# Esperanto **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 10, 2000, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/esperanto/40714 "2000-11-10T22:39:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThisYearsGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@ThisYearsGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisYearsGirl)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2000, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/esperanto/40714/1 "2000-11-10T22:39:09Z")
I’ve suddenly gotten really interested in Esperanto. Can anyone recommend some webpages or books to me about it? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/esperanto/40714/2 "2000-11-11T01:53:35Z")
what, you can’t run a search engine or visit [amazon.com](http://amazon.com) on your own? ---
**Author:** ![ThisYearsGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@ThisYearsGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisYearsGirl)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/esperanto/40714/3 "2000-11-11T02:02:40Z")
Geez–sorry to offend you, but I just know that there are a lot (or at least a couple) of hard-core Esparanto people on this board, and I thought they could be more help than a search engine. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/esperanto/40714/4 "2000-11-11T07:40:36Z")
Saluton! Gratulojn pro via deziro lerni la Belan Lingvon. Check out [http://www.esperanto.org](http://www.esperanto.org) . An excellent free Esperanto web course (of which I am a teacher) is available at: [http://alumni.aitec.edu.au/~bwechner/Documents/Esperanto/fec.html](http://alumni.aitec.edu.au/~bwechner/Documents/Esperanto/fec.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/esperanto/40714/5 "2000-11-11T20:17:15Z")
Saluton, ThisYearsGirl! Bonvenon al Esperantio! (Welcome to the Esperanto-speaking world…) 🙂 I’ll second the recommendation of **matt\_mcl** \* about [esperanto.org](http://esperanto.org) and the Free Esperanto Course\*\*–it is how I started. I am from English-speaking North America and one thing I discovered is that this may be the area where where Esperanto is known _least_. I too thought that Esperanto was one of those utopian Sixties things that had died out. Imagine my surprise when I discovered both that Esperanto was far older than I expected, and that a vigourous self-sustaining Esperanto-speaking culture exists. There are books, periodicals, theatre, cartoons, music, and news broadcasts in Esperanto. Last summer I went to a [festival](http://www.esperanto.fi/kef/kef2000u.html) that was entirely in Esperanto. I am not a language genius, but I was able to make my way (awkwardly to be sure) in Esperanto almost exclusively for a week. And that after only a year of study! Try _that_ with French! As a comparison, another Esperanto enthusiast in my city started learning at the same time I did, and he was _fluent_ after six months. Now I can communicate with people all over the world… and not in English. Comes in useful when I want to avoid that whole anti-globalization English-as-the-imperialist-aggressor-language backlash… 🙂 Another good link, the Esperanto FAQ: [http://www.esperanto.net/veb/faq.html](http://www.esperanto.net/veb/faq.html) Lastly, I have heard rumours that quite a few people meet Significant Others at these Esperanto festivals, but I was unable to confirm this. Perhaps my command of the language is not yet good enough… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/esperanto/40714/6 "2000-11-11T20:31:32Z")
Oh yeah… I forgot the footnotes: - If you happen to be a voter in Montreal, vote for matt\_mcl. He’s [running for Parliament](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=41221). ( [Continuing coverage.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=42550) ) Maybe we can get a kind of Esperantan-Canadian swing vote happening. 🙂 \*\* Matt, that link to Bernd Wechner’s page does not seem to work. (That page was the one that interested me as well.) I have copies of the course in PDF on [my page](http://www.interlog.com/~sunspace/esperanto-en.html), but I just link to Bernd’s page. Do you know whether his pages are still on the net? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/esperanto/40714/7 "2000-11-11T20:33:11Z")
I met my third boyfriend (and first real love), the ever humpy Matt, because we spoke Esperanto. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/esperanto/40714/8 "2000-11-11T20:39:43Z")
Sunspaco, la ligo tre bone funkcias en mia komputilo. Bv. reprovu. Se ne, la ligo por la pagho de Marko Rauhamaa estas jene: (Try this one if the one above doesn’t work:) [http://www.pacujo.nu/esperanto/course/](http://www.pacujo.nu/esperanto/course/) ---
**Author:** ![Escanaba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Escanaba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Escanaba)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/esperanto/40714/9 "2000-11-11T21:10:34Z")
They don’t use Esperanto in Escanaba, so how “universal” is it? You’re probably better off learning the code that Samuel Pepys wrote his famous diaries in. Then you could write dirty messages about courtesans. And so to bed… ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/esperanto/40714/10 "2000-11-11T21:32:34Z")
Matt\_mcl, Mirinde! Gxi funkcias bone nun. Mi scivolas: kial la eraro… Gxis! ---
**Author:** ![Anake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/97f17d/32.png) [@Anake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anake)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2000, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/esperanto/40714/11 "2000-11-11T21:42:11Z")
Wow. Now I’m interested! Spanish Class was never my bag anyway and Pig Latin is too, too easy. From, Anake