WHAT IS ESPERANTO?

The very first question. Don’t be surprised by it. Roughly half the people I’ve talked with, including well-educated ones, have never heard of Esperanto before, and most of the rest could only connect it with the phrase “international language” or “universal language.” Two good answers are, “The International Language” or “The International Language that works.” We’ve found that, at exhibitions or displays, an effective discussion can start like this: “Hello! Have you ever heard of Esperanto?” “Yes” — you can say, “Terrific, where/how/when did you hear about it?” and begin a discussion. Or, “No” — a very common answer. You can reply with a standard speech. “It’s the international language, used by millions of people in over a hundred countries, and it was specifically designed to be easy to learn and to be politically neutral.” Then you can tell them about the language problem, or more details about Esperanto, its uses, the thousands of books in Esperanto, how it’s actually four to ten times easier to learn, etc. This opening also avoids embarrassing them, because it implies that they are not expected to know anything about Esperanto. Be willing to put together a new intro for your specific audience. For example, when we did a table at a home scholar’s conference, the intro above bombed. We changed it to “Hi! Are you teaching someone at home?” (the answer was almost always “Yes”), then explained how its grammar is streamlined and very regular, so parents could learn it fast enough to stay a lesson ahead of the kids, and so kids could learn that languages are fun instead of just boring lists of exceptions to memorize. Another response that has been suggested is “The Intercultural Language.” This avoids the common response about English, but it also avoids the real point of Esperanto: bringing nations together, not just cultures within nations. Also, people don’t react as well to it. You may want to stay away from the words “artificial” or “invented.” These may imply that Esperanto is not a people language, which is in some way awkward for people or limited. Esperanto is organic!

IS IT SPANISH?

This question probably happens because “Esperanto” looks like “Español,” which is a word that people already know. No, it’s not Spanish. However, much of the vocabulary is related to Spanish, as well as French, German, Italian, etc., and it does sound rather like Spanish or Italian.

IS IT REALLY EASIER?

Yes it is! And this is a very important point for Esperanto: four to ten times easier! Why? Because the grammar is very simple, and completely regular. No exceptions to the rules. The spelling and pronunciation are completely regular. (That cuts down on brain strain — “What you hear is what you get”!) A lot of the vocabulary is related to English, French, German, and other Romance and Slavic languages, so that’s easier too. Plus the affixes vastly expand the vocabulary so you don’t have to memorize zillions of new words... You can go on for quite a while about this.

Since I’m not positive that Esperanto is absolutely regular, I usually say “extremely regular.” It’s also not “easy” to learn — no language is, so I say “easier” than other languages. People still have to study and learn vocabulary. And last, I don’t usually push the 16 Rules; since people can’t memorize the rules and know Esperanto — but you can mention that it has only sixteen basic rules. Esperanto is sufficiently wonderful without exaggerating.

DO YOU REALLY EXPECT PEOPLE TO GIVE UP THEIR OWN LANGUAGES?

Absolutely not! This is another important point that should be made at the beginning: Esperanto is the second language for everyone. It’s designed for international use — not necessarily for international use. Esperanto isn’t out to replace anything. It’s there to build bridges between isolated language groups and grow up their culture worldwide.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ITS SPEAKER?

This is a question that you must answer in your exhibit or speech. Your answer to this will directly determine your results. If you can give people a good enough reason to learn it, they will. Otherwise they won’t. People do things because they get something out of it — period. Fortunately, what they get out of it isn’t necessarily financial or greedy. People also do things if they can learn something, or spend time enjoyably or sometimes even just to help the world... Here are some of the things that Esperanto is good for:

• Esperanto is a way to promote peace, and thus to make our world a little safer and a little better. It’s a way that any citizen can get to know other countries better, and to tell others about our country and our ideas. It’s a way that lets us bypass the governments (and sometimes governments can’t work for peace for political reasons, or just out of their own internal momentum).

• Esperanto is an ideal introduction to other languages. It helps you learn how languages are put together, and how to learn a language, without getting bogged down by lists of exceptions. It will also introduce you to a great deal of vocabulary in European languages.

• Esperanto is an ideal second language. A lot of adults want to learn a second language, but don’t have the time or energy to learn a national language.

• International understanding. You can’t be friends with people if you can’t talk to them! I’ve used that exact sentence and people agree. Esperanto helps break down the language barriers between countries. (We even have one poster where we call Esperanto a “peace weapon” because of this.)

• Joining the world. Esperanto is a way to treat everyone on our planet on the basis of complete equality, meeting them half way. No more trying to communicate “uphill” for one side!

• Learning about other countries. Magazines are an inexpensive way to travel! Show them El Popola Chinio, La Espero (from Korea), etc. (El Popola Chinio no longer appears on paper. Go to their website, www.espero.com.cn.)

• Travel. Explain how to travel on Esperanto tours, how to visit Esperantists in other countries, how to use the Jarlibro to find out who’s where. (And every Esperantist you meet will be an instant friend!)

Esperanto: the international language that works!

• Meeting people from other countries. Especially at the conventions, or when Esperantists from other lands visit here. (It’s also a good way to meet interesting people from your own country!)

• Meeting people from our own country. People from all walks of life get involved, and they often have a wide range of interests and many interesting stories to tell.

• Pen pals (when you’re talking to kids) or Correspondence (when you’re talking to adults) — correspond with people in a dozen countries without learning a dozen languages.

• Business. This one’s a little shaky right now... but we’re working on making Esperanto common enough that even business people will routinely use it someday. Some businesses have used Esperanto for advertising, such as the airlines KLM and Swiss- air. Many resorts advertise in Esperanto magazines. Many Esperantists have found work or customers in other countries.

• Hobbies. Stamp-collecting (philately) especially, or postcards, or discussing all sorts of things with people in other countries.

• Here’s one that must have grabbed you: changing other people’s lives by being active and by showing them how useful and fun Esperanto can be! A lot of people would like to do something useful with their lives... I haven’t used this approach much, but it’s worth trying. Know what you want your talk or exhibit to accomplish: inform people? Get them to join your group? Sign up for classes? Then encourage them to do that. You’ll probably also want another event, such as a monthly meeting or evening class, soon after a major exhibit, so people can get involved immediately instead of waiting and possibly losing interest.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH ENGLISH?

Several things. (And you should point out that all national languages, not just English, suffer from these problems.) First, English is a very difficult language to learn unless you’ve been immersed in it since birth. English spelling is said to be more difficult than any other language except Gaelic. English grammar, although it may be fairly simple, is riddled with exceptions. Verbs are very often irregular. Many people just aren’t going to devote several years of effort to learn it! Another problem is that English carries political baggage. Many nations were once colonies of European countries, and find that is reason enough to avoid English, French, German, etc. Others are unhappy with the superpowers and therefore want nothing to do with them. Strange, illogical, but that’s the way people feel. The ELNA Bulletin once quoted a Zambian newspaper as saying that Zambians would rather use their perfectly good national languages than English. Multiple languages! Yet another reason is that by using a major national language, you automatically get the culture of that language: books, magazines, TV and radio, commentary, etc. Many countries do not want to be overwhelmed by someone else’s culture... sometimes very much so. (Recent example: Iran. After their revolution in the 1970s, English was a very unpopular language.) One last point that Americans often do not realize: people very often feel humiliated when they have to use someone else’s language, especially when the other person speaks the language fluently but they must stumble through it like a child. It’s embarrassing, it interferes with getting ideas or opinions across, and it’s distracting to continually struggle with one’s words. With Esperanto, everyone can meet as equals, instead of one side having to communicate “uphill.”

WHAT IS IT BASED ON?

It’s generally based on the best structures from several languages. Esperanto is most related to the European or Romance languages, but it has strong influences from German and other languages. Zamenhof picked structures that seemed effective, useful, and simple. For example, when he studied English, he realized that nouns don’t have to have a gender — English speakers don’t worry about whether a table (or a democracy) is masculine or feminine. Zamenhof thought that was a distinct improvement, so Esperanto doesn’t assign gender to nouns. Another example: Zamenhof noticed that certain words are frequently used as suffixes, and realized that this would enlarge the vocabulary significantly without a great deal of learning, so a system of regular suffixes was built in. For those who feel that Esperanto is too Indo-European, you may want to point out that its agglutinative grammar is more like Korean or Turkish. It also has many non-European roots.

 HOW DO PEOPLE OUTSIDE OF EUROPE LIKE IT?

A good question that frequently comes up. Admittedly, people who speak a European or Slavic language will have something of a head start. But Esperanto is still several times easier to learn than any European language, and it’s more neutral. The best proof of Esperanto’s neutrality may be Iran: after their revolution, English was not very popular. Students in English classes told their instructors to learn Esperanto, then come back and teach them that. Also, as noted elsewhere, Esperanto is having some success in China and Japan, and the Korean movement is strong enough that it has even bought its own building.

WHAT’S THE PURPOSE OF CREATING NEW LANGUAGE?

The purpose of Esperanto is to make the world a better and safer place, by helping people communicate with each other. We all share a small, endangered planet, and we should at least be able to find out what’s on each other’s minds. Better yet, we should be able to be friends with them... but the first necessity is communication. How can we resolve global issues if we can’t even talk with people in other countries, or read their books and newspapers, listen to their radio and TV? Beyond the ideal of improving the chances for peace, there are the pragmatic problems of world trade, tourism, etc. which are created by the language barriers. Esperanto doesn’t claim to be a cure-all — maybe things won’t improve along with improved communication, improved trade, etc. — but it is a vital first step.

HOW WAS IT INVENTED? WHO INVENTED IT?

During the period of war in Europe there was very miserable condition such that every people need to know more than two languages. It is probably useful to stress the amount of testing that Zamenhof did: he tried out a great many ideas on his friends and relatives dropped those that weren’t simple or clear enough, picked up ideas from a variety of languages, etc. He did not just grab some ideas out of the air and declare them perfect. Example: for the word “and,” he wanted to use either the Greek or the Latin word, since “and” is different in almost every modern language. The Latin word is “et,” which does not clearly separate words. The (classical) Greek word is “kaj,” which has a sharp, distinct sound, and which Zamenhof adopted. Another good example is gender endings. Many European languages force every noun to have a masculine or feminine ending. In English, this isn’t true — you can talk about tables or democracies without worrying about their gender. When Zamenhof studied English, he thought that this was a good idea and would save a lot of unnecessary work. So nouns in Esperanto, like nouns in English, do not have a gender.

WHERE IS IT USED?

It’s used in about 100 countries all over the world. Every major country has UEA delegates and a national Esperanto organization. Esperanto is probably strongest in Europe, where it began, and where the language barriers are very obvious. We’ve had reports that twenty per- cent of the people in Bulgaria are Esperantists. (For some reason, Bulgarians are particularly interested in languages.) It is used extensively in only a few places. One of these is Kameoka, Japan, where the Oomoto religion — similar to the Bahai faith — has adopted Esperanto as an official language. An- other is the Bona Espero group in Brazil. You might mention the World Conventions, where people from many lands (and many national languages) get along using Esperanto. It is now flourished in southern Asia. There can be found several Esperanto speaker in Nepal , India ,Pakistan and others too.

HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN AROUND?

It’s been around since 1887. This may sound like a long time, and it leads directly to the next question. I generally don’t supply this little fact at the beginning of a conversation. The next question is answerable, and I think we can answer it very well, but it can affect the discussion poorly at the start. We must never hide any facts about Esperanto — but I feel it’s okay to present this one later rather than earlier.

HOW COME IT HASN’T SUCCEEDED YET?

A good question. The answer is not simple, so be prepared for a long explanation. Nonetheless the following items describe most or all of the delay in Esperanto’s success. The best response may well be to boldly state that Esperanto has succeeded. In about a century, it has gone from one speaker — Zamenhof — to around two million — and it has done this without ever forcing people to use it. Most languages that spread fast coerced people, either economically or militarily. Or, they were mandatory subjects in schools. Esperanto’s spread has been purely voluntary! And it’s being used right now, by tourists, for correspondence, by some businesses, at many international meetings. There are good reasons why Esperanto has not had even more success. For one thing, it’s entirely a volunteer, grass-roots movement. There are no major governments supporting it, no big foundations funding it. Too often, Esperanto groups do no advertising or recruiting, or do so at a completely amateurish level — it’s hard to accomplish much without any professional organizers, publicity people, or fundraisers. Also, many people never bother to reach outside their own language group, so they muddle along in total ignorance of other countries. Or they end up communicating in fractured English, with varying degrees of comprehension. Often people will put up with anything to avoid learning a language, even a relatively easy one like Esperanto. (Esperanto is far easier to learn, but it still takes time and study. And after their experiences with other languages, who would want to try another one?) Plus, many people have not yet even heard of it. Those who do hear of it sometimes ignore it because it is not yet used by many other people. This “chicken and egg” problem is a major difficulty — everyone’s waiting for other people to learn it first. Fortunately, Esperanto can spread (if not as fast) because of people who are willing to learn it now. See “What’s in it for me?” for some reasons to learn Esperanto; also “Does it really have a chance?” for a reply that directly challenges people to learn it. Esperanto was also set back by personal disagreements in the early decades of its existence, and by the World Wars. International communication was rather frowned upon during the World Wars, plus everyone had other things to do. WW II also saw the Nazis destroy many Esperanto libraries in Europe — Esperanto wasn’t Aryan, and it had been created by a Jew. Be- tween and after the wars, however, Esperanto has steadily grown. (Another point is that many good ideas have taken decades or centuries to catch on. Arabic numerals took a few hundred years to spread, despite their clear superiority over Roman numerals. Democracy has existed in its modern form for a couple of centuries, but has not yet spread everywhere. Esperanto will not take the world by storm, either, but it is spreading, one person at a time.) Some people may suspect that the problem is flaws in the language. That’s very unlikely, be- cause many modifications of Esperanto have been tried and none of them have even caught up to Esperanto. So there are lots of answers as to why Esperanto “hasn’t succeeded” yet... but it takes a while to explain.

WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE?

It sounds similar to Italian or Spanish. It has a lot of vowels, which makes it pleasant-sounding. This is a good point to grab a “That Works” brochure or something with the “Test Your Language Ability” paragraph and read it to them... or even have them read it! As in the next question, be prepared to say something in it. If you read anything less immediately understandable than the “Test Your Language Ability,” you should probably tell them the English translation first, so it doesn’t just sound like foreign — then review it with them so they can recognize words and feel some immediate success!

THERE’S NO ESPERANTO LITERATURE, IS THERE?

On the contrary! Let’s split this into two parts: translated works from other languages, and original works. First, the most important works from each language are the first things translated into Esperanto, so it has the major books and poetry from dozens of languages. Examples: English has contributed Shakespeare; Chinese has contributed Mao Zedong’s poetry; Hebrew has contributed the Old Testament. As far as original works, Esperanto is undoubtedly the favourite second language for authors. There are many original novels, nonfiction books, and poetry collections in Esperanto.

BUT THERE’S NO ESPERANTO CULTURE, RIGHT?

Well, there aren’t any countries which use Esperanto exclusively. But there nonetheless is some culture, a very unique and international, educated, and inquisitive culture! Esperanto attracts those who are interested in other lands and other ways of life, and these people contribute their own literature, customs, foods, opinions to the world wide Esperanto culture.

WHERE IS IT TAUGHT? / WHERE CAN I LEARN IT?

Perfect, there are different associations in respective countries which have been working the promotion of language. So if anyone is interested to learn it they can contact to the offices and similarly one can learn through internet using Duolingo and lernu.net. These are the better way of learning the universal language. 

HAS THE LANGUAGE CHANGED AT ALL SINCE IT BEGAN?

The structure of the language has not changed. The basic rules are fixed, and Zamenhof himself urged that they should not be changed until Esperanto is used worldwide. Otherwise, we could fiddle with the grammar forever. The only grammatical changes occurred very early in Esperanto’s history, when some of the correlative endings were modified to remove some ambiguities. The vocabulary, however, has shifted somewhat from the original.

WHERE CAN I GET IN TOUCH WITH ESPERANTISTS OR CLUBS?

There are several social sites where you can keep yourself touch with many Esperantists worldwide. And there exists clubs in different countries and you can find about it through the website of Universala Esperanto Asocio (UEA). There are various groups in facebook and twitter and you can contact them. Such as there exist –International club of Esperanto Nepal (NICE) in Nepal and Nepal Esperanto Association.

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN ESPERANTO?

While I was in college, one day college administration came to our class and discussed about the plan of taking students in the international trip through the language Esperanto. As I registered my name to the list and I was asked to join the language class. From then I started to learn the language and it continued for three months. So this is how I get involved in Esperanto.

Compiled and Edited by:

Youth Esperanto Nepal-International club of Esperanto Nepal

(And ideas shared from: Copyright © 2003 David T. Wolff)