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Polyglot Conference in Budapest Posted by Chuck Smith on May 22, 2013
Greetings from Budapest! This weekend I attended the Polyglot Conference here. There were people in attendance from all over the world, giving lectures on such varied topics as Learning endangered languages through music to How conflict management works in bilingual situations. There were also an introduction to Esperanto by Eva Fitzelová and the non-profit organization…
How Esperanto Changed My Life Posted by Chuck Smith on May 15, 2013
I had no idea where Esperanto would take me when I started learning it in February 2001. At the time, in a small city in Pennsylvania, I thought, “I’ll do the first lesson of this free online course. If it’s lame, I’ll have lost an hour of my life. If it’s interesting, it could open…
World Esperanto Exam Day: June 8 Posted by Chuck Smith on May 9, 2013
Did you know that you can take an Esperanto exam to prove that you can read and write at a certain level? On June 8, people will be taking Esperanto exams around the world, which are legally recognized by the Hungarian state. Hungary makes sense, because 5,000 people receive diplomas there every year to prove…
Live Esperanto concert videos Posted by Chuck Smith on Mar 1, 2013
If you want to know who is giving concerts in Esperanto these days, here is a collection of concert videos that can also serve as an introduction to Esperanto music. Many of these were recorded very recently, during the Youth Esperanto Week (event for young people between Dec 28th 2012 and January 4th 2013). Presenting…
Klingon opera in Berlin?! Posted by Chuck Smith on Feb 23, 2013
Today, I’ll be taking a quick detour from my usual fare to bring you something different, because last night I attended the opera. If you’ve read the headline, then you have correctly guessed that this opera was entirely in Klingon! When I first heard about it, I was skeptical, but even though I’m not a…
The US Army used Esperanto? Posted by Chuck Smith on Feb 8, 2013
Did you know the US Army once used Esperanto? In training the military, they wanted to more realistically simulate the language situation during combat. So, the “aggressor forces” learned Esperanto. Apparently it was chosen, because of how easy it is to learn. I’m sure Zamenhof (the initiator of Esperanto) would’ve been surprised to hear about…
Meet an Esperanto intern Posted by Chuck Smith on Jan 8, 2013
While at the Youth Esperanto Week, I ran into John Bauer, who has worked for an Esperanto organization called E@I (Education@Internet), which is best known for their Esperanto learning website Lernu!. Here is his tale of moving to France and how Esperanto brought him to an internship in Slovakia! Mia nomo estas John Bauer kaj…