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…
Scholarships: JES al Novuloj Posted by Chuck Smith on Oct 31, 2012
Want to go to a large Esperanto youth gathering in Europe, but can’t afford it? There are various foundations around the world available to help young people attend Esperanto meetings abroad. Today I’d like to highlight a new one which popped up last week called JES al Novuloj. The title is a play on words…
The “Average” Esperanto speaker? Posted by Chuck Smith on Sep 30, 2012
When the telephone was first invented, how useful was it? Well, no one else had one, so not much at all! Like the phone, as more people learn Esperanto, it becomes more useful. So naturally Esperanto speakers would like the language to become more mainstream. From that, most people assume the best way to promote…
Esperanto literature now in English! Posted by Chuck Smith on Jul 12, 2012
Today we have a special interview for you. This time, we have an interview by Tim Owen, the secretary of the Esperanto Association of Britain, with a member of the Akademio de Esperanto. Paul Gubbins is chief editor of the popular Esperanto magazine Monato and of the Esperanto Association of Britain’s twice-yearly magazine. He’s here…
Komuna Esperanto-Kongreso from new eyes Posted by Chuck Smith on Jul 9, 2012
Last month, the German Esperanto Association held a communal national Esperanto conference at the same time as the Danish and Polish Esperanto Associations. I think this is brilliant, because the whole point of Esperanto is to speak to people of other languages, so this is a great way to bring people together internationally. In any…