History of UEA’s Esperanto congresses Posted by Chuck Smith on Jul 13, 2011
Soon will begin the two most important weeks of the Esperanto calendar: the Internacia Junulara Kongreso (IJK) and the Universala Kongreso (UK). This year, the IJK will take place in Kiev, Ukraine on July 14-21 and then, the UK will be in Copenhagen, Denmark on July 23-30. As of this writing, 320 people have already…
Review of The Universal Language documentary Posted by Chuck Smith on Jul 8, 2011
After seeing Sam Green’s Utopia In Four Movements, I was very excited when his new DVD The Universal Language appeared in my mailbox. It’s a half hour documentary about Esperanto from a relatively neutral viewpoint about the language. From a technical viewpoint, he does a very good job producing a professional documentary, even including archive…
Tadoku: Extensive Reading Contest! Posted by Chuck Smith on Jun 30, 2011
Have you ever wanted to immerse yourself in Esperanto for longer than an Esperanto conference? Perhaps there are Esperanto books on your shelf that you just never got around to reading? Well, 多読 (Tadoku in Japanese) may just be for you! Now, I bet you’re wondering, what’s Tadoku? Well, leave it to the Japanese to…
Early Esperanto magazines available online Posted by Chuck Smith on Jun 21, 2011
Have you ever wanted to read the first magazine ever printed in Esperanto? That was La Esperantisto which ran from 1889 until 1895. It eventually stopped being printed, because the Russian censors no longer let the magazine enter their country. At that time, 3/4 of their subscribers lived in Russia, so that effectively killed the…
In Defense of the Accusative Posted by Chuck Smith on Jun 15, 2011
Amelie Ambrus hits us again with another interesting post about Esperanto literature. This time she wants to share her love of the accusative with the world. Enjoy! Is there any point to that pesky -n ending? People disagree – English-speaking learners often dislike it, and some people go so far as to propose reforms to…
How To Be a Good Pasporta Servo Guest Posted by Chuck Smith on Jun 10, 2011
Having travelled for six months through Brazil and Europe as well as frequently hosting Esperanto speakers in our apartment in Berlin, I’ve learned quite a lot about what makes a good guest. Here are some of my tips for keeping your host happy and making your stay more pleasant as you travel with Pasporta Servo…
Esperanto learning site, lernu! reaches 100,000 users Posted by Chuck Smith on May 31, 2011
Lernu.net, which teaches Esperanto in dozens of languages, just reached 100,000 registered users. Even if they’re not all active, thousands of people have already learned Esperanto through this website and many more learned more about Esperanto. The amount of visitors is effectively even higher, because a large portion of those who use the website never…