Photo © UR Mathematics

Once again we’ll be offering our yearly beginner’s course in the Hylan building starting in late January. The goal is to help you acquire basic communications skills so you can start using the language right away.

All are welcome. This is a free, non-credit course. The only costs will be for the textbook and a dictionary, about $15 total. To sign up, just send a message to esperanto ĉe lodestone punkto org saying you’re interested, and we’ll get back to you when all the details (times, room number, etc.) are set.

This is the fourth time we’ve offered the course in the Spring semester, and our track record is pretty good so far: our students have received five scholarships to study at NASK, the prestigious North American Summer Esperanto Institute held each summer at at UC San Diego. Several so far have gone on to earn certification at the Council of Europe’s C1 level, and have even incorporated Esperanto into their formal studies here at UR!

For more details, see the course description.

Homework

• If you didn’t send me your solutions to chapter 7, check your answers against the answer key.
• For next week, study the material in chapter 8, do exercises 8.1–8.5, and answer the questions at the end of the dialogue.

In class

This week we reviewed ways to tell time, using examples from last week’s episode of Pasporto al la tuta mondo. Click on the thumbnail at left for class notes in PDF form.

Next we talked about the comparatives pli and plej, and various ways to use them when making comparisons, e.g. pli granda ol… or plej alta el…. We also covered four new affixes introduced in chapter eight: -ar, -ad, -ebl and -ind.

Regarding my question last week of what you plan to do with Esperanto, here’s a charming online booklet (a “zine”) that you should see.

The author (mathematician Arlyn Kerr) presents some snapshots from her personal journey with the language; they’re great examples of how Esperanto can open doors both figuratively and literally. Some of the material will already be familiar to you, but it’s definitely worth a look!

Homework

• If you didn’t send me your solutions to chapter 6, check your answers against the answer key.
• For next week, study the material in chapter 7, do exercises 7.1–7.5, and answer the questions at the end of the dialogue.

In class

We talked about ways of telling time, and the use of kioma for asking what time (“which hour”) it is. The correlative word kiom asks for a number, and kioma asks for a number ending in -a, e.g., an ordinal:

Kiom kostas la pomo? —Tri dolaroj.
Kioma horo estas? —Estas la tria horo.

As in English, there are lots of different ways we can express the same information about what time it is:

Estas la tria horo kaj dek kvin minutoj.
Estas la tria kaj dek kvin.
Estas la tria dek kvin.
Estas la tria kaj kvarono.

In some countries it’s customary to use 24-hour time, e.g., Estas la dek-kvina horo. For 12-hour time we use the abbreviations atm (antaŭ tagmeze, or “a to mo”) and ptm (post tagmeze, or “po to mo”).

Je la tria atm mi dormas, sed je la tria ptm mi laboras.

Pasporto al la tuta mondo

Ni rigardis la duan lecionon de Pasporto al la tuta mondo, en kiu oni parolas pri horoj kaj demandoj kun “kiom” kaj “kioma”. (En la suba filmo, la dua leciono komenciĝas (=begins) je 7 minutoj kaj 15 sekundoj…)

(Por ĉiuj lecionoj, vidu la paĝon de Pasporto ĉe YouTube.)

Homework

• Finish the exercises in chapter 6 and answer the questions about the dialogue. As usual, you can send me your answers for corrections.

• A reminder: the readings in each lesson introduce a lot of needed vocabulary. It isn’t enough to simply read through once to get the gist of an article; ideally you should re-read the text several times:

  1. On the first pass, just try to get a general idea of what’s going on, without stopping to look up definitions.
  2. Go through the text carefully to identify words that are new, stopping to look up each one in a dictionary or in the word list at the end of the chapter.
  3. Now that none of the words should be completely unfamiliar, try reading through the text once more and see if you can understand it completely.
  4. Ideally, aim for a fourth pass where you can read the entire text smoothly with full comprehension.

  While rereading may seem like overkill at first, you’ll find it enormously helpful in retaining the material. The repeated exposure to model style will also help you build the linguistic “intuition” you’ll need when constructing sentences in everyday speech and writing.

Homework

• If you didn’t send me your solutions to chapter 5, check your answers against the key on the course page.
• Start reading chapter 6 for next Tuesday, and do exercises 6.1–6.3. As usual, you can send me your answers for corrections.
• If you haven’t written to a penpal yet, do so now! If you need help writing something, just let me know.

In class

We reviewed chapter 5 and watched part 4 of Mazi en Gondolando:

Impersonal verbs

Chapter 6 introduces the idea of impersonal verbs — verbs that don’t need a subject. Impersonal verbs are often used when describing the weather. Pluvas (=Estas pluve), it rains. We don’t say Ĝi pluvas, because there’s no “ĝi” that is raining! Hajlas, neĝas, tondras, fulmas. It’s hailing, snowing, thundering, lightning. Frostas (Estas froste), nebulas, nubas, rosas, silentas, sunas, ventas, ŝtormas. It is frosty, foggy, cloudy, dewy, silent, sunny, windy, stormy.

Poetry

We also read and translated the simple poem Ho, mia kor’. Note how elision is used to achieve the desired rhyme and meter. In Esperanto the final -o of nouns can be omitted (“elided”) when there are no other grammatical endings following it. So we can elide the -o in koro, for example, but not in koroj or korojn. The elided -o is replaced with an apostrophe, and the stress within the word remains the same as before.

We can also convert la to l’ in cases where it is preceded or followed by a vowel: de la batado becomes de l’ batado.

Finding a penpal

Check out the section for individuals seeking penpals at edukado.net. You’ll see the first part of a long, long list. Click on individual names to find out more about each, person including their retadreso (email address).

Using the pull-down menus in the left-hand column you can narrow the list by Lando, Nivelo (level) and Sekso. The options for nivelo are komencanto (beginner), komencinto (post-beginner), meznivelulo (mid-level) and progresanto (“progressing”—i.e., more advanced). I encourage you to choose someone at the level of komencinto or above so that you can learn from them.

Stock phrases

In class we covered various phrases and terms (for studies, hobbies, etc.) that might be useful for putting together a first letter to a new penpal. Here’s a list:

Greetings:

Saluton!

Kara ____,

Body:

(Mia nomo estas / Mi estas) _____.

(Mi venas el / Mi loĝas en) _____.

(Mi estas studento / Mi studas) ĉe la Universitato de Roĉestro (Rochester), en Roĉestro, Novjorkio, Usono.

Ĉu vi studas? / Kion vi studas?

Ĉu vi laboras? / Kion vi faras?

Mi havas 19 jarojn. / Mi estas 19-jaraĝa. / Mi estas X-jarulo.

Kiom da jaroj vi havas? / Kiom jaraĝa vi estas?

Mi havas X frat(in)o(j)n. Mia fratino havas X-jarojn kaj mia frato estas Y-jaraĝa.

Kiom da gefratoj vi havas?

Ĉu vi havas gefratojn?

Miaj ŝatokupoj estas ____. / Mi ŝatas ____.

Kiuj estas viaj ŝatokupoj? / Kion vi ŝatas fari dum via libertempo (= free-time)?

Closings:

Ĝis la reskribo,

Amike (= “in friendship”)

Sincere (via),

Mi avide atendas vian respondon!

Names for studies and hobbies

Mi studas…

biokemion

studojn de la virino / virinajn studojn

ekonomikon

lingvojn / lingvosciencon

la japanan lingvon

politikan sciencon

Mi ŝatas / miaj ŝatokupoj estas…

dormi

ĵongli (= juggling)

naĝi en la maro

skermi (=fencing)

legi librojn

lerni lingvojn

baki

iri al plaĝoj

iri al kinejoj / spekti filmojn

marŝi en la arbaro

bicikli

Putting it all together: a sample letter…

Kara korespond-amiko,

Mi estas Bella [bela], dekok-jara virino. Mi venas el Fenikso, granda urbo en la usona ŝtato Arizona. Mi ne havas gefratojn. Nun mi studas biokemion ĉe la Universitato de Roĉestro, en Roĉestro (Rochester), Novjorkio, Usono. Roĉestro estas mezgranda urbo en la nord-orienta parto de Usono, apud la granda lago Ontario. Tro ofte neĝas ĉi tie! Mi ŝategas lup-homojn kaj vampirojn. En mia libertempo mi ŝatas legi librojn kaj veturi per motorciklo.

Mi nun lernas Esperanton kaj mi serĉas eksterlandajn amikojn por praktiki la lingvon. Kiom da jaroj havas vi? Ĉu vi laboras? Ĉu vi studas? Kiuj estas viaj ŝatokupoj? Ĉu vi estas vampiro? Ĉu vi konas luphomojn? Skribu al mi, mi petas!

Ĝis la reskribo!
Bella

Ban Ki-moon, a South Korean diplomat, is Secretary General of the United Nations. Kalocsay Kálmán was a prominent 20th century Hungarian poet. Looking at these examples, can you tell what the family names are? Unless you’re familiar with Korean and Hungarian customs, you might not know that these cultures usually put the family name before the given name.

To avoid confusion in international communication, Esperanto speakers sometimes spell family names using all capital letters, e.g. Kalocsay Kálmán or Ban Ki-moon. This custom allows everyone to preserve the order to which they’re accustomed, without causing confusion for others. You might want to do the same when writing your first letter to your pen-pal.

In class we talked about the dilemma of representing given names in Esperanto. Being nouns, names should ideally end in -o in order to be pronouncable when the grammatical ending -n is needed. But sometimes a final -o is undesirable, especially in cultures that reserve that sound for male names. Thus it’s common to see female names in Esperanto ending in -a: Silvja, Maria, Klara, etc.

In general, there are three methods used when converting names for use in Esperanto. We’ll use the English name Charles as an example:

1. “Translation” to an established Esperanto equivalent: Karlo
2. Transliteration of the name’s pronunciation using Esperanto’s orthography: Ĉarlz
3. No change. The name is simply spelled in the native alphabet, with the possible addition of pronunciation hints in brackets: Charles [ĉarlz].

The last two methods can be awkward in speech and writing if the result doesn’t end in -o (or at least a vowel). In that case grammatical endings are added when needed, using a dash in written form: “Charles vidis min, kaj mi vidis Charles-on.”

So what should you use for your name? That’s up to you. Some people take the opportunity to adopt a new name, specifically for use in Esperanto. Hey, who hasn’t always longed for a secret identity? :-)

Here are a few possibilities for students in the Spring 2010 class:

• Andrea [andrea] → Andrea
• Ashish [aŝiŝ] → Aŝiŝ, Aŝiŝo
• Christine [kristin] → Kristina
• Edwin [edŭen] → Edveno
• Glenn [glen] → Gleno
• Kaitlyn [kejtln] → Katalina, Katlina
• Laura [lora] → Lora, Laŭra
• Tim [tim] → Timoteo
• Tory [tori] → Tori
• Xiao [ŝaŭ] → Ŝaŭo

To give you an idea of some of the many options, here’s a sampling of historical and literary names in Esperanto from mostly European sources—some common, some exotic:

Female names (many can have either -a or -o endings):

Ada, Adelo, Adriana, Agato, Alberta, Aleksandra, Alico, Amelio, Anabelo, Andrea, Anita, Anjo, Anĝela, Aprilo, Ariana, Aŭdreo, Barb(a)ra, Beatrico, Belindo, Berta, Brigito, Cecilio, Celestina, Cintio, Ĉarloto, Dafneo, Daniela, Debora, Diana, Dora, Doriso, Doroteo, Edito, Eleonoro, Eliza, Elizabeto, Elvira, Elza, Emilia, Emma, Erika, Etelo, Eva, Fatima, Filiso, Flor(enc)o, Franciska, Freja, Frida, Gabriela, Gerda, Gertrudo, Greta, Gvendolino, Ĝojo, Halina, Hedvigo, Heleno, Heloiza, Henrieto, Hermiono, Hiacinto, Hilda, Ida, Ilona, Ina, Irina, Iriso, Izabela, Jakelino, Jasmeno, Jocelino, Johana, Jolanda, Judita, Julia, Junio, Karena, Karla, Karmeno, Katia, Katlino, Katrina, Klara, Kleopatra, Konstancia, Kordelio, Kristina, Larisa, Laŭra, Lea, Lidia, Liza, Lucia, Lucilo, Luiza, Magda, Majo, Margareto, Maria, Marlena, Marta, Matilda, Miĥaela, Mira, Mirando, Mona, Monika, Moniko, Nadja, Nastazja, Nataŝa, Nikola, Nina, Nora, Oksana, Olga, Olivo, Pamela, Paŭla, Penelopeo, Petra, Raĥelo, Rebeka, Renata, Rita, Roksana, Roz(ali)o, Roza, Sabina, Sandra, Sara, Sibilo, Sofia, Sonja, Stefanio, Suzana, Talia, Tamara, Tanja, Tatjana, Terezo, Tina, Ulrika, Ursulo, Valerio, Vanesa, Ver(onik)o, Viktoria, Vilma, Viol(et)o, Virginio

Male names:

Arono, Adamo, Alano, Alberto, Aleks(andr)o, Alfredo, Andreo, Anton(i)o, Arnoldo, Arturo, Aŭgusto, Benedikto, Benjameno, Bernardo, Bertrando, Boriso, Bruno, Cecilo, Cezaro, Cirilo, Danielo, Davido, Denizo, Dimitro, Djego, Dominiko, Donaldo, Duglaso, Edgaro, Edmundo, Edvardo, Edveno, Eriko, Ernesto, Eŭgeno, Felikso, Filipo, Francisko, Franko, Frederiko, Gabrielo, Gastono, Georgo, Gilberto, Gregoro, Gustavo, Ĝeraldo, Ĝermano, Ĝilo, Haroldo, Hektoro, Henriko, Herberto, Horacio, Hu(m)berto, Hugo, Ivano, Ivo, Jakobo, Jano, Jeremio, Johano, Josuo, Jozefo, Julio, Justeno, Kar(o)lo, Kazimiro, Keneto, Klarenco, Knuto, Konrado, Kristoforo, Ladislao, Laŭr(enc)o, Leonardo, Leopoldo, Luko, Makso, Manuelo, Marcelo, Mario, Marko, Marteno, Mateo, Miĥaelo, Natano, Nestoro, Nikolao, Norman(d)o, Olivero, Omaro, Oskaro, Osvaldo, Patriko, Paŭlo, Percevalo, Petro, Rafaelo, Ralfo, Raulo, Rikardo, Roberto, Rolando, Rolfo, Ronaldo, Roĝero, Rudolfo, Samuelo, Serĝo, Sidneo, Silvestro, Sim(e)ono, Stefano, Tadeo, Teodoro, Tiberio, Timoteo, Tomaso, Ulriko, Umberto, Vaclavo, Valtero, Viktoro, Vilhelmo, Vladimiro, Volfgango, Zaĥario

Homework

• Please finish up chapter 5 for next Tuesday. As usual, you can send me your answers at hoss dot firooznia ĉe rochester dot edu for corrections, or you can check them yourself against the answer key in class.
• Choose one or more penpals (korespondamikoj) in another country and send them an introductory letter about yourself. A good place to look is the Koresponda Servo at edukado.net. I’ll have more posts soon with tips for using the Koresponda Servo and writing a letter.

In class

Using -n to show motion

An important part of chapter 5 is the introduction of -n to show motion. Up to now, the motion indicated by -n has been exclusively of a metaphorical sort, simply showing the direct object in a sentence, e.g.

Ŝi vidas la brunan hundon.
La ruĝan pomon manĝis la viro.
Kiujn librojn vi jam legis?

But the -n can also be used to show more literal motion to a place. Compare:

La kato saltas sur la tablo. = The cat jumped on the table.
La kato saltas sur la tablon. = The cat jumped onto the table.

In the first sentence, the cat is on the table, jumping around. In the second sentence, the cat wasn’t on the table to begin with: it jumps onto the table. This indication of motion with -n can be used with adverbs and some correlatives, too:

Kie ŝi marŝis? = Where was she walking (around)?
Ŝi marŝis hejme. = She was walking (around) at home.
Kien ŝi marŝis? = (To) where did she walk?
Ŝi marŝis hejmen. = She walked (to) home.

Another way of thinking about this use of -n is to imagine that it replaces a copy of the preposition al (to):

La kato saltas al sur la tablo. = La kato saltas sur la tablon.

(Note: the combination al sur isn’t grammatically correct; it’s being used here merely for the sake of example.)

Using verbs together

Sometimes we want to use two verbs together, one right after the other, e.g. “I wanted to drink water.” or “I can see you.”. In Esperanto, the first verb takes whatever tense is appropriate (present, past, imperative, etc.), while the second verb takes the infinitive tense, -i:

Mi volis trinki akvon. = I wanted to drink water.
Mi povas vidi vin! = I can see you!
Ĉu vi devos foriri morgaŭ? = Will you have to leave tomorrow?

More about letter-writing shortly…

Homework

• For those who didn’t complete the exercises in chapter 4 over break, please finish those up by next week. Send me your answers at hoss dot firooznia at rochester dot edu for corrections, or check them against the answer key.
• Start reading chapter 5 and do exercises 5.1 and 5.2.
• In the Richardson text, read the two short essays starting on page 175: La vetero en Svedlando and Pri Zamenhof. Not all of the grammar will be familiar, but you should be able to follow along. There are no exercises; the goal is simply to start using what you’ve learned so far.

In class

We talked about words for body parts: okuloj, oreloj, buŝo, piedoj, and so on. We were helped by assistant professor Cooper, a talented denaskulo (native speaker):

We also watched more of Mazi en Gondolando, which also covers some of the same words:

Numeroj

We reviewed 0-10: nul, unu, du, tri, kvar, kvin ses, sep, ok, naŭ, dek

and learned how to count up to 1000: dek unu (11) … dek naŭ (19), dudek (20), dudek unu (21) … naŭdek naŭ (99), cent (100) … ducent (200) … tricent (300) … naŭcent naŭdek naŭ (999), mil (1000)

Gramatiko

We covered some of the grammar in chapter 4 of the text and went over some of the solutions for chapter 3.

Among other things, chapter 4 introduces the correlatives kiel (how, in what manner) and tiel (that way, in that manner), and the word ĉi, used to indicate proximity in constructions like ĉi tio or tio ĉi (this thing).

Mazi en Gondolando

We watched more of Mazi en Gondolando, which also introduces ĉi, numbers from 1–20, and the imperative verb ending -u:

Homework

• If you didn’t send me your answers to chapter 3, be sure to check them against the answer key.
• Read chapter 4 and complete the exercises. Send me your answers at hoss dot firooznia at rochester dot edu for corrections, or bring them to class when we next meet in two weeks. Have a good Spring Break! Bonan ferion!

Another two-way dictionary that must be mentioned is the soon-to-be re-released classic by Dr. John C. Wells, a renowned linguist at University College London.

For over four decades his compact English–Esperanto–English Dictionary has been one of the standard reference works for English speakers, though unfortunately it has been out of print for some time. In March, New York publishing house Mondial will be releasing a new, fully revised and rewritten edition of this two-way dictionary.

Along with Benson’s Comprehensive English-Esperanto Dictionary, You should put Wells’ book at the top of your “must have” list. The price is discounted for preorders until February 28th.

For homework assignments—and for researching new words for your journal (nag, nag)—it’s helpful to have a few dictionaries on hand. At the end of the Richardson textbook there’s a short Esperanto-English dictionary, and in class we handed out a brief English-Esperanto dictionary to complement it. But these are relatively superficial references. There are many other sources you can (and should) use, both online and off.

In print

There are a plenty of printed dictionaries to choose from. The online bookstore of Esperanto-USA has quite a few. For beginners, however, the following are probably the best places to start:

Benson, Peter. Comprehensive English-Esperanto Dictionary.
Benson’s dictionary is the most extensive English-to-Esperanto dictionary available. It’s particularly helpful because each word is listed not only with its primary meaning(s), but also its use in various idioms. 1995. ISBN: 093978503X. 607p. $27.00.
Mclinen, Andrew. Pocket Esperanto Dictionary.
Like all concise dictionaries, this shouldn’t be one’s only reference. But it is very useful—and portable. 2001. 406p. ISBN 92 9017 072-7. $25.80
Ilustrita Oficiala Radikaro por Lernantoj.
This tiny book is a great resource for beginners: it contains over 2600 of the most commonly used words with their definitions in simple Esperanto. (This is the same dictionary we currently have on bulk order; when it comes in, copies will be available in class for $4.) 2008. 98p. ISBN 978-85-60661-05-3. $6.70.

Online

Some sites you might find helpful:

• Lernu! has a handy dictionary tool: look for it on the right-hand side of the page. Just type in a word, choose your language, and get a translation into (or out of) one of 35 languages!
• Bazaj radikoj Esperanto-Esperanto by Wouter Pilger. A predecessor to the Ilustrita Oficiala Radikaro, this handy little dictionary presents the most common words of Esperanto with simple definitions in basic Esperanto.
• Reta Vortaro (or ReVo), is a comprehensive dictionary for advanced students. Roots and derived forms are defined at length (in Esperanto), with occasional translations offered in national languages as well.

Gramatiko

We began chapter 3 of the text today and went over some of the solutions for chapter 2.

We introduced two new correlative words: kie (where) and tie (there), and talked about Esperanto’s flexible word order. In English, we use word order to distinguish subject from object:

The man eats an apple.

The word order tells us what did the eating (the man) and what was eaten (an apple). Change the word order, and the meaning is completely different:

An apple eats the man.

In Esperanto, the word order doesn’t matter so much. That’s because the direct object takes the ending -n, also known to grammarians as the accusative case. The -n shows the recipient of an action: it tells us who does what to whom.

In each of the following examples, even though the word order varies, La viro always does the eating, and pomon is always the thing that’s eaten:

La viro manĝas pomon.
La viro pomon manĝas.
Manĝas la viro pomon.
Manĝas pomon la viro.
Pomon manĝas la viro.
Pomon la viro manĝas.

If we change the location of the -n, we change the meaning:

La viron manĝas pomo! (Eeek!)

As they do with the plural ending -j, adjectives share the -n of their nouns:

Jen ruĝa pomo.
La viro manĝas ruĝan pomon.
Jen du ruĝaj pomoj.
La viro manĝas du ruĝajn pomojn.

Mazi en Gondolando

We watched the second half of part one of Mazi en Gondolando, where the -n ending is introduced:

Homework

• If you didn’t send me your answers to chapter 2, be sure to check them against the answer key. If you didn’t finish chapter 2, be sure to finish it by next week!
• Read the first half of chapter 3 and complete the exercises up to praktiko 3.3. Send me your answers at hoss dot firooznia at rochester dot edu for corrections, or bring them to class.
• How is your journal going? Have you started it, hmm? :-) Try to record about five new terms a day that you have to look up in the dictionary (or in the vortolisto at the end of a textbook chapter). Try to use each word in a sentence if you can.

Mazi en Gondolando

In class we watched part of the first episode of Mazi en Gondolando, an animated course originally developed by the BBC. It uses many of the grammatical structures we’ve covered so far: kiu, kio, and kia, noun and adjective formation, plurals, the present tense, and pronouns. Here’s the video on YouTube:

Homework

• If you didn’t send me your answers to last week’s homework, be sure to check them against the answer key for chapter 1.
• Read chapter 2 and complete the exercises. Send me your answers at hoss dot firooznia at rochester dot edu for corrections, or bring them to class.
• Start keeping a journal of new roots or affixes you encounter. You should aim for a minimum of five new entries each day.

Some music

A music video by Finnish band Dolchamar was playing at the beginning of class on Tuesday. If you’re interested, the song is Junaj idealistoj (“Young idealists”), and of course it’s on YouTube:

Morphology

We talked about the morphology of Esperanto—how words are assembled out of roots, affixes (prefixes and suffixes) and grammatical endings.

One of the distinguishing features of the language is how these word-parts behave. In most languages they vary depending on where they appear, but in Esperanto they’re invariant: they always have the same spelling and pronunciation.

The roots and affixes can also combine freely: you can assemble them in almost any order, as long as the resulting combination makes sense. This feature allows you to express a wide range of ideas using a very small lexicon. Instead of memorizing long lists of different words for related ideas, you can often re-use the basic roots and affixes you already know.

For example: using the root manĝ- (“a meal; the act of eating”), we can add common affixes and endings to make a wide variety of words that have to be memorized separately in English:

• manĝo a meal
• manĝi to eat
• manĝaĵo food
• manĝejo dining room / cafeteria
• manĝujo manger
• manĝilo dining utensil
• manĝilaro silverware
• manĝebla edible (not poisonous)
• manĝinda edible (worth eating)
• manĝema gluttonous
• manĝeti to nibble at
• manĝeto a snack
• manĝegi to gorge
• manĝigi to feed

and so on…

From the chapter

Chapter 1 introduces the grammatical endings -o (for nouns) and -j (for plurals), and the suffixes -in- (feminine) and -ej- (place). We also talked about the article la, the present-tense verb ending -as, and the words kiu (which one/person) and corresponding tiu (that one/person). There’s also the very useful word kaj, which means and!

Homework

• Read chapter 1 and study the readings until you understand them. Complete exercises 1.1–1.4 and the questions on page six. Send your answers to me at hoss dot firooznia at rochester dot edu and I’ll correct them for you—or bring them to class and I’ll give you a key so that you can correct them yourself.
• Remember to practice at least a few minutes every day! Don’t try to cram a week’s worth of study into a single session; language learning works best when you manĝetas. :-)

Reminder: class now starts at 6:10 (instead of 6:00).

What is Esperanto?

In the first class we talked briefly about the different (and sometimes conflicting) ways people think about and use Esperanto. For many people, Esperanto is seen primarily as an egalitarian solution to the language problem. This view was articulated well by Claude Piron, a Swiss psychologist and UN translator:

We also watched a few parts of Esperanto estas…, a documentary made by volunteers from around the world. You can watch the rest of the film (in multiple languages) at YouTube.

Homework

• Read the chapter on the Esperanto alphabet and spend some time practicing the sounds of the language.
• Sign up for a free account at the excellent learning site Lernu.net, and check out the alphabet page. It has sound files so you can compare your own pronunciation against a model.
• If you like, explore further chapters of Esperanto estas… online, and/or read the Guardian article for more background on the history and culture of the language.
• If you’re feeling adventurous, start working on chapter 1 of the text!

Photo © UR Mathematics

We’re once again offering a beginner’s course this semester in the Hylan building. The goal is to teach you basic communications skills so you can start using the language right away.

All are welcome. To sign up, just come to our first class, next Tuesday (Jan 26th) at 6pm in Hylan 1106A. And if you have friends who might be interested, please pass along this announcement ASAP—we only hold the class once each year!

This is the third time we’ve offered the course in the Spring. Our track record is pretty good so far: three of our students have received scholarships to study at NASK, the prestigious North American Summer Esperanto Institute held at UC San Diego. (Not only is NASK a lot of fun, but students also receive five college credits that can be transferred back to UR.)

For more details, see the course description.