observe Mountain REAL Time year round.

There are at least 10,000 active speakers of Esperanto in China. Perhaps a million have studied it. Don't forget the All China Esperanto League.

This seems like something that could really catch on with kids these days. I mean, it has great power to allow kids to talk to each other without their parents being able to understand. I went to school with kids who created their own languages too. It also gives the flexibility to come up with new concepts and ideas in a world where we're being bombarded by new ideas constantly.

I've adopted Esperanto because it facilitates understanding between people of different countries, cultures, and classes. It offers easy yet rich communication without giving one party the advantage of having the national languages on his side. In that way it provides mutual respect, provides new avenues of international friendship. I can use Esperanto in travels to any country and make friends easily, feeling at home anywhere in the world. I travel not as an American tourise, but as an Esperanto speaker with friends as hosts. The language is beautiful, and I enjoy reading the literature in my Esperanto library. I enjoy our clubs, conferences, and classes. Most of all I am always struck by how easy it is to make friends across national boundaries.

I started learning Esperanto at 19, after my first visit to Europe. I've attended international Esperanto events in France, Iceland, and China. The language has helped, not only in my study of German, but with my native English. As Goethe said, you don't really know your mother tongue until you've learned a second language. Unfortunately, in the U.S. most native English speakers never become fluent in a second language. Esperanto could be everyone's second language. Going to a third would then be much easier. We'd profit intellectually, emotionally, and fiscally by knowing more about the world, making more friends, and saving on translation costs.

Mi estis junulo de 13 jaroj kiam pere de biblioteka libro, mi la unuan fojon aŭdis pri Esperanto. Tuj mi interesiĝis pri lingvo kies celo estas servi kiel dua lingvo por ĉiuj popoloj.

La neŭtraleco, la facileco kaj la beleco de Esperanto impresis min forte jam ekde la tago kiam mi komencis studi la lingvon.

I found a book called Teach Yourself Esperanto that claimed Esperanto was easier to learn than national languages. After having studied French and German in high school and still not being able to use them, this was very attractive. So I started to teach myself.

After going over the basics a few times I joined the local club and could understand most of what was said and soon I was talking, hesitantly at first, then gaining fluency and vocabulary. After about a year of part-time self-study I was speaking a second language.

Now I am the Chief Delegate of the World Esperanto Association for Toronto, Canada, and our local club recieves visits from Esperanto speakers from all over the world. I have also been able to contact other Esperanto speakers via the Internet and Skype.

I haven't had the opportunity to travel much yet but I plan to do so and I know that wherever I go I can contact many friends I haven't met yet.

Lunjo (my Esperanto name)

I came across Esperanto quite by accident at the age of 14/15, while struggling with Latin and Manx. I taught myself, and was soon proficient enough to read "Murder on the Orient Express" (with the help of a dictionary, of course), and had many young penfriends behind the Iron Curtain from whom I got loads of exotic stamps, the envy of my friends.

Living on an isolated island, I had to wait 5 years till I met another living Esperanto-speaker (in Germany). Esperanto awakened in me an interest in other languages too, and led me into a career with languages. I have used Esperanto almost daily for 57 years, for correspondance, travel, reading, research, international meetings and just plain fun. Nowadays I find there is almost too much stuff available in Esperanto via the computer - I come across new sites almost daily.

Give it a try! Open up for yourself a window on the world! Besides being valuable in itself, it's an excellent intro to the study of foreign languages for any age-level, but especially for teenagers.

I learned Esperanto in my high school days from a book. I think it's great to get letters and emails from all over the world from folks who may not speak English (or at least not well.) It adds to the friendship.

I've had a lot of fun with Esperanto over the years. It's so easy to strike up a friendship with folks in other countries through email or voice chat (if you can't afford to travel often) when you're using a common, neutral language.

I enjoy using Esperanto as a model to understanding what a language is and how it works, due to its lack of exceptions to rules. Studying Esperanto has made me a better English speaker.

I started up a club in Omaha (http://omaha.esperantonebraska.org/) and have helped a few others get started speaking, reading and writing this fun language.

I learned Esperanto twenty years ago and it has been a cherished hobby ever since. Through Esperanto I have met and made friends with like-minded people around the world. In this past decade, the Internet has made using Esperanto as easy as using my native English. Anyone interested in Esperanto needs only 'gugli' the subject and set off a fun and rewarding adventure.

I attended a lovely little convention last weekend in Sidney, BC, where inter alia we watched a film (in Esperanto) on the problems arctic bear populations face on a warming earth, and sang along in Esperanto on Stan Rogers' "Northwest Passage" (www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=4275"). Three days of camaraderie in my favorite language!

I taught myself Esperanto out of a book (nowadays it would be "off the Internet") while in high school. I already had some French, Spanish, Japanese and Russian under my belt; unlike those languages, when I met my first Esperanto speakers (other than my kid brothers whom I press-ganged into it) some six months into learning the language, I was already able to participate in conversations beyond the simple greetings stage. A few years later, I was in Europe when Nixon devalued the dollar; I ran out of money, and if I hadn't known Esperanto I'd have had to sleep on the streets of Zürich for four nights till my flight... And the rest is aŭtobiografio...

Leland aka Haruo

I learned Esperanto from a book in 1959, when I was 21,

living in Argentina, with what I believed no chance to travel.

Contacting people in other countries opened my mind

and helped me change my life. I moved to New York

City four years after learning Esperanto.

To communicate with people in other countries I had

to write by hand on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope,

paste a few colorful stamps on it ... and wait, even

months, for an answer.

Today I contact people using Internet.

I receive travelers from other countries.

I just participated in meeting in Tijuana, Mexico. There

I had the opportunity to speak Esperanto during 6 days

with over 100 people.

I participated in a world meeting in Beijing, China, in

July 2004. There were 2031 people from 51 countries.

I spend 3 weeks in China, most of the time with

Esperanto speakers. I was invited to the houses of

several Esperanto speakers.

I created a web site located at http://esperantofre.com/

There I describe some of the places I have visited,

and also help people to learn Esperanto.

Using Esperanto: http://esperantofre.com/book

China: http://www.esperantofre.com/uk89

Tijuana: http://esperantofre.com/elna07

To learn Esperanto, and to listen to it:

http://esperantofre.com/eroj/ilo01a.htm

You can contact me at Enrike (at) aol (dot) com

Thank you for your great article about Esperanto.

People should know more about the benefits of

speaking Esperanto.

Enrique

Fremont, California, USA

Esperanto was the first language I learned (after English) and it was enormously helpful as a foundation for learning other languages (I'm now fluent in Esperanto, Italian, and Spanish, and I read French well and a little Russian). It bothers me that when I speak Spanish with a Mexican I'm at a disadvantage, and that when I speak English with a Mexican I have the advantage, when I'd much rather be speaking Esperanto with its deep accompanying sense of linguistic equality. Despite having spent an enormous amount of effort on Italian and Spanish, including living in Italy for a year and reading lots of literature in both languages, and having successfully giving physics talks and workshops in these languages as well as in Esperanto, I will never be anywhere near as expressive in Italian or Spanish as I am in Esperanto. As Tonkin implied, thanks to the unusual structure of Esperanto, with a small number of Esperanto roots one has a large and expressive vocabulary, full of nuance and power. My life has been enriched by the wonderful world of Esperanto literature; few Americans have even heard of let alone enjoyed as I have in Esperanto translation the Finnish humorist Alexis Kivi, or the epic novel of Bulgaria (Under the Yoke), etc. And there is much literature originally written in Esperanto of high value as well. As others have said, I too have enjoyed terrific personal contacts in many countries I've visited around the world.

Great to hear this interview! I learned Esperanto from books, from local free meetings, at www.lernu.net, and (most recently) at the 2007 NASK at UC San Diego. I am so excited - I just received my first ever letter from overseas! This friend (whom I met at NASK) can't speak a word of English, and I can't speak a word of their language, and yet we can communicate perfectly well in Esperanto. Try it - you'll have friends all over the world quite soon!

Koto FARMER

I give a free beginner's course in Esperanto in New York city from time to time. Contact me as teccardt at hotmail.com, and I'll put you on my mailing list and let you know when I'm starting it up.

I learned Esperanto in Austin TX, 2003. After struggling with various foreign languages, it was a true pleasure to finally become competent in a language besides English.

It is a pity that most people will never seriously consider learning Esperanto; so much time and money and energy is unnecessarily wasted because of difficulties with national languages, and the common arrogant response by native English speakers ("Everyone should just learn English") is unfair and unrealistic.

I have enjoyed meeting with Esperantist friends in Canada, China, Finland, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Bosnia and Hercogovina, Slovenia...

I am now living in Poland with my girlfriend, whom I met thanks to Esperanto, which is our main language and an important part of our life together. We met speaking Esperanto, and it's what we speak normally in our daily life. If she wants to exercise her English, we use English, if I want to exercise my Polish, we use Polish, but when we simply want to talk easily and on an equal footing, it's Esperanto.

The internet is great for Esperanto, as both have the purpose of helping people connect internationally, and there are some excellent sites to learn Esperanto (e.g. lernu.net which has interfaces in about 20 languages) and a huge number of sites in Esperanto about all sorts of subjects.

I learned Esperanto in the beginning of high school; I wanted to speak a foreign language fluently, and thought Esperanto would be my best bet. It was one of the most useful expenditures of time I ever made. I have made friends from all over the world, and it has been so useful whenever I travel. Even if you don't take advantage of free housing in people's homes, it is a lot of fun to meet the local Esperanto speakers in the cities you visit. It makes you feel as if you have ready-made friends in cities you have never visited. I have found it particularly useful when visiting a city where I don't speak the language. Contrary to many people's opinions, the whole world doesn't speak English, and you are at a significant advantage when being led around by a local person who speaks the language. I have also found it useful when travelling on business abroad. Evenings get awfully boring in countries where everything shuts down at 7PM and you don't speak the language of TV broadcasts. Meeting with local Esperanto speakers is a fun way to pass the time, even in a city I have never visited before.

My husband and I learned Esperanto 21 years ago. We both loved the logic of the language, the idea of learning some simple rules and not having to think about dozens of exceptions. We've gotten much pleasure from the language: by hosting visiting Esperantists from many countries, by visiting Esperantists in their countries, by correspondences (snail mail in the old days, e-mail nowadays). When my daughter studied mathematics in Budapest for five months, she found an Esperanto-speaking family to live with, and learned a lot more about life and culture there than the other students living in dorms with fellow Americans.

As a teenager my best friend and me looked for a 'secret language' so that nobody in our families could understand. Of course we were wrong. I couldn't believe it at the time, but Esperanto is quite widespread, in Israel and abroad. Now many members of my family knows Esperanto, so it's no more secret language in my family, but it still is a wonderful, humanist idea, of course.

I'd like to congratulate Prof. Tonkin and Miss Lins and of couse Leonard Lopate of WNYC for their contribution to this interesting program.

I am an enthusiastic Esperanto speaker since 1999. I used to maintain commercial relations by means of the international language Esperanto in Brazil and in China and Esperanto always was and is a great help while translatiing.

Unfortunately, the Tower of Babel is still standing strong.

Mankind is in dire need of a common, simple, neutral, second language in order to improve the human interoperability. We'll need such a language to communicate in an easy way.

I've nothing against English, but we can do better and the solution already exists. All we need to accomplish this are clever, courageous, responsible politicians and world leaders who think ahead.

Perhaps this is a dream, but, allow mankind to have such dreams and to foster them.

Finally, I'll ask you to bear in mind the wise words of a man called Victor Hugo: “L’utopie, c’est la vérité de demain”

Friendly greetings from Belgium,

Remy SPROELANTS, Civ Eng

B-3583 PAAL-BERINGEN

www.esperanto.net (about the phenomenon in 62 languages)

http://www.lernu.net/ (to learn it)

www.edukado.net (to teach it)

Some earlier commentor mentioned chatting online via Skype and such. I've learned a bit of Esperanto, but haven't really had a chance to listen to it being spoken much. Is there some regularly occurring Skypecast or other central meeting place on the 'net for Esperanto speakers? I know about Radio Polonia and such, but I'd like to be able to just lurk and listen to others chatting and see how much I can pick up.. Thanks.

After learning the basics of Esperanto at the Anne Frank Huis in Amsterdam I didn't do anything anymore with Esperanto. I have had 6 years of French and although I would not die of hunger in Paris, I can barely understand the headlines of Le Monde. After 40 years I picked up my old Esperanto book again and after 1 year I can read and understand most of Victor Hugo in Esperanto. Reading in Esperanto is like being on a treasure hunt with small and big rewards, lots of fun and a great sense of accomplishment.

I have studied various languages, and Esperanto was definitely the easiest for me (a native English speaker) to learn. I have used Esperanto for over a decade, especially for international travel.

Given the low cost of learning the language and the benefits of knowing it, I see little reason not to learn it. I feel more strongly about this given how much trouble American students have with the difficulties of Spanish and French.

While in Japan for a few months I became frustrated with my inability to talk with local people (despite the fact that Japanese schools teach English for at least 10 years, many people are unwilling to show how unfluent they are -- like US students who study Spanish, but can't speak it). I found an Esperanto club in a nearby town, and instantly had a group of 6 or 8 friends who took me to cafes, told me about their lives, and totally welcomed me because we had a common language. A friend (also an Esperanto-speaker) who I told about this visited Japan and ended up staying in Japanese homes for days and days, with Japanese Esperantists. This easy language really works!

I took German for four and a half years in high school and college, and French for three - five days a week, an hour a day. I received excellent grades in both, and yet... I can't speak either language well enough to save my life.

That bugged me for years. All that time and effort, and yet it gained me almost nothing.

Two years ago, I decided to try Esperanto, and I swear that within the space of two weeks of maybe 15 minutes a day of self-study, I was able to read the news stories at Ĝangalo (an Esperanto news service that is, unfortunately, no more). After a month, I started actually participating in Esperanto language forums. Six months in, I started writing my blog entirely in Esperanto - writing about the same exact things that used to write about in English, without having to "dumb it down" because I was writing in a newly acquired language.

While not effortless by any means, the language is still amazingly easy to acquire. I use it every single day online, to communicate with new friends in Russia, Poland, China, Venezuela, Lithuania, Korea... and so on and so on. Totally worth the time I spent learning it.

Actually, there is a great variety of music available in Esperanto. There is an internet company called Vinilkosmo that offers many choices of cd's of the currently most popular groups. You can shop there by credit card in English, French or Esperanto. Although prices are in euros, they will be automatically converted into dollars if you buy from the U.S. They are fast and reliable and carry reviews and descriptions of their offerings so you can get some idea of the Esperanto music scene.

Esperanto Panorama has links to a great variety of cultural resources for Esperanto, but their page discussing the Esperanto music scene is extensive and mentions quite a few groups and contains many links to these groups' original websites and sample songs in mp3 format. As for free mp3 samples of full songs (not just 30 second clips), the best source is the Brazilian site MusicExpress, which is available in Portuguese and Esperanto. They have over 200 songs available for free download, including a great variety in diverse styles and some quite interesting and creative stuff. Farbskatol' (PaintBox) offers a very large number of videos including some music videos ranging from excellent and professional to downright silly. You can also find a lot of Esperanto music including some really good, serious and innovative music by poking around Esperanto websites.

JerryBear

I would also recommending looking into the extensive amount of written literature in Esperanto. Among the most interesting is the so-called "humor site" Volapug'. This is sometimes described as the "Mad Magazine" of Esperanto, though very misleadingly. It ranges from good clean fun sort of like the old National Lampoon to really heavy and intense stuff comparable to anything you might have found in those old underground comics from the Psychedelic era. This is especially true of the stuff in the "Ajnejo" ("AnthingGoesPlace"), they really mean it! Do NOT look at this site from a computer at work.

Volapug' includes some stuff from the reigning king of Esperanto underground comics, Arnau from Catalonia. You can buy his comics at Esperanto USA or similar sites. He uses complex puns and word plays, the latest slang, and many insider allusions to the Esperanto world and its history and traditions. This makes him rough going for beginners but the lively drawings and often hysterically funny situations his characters get into make him accessible even to those who only understand a little of the text, as well as providing incentives to them to improve their fluency. His stuff stands up to being reread again and again. Definitely not for children. Anyway, there is a lot of amazing stuff available on line in Esperanto for those who make the effort to look.

Dolcha Esperanto, la lingvo de paco kaj am'.

Sweet Esperanto, the language of peace and love.

JerryBear

I have been studying Esperanto for about 2 months, I had major breaks, but I already can use its grammar and morphology easy. For me, Esperanto was and is the only chance to gain fluency in a language besides Russian. I have been studying English for more than 5 years fulltime, without any breaks, but I still have to check on the table of the irregular verbs, I still speak in a way a native speaker would not, and I know I will do that all the time. Kaj kiam mi parolas en Esperanto, mi scias, ke homoj komprenas min tute, ke ili ne ridegos pri miajn erarojn, cxar Esperanto ne estas nur ilia lingvo, sed ankaux mia. Ne estas mia gepatra, sed estas mia!