Esperanto lives on despite shortage of speakers
December 28, 2010 Filed under News
Equal footing
“Using one nation’s language as a lingua franca is only a temporary solution. It used to be French. Today it is English. Tomorrow it might be Chinese. But this is always unfair to other nations, since people in other countries have to waste time mastering the language,” Xu said.
“Esperanto puts everyone on an equal footing and is easy to learn. I still believe Esperanto will be the language of the future.”
But Esperanto appears dead throughout most of the rest of the country.
“Some associations whose membership is mainly teachers and professors exist mainly for academic exchange,” he said.
The Sichuan Esperanto Association gets people returning from abroad, managers and office staff, making the group younger and more dynamic.
“They have a better idea how to manage an association with modern appeal,” he said.
Outside the associations, most young Esperanto speakers congregate online using Douban and Tencent groups: the Lernu network alone has more than 7,000 registered speakers.
“Esperanto has experienced ups and downs in its hundred years of development. It is very possible it may rise again in the future,” he said.
Mike Jones on Sun, 30th Jan 2011 2:39 pm
Hi. I’m an American expat teaching English at a high school in Beijing. I’ve been in China 7 years.
Could you put me in touch with the Peking Esperanto Association (i.e., have them send me an email)? I would love to attend their meetings.
I use Esperanto to a small extent in my teaching of English. I use it to give a hint of the solution of a task, so that the task will not be too difficult for the students. For this purpose, it is not even necessary to teach Esperanto first. Here is an example:
——————
Fill in the blanks, using the following words: afford, array, college, houses, mentioned, name, old, shoes.
His _______________ was George F. Babbitt. He was forty-six years
_______________ now, in April, 1920. Being a real estate agent, he made nothing in
particular, neither butter nor _______________ nor poetry, but he was nimble in the
calling of selling _______________ for more than people could _______________ to
pay. When Babbitt was in _______________, no one had ever so much as
______________ the existence of Esperanto to him, let alone show him the delightful
_______________ known as the Chinese magic square.
As a hint, here is the Esperanto translation of the completed text:
Lia nomo estis George F. Babbitt. Li havis kvardek ses jarojn nun, en aprilo, 1920. Estante bienmakleristo, li elfaris nenion aparte, nek buteron nek ŝuojn nek poezion, sed li estis lertmova en la sankta profesio vendi domojn por pli ol homoj povis senprobleme pagi. Kiam Babbitt estis en la kolegio, neniu tiom multe entreprenis kiel eĉ mencii al li la ekziston de Esperanto, por ne paroli pri montri al li la ravan matricon konatan kiel la Ĉina magia kvadrato.
——————–
Mike Jones
Beijing
30.Jan.2011
Robb Kvasnak, Ed.D. on Sun, 20th Mar 2011 12:52 pm
I use Esperanto to teach future teachers in the USA how to teach foreign languages as well as English as a Second Language. The University of Manchester is currently piloting a project using Esperanto to teach children in 1-3 grades how to learn a foreign language. This is a replication of similar project carried out in Germany and Hungary, all of which were very successful.
Sinjoro Eng on Fri, 1st Apr 2011 4:31 am
I think China Esperanto Association needs to develop the activities and provide the Esperanto speakers some economy rewards like get a job in the hotel, tourism industry etc. In fact, China can consider to set up an Esperanto university too. This could bring more investment to China as the education is a good export. Do not expect too many people would like to spend years learning Chinese language before entering the door of university.
There are two tour operators in Nepal providing Esperanto speaking tour guilds.
Esperanto in the 21st century should have a better outlook and change is inevitable.
Mike Jones on Thu, 12th May 2011 7:42 pm
There’s no shortage of Esperanto-language greetings at the high school in Beijing where I am currently teaching mathematics (in English). The Esperanto greeting “Saluton!” is heard several dozen times a day there, spoken by the students, on any school day. That is a conservative estimate. It could easily be as high as a hundred times on certain days. This does not count choral greeting for me in Esperanto at the beginning of class, only what happens in the hallways and on the sidewalks!
Regards,
Mike Jones
American expat in Beijing
12.May.2011
Thomsa Robertson on Sat, 3rd Mar 2012 1:24 am
I just moved to Beijing.
I learned Esperanto in Chicago and attended Esperanto meetings there.
I want to join the group here in Beijing.
Please send me information.