Esperanto: My favourite language
Long ago, so long that I cannot remember when or how, I found Esperanto. At first, it was just a hobby. Then it changed my life.
Sometimes, you don't know how the little actions you take will sum up to become something enormous, to become the essence of your reality. That was me more than 8 years ago when somewhere, someone mentioned that there was an artificial language made to be the easiest of all. I was not seduced or mesmerised. I was slightly curious, but I often take my curiosities to unbelievable levels of dedication.
Esperanto was not at all as popular as it is today. There were not many courses, not many sources of information. There were some books, a few people offering help to learn it, and there were many things I didn't know about and didn't find out until much later. I downloaded all the books I found and methodically studied them. Then, I started to chat in Esperanto. There were places on IRC where you could just find Esperanto speakers, and there were also e-mail groups.
I kind of forgot about Esperanto for a few years. I just spoke it sometimes, and spoke about it. I wrote stories, translated a few songs. Little by little, I got friends because of Esperanto. Then I got more, then I was invited to Telegram to take part in the biggest Esperanto group I've ever seen (more than 1400 members right now). I'd say that these last couple of years has been the "Telegram" stage of my life, where almost every opportunity I've had has sprouted from there.
I travelled out of the country (alone for the first time) in order to meet Esperanto speakers and travel a lot. I travelled in my own country. And as many who have travelled abroad have discovered, more than discovering other cultures, you get to discover yourself. Everything changed for me. I could not begin to describe the amount of changes because they are uncountable and deep inside of me.
Esperanto changed the essence of my being and made me feel fulfilled beyond what I thought possible.
I don't know what this little language carries in its veins, and it's probably nothing. It was probably just the reaction I had to it. I tend to forget about it (you don't always think about the colour of your hair or the size of your shoes), but sometimes I feel something that reminds me of the first sensations of change in my mind and I remember the whole journey in one moment, in one feeling.
These last few days, this feeling has been with me very often. Especially because I've been talking more often to my Esperanto friends. I've been thinking that I'd like to do stuff in this language. Perhaps write stories, translate already existing ones, or something. I don't know. I've got a friend who wants to export our national music into Esperanto. The situation here is hard, though, so we haven't been able to get our hands on some proper scores.
Then again, Esperanto is just a language, right?...
Now I understand what my language teachers meant when they repeated over and over that languages carry culture with them. They're not isolated. Just the words, even the dictionaries, have this strong smell of a culture. Just read the examples in the dictionaries. There's this thick musk left behind by the creators, by the writers. It's hard to find sterile language learning environments, and I don't think there's much value in attempting them.
The "Esperanto culture" is a very controversial topic. I wouldn't agree with it very easily, but there is a tight community around it. The best thing I got from the language was not the language itself but all the acquaintances and friends, the beautiful serendipities. I think I found myself in it.
I enjoyed this article. I don't speak Esperanto but I learned a constructed language named toki pona. I read your comment below and now I want to now more about "Esperanto culture". The problem is that I'm currently learning French (Spanish is my mother tongue) and I don't have the time for learning Esperanto but I would appreciate if you could point me to some good reading in English about the culture build around Esperanto.
Esperanto is really easy to learn. I know people who have learned to speak it fluently between 2 and 8 months. I did it more like in 6 months, perhaps.
Here's a Wikipedia article about Esperanto culture.
Here's a Duolingo thread about it.
And an article from another website.
There's plenty about it on the internet and you could ask esperanto speakers about it and I'm sure many would be eager to talk about it or to point you in the right direction.
mi wile sona e sona pi toki espelanto! tempo kama lili la mi oko e lipu mute.
I don't speak toki pona. Could you translate? I want to learn it, though!
Translation: "I want to learn about Esperanto culture. I will be reading a lot about it soon!"
toki pona is not useful as Esperanto. It's just an interesting exercise. I'm afraid is kind of dead now. Here's a beautiful illustrated manual. There's also a couple of flash card iPhone apps.
That's pretty cool! I expect this is also happening with Steem, at least for some folks ;)
Hmm looks like there are some #esperanto posts out in the wild. Why is it a controversial topic, the Esperanto culture?
Some say there's no culture, that it's just a language. Many say that esperanto speakers have their own culture and that the "Esperanto" culture is just an idea that is not that accurate.
I've seen the contrary, but it's hard to explain. When you're in chatrooms or when you're hanging out with esperanto speakers and people from the esperanto community, there are many ideas that all have in common. This might be due to the ideals of the creator, pushing people who share them to learn the language, or it might be due to peer pressure, pushing those who learn the language to think about certain topics and moving the hivemind toward a certain set of opinions.
The latter could be defined as a sort of culture, but I'm not an anthropologist. Though I wish I could do some anthropological studies on the Esperanto communities.
And yeah! Totally agreed. Some people will be revolutionised by this site, the community and all there is to it. In my case, I'm still a bit far from this idea. I see some inherent philosophical problems that bring inequality and arbitrariness into the reward system and this pulls me away from a strong sense of belonging.
Saluton ĉi tie je steemit. Bonan enkondukon vi verkis. Gxis nun ne multaj esperantistoj trovis Steemit. Kion vin prenis al steemit? Mi mem ĉestas ekde du jaroj ĉi tie. Do sufiĉe multe da artikoloj esperantlingvaj :-)
Cxu vi volas ankaux skribi en Esperanto?
Saluton, Johano! Dankon :)
Prave, mi ne vidas multe da esperantistoj, eĉ se multe da ili aliloke ĉiam serĉas kiel konstrui profitdonon de esperanto.
Mi alvenis januare! Vi ja ĉeestas delongege!
Mi ja volas skribi kelkon en esperanto, sed mia mondona legantaro nur legas la anglan :( Eble mi povus traduki kelkajn kontojn kaj eldoni ilin dulingve!