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Discover Esperanto

a fascinating language

1. Basic information about Esperanto

Esperanto is a language, just like other human languages. You can express feelings and thoughts in Esperanto the same way as in other languages. You can sing songs in Esperanto, write poetry, quarrel, fall in love, gossip, tell jokes, play games, console a friend, have a scientific discussion, and so on and so forth.

People don't just speak Esperanto, they write it too. Here are some examples:

Esperanto estas lingvo. (Esperanto is a language.)

Ni havas revon. (We have a dream.)

La suno brilas. (The sun is shining.)

Ĉu vi vidas min? (Do you see me?)

Jes, mi vidas vin. (Yes, I see you.)

Mi amas vin! (I love you!)

National and ethnic languages belong to specific groups of people. For example, Hungarian belongs to the Hungarians, Portuguese belongs to the Brazilians and the Portuguese, Japanese belongs to the Japanese, and so on.

It's different with Esperanto. Esperanto doesn't belong to any particular nation or people – it belongs to everyone who has learned it, regardless of where they come from or where they live. Esperanto is not a national language, but an international language with speakers in every part of the world.

Esperanto's main aim is to simplify contact and communication between people who don't share a native or national language. In our experience, the Esperanto language is particularly suitable for use in global communication by "ordinary people" who have an interest in other countries and cultures.

"For me, Esperanto is a wonderful language for keeping in touch with friends in many countries and for working on international projects."

Peter Baláž, coordinator of E@I

Esperanto's basic structure was designed by one man, L. L. Zamenhof. He created it with great care and imagination, drawing his inspiration from national languages. It took him about ten years. Only when he felt that the language had acquired its own "spirit" did he deem it ready to be presented to the general public. That happened in 1887 with the publication of a booklet called Lingvo Internacia (International Language).

[foto de LLZ]
L. L. Zamenhof (1859–1917), founder of Esperanto

In his booklet, Zamenhof used the pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto (Doctor Hoping), but the word Esperanto later became the name of the language itself. In the following years, the booklet circulated among language enthusiasts and idealists in many countries who learned the language and began using it for global communication. That's how Esperanto evolved, little by little, from one man's project into a living international language. Today, Esperanto is used and admired by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people worldwide.

It seems incredible that a one-man project could have developed into a living international language that so many people enjoy using, doesn't it? Well, this booklet gives a brief explanation of how and why that happened. It also shows you how Esperanto is used around the world today. Read on, and you'll soon know more about Lingvo Internacia (Esperanto's original name).

1.1. Where is Esperanto used?

People use Esperanto every day in various ways: when travelling, at international conferences, on the Internet, for work, or in family life.

"I use Serbian with my children, English for my studies, Swedish in society, and Esperanto at work and with my husband. All languages have their pros and cons. Of the four languages I use every day, Esperanto is the one in which I feel most comfortable."

Sonja Petrović Lundberg, coordinator of www.lernu.net

Normally Esperanto is used between people who don't have the same mother tongue. When used in this way, Esperanto acts as a "bridge language" between people from different language backgrounds. That's Esperanto's strength – it works well as a bridge or a sort of glue, bringing people together across national borders.

One way to use Esperanto is to go to an international Esperanto event, where people from various countries get together. Many Esperanto speakers enjoy attending such gatherings where they can chat, swap ideas, sing, dance, and go on excursions with people from other countries. You'll see some examples of this kind of event later in this booklet.

Another way to use Esperanto is to travel to a foreign country and stay for free in the home of an Esperanto speaker. When you stay with ordinary people in a foreign country, you tend to get a better picture of that country's lifestyle and customs than you would if you stayed in a hotel. Pasporta Servo (Passport Service) is a network of Esperanto speakers who are happy to provide such accommodation. It contains roughly 1200 addresses in more than 90 countries.

[PS-grafikaĵo]

"Perhaps the most useful aspect of Pasporta Servo is that you don't need to plan a whole lot with it. You can just decide to go where you want, as the mood strikes you."

Amanda Higley, from the USA, who travelled through Europe for sixteen months and paid for only three nights' lodging

A third way to use Esperanto is to correspond with speakers by post or on the Internet – a quick and easy way make contact people in other countries.

"The Internet removes physical distance, and Esperanto removes 'language distance'. So the Internet and Esperanto make a great pair for international communication!"

Henning Sato von Rosen, one of the founders of E@I

Some Esperanto speakers use the language to actively promote a better, more peaceful world. There are those who use it to read news about events in various countries, written by the very people who live in those countries. And others enjoy books that were originally written in a minority language, and that have been translated into Esperanto but not into the reader's mother tongue.

1.2. International Esperanto events

Here are some examples of popular international Esperanto events around the world:

Himalayan Meeting

The Himalayan Meeting has a strong focus on tourism. With local Esperantists as their guides, the participants can learn about Nepalese life and the sights of Nepal. There's usually also a rather longer excursion outside the capital, Kathmandu, during which Esperanto speakers from Nepal and other countries can live together, get to know each other, and practise the language in an exotic environment.

International Youth Convention – IJK

An excellent event for all young Esperanto enthusiasts. In its lively informal atmosphere, it's easy to make new friends from other countries and get to know the global Esperanto youth movement. Hundreds of people take part, usually from about 30 countries. The convention is held in a different country each year.

Youth Esperanto Week

A fun week of celebrations around New Year, somewhere in Europe. There's a serious programme during the day, but most people are there to hang out with friends, dance, and enjoy the nightlife.

North American Summer Courses – NASK

NASK takes place over three weeks in the summer at a university in the USA, and consists of intensive Esperanto study at various levels of proficiency. Its teaching staff and body of students are international.

Common Seminar – KS

A cooperative seminar for young people, mostly from China, Japan, and Korea, held in each of those countries in turn. It takes place every year, and serves to bring together young Esperanto speakers in Asia.

Cultural Esperanto Festival – KEF

A festival with a colourful programme of Esperanto culture in which people of various ages take part. The musicians and artists come mainly – but not exclusively – from Europe. In the afternoons and evenings there are usually plays, lectures, discussions, and concerts by Esperanto musicians. At night there's dancing, with a bar and a café. The festival is usually held in Northern Europe.

All-American Esperanto Convention – TAKE

TAKE's goals are to increase solidarity between the Esperantists of North, Central, and South America, to advance the Esperanto movement, and to study its problems. Along with its work sessions, the convention also has a number of educational and entertainment items that introduce participants to the history and culture of the host country.

World Convention – UK

The Universala Kongreso is the largest annual Esperanto event, and has a varied programme: mainly lectures and meetings, but also concerts, stage plays, excursions, and dancing. There are usually between 2000 and 4000 people from around 50 countries there. The event takes place in a different country each year.

1.3. How did Esperanto become a living language?

It may sound incredible that a one-man project could evolve into a living international language. Nonetheless, that's what has happened with Esperanto: it now develops in much the same way as other languages. (We know, because we use it every day.)

Here are the main factors that helped Esperanto become a living language:

Zamenhof had a great talent for designing the heart of a language

Zamenhof started pondering the possibility of an international language when he was just a child – and when he became a young man, he decided to bring his ideas to fruition. At the age of 17, he showed the initial result to his school friends. Over the next ten years, he adjusted and refined the structure, and in 1887, he published it under the name Lingvo Internacia.

People were soon using Esperanto in several countries

Within just a few years of its launch, Esperanto had a community of speakers who used it, liked it, and looked after it. Many of them exchanged letters and met up with Esperanto speakers from other countries. As a result, people were using Esperanto for various types of international communication right from the word go.

Zamenhof left the development of Esperanto up to its users

In 1905, at the first major convention of Esperanto speakers, Zamenhof declared that he would no longer control the language's direction. Instead, anyone who used Esperanto could influence its evolution. That decision proved to be a wise one: it made many people feel they had a role to play in the process of developing the language, and so they became more involved.

Esperanto has a stable core that forbids arbitrary changes

To avoid squabbles about alterations to Esperanto, Zamenhof suggested that the language should have a permanent unchanging core, as described in the document Fundamento de Esperanto (Foundation of Esperanto). This proposal was accepted in 1905, and the Fundamento continues to have a stabilizing effect on the language as it evolves today.

Esperanto is partly natural and partly constructed

Because Esperanto uses word roots and grammatical concepts from national and ethnic languages, it feels like a natural language when you speak it. At the same time, Esperanto is relatively easy to learn – its grammar has no exceptions, and it derives new words in a sensible way. These are features of its carefully constructed framework.

The inner idea – a commonly held (but optional) philosophy

Associated with Esperanto is a philosophy of peace and friendship between all the peoples of the world. This is often known as the "inner idea". It's a great inspiration to those who dream of a better, more peaceful future. It's because of the inner idea that many people are happy to devote their energy and spare time to the Esperanto movement.

Esperanto is not just a European language

Esperanto uses European languages as the basis for its vocabulary, but its grammar and word-building system resemble Chinese, Turkish, and other non-Indo-European languages in several ways. Syntax and style in Esperanto are largely Slavic. People learn Esperanto in just a few months or a few years, regardless of their mother tongue, and they end up feeling fully at home in it.

The established community of Esperanto speakers all around the world today is proof that Esperanto has indeed become a living international language. Most speakers learn it when they're teens or adults, but there are also those people who grew up in an Esperanto family and so speak it as one of their native languages.

"I have the abiding belief that Esperanto is the most valuable thing I inherited from my dear parents."

Carlo Minnaja from Italy, who spoke Esperanto at home with his parents and brother

1.4. International Esperanto organizations

There are a number of international Esperanto organizations that make it easier for speakers to coordinate their activities at a global level. Here's a quick introduction to some of them.

Education@Internet – E@I

E@I is an international work group that promotes worldwide collaboration and communication. The group arranges educational projects and events to support cross-cultural studies alongside the use of languages and Internet techniques. An example of a successful E@I project is www.lernu.net (a multilingual website for learning Esperanto).

Home page (multilingual): www.ikso.net

International League of Esperanto Teachers – ILEI

ILEI is the main gathering place for Esperanto teachers and educators. The organization has branches in over 30 countries and members in more than 45. ILEI's activities include teaching Esperanto in schools and universities, and arranging exams that test people's knowledge of Esperanto language and culture.

Home page (in Esperanto): www.ilei.info

Esperantic Studies Foundation – ESF

ESF supports the research and teaching of Esperanto and related topics in the framework of interlinguistic communication, especially at university level in North America. It runs various projects that explore its central question: is it possible to have a world in which many languages, large and small, coexist in relative equality, and where communication on a global scale is accessible to rich and poor alike?

Home page (in English): www.esperantic.org

World Esperanto Association – UEA

UEA was founded in 1908 as an organization for individual Esperanto speakers. At present, it's the largest international association of Esperantists, with members in 117 countries. UEA not only spreads the word about Esperanto, it also works to promote discussion of the world's language problems and to draw attention to the need for equality among languages.

Home page (multilingual): www.uea.org

World Non-National Association – SAT

SAT's main aim is education through Esperanto, particularly for the working class. For SAT, Esperanto is a tool, not a goal. The organization has a general socialist character, but it welcomes any socialist faction that accepts the principle of free and open debate. The word "non-national" means that, unlike the majority of the international workers' movement, SAT's members are not affiliated to regional or national branches.

Home page (multilingual): www.satesperanto.org

World Esperanto Youth Organization – TEJO

TEJO is an international non-governmental youth organization that was founded in 1938. Through Esperanto, it promotes peace and cross-cultural understanding among young people around the world. TEJO is actively engaged with the problems and concerns of young people today, especially regarding matters of language and culture. From its central office in the Netherlands, it coordinates the work of over 40 national branches and of members in more than 80 countries.

Home page (multilingual): www.tejo.org

European Esperanto Union – EEU

EEU fights for language equality and diversity in Europe. It regards equality as an essential part of true democracy, and considers language diversity to be as important as the diversity of animals and plants in ecology. Furthermore, EEU favours developing a European identity that would peacefully coexist with national and regional identities.

Home page (in Esperanto): www.europo.eu

International Association of Esperanto-speaking Cyclists – BEMI

This is one for people who like to ride their bike while speaking Esperanto! BEMI organizes various regular bicycle convoys, often in connection with youth events.

Home page (multilingual): bemi.free.fr

Eurokka

Eurokka operates worldwide, both inside and outside the Esperanto movement, spreading and encouraging Esperanto's musical culture, and promoting bands and artists who perform in Esperanto.

Home page (in Esperanto): artista.ikso.net/eurokka

1.5. Suitable for international communication

While you've been reading this booklet, you may have thought:

"Esperanto, an international language? But we already have an international language. English is the world's international language, and almost everyone can speak it."

You're quite right that English is the language most commonly used in international situations. Around 7% of people speak English as their mother tongue, and by various estimates, another 7% or so learn English to a high standard as teens or adults. But people who acquire great proficiency in English are generally those whose native languages resemble English, such as Germans, Dutch, and Swedes. For many others – Hungarians, Chinese, Turks, and Koreans, for example – whose mother tongues are very different from English, it's often extremely tricky and time-consuming to learn English to a high standard.

Lots of other languages are also used as bridges for communication in localized areas. There are many possible approaches to international communication. We believe that multilingualism deserves strong support, and the work of the Esperanto movement also supports the use of smaller or minority languages in various contexts. But bear in mind that not everyone is good at learning foreign languages, and that not everyone wants to spend their spare time learning several different ones. In particular, there are people who would like to learn to speak a foreign language, but were unable to achieve this at school: for them, Esperanto can be an interesting alternative.

In our experience, Esperanto is well suited for international communication. Here are some of the reasons why:

1) Easier

To anyone who has learned both Esperanto and a national or ethnic language as a foreign language, it's clear that Esperanto was the easier one to learn. Esperanto is a relatively easy language because there are only a few rules, and they don't have any exceptions. Furthermore, there's less vocabulary to memorize: you can easily build new words by combining roots, prefixes, and suffixes. We can't tell you exactly how much easier Esperanto is to learn than other languages: it varies, depending on which language you compare it with, and on the desired level of proficiency. But people generally learn Esperanto in a fifth to a third of the time they would need if they wanted to reach the same standard in other languages.

2) Less biased

Esperanto doesn't belong to any particular nation or people. This makes it less biased than national or ethnic languages when it comes to global communication. Esperanto is not tied to any specific nation or ethnic culture, and that's a great advantage for a language that serves as a bridge between the various peoples of the world. (This doesn't mean that Esperanto is a language with no culture: in fact it has an international culture all of its own.)

3) Fairer

There's a good chance that anyone who learns Esperanto will reach a high level of proficiency in it, and then be able to communicate on an equal linguistic footing with others, regardless of their language background. This is the case for everyone, not just Westerners. It's generally true that speakers who learned Esperanto as a mother tongue don't speak the language any better than anyone else: anyone who studies Esperanto seriously can reach the same high standard as a native speaker. That's why, for global communication, Esperanto is fairer than the national languages – while a few people seem to master these effortlessly, most of us have to struggle for years to speak them well.

"In my opinion, Chinese people learn Esperanto far more easily than European languages. In addition, Chinese who've learned Esperanto have a huge advantage over others when they study European languages."

Xiao Peiliang, China

Esperanto can be of great interest to anyone who feels it's important that an international language should be easy, neutral, and fair.

English is currently the most widely used language for global communication. But who knows? At some point in the future, more and more people may discover how well suited Esperanto is to the job of international communication, and then both English and Esperanto will serve in parallel as major international languages. That would mean a great deal to the millions of people who find it very hard to become proficient in English.

"I'm an Iranian student, studying in Paris for a doctorate in science. I've always used English in my studies, and since arriving in France, I've begun learning French. I've learned Esperanto as well, and I must confess it's the only language – apart from my native one – in which I feel comfortable. I don't feel at home in any other foreign language. In my opinion, Esperanto is suitable for everyone, including people from Asia."

Behrouz Soroushian, Iran

1.6. Esperanto culture

Esperanto has songs, films, poems, novels, short stories, magazines, plays, cabarets, folk music, rock music, pop music, rap music, and much more besides. So Esperanto definitely has culture. (The world "culture" can include a lot more than just these things, but this is a short booklet and we have to limit ourselves.)

There were poems even in the very first Esperanto booklet. Right from the start, people noticed that Esperanto had a richness and beauty that lent itself well to creative writing. After all, it's a language that feels liberating, partly because of its relatively free word order and its ability to create new words using prefixes and suffixes.

"I discovered how amazing the language is for writing lyrics, and I wanted to continue for the sheer pleasure of writing in the language."

Martin Wiese, singer in the Esperanto bands Persone and Martin & la talpoj

Every year sees the publication of lots of new books in Esperanto.

[libro-fotoj]

Every year also sees the release of new Esperanto songs, and of CDs by artists in various genres. You can find Esperanto radio programmes and podcasts online. There are regular cultural festivals where people can enjoy various aspects of Esperanto culture.

[kd/muzik-fotoj]

If you would like to listen to some Esperanto songs, go to www.vinilkosmo.com.

"Singing in Esperanto is like singing in Portuguese, and it's more fun than singing in English."

Rogener Pavinski, from Brazil, singer with the rock group Supernova

Esperanto also serves as a bridge between national or ethnic cultures. One example of this is the thousands of books that have been translated into Esperanto from national or ethnic languages. They include the great classics, as well as more obscure "pearls of literature" written in minority languages.

[libro-fotoj]

There are plenty of Esperanto magazines, with various subjects and audiences. Two of them are Monato and Beletra Almanako.

[monato-foto]

Monato (Month) is a monthly magazine about world events, major and minor. Its selling point is that its articles are not written by foreign correspondents (who seldom have really deep knowledge or understanding of local society) but by the very people who live in those countries and have directly experienced the events they describe.

[BA-foto]

Beletra Almanako (Literary Almanac) is a literary journal containing original and translated poetry and prose (fiction and non-fiction), essays, reviews, drama, and so on.

There are also films and plays in Esperanto, including some of the main works of Shakespeare. Further examples are the plays by the author Harold Brown, several of which have been translated into other languages: harold-brown-author-verkisto.webs.com.

[teatro/filmo-fotoj]

1.7. Please note!

The Esperanto community strongly supports the concepts of language diversity and language rights. All languages are valuable, and it's important that the majority languages do not push local and minority languages out of use.

Learning Esperanto is good preparation for learning other languages quickly and easily, whether you're a child or an adult. What's more, people who learn Esperanto often develop an interest in learning additional languages.

Esperanto is not perfect. It's not perfectly neutral, nor is it perfectly fair. But in our experience, it's a fairer and less biased way of communicating internationally than using a national language.

"Esperanto is not a national language: its purpose or role is not the same. So to decide if it's a good language, we shouldn't ask how well it can duplicate what national languages do. Rather, we should judge it on how well it plays its own role – that of a bridge between ethnic groups."

From La Bona Lingvo (The Good Language) by Claude Piron

6. Frequently asked questions about Esperanto

In this section you'll find answers to some common questions about Esperanto.

6.1. How did Esperanto get its name?

At first the language was simply called Lingvo Internacia (International Language). When Zamenhof published the language, he used the pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto (which means "Doctor Hoping"). As a result, people sometimes talked about "Dr Esperanto's language". Later on, they just said "Esperanto", and that got adopted as the name of the language.

6.2. How many people speak Esperanto?

There's no clear way to count the number of Esperanto speakers, because not all of them are members of organizations. Besides, it depends how you define "speaking Esperanto": do you only count those people who regularly speak it to a high standard, or do you count anyone who has a basic knowledge of Esperanto, even if they hardly ever use it? Estimates of the number of Esperanto speakers in the world are therefore rather variable, from tens of thousands to several million. Whatever the true figure, there are enough Esperanto speakers in the world to form a lively international community.

6.3. Which languages does Esperanto most resemble?

Most of the word roots come from Europe, especially the Romance languages. But Esperanto's grammar has many features that are not typical of European languages, and these make it quite similar to such languages as Turkish, Swahili, or even Chinese.

6.4. Is Esperanto easy to learn?

Yes, compared with national languages. But, as always, a lot depends on the individual student and on how many other languages they've already learned. In our experience, learning a new language is always a challenge – it's never "very easy". This is also true for Esperanto, although it's much less awkward to master than a typical national or ethnic language. Even people who've never really managed to learn a foreign language can learn Esperanto! But of course you have to study and practise a lot if you want to speak the language fluently and correctly.

6.5. Why learn Esperanto?

People choose to learn Esperanto for various reasons. Language lovers are often curious about Esperanto's grammar and that's why they start studying the language. Other people become interested in Esperanto because, after failing to learn a particular foreign language, they want to try an easier one. Some have heard about the "inner idea", and so they learn Esperanto to help support a more peaceful and interconnected world. Young people are often interested in travelling to other countries to make new friends there, and Esperanto is a great option for doing this.

6.6. How do I learn Esperanto?

If you have a good Internet connection, we recommend starting at www.lernu.net, where you can find several interactive courses for beginners, in many languages. If you prefer a course in the form of a book, you can order one from an online bookshop. Section 7.3 has a list of online bookshops that sell Esperanto books, and a few recommendations of popular instructional texts in English.

If you'd prefer to learn Esperanto in person, you can contact your local or regional Esperanto association to find out when and where courses will be taking place. Sections 7.1 and 7.2 list some websites that you can visit to locate Esperanto clubs and courses near you.

Once you've learned a bit of Esperanto, it's fun to use the language with other people, either online or at an Esperanto event. Contact your local club!

6.7. Does Esperanto have a logo or symbol?

Yes, there are several. The green star is the oldest and most widely used: it appears on the Esperanto flag, among other places. The colour green stands for hope, and the five-pointed star represents the five continents. A more recent symbol is the so-called "jubilee logo", which was the winner of a contest held at the time of Esperanto's hundredth anniversary.

6.8. Why do some linguists say negative things about Esperanto?

Linguists are the people best placed to understand the complexities of language. And this may be exactly why so many of them – who are otherwise extremely competent – fail to believe that Esperanto can work as a fully fledged living language, and that it's worthy of any attention or research. Languages are such complex and delicate things that it seems amazingly unlikely that a genuinely rich, living language could have emerged from one young man's project. (Zamenhof was 27 when he published Esperanto, having spent more than ten years working on it.) So it's natural to be sceptical. But if you look into the reality of it, you'll see that Esperanto works incredibly well for global communication. It would be great if more linguists and researchers decided to study Esperanto and research its community in the future.

6.9. Can I learn Esperanto at school and university?

In some countries, yes. Many Esperantists argue that learning Esperanto in primary school makes it easier for people to learn other foreign languages later. Studying a relatively easy language gives students confidence in learning languages, and the fact that Esperanto's grammar is so regular adds to their understanding of grammatical structures and concepts. Several independent studies have reached this conclusion, and it would be interesting to see the results of further research into Esperanto's ability to help people learn languages.

6.10. Can you tell what country an Esperanto speaker comes from?

You can often guess this from a person's accent when they speak Esperanto, but not always. Some people have a "neutral" accent.

6.11. How many native Esperanto speakers are there?

There are something like a thousand people who have Esperanto as one of their mother tongues. Often this is because their parents come from different countries and met at an Esperanto event. The parents use Esperanto together at home, and when they then have a child, they want to go on speaking Esperanto together. Perhaps the most common situation is where one parent always speaks Esperanto to the child, while the other parent (the immigrant) uses their native language with them. In society, the child uses the local or national language. The child becomes natively trilingual.

6.12. Wouldn't it be better to create a new, even fairer language for global communication?

It's not easy to assemble a good basis for a language. Linguists – the people who know the most about languages – don't necessarily have the talent for creating a language themselves: their speciality is in analysing languages. Creation and analysis are two very different things. Several people have constructed new languages – even a group of linguists has had a go – but so far the results have been less successful than Esperanto. Think about Mozart and his music — people with genius like that don't come along very often! Zamenhof was rather similar. He had an extraordinary gift for creating languages, and he managed to prepare the basis of a language that's turned out to work much better than all other attempts. Besides, if the seed of a newly published language is to germinate, it needs a long period of widespread use in every conceivable situation. Languages that lack a basic ideology (like the one Zamenhof gave to Esperanto) have less chance of acquiring the community of speakers they need if they're to come alive. This process has already occurred in Esperanto, and the language is now ready. It's not perfect, but it's still an extremely suitable and fair way for people to communicate internationally.

6.13. Isn't English good enough for international communication?

English is very useful for communicating globally in many situations. But the fact remains that not everyone succeeds in becoming fluent in English, even after many years of study. It's a particularly difficult challenge for people whose native languages are very unlike English. (If you've ever been to Korea or Turkey, for example, you know what we're talking about.) Esperanto is easier to learn than ethnic languages, whether you're young or old. Furthermore, Esperanto is not tied to any specific national culture. This is an important advantage for a language that serves as a bridge between ethnic groups: they can use it to communicate on an equal footing.

6.14. But hasn't Esperanto already had its chance?

It's true that in the early 1920s, the League of Nations (a predecessor of the UN) almost adopted Esperanto as one of its working languages. It's also true that several politicians became interested in Esperanto in the thirties and forties. But today, very few politicians have any interest in it. Maybe Esperanto will never again have the chance to become a working language in a large international organization. But maybe the situation will change in the future: maybe Esperanto will become ever more popular among people interested in creating a new world community with closer, friendlier relationships between ethnic groups. We can't predict the future with any certainty. But we can hope... We Esperantists are good at that! (The word "Esperanto" means a person who hopes.)

7. Local information about Esperanto

This section contains contact information for Esperanto organizations in several English-speaking countries. Many large cities, and some small towns, have Esperanto clubs that hold regular meetings. The best way to find these clubs is to contact your country's national Esperanto association: many of them even list their local clubs online. Local clubs are a great way to learn Esperanto, practise the language, and meet Esperanto speakers in your area. Many national Esperanto organizations also offer bookshops that make it easy to buy books in or about Esperanto.

7.1. Organizations and clubs

Most countries have a national Esperanto organization that can help you find clubs in your region.
- Australia: aea.esperanto.org.au
- Canada: www.esperanto.ca
- Ireland: www.esperanto.ie
- New Zealand: www.esperanto.org.nz
- South Africa: www.esperanto.za.org
- UK: www.esperanto-gb.org
- USA: www.esperanto.org
- Other countries: www.uea.org/landoj

7.2. Courses and events

Esperanto clubs in many cities offer regular courses. There are also some residential courses that last several weeks. Here are some links that may help you:
- Australia: aesk.esperanto.org.au
- Canada: www.esperanto.ca/en/servoj
- New Zealand: www.esperanto.org.nz/about_nzea.html
- UK: www.esperantoeducation.com
- USA: www.esperanto.org/nask, www.esperanto-usa.org/en/node/6

Many national Esperanto associations hold annual conventions that last two or three days or even a week. These events are a chance to meet friends, visit new places, and attend talks on interesting topics, all in Esperanto. They also give leaders the chance to meet with members and plan the next year. Organizations often hold a special gathering around the time of Zamenhof's birthday, 15 December. On a smaller scale, many cities have informal clubs that meet up once a month or so. Contact your local association for details of upcoming meetings.

7.3. Finding books about Esperanto

Not many booksellers carry books about Esperanto, but you can sometimes find some in the language sections of large bookshops, and at major online booksellers such as Amazon. The best approach is to use dedicated Esperanto websites.

There are plenty of Esperanto textbooks and dictionaries written in English. We recommend browsing the stock of an online book service, but here are a few recommendations: "Esperanto: Learning and Using the International Language", by David Richardson (2004); "Step by Step in Esperanto" by Montagu Butler (1991); "English-Esperanto-English Dictionary" by J.C. Wells (2010); and "Comprehensive English-Esperanto Dictionary", by Peter Benson (1995).

These are the online or mail-order book services available in English-speaking countries:
- Australia: libroservo.esperanto.org.au
- Canada: www.esperanto.qc.ca/katalogo
- UK: www.esperanto-gb.org/eab/bookcat.htm
- USA: esperantousa.hypermart.net/retbutiko
- Worldwide: katalogo.uea.org

lernu! is a multilingual website that helps Internet users find out about Esperanto and learn it – easily, and for free.

The site offers various levels of courses, dictionaries in many languages, guides to the grammar, audio recordings of stories with pictures, instant messaging for direct communication, forums, and much more!

Esperanto estas...

Find out about the international language Esperanto with these six films – they're short and fun!

Esperanto is ...

...a language that's useful for everything (Part 1 – 01:43 min)
... a language with many features (Part 2 – 08:01 min)
... a language used in many ways (Part 3 - 06:23 min)
... worth learning for everyone (Part 4 – 13:22)
... a language with a colourful movement (Part 5 – 04:12 min)
... a language of the future (Part 6 – 09:31 min)

The text is taken from a longer booklet about Esperanto, which you can download from www.ikso.net/broshuro.

This booklet was created by E@I (www.ikso.net).

Esperanto is an international language used on every continent.

"I feel part of a worldwide community" - Erin Piateski, USA

"My main interest in Esperanto lies with its culture" - Rogener Pavinski, Brazil

"Esperanto makes me feel like a true world citizen" - Jean Codjo, Canada / Benin

"Thanks to Esperanto I've enjoyed many close friendships abroad" - Satoo Reiko, Japan

"Learning Esperanto led me to live on a different continent" - Russ Williams, Poland / USA

"Esperanto has given me friends all over the world" - Li Jianhua, China

"I was captivated by Esperanto's internal logic" - Zsófia Kóródy, Germany / Hungary

"Esperanto is part of my normal life" - Renato Corsetti, Italy

"Esperanto has been my job for 7 years" - Katalin Kováts, Netherlands / Hungary

"Esperanto has really boosted my interest in other countries and cultures" - Marcos Cramer, Germany

"Esperanto has shown me a new way to look at the world" - Trinh Hong Hanh, Vietnam

"You can even find Esperanto in villages with no electricity" - Vlaďka Chvátalová, Belgium / Czech Republic

"Esperanto makes international relationships much easier" - Kong Kil-yoon, Korea

"For me Esperanto is a great inspiration" - Hokan Lundberg, Sweden

In this booklet, you can read about Esperanto and how it's used by people in different countries.