Here is my best advice on good Esperanto sources in the US: how to learn, what to buy, what to read, what to join, etc. I'm quite receptive to the experiences of others, so send me your comments! N.B. Prices that I quote may be a few years out of date.... Learning Methods: Of course, the best way to learn is to find a friend who knows it. Either ELNA (below) or I may be able to point out a person or club in your area. If you have the time, San Fransico State University offers a series of 3 week intensive courses in Esperanto each summer (in 1990 the dates are 18 June to 6 July). It is a great way to learn, and also a great way to get a cheap vacation in the Bay area (in dorm rooms). They always have some students from foreign countries and some of the best teachers in the world. You could also go to a similar course in other countries: Bulgaria, Switzerland, and Hungary, to name a few. If you need to fulfill a language requirement in school, you can get academic credit! Contact Cathy Schulze, 410 Darrell Rd, Hillsboro CA 94010, 415-352-1796. The next-most-convenient way is the Free Postal Course. Either ELNA or I can send you the first lesson, and as you mail in each lesson, your instructor will mail you the next one. You get a certificate at the end (10 lessons). You will probably want to buy Well's Dictionary (below) if you take the Postal Course. It takes about a week of mail delay per lesson. I highly recommend Claude Piron's "Gerda Malaperis". If you add a Well's dictionary, I might consider it a self-contained course. It is a mystery story, so there is good motivation to continue! Also, Piron is a psychologist, and has studied how to teach languages. He picked 750 of the most common word roots (from which you can form over 7000 actual words), and introduced them slowly, repeating each one several times after the first introduction so you can pick them up easily. ELNA has several other beginners courses. I recommend the new book "Esperanto, Learning and Using the International Language", by David Richardson"; the text "Step by Step in Esperanto" and the cassette course "Jen Nia Mondo". Macintosh owners should not miss Mike Urban's HyperCard stack - a complete text/audio/visual beginner's course, available from ELNA and CompuServe. Immediately after you get past the basics, I recommend two things: an intermediate text, such as "Pasxoj al Plena Posedo" and a translation of a favorite English book of yours into Esperanto. I have "Winnie la Pu", "La Eta Princo" (The Little Prince), and "Besto Farmo" (Animal Farm). Thus I can practice translating by myself both into and out of Esperanto. Finally, many beginners get pen-pals in other countries. Books: (Order from ELNA (Esperanto League of North America, Box 1129 El Cerrito, CA 94530, 415 653-0998)) "Esperanto Dictionary" by Wells ("Teach Yourself" series). (Sometimes available in bookstores.) All English-speaking Esperantists should have one. It has a grammatical summary, and probably has enough information for you to read anything.... Both English-Esperanto and Esperanto-English. "Plena Vortaro": Esperanto-Esperanto dictionary. All Esperantists should have this because of the innumerable examples of word usage. Don't be scared of an all-Esperanto dictionary: you'll quickly get used to it, and it is much better to learn to associate new words with their intrinsic meaning rather than the English equivalent. Get out of the habit of translating! "English Phrases and Expressions in Esperanto": very useful for learning how to express English idioms in Esperanto. Good for demonstrating how common and baffling idioms can be! "False Friends" is a useful list of words that don't mean what you would assume as an English speaker (granda == 'big', not 'grand' in all it's meanings, adulta == adulterous, not adult....) The serious esperantist will want to get the Plena Ilustrita Vortaro, an unabridged Esperanto-Esperanto dictionary with plenty of examples. 1303p., $45 John Wells, a linguist at the University of London, wrote "Lingvistikaj Aspektoj de Esperanto" (in Esperanto), which is the closest thing I've ever found to a fun, readable book on comparative linguistics. Only $5.50. For those who still wonder if "literature" can be written in Esperanto, you can get Margaret Haggler's PhD thesis on the subject from the University of Michigan's microfilm service: "Esperanto Language as a Literary Medium", 1971 It's quite interesting! The answer is definitely "yes".... If you intend to travel, get the "Pasporta Servo": 900 people in 53 countries who will put you up for free! Songs: "Kantofesto" is a fun collection of songs, with chords and music. Literature: I can personally recommend "La Infana Raso" by Auld (a classic novel-length poem), "Fianco de l' Sorto" by ??, (young love, war), and "Vojagxo al Kazohinio" by Szathmari (a revealing philosophical novel dealing with the relation between emotion and reason, competition and cooperation). Friends have recommended Nemere's "La Fermita Urbo" and the "SFEROJ" anthologies (both science fiction); "Kredu Min Sinjorino" by Rossetti; and "Kiuj Semas Plorante". I welcome more input in this category (both positive and negative!) Tapes: At some point you will surely want to hear some Esperanto. Many of the courses come with taped lessons, but you can get a feeling for how beautiful the language can be from some popular music. While many of the available tapes and records are rather amateurish, the following ones measure up to good folk music standards: Piron has a wonderful tape out: "Frandu Piron" is a collection of original and translated folk songs. "Baf!" is another collection of folk songs, with some very powerful songs translated from a variety of languages. "Per Nia Nura Vol'" is some neat feminist music from Italy, with transcriptions. "Kontakto" brilliantly satirizes the movement. There are all kinds of cheap records of speeches at conferences (much easier to understand than poetry or music....) Finally, ELNA runs a tape lending library with hundreds of tapes. Magazines: El Popola CXinio is a glossy, colorful, upbeat, broad-spectrum magazine from China. Much less propogandistic than previously. Monato is in the same genre as "Newsweek" with an international audience. (monthly, $26, but worth it, with jokes, crossword puzzles, etc.) I especially enjoy reading the ongoing debates in the letters to the editor. Fokuso, published in Hungary (theoretically every 3 months), is something I would recommend either to a scientist here who wants to learn the Esperanto vocabulary, or to a Nigerian who wanted to learn about computers and technology. Fonto is a monthly literary magazine from Brazil. UEA (below) publishes two magazines: Esperanto" carries official news on the movement. "Kontakto" is a good magazine for new Esperantists: lots of interesting, easy to read articles (many assume only a 500 morpheme vocabulary: try that with English!) Organizations: It's good to join ELNA and the Universala Esperanto-Asocio (UEA) ELNA gives you a membership list so you can look people up when you travel in the US, and discounts on some books. They also publish an interesting newsletter. UEA (Nieuwe Binnenweg 176, 3015 BJ Rotterdam, the Netherlands; (010) 36 15 39) gives 3 great things to its members: Jarlibro ("yearbook"): 400 pages packed with information and 2300 addresses in 70 countries of people who can answer questions about their countries and specialties. It also has information on specialized associations: vegetarians, stamp collectors, scientific disciplines, ham-radio operators, teachers, environmentalists, etc. Esperanto Katalogo: 400 pages densely packed with listings of books, tapes, magazines, etc. "Esperanto" magazine. Travel: The congresses are a good way to meet lots of people and get active in the movement. You can stay year-round at 2 locations: La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland and Pisanica in Bulgaria. Another resort is Gresillion in France. They all teach courses, sponsor excursions, etc. The "Pasporta Servo" book and other address lists you can acquire at congresses enable you to plan a personalized vacation with esperantists. You can also join UEA for the Jarlibro. Misc: Steve Allen and ELNA have recorded a 30 minute public TV documentary on Esperanto which your local PBS affiliate can get. Several magazines, as well as the well-known "World Radio TV Handbook", list over a dozen daily short-wave radio broadcasts worldwide. The 71st Universal Congress ("UK") was in Beijing China in August, 1986. The international youth organization, TEJO, had its conference ("IJK") in Neurim Israel in 1986. Both congresses were in Poland in 1987 for the 100th anniversary of Esperanto. There were over 6000 people at the UK! In 1988 the UK was in Rotterdam, and the IJK was in Zagreb. There was a bicycle caravan from Germany to Yugoslavia just before the IJK. In 1989 the UK was in Brighton England and the IJK was in Kerkrade, the Netherlands. For 1990 the UK will be in Cuba from 14 July to 21 July. There are also hundreds of other meetings throughout the world each year. My recomendations are the IJK and a get-together in Germany each new-year's (the "IS"). Computer specific stuff: I have the largest on-line word lists I have yet heard of. One has 3000 words with English glosses and parts of speech. It can be downloaded from CompuServe. The other is a list of all 15237 entries (including 2787 names) and 39455 compound words listed in the Plena Ilustrita Vortaro, with all of the associated information except the definitions. I have a separate guide to this in "computer.esp": there's a lot! -Neal McBurnett, neal@druhi.att.com or att!druhi!neal, 303-538-4852 4025 Evans Dr., Boulder CO 80303 USA, 303-494-6495 Dated 2 Mar 1990