Duolingo says that 1,180,000, that is over a million - a million and another 180,000, people had signed up for their Esperanto for English speakers course by 2017. That's a lot of people to study a language which doesn't have a country you can visit.
Where is Esperanto spoken? You can join Esperanto organizations in America and London, England. It is used in the Science Centre in San Marino.
Esperanto was constructed by Zamenhof, using European languages. Why is it so popular in China and Japan? One reason is that Esperanto it is so much easier to learn than English. Only 16 rules. What you see is what you say.
The second reason is that it fulfils Zamenof's objective of preventing one up manship or hostility but instead forging friendship. Neither side need feel that the people they are talking to feel that the East is best, or the West is best, because they are not speaking their language. They also have the camaraderie of sharing Esperanto.
Go to Bialystok in Poland to the Zamenhof centre and see the permanent exhibition about his Zamenhof's life. The hero of Bialystok is Zamenhof.
From here you can walk around Bialystok following the Jewish Heritage Trail and learn about his school and other buildings.
Only a small monument remains of the grand synagogue, burned down in WWII after the Jews had been locked inside.
On a happier note, some of the Jews who came from Bialystok were successful in other parts of the world and world famous. Max Weber, the renowned painter. Boris Kaufman, known for his work in movies The Pawnbroker and Splendor in the grass. Sabin, the inventor of the oral polio vaccine. Plenty to read about them on the English language Wikipedia (which is also in several other languages) including reproductions of Weber's paintings.
The Bialystok
But another less known hero is the Rev Marceli Godlewski, of All Saints Church, Warsaw, who risked his life in WWII saving Bialystok's grandson, Ludwig Krysztof Zaleski-Zamenhof, and others in the Warsaw Ghetto. The grandson spoke about this at the museum in October 2017.
Warsaw, Zamenhof's Grave and Others
Zamenhof is buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street in Warsaw. I went there on a snowy day. It seems to go on for miles. I remember a long hunt along the walls to find the entrance, with the help of my bilingual guide on a day tour featuring Jewish Sights, just for me, after I'd taken a group tour around Warsaw the day before.
My guide was a Seventh Day Adventist, who thought some Adventists' ancestors might have converted from Judaism to the branch of Christianity which observes the Sabbath on Saturday. After a long cold hunt for several exits and entrances, we eventually but found the right one.
My guide talked in Polish to the Cemetery official, and we then walked around hunting for various famous people and monuments, brushing off snow, so I could take pictures and read inscriptions.
I was very keen to see the monument to Janusz Korczac, the head of the Warsaw Jewish orphanage, who refused offers to leave the children and save himself, but instead went with them to comfort them on the train. I saw the exhibition about him which is in the orphanage still operating today. It is a remarkable story. He was a pioneer in making the children feel wanted by healing activities.
Zamenhof's grave was on the main avenue, 10th quarter, second row.
You can see on movie screens a re-enactment of an incident about members of the church in the Warsaw ghetto helping Jews such as Ludwig's grandson work in the church, then when necessary and possible escape. This was either via the church door, disguised as members of the clergy, or people working for them., in the film The Zoo-keeper's Wife, based on the book of the same name, about the zoo in Warsaw. The film is about how Jews were hidden in the zoo keeper's home in the grounds of the zoo. I saw the film on Singapore Airlines and loved it.
Esperanto literature day is the 15th December every year, also known as Zamenhof day. It is his birthday.
I first learned Esperanto years ago on a correspondence course. I still have the Esperanto paperback Dictionary. I am currently doing the Esperanto course.
Białostocki Ośrodek Kultury/Centrum im. Ludwika Zamenhofa
Warszawska 19
15-062 Bialystok
phone +48 85 67 67 367
fax +48 85 67 67 369
Open:
Tuesday-Sunday
10 am-5 pm
Useful Websites
centrumzamenhofa.com Bialystok, Poland.
Duolingo tinycards Learn one word at a time on cards on screen; click to reverse the card.
duolingo.com
Starts with a page on grammar rules. Teaches you words and short sentences in a fun way. Click to hear the words said.
Learn Esperanto, read the introduction page on Esperanto, look at forums discussing other language sites teaching Esperanto.
Wikipedia has articles on Wikipedia on the Zamenhofs, Bailystok, the museum, Esperanto, Duolingo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Korczak
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amikumu-find-language-learning-partners-nearby/id1214046710?mt=8
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have writtern several other posts on this blog about Esperanto and learning languages. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts. If you are on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn you can link up with me and send your contacts to this page.
