Why Learn The Easiest Language, Esperanto, How And Where To Speak It

Esperanto Flag

Why learn a language with no country? Because it's the easiest language to learn and all speakers are equal. It was started years ago but with the internet it has a chance to take off, as was originally intended.

" Esperanto has become a living language." says a supporter.

How Many Speak It?

Esperanto is in the top 100 languages, out of 6,800 languages worldwide, according to the CIA factbook. 

It is the 17th most used language in Wikipedia, and in use by 

Skype, 

Firefox and 

Facebook.

Wikipedia itself is also in an Esperanto version. 

(Find the languages of Wikipedia from the column on the left of a Wikipedia page.)

Who Are The Speakers of Esperanto?

Native Esperanto speakers, (people who have used the language from birth), include:  

1 George Soros, 

2 World Chess Champion Susan Polger, 

3 Ulrich Brandenberg the new German Ambassador to NATO and 

4 Nobel Laureate Daniel Bovet.

Learning Esperanto

I started learning Esperanto with a paperback book, and bought an Esperanto dictionary.

I got along faster with the internet on duolingo.

Useful Information from Wikipedia

Science

Hungarian astronaut Bertalan Farkas, the first Esperantist in space

In 1921 the French Academy of Sciences recommended using Esperanto for international scientific communication.^[135] A few scientists and mathematicians, such as Maurice Fréchet (mathematics), John C. Wells (linguistics), Helmar Frank (pedagogy and cybernetics), and Nobel laureate Reinhard Selten (economics) have published part of their work in Esperanto. Frank and Selten were among the founders of the International Academy of Sciences in San Marino, sometimes called the "Esperanto University", where Esperanto is the primary language of teaching and administration.

A message in Esperanto was recorded and included in Voyager 1's Golden Record.

English	Esperanto	IPA
Hello	Saluton	[sa.ˈlu.ton]
Yes	Jes	[ˈjes]
No	Ne	[ˈne]
Good morning	Bonan matenon	[ˈbo.nan ma.ˈte.non]
Good evening	Bonan vesperon	[ˈbo.nan ves.ˈpe.ron]
Good night	Bonan nokton	[ˈbo.nan ˈnok.ton]
Goodbye	Ĝis (la) revido	[ˈdʒis (la) re.ˈvi.do]
What is your name?	Kio estas via nomo? Kiel vi nomiĝas?	[ˈki.o ˌes.tas ˌvi.a ˈno.mo] [ˈki.εl vi nɔ.ˈmi.dʒas]
My name is Marco.	Mia nomo estas Marko	[ˌmi.a ˈno.mo ˌes.tas ˈmar.ko]
How are you?	Kiel vi fartas?	[ˈki.el vi ˈfar.tas]
I am well.	Mi fartas bone	[mi ˈfar.tas ˈbo.ne]
Do you speak Esperanto?	Ĉu vi parolas Esperanton?	[ˈtʃu vi pa.ˈro.las ˌes.pe.ˈran.ton]
I don't understand you	Mi ne komprenas vin	[mi ˌne kom.ˈpre.nas ˌvin]
All right	Bone / En ordo	[ˈbo.ne] / [en ˈor.do]
Okay
Thank you	Dankon	[ˈdan.kon]
You're welcome	Ne dankinde	[ˌne.dan.ˈkin.de]
Please	Bonvolu / Mi petas	[bon.ˈvo.lu] / [mi ˈpε.tas]
Forgive me/Excuse me	Pardonu min	[par.ˈdo.nu ˈmin]
Bless you!	Sanon!	[ˈsa.non]
Congratulations	Gratulon	[ɡra.ˈtu.lon]
I love you	Mi amas vin	[mi ˈa.mas ˌvin]
One beer, please	Unu bieron, mi petas	[ˈu.nu bi.ˈe.ron, mi ˈpe.tas]
Where is the toilet?	Kie estas la necesejo?	[ˈki.e ˈes.tas ˈla ˌne.tse.ˈse.jo]
What is that?	Kio estas tio?	[ˈki.o ˌes.tas ˈti.o]
That is a dog	Tio estas hundo	[ˈti.o ˌes.tas ˈhun.do]
We will love!	Ni amos!	[ni ˈa.mos]
Peace!	Pacon!	[ˈpa.tson]
I am a beginner in Esperanto.	Mi estas komencanto de Esperanto	[mi ˈes.tas ˌko.men.ˈtsan.to de ˌes.pe.ˈran.to]

Unfortunately 'I want wine' and I love wine 'I love you' sound similar.

mi amas vin - I love you
Mi amas vinon - I love wine
Mi volas vinon - I want wine

You could be saying you love wine and find yourself having an unexpected romance!

Where can you speak Esperanto?
The next Esperanto Conference is 1-8 August 2020 in Montreal.
The next one in Australia is in January 2021.
The universal congress in 2021 will be in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

USEFUL WEBSITES
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/5-reasons-learn-esperanto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto

duolingo.com

https://esperanto.net/en/friends-of-esperanto/

Using Esperanto

https://esperanto.net/en/friends-of-esperanto/

Further information can be seen at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670 

A glimpse of the language can be seen at http://www.lernu.net

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto

I joined the Facebook polyglots page and I get sent lots of interesting discussions and links.
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/11/polyglots-multilingual-expo-and.html

If you want to read Shakespeare's Hamlet in Esperanto:
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Esperanto_%28Bookshelf%29



Meetings
Uk in the city of Reading.
Update in August 2020. Because of Covid19, the Esperanto group in Reading is now meeting online. 

Conferences (Kongreso for congress in Esperanto)
Australia
http://aea.esperanto.org.au/congress/
Interntional
https://uea.org/kongresoj/listo

A museum on made up languages including Esperanto is in Vienna, Austria. See my previous posts on the creator of Esperanto, his grave, and museums connected with him.

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teaches English and French and several other languages.

How Stamps Enhance Your Travels - Childhood Anticipation of Cambodia's Angkor Was

Problem
As a child, I loved collecting stamps. I loved stamps showing the exotic Far East. I never dreamed that one day I would go and live there. Nor that one day I would see Angkor Wat in Cambodia which would exceed my wildest expectations. (For those who have not yet been there, Ankor Wat is the largest, a walled are the size of a small city, but the entire area is full of a dozen or more temples, one of the most dramatic sights being the bridge lined on both sides by huge stone heads leading to a gateway.

Somewhere, amid a library size collection of books, I hope I still have my old childhood stamp album, and could check which stamps inspired my dreams and made me want to travel.

When I was a teenager I discovered that I had ruined my stamps by tearing them of envelopes, or floating them off. I visit a rich cultured family whose son showed me his stamp collection, consisting entirely of first-day covers. I discovered that you were supposed to leave stamps on envelopes, and buy special stamps, issued only briefly, with special postmarks.

For little countries, stamps are big business. Some countries it is said, make their living mainly from selling stamps of themselves. I must have read this about some tiny, photographic place, probably San Marino.

Small hilltop countries and hilltop hotels, nowadays, just like when I was a child, have long queues to drive up the hill, no parking place, so just time to jump out and by a postcard and set of pricey stamps to prove you were there, in a place where nobody needs stamps because all the neighbours are in walking distance, so long as your ankles can still manage the slopes and cobbles. Then before you know it you are directed around the one-way system and find yourself driving downhill and away.

Preserving Stamps
How can you rescue stamps? New stamps are sold at post offices worldwide and online from post offices and stamp shops which are re-selling and other collectors. You could also do swaps with a penfriend. Or just write to a friend in another country which produces good stamps, instead of merely franking letters.

Stamps For Teaching And Entertainment
If you are staying with friends or family, even staying in hotel or visiting an office, or even a shop where you are a good customer, you might ask them for envelopes or discarded stamps. Children over the age of three (who can be trusted not to eat or swallow papers) would love to look at stamps, even the ones with slightly torn or crumpled corners which have no value to a collector.

As a teacher you can show them the stamps, or photos of the stamps which you took when you were on holiday. For a slide show for the family or grandparents who cannot travel, the stamp of the country makes a good opening slide, or repeated as a border frame.

If you are a keen stamp collector and visit foreign countries, spare a thought for saving stamps. You are preserving history. You are also recycling. With luck, and care and research,  they could also be an investment. At very least, a souvenir.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

ITALIAN - where is it spoken?

Problem
I started learning Italian using Duolingo when I planned taking a trip to Umbria, in the centre of Italy.  I am not the only one to study on Duolingo. It claims to have 14 million learners!

Italian seemed similar to Latin which I learned in school. One notable similarity was dropping the personal pronoun. In school I learned a m o, I love. The ending tells you it is first person, no need to add I in front. The same applies to modern Italian. The technical term is a null-subject (no subject) language.

Would all my effort be of use anywhere else? I wondered where else Italian is spoken. Where can you go to get started speaking or to keep up your Italian?

Answers
You and I can practise Italian in Italian restaurants. (Although sometimes in London your wait staff are Romanian. But Romanian is very similar to Italian, in fact the word Romanian comes from the word Rome. The Romanians say ciao for goodbye.)

• Italy.
• Sardinia.
• Sicily.
• San Marino.
• The Vatican.
• Southern Switzerland (Grigioni and Ticino cantons)
• Immigrant groups in 27 other countries also use Italian. These countries include (not in size order but alphabetically): Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Germany, the United States, Venezuela.

What does Wikipedia say?

Italian ( italiano (help·info) [itaˈljaːno] or lingua italiana [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna]) is a Romance language.  Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages.^[7]

 Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City and western Istria (in Slovenia and Croatia). 

(It used to have official status in Albania, Malta and Monaco, where it is still widely spoken, as well as in former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa regions.) 

Italian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia.^[8] 

It has official minority status in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Romania.^[9] 

Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages.^[10] 

It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers (13% of the EU population). It is spoken as a second language by 14 million EU citizens (3%).^[1] Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland and Albania) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million.^[3]

Italian is the main working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. 

Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and opera. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world.^[11][12]

Number of speakers by country^[8][edit]

Country	Number of speakers
Italy	57,700,000
Romania	1,502,950
France	829,000
Switzerland	666,000
Croatia	618,600
Australia	300,000
Brazil	50,000
San Marino	25,000
Monaco	5,600
Somalia	4,000
Slovenia	3,760
Vatican City	330

That table tells a surprising story. More people speak Italian in Romania than in France or Switzerland. More people speak Italian in France than in Switzerland. I must admit that having heard the German and French in Switzerland, I suspect the accent might be not what you are expecting. I reckon I'm better off practising my Italian in an Italian restaurant with three native Italian speakers, or people who speak Italian with parents born in Italy.

However, if you are going to Switzerland on business, either a meeting or conference, or mid-point for colleagues in different countries who speak different languages, you now know where to go for the benefit of those who want to read and speak Italian. We went to Switzerland on business and stayed on and went to Milan to the opera at La Scala opera house.

Useful Websites
LANGUAGE
www.duolingo.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_language (Long conversational vocabulary list.)
http://official-swiss-national-languages.all-about-switzerland.info (Table of which languages are spoken where.)

TRAVEL TO ITALY
Two Toastmasters clubs in Roma and Florence welcome speakers of Italian. Their bilingual websites will give you a bit of practice:
https://www.meetup.com/ToastmastersFirenze/

TRAVEL TO SWITZERLAND
http://switzerland.embassyhomepage.com/switzerland_tourist_information_bern_tourist_attractions_lucerne_flights_switzerland_holiday_resorts_lausanne_swiss_hotels.htm
Italian speaking cities are Lugano (40,000) Locarno (20,000) and Bellinzona (25,000).

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of languages.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Guess how many countries where the capital and the state have the same name?

Problem
How many places are there where the city and the country of state have the same name? One? Two? Three? Four? Five?

Answers
1 New York, New York.
2 Singapore, Singapore.

Those are the two I guessed. I reckon there might be two more tiny countries or tiny islands. Six maximum. Let's see.

3 San Marino, San Marino.

Do you think that's it?
I'll check for some more. Come back in a moment.

I would count these:
4 Djibouti -Djibouti
5 Guatemala - Guatemala City
6 Kuwait - Kuwait city
7 Panama - Panama City
8 San Marino - San Marino
9 Vatican City - Vatican City
10 Gibraltar - Gibraltar

Would you count these?
If not, we have ten.
If you do continue counting places with almost the same name as the capital:

Country - capital
11 Algeria - Algiers
12 Andorra - Andorra la Vella
13 Brazil - Brasilia
14 El Salvador - San Salvador
15 Tunisia - Tunis

Tips For Further Reading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_national_capital_and_largest_cities
https://tinycards.duolingo.com/decks/
https://www.educationumbrella.com/oxford-student-atlas-
However you look at it, the world has fifteen countries where knowing the name of the city of the country is a good clue or reminder of both the country and the city name.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and humorous speaker. Teacher of English and other  languages. Please share links to your favourite posts. See my books on Amazon and Lulu.com

Keeping A Lifelong Travel Log

If you have a Baby Book for souvenirs of your baby, you can create a page for your child's or grandchild's travels.

If you want to write your own life story, you can make a log of your own travels.

What if you are trying to create a travel log for yourself or a relative. Where do you start? How do you fill in the blanks?

On the back of this black and white photo my late father had written San Marino.

1 CURENT YEAR Start your log with this year and work backwards.
2 All your computer photos and digital photos are likely to have the year.
3 Label all your holiday photos with the year.
4 Wedding photos are likely to be matched with places and people and dates.
5 Note yourself, your parents, friends, children on the caption of all photos. You will remember your parents and grandparents on your wedding photos. After your parents have died, your grandchildren might not be able to tell who is who. Even yourself and your brothers and sisters as children can be hard to recognise. I can't tell my husband's baby photos from his brother's. Nor my mother-in-law when she was in her twenties from her younger sister.
5 b Add the dates.
5 c Add the places.
6 BIRTHDAYS Note birthdays celebrated home and abroad.
7 LOCATIONS
The location of your home country might not seem worthy of note. However, if your children emigrate overseas, nearby or far away, and marry somebody who lives overseas, the photos of their respective parents and inlaws' homelands will then be different and interesting and remarkable.
8 PASSPORTS
Old passports will show the dates of travel. After my late uncle died, I found his old passports. They confirmed the exact dates he took ships from the UK to the USA and back. Also when/whether he was on a troop ship and when/whether he was working as a musician.

9 If you have the year a photo was taken, and the birthdate of the person in the photo, you can then add the age of the person in the photo. So I know that a photo my father took of Venice, with myself in the foreground, shows me age 12. Some people would need a photo labelled with the exact month. But I know that my mother was age 46. I was born in Spring. My mother was born mid-summer. The holiday photos were probably taken in the school holidays in July-August, after both birthdays.
10 Black and white photos can be coloured with a programme you can find on the internet. You can add skin tones and eye colour from a palette of options. Then trees can be green, skies blue, public buildings and landmarks such as castles and churches and cathedrals can be coloured as they are nowadays or as they were years ago.