Esperanto is a living language

Article by Derek Roff

Esperanto is not a hypothetical language. It is a living language that has proved successful in facilitating international communication and enriching the lives of its speakers for more than a century. It has many advantages and surprisingly few flaws. It is certainly possible that a "better" language could be invented, but it is interesting that many of the supposed superior language projects published in the last century now look rather silly. Most of them take too narrow a view of what an international language needs to do. Esperanto was launched with the goal of expressing all that is needed for all aspects of human communication, including art, science, and love. That was a good idea, because from the start, speakers wanted to use it for very diverse and individual purposes. I'm intrigued with the language that has only 118 words, but I doubt that it can meet the daily communication goals of thousands or millions of speakers.

Some say that Esperanto is elitist. While it does have aspects that interest intelligent and curious people, there are Esperanto speakers from all walks of life, and all educational, professional, and social classes. Indeed, I have recently begun corresponding with a woman who is a political refugee in central Africa. She found my address on the Internet, and contacted me. Her life, experiences, and motivations could hardly seem more diverse from a superficial checklist analysis, but we are finding the correspondence to be interesting, illuminating, and fun.

If you want to invent or endorse the most perfect hypothetical world language, there are many fervent Internet discussion groups that focus on this. If you want to try out an actual intercultural language, and see what it is like to make friends and join in discussions with people from dozens of countries, unimpeded by translators, at a large variety of big and small gatherings, then Esperanto is the only option at the moment.

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Derek Roff

Language Learning Center
Ortega Hall 129, MSC03-2100
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
505/277-7368, fax 505/277-3885

Derek Roff became enthusiastic about Esperanto while attending an intensive class at the North American Summer Kursaro (Esperanto Institute) in 1980. He enjoyed the language for itself, but much more the interesting people and international contacts that it made possible. Derek immersed himself in the language and culture of Esperanto, using Esperanto to connect with interesting people during his travels to Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Derek now teaches and creates language learning materials for Esperanto and for other languages. He works at the University of New Mexico's Language Learning Center.

Kongresaj kurieroj de la Hanoja UK 2012

Loa! 1
Loa! 2
Loa! 3

La Vojo (Dr. Zamenhof)

Tra densa mallumo briletas la celo,
Al kiu kuraĝe ni iras.
Simile al stelo en nokta ĉielo,
Al ni la direkton ĝi diras.

Kaj nin ne timigas la noktaj fantomoj,
Nek batoj de l' sorto, nek mokoj de l' homoj,
Ĉar klara kaj rekta kaj tre difinita
Ĝi estas la voj' elektita.

Nur rekte, kuraĝe kaj ne flankiĝante
Ni iru la vojon celitan!
Eĉ guto malgranda, konstante frapante,
Traboras la monton granitan.
L' espero, l' obstino kaj la pacienco -
Jen estas la signoj, per kies potenco
Ni paŝo post paŝo, post longa laboro,
Atingos la celon en gloro.

Ni semas kaj semas, neniam laciĝas,
Pri l' tempoj estontaj pensante.
Cent semoj perdiĝas, mil semoj perdiĝas, -
Ni semas kaj semas konstante.
"Ho, ĉesu!" mokante la homoj admonas, -
"Ne ĉesu, ne ĉesu!" en kor' al ni sonas:
"Obstine, antaŭen! La nepoj vin benos,
Se vi pacience eltenos".

Se longa sekeco aŭ ventoj subitaj
Velkantajn foliojn deŝiras,
Ni dankas la venton, kaj, repurigitaj,
Ni forton pli freŝan akiras.
Ne mortos jam nia bravega anaro,
Ĝin jam ne timigos la vento, nek staro,
Obstine ĝi paŝas, provita, hardita,
Al cel' unu fojon signita!

Nur rekte, kuraĝe kaj ne flankiĝante
Ni iru la vojon celitan!
Eĉ guto malgranda, konstante frapante,
Traboras la monton granitan.
L' espero, l' obstino kaj la pacienco, -
Jen estas la signoj, per kies potenco
Ni paŝo post paŝo, post longa laboro,
Atingos la celon en gloro.

Pictures from the 125th Anniversary of Esperanto Party!

This July 28, 2012, the SudFlorida Esperanto Rondo held a party for the 125th anniversary of Esperanto.  The party took place at the Laffineuse residence in Parkland, Florida.  It began with an introduction by our master of ceremony for the day, Oscar Otero, and was followed by two presentations.  The first presentation was made by an Esperanto visitor from Romania, Adrian Marginean (who came with his wife Alina), who spoke to us about Romania, his home city, and the Esperanto movement there.  His presentation was then followed by that of SFERO member Robb Kvasnak who gave us a brief history of Esperanto and of the movement today.  After all that, we ate, we drank, and had a good old party!  We wanted to thank all the people who joined us on this very special day and for all the goodies that they brought with them.  For those of you who could not make it this time, keep an eye on our meetup.com site, there will be many more events to come.

Kiel oni faras argilan vazon?

La ceramikisto Pedro Ullate López detale prezentas la tutan procedon por elfari argilan vazon. La muzikgrupo Esperanto Desperado donas apartan etoson al la filmo per sia muzikpeco Hotel Desperado, eldonita de Vinilkosmo.

Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto

The famous Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto, or PIV, is now available in its web version for free at http://vortaro.net/.

Free Ultralingua Dictionary English <-> Esperanto