Just three quick facts about Esperanto - and my blog posts read in Russia!

What I have learned about Esperanto:
1 No indefinite article (a). (Easy for speakers of Chinese and Russian who struggle with when to use a and the in English).

2 Definite article (the) is la (unlike French where la is for female, in Esperanto, which is simpler, la is for male, female and neutral).

3 Sentences end with n on the object so Esperanto as object of a sentence becomes Esperanton, noun. Similar to English sentence which start with I or he or they as subject but end with me or him or them.
Esperanto is easy. It looks like Spanish or Italian, but even simpler. The intonation is on the last syllable but one, like Italian. (In Italian you say Maria, then Trattoria, or Osteria, and you'll see what I mean.)

On blogger.com (where you create blogs - you read them on blogspot) I can see how many people have read each of my blog posts by week, day and now.

Who Is Reading this Post About Esperanto?
Often the majority, or at least the hightest number, of my readers are in the USA. That depends on when I write. If you are in the UK or Europe, write at midnight in Europe and the Europeans are already in bed, it's still daytime in the USA but it's the middle of the night in the Far East.

If you write in London, England, before working day starts, before 9 am, it's still night time in the USA, but the people in the Far East are already up and at work. (Similarly in Singapore and the USA, if you are writing a blog post, those who read it the minute after you have writeen it, apart from the insomniacs, you can work it out.

As soon as I had finished writing my morning's blog post on Esperanto, and Zamenhof's home and exhibition in Poland, I checked on my readership. To my surprise and delight I discovered that this week, out of nowhere, I suddenly 1,195 readers in Russia. Russia is a vast areaa, when you look on the map. I also had 180 readers in Poland, that's 180 people who speak English well enough to read a blog in English.

Before the working day had begun in London, before 9 am I already had 84 readers in Russia and 35 in the USA.Another twelve hours to go. I check the figures at lunch time to see if I have reached my daily target and where are my readers? If I have lost the Italians who were reading about the Osteria Modigliani restaurant in London and St Valentine in Ternia, Umbria, should I make sure I mention Italian? Regardless of who is reading where, I have readers. What a welcome start to my day! Welcome to all my readers in Russia, the USA, Europe, England, Poland, wherever you are, welcome everybody worldwide.

Some people play the lottery. I write blogs. I love it. I win every day. Thank you so much for joining me.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
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