Tag Archives: culture
Greetings – the Culture of Esperanto Posted by Andrea Monticue on Jul 15, 2010
Introductions are in order By way of introducing myself as the newest blogger for Transparent Language – I’m Andrea and I live in northern California near the San Francisco Bay area. I am very lucky in that about fifty of the nicest esperantists in the world live in this area between the Bay and Sacramento…
Research and Such Posted by Transparent Language on Aug 7, 2009
I foresee a day when universities across the globe will offer “Esperanto Studies” as a major field of research. We’re still a ways off right now – so far, I know of no US universities that offer an Esperanto degree, and only NASK seems to provide any college credit for advanced Esperanto study. However, that certainly does…
Krokodili Posted by Transparent Language on Jun 12, 2009
This month I decided to hunt down some more idiomatic expressions in Esperanto. The best one I could find for this entry (i.e., one that is not an expletive, and thus fit for polite company!) is the verb “krokodili.” Native English speakers might know of the expression “crocodile tears,” which refers to a display of…
Esperantujo Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 30, 2009
Another idiomatic expression that you might hear or see an Esperantist use is the term “Esperantujo.” If we break down the word, we find “Esperant-,” our root term for our favorite constructed language, and “-ujo,” which means “container” when used as a suffix. (You may recall seeing -ujo in such words as benzinujo, meaning gas…
La Espero Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 30, 2009
Any good Esperantist will tell you that the name of language comes from “esperi,” which means, “to hope.” So, what exactly are they hoping for? One of L.L. Zamenhof’s artistic works, known simply as “La Espero” (the hope) tries to answer that question. “La Espero” is a simple, 24-line poem written as a series of…
We Have Shatner, Too! Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 6, 2009
The year was 1965. Star Trek had yet to grace the television screens of science fiction fans. A young William Shatner was but another actor looking to make his big break. The entirely Esperanto film Angoroj (Agonies) had been produced a year earlier, thereby demonstrating that movies could indeed be made in Esperanto. And so…
Introductory Esperanto Music Posted by Transparent Language on Apr 4, 2009
The mark of any established culture is its own music. Since Esperanto doesn’t have its own native culture to draw upon for its musical styling, you’ll find a wealth of existing cultures that Esperanto-speaking musicians tap into in order to create their own special sounds. One band that I tend to favor is Dolcxamar (though…