Tasks for the Esperantists

*Please accept my apologies for a spelling mistake in the Esperanto speaker. Thanks for the reminding msg from a reader. Hope the error is rectified.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/esperantisto

It is delighted to have seen the article that I posted received some good thought provoking comments. I would like to thank the readers for taking time to comment and discuss the matter.

http://malaysiakusayang.blogspot.com/2010/02/asean-should-go-esperanto.html


Now I would like to offer my two cents worth to the Esperantists or Esperantistojn. Of course, I am hoping this language--Esperanto would be soon be the major world communication language though someone told me it is hard to see the light as a lingua franca. Political power is the main reason for the acceptance.

Whatever it is, Esperanto has come the long way, for a century, in the history of linguistic. It is time for the Esperantistojn to consider further how to bring the language to a greater high in the new century and we are a decade into the new millennium.

Just googled or yahoo search, we can find a very prominent native speaker of Esperanto is George Soros. The billionaire’s father was also a writer in Esperanto.

There are few items that I could at this moment of time think of to share with the Esperantistojn.

I have briefly have it in the followings:

1. Education
Until this moment of time, we could hardly find a university that is conducting the course fully in Esperanto. Most of the courses in the universities are as an elective. When there is no demand for the education, the language will remind as a part in the lower means of communication.

However, with the assets that Mr Soros has at the moment, he would be able to build a university fully conducting courses in his native language, that is, Esperanto if he thinks the language is worth much of promoting.

I do not like to dwell with how rich people spend their money but Bill Gates has formed the foundation for the needy. If there is a foundation to look into the education as part of the Esperanto language institution, certainly it would be accepted by the society double the speed.

2. Traveling (Tourism)
In tradition, sources from the net, the Esperantisojn would travel and stay with the Esperanto speakers of the visiting country or they called it the host of the esperantists.

It may in the past, the traveling is costly and the language communication is a problem. But, with the low cost airlines, especially in Asia, the airasia is serving most of the Asian cities, in ASEAN in particular. http://www.airasia.com/

If the esperantists still think of the way in the past, it would not only bar them to travel far but also do not able to promote the language.

Backpackers’ hostels are everywhere now but the most established ones would be the youth hostels in the world. If the Esperanto language speakers would travel and stay in the youth hostels and this would be influencing the owners to have the Esperanto speaking staff. Besides, the World Esperanto Association, if there is one, till now I could find are mostly the national associations of respective countries, could write to the IYHA to inform that the esperantonists have changed the concept that they would stay in the youth hostels and Esperanto speaking staff would be of great help.

At such, the learning of Esperanto language would be sprung up quickly. This is the monetary push for the enlargement of the use of the language. Certainly, it is better than the colonial power.

3. Scouting
It is a regret that the World Scout Organization (WSO) did not have the Esperanto language page despite the Esperanto scouting movement is coming close to a century.

The WSO has the language of money as well as colonial and power of the past. They are English, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. http://www.scout.org/

It is very amazing that the WSO does not even linked the page of the Esperanto Scout page to its page. This, as far as I am concerned, the WSO is seemed not approving the Esperanto Scout Movement though the page of Esperanto Scout said the body is recognized by the WSO. http://www.esperanto.org/skolta/



In short, the WSO is not keen to promote Esperanto language for the good cause of unity for the youngsters. In fact, the WSO should discard all the languages and keep one language, that is Esperanto.

The WSO is a world body with almost all countries in the world are affiliated with, except a few from the communist block countries. But we, in Asia never hear of Esperanto Scout Movement. Thanks to the internet at the new century enable me to know the Esperanto Scout Movement.

In ASEAN most scout activities are under the Ministry of Education and how many youth, boys and girls are missing out of the language.

If the claims of the Esperantistojn is true, Esperanto language is the easiest language to learn in the world, which needs about 6 months to reach the intermediate level. The scouts, boys and girls, in ASEAN would have been the fluent Esperanto language speakers, include me. The numbers of Esperanto speakers would be in tons as these scouting activities are incorporated in the curriculum from the primary schools to the high schools, a total of 12 years education.
Where the problems are, I would leave it to the Esperanto Scout Movement as well as Esperanto speakers to find it out and rectify the issue.

4. Movie
I did not know other parts of the world would response to the onslaught of Japanese and Korean movies and TV series. But, in ASEAN region, the entertainment world has strongly influenced the local culture. Most people in ASEAN regions don’t speak Japanese and Korean languages but we all enjoyed the stories by the help of subtitle.

The historical Esperanto movie was made ONE and it failed miserably. It was not timely produced or it did not have the subtitle as I did not have the opportunity to watch it.
With the failure of the ONE movie, there isn’t any Esperanto movie being produced.

Now, it is time to the Esperantist community to churn out good movie script and have it subtitled in different languages. The sound of Esperanto would only be known to the people of the world.

I tried to use the mp 3 from Radio Verda to let the friends guessing what language it is, and the answer was either Italian or Spanish but none is correct in guessing it as Esperanto because Esperanto is not being heard in this part of the world. http://www.radioverda.com/ But we watch Italian and Spanish movies in the cinema.

5. Journalism
The newspapers and radio programmes are important for the people. If there is a 24 hours radio programmes broadcast throughout the world. It would provide employment for the people as well.

Most of the local radio station would not broadcast for the language which is not communicable in the local situation. The international broadcasts of Esperanto are now confined to ,very much , online. The only radio station that has an hour a day from China Radio International (CRI)would not be sufficient for the learners in the rural areas where they are unable to access to the internet. http://esperanto.cri.cn/

From the 5 points above, Mr. Soros ,by himself,alone,can do almost 3 of them:

a. setting up colleges and university conducting courses fully in Esperanto.
b. investing in producing Esperanto movies.
c. setting up a radio station which broadcasts to the world round the clock with offices throughout the world to engage more local flavour for the news reports.

The national Esperanto association of respective countries has to play an active role in negotiating with their respective scouting movements to provide assistance in the learning of the language.

It is easier to mobilize the local association rather than mobilizing the Obama administration.
It is still a good effort to make Esperanto to be the second language in America. However, it would take more time and lobbying for the good cause.

https://www.change.org/ideas/view/obama_introduce_esperanto_as_a_foreign_language_subject_in_schools

I like the change statement:

The obligation to learn English has been a weight on the lives of millions of people worldwide, because, although a very beautiful language, it is also very difficult. It takes a person an average of 7 years to learn English, and thousands of dollars in expensive English courses.

The idea that everybody speaks English is erroneous. Most people can't speak more than "Hello", "Good bye" and "thank you". If you travel, the only places where you can really converse in English are in hotels and tourist places. If you really want to learn about a culture while traveling, and meet the locals, English would be a very poor tool.

Nevertheless, I would still, as before, try to harp on Esperanto language for national unity in Malaysia when the opportunity arises. But if the Esperantists are still practicing the idea of the past, this might be taking a longer journey though the European Council is trying to include Esperanto in the official language campaign, it is just like asking the United Nations to include Esperanto as one of the official language.

Just wondering is that not the job of United Nations to use only ONE language to unite all the nations? LOL

Gxis la

more of the discussions:

http://blog.thestar.com.my/permalink.asp?cat=1&id=10020

http://zh-cn.lernu.net/komunikado/forumo/temo.php?t=5819&p=8