Mono (Money) en Esperanto Posted by Chuck Smith on Mar 14, 2011
First of all, I want to mention that the Universala Ligo (1942-1993) tried to create an Esperanto currency called the stelo. Theoretically it was supposed to be equal to the value of 1 kg of bread, but in practice, it became equal to one-fourth of a Dutch guilder (the currency in the Netherlands before the…
New automatic translator from French to Esperanto Posted by Chuck Smith on Mar 10, 2011
Just last month, another automatic translator from French to Esperanto was published at apertium.saluton.dk. Before this, you could already use Apertium to translate from Catalan, English and Spanish to Esperanto and from Esperanto to English. This translation service is based on Apertium – an open source project for creating automatic translations. All of Apertium’s Esperanto…
Five Periods of Esperanto Literature Posted by Chuck Smith on Feb 25, 2011
When I lived in Rotterdam, I remember taking the trip to visit the Internacia Esperanto-Instituto for an Esperanto literature seminar. It was most helpful for recognizing important authors, but when I think back on that seminar, I remember being impressed by how Esperanto literature can be divided into different periods based on different styles of…
Language Festival with Esperanto beer! Posted by Chuck Smith on Feb 23, 2011
Have you heard of a language festival before? If you’ve never heard of that, think of what that could mean. In 2004, I was invited to Russia to participate in a language festival in Volgograd. There was an introduction where they introduced all the speakers and the languages they were presenting. They took over a…
Discover Esperanto Literature in English Posted by Chuck Smith on Feb 21, 2011
Amelie Ambrus hits us again with another look at Esperanto literature from another point of view. I personally think this book belongs in every library worldwide, but that would be a bit expensive. However, it would be hard to argue that Esperanto has no culture when faced with the abundant diversity of works created in…
Start reading Esperanto literature Posted by Chuck Smith on Feb 9, 2011
Amelie Ambrus, an Esperanto literature expert, asked me if I’d like her to write some guest posts to help beginners get their feet wet in the ocean of Esperanto books out there. The Hector Hodler Library in the headquarters of the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA) in Rotterdam (Netherlands) has “approximately 30,000 books, with periodicals, manuscripts…
2nd gen native Esperanto speaker: Rolf Fantom Posted by Chuck Smith on Feb 3, 2011
Today I have a second generation native Esperanto speaker with me, Rolf Fantom. According to Ethnologue as published in 2008, there are 200-2000 native Esperanto speakers in the world. Now he answers all our burning questions. You identify yourself as a second generation native Esperanto speaker. Does that mean one of your parents is also a native Esperanto speaker?…