Sunday 12 September 2010

Esperanto in La Plata ?

This is not an advertisement of a new discotheque in La Plata. I am not going to talk about the famous nightclub, but about an almost extinguished language: Esperanto.

Most people thought, so did I, that the old fashioned language had disappeared, but in fact it did not. Yesterday, reading a local newspaper, I read a report which said that there will be a convention in a down town University, for those people who speak Esperanto.

People who talk Esperanto will get together at the University and will create a formal committee in which they will discuss about strategies to preserve the antique language.

This is very interesting for everyone who enjoys languages, or those that want to start learning Esperanto, since there will be courses for beginners, given that the members’ ideas are to enlarge the group of speakers.

Our father in Esperanto

Patro nia Patro nia, kiu estas en la ĉielo,
sankta estu Via nomo,
venu reĝeco Via,
estu volo Via,
kiel en la ĉielo, tiel ankaŭ sur la tero.
Panon nian ĉiutagan donu al ni hodiaŭ
kaj pardonu al ni ŝuldojn niajn
kiel ni ankaŭ pardonas al niaj ŝuldantoj;
ne konduku nin en tenton,
sed liberigu nin de la malvera,
ĉar Via estas la regado, la forto kaj la gloro eterne. Amen!

Ignatius Reilly

6 comments:

  1. This is really interesting. Esperanto is no dead. In fact, the World Congress of Esperanto has been held once a year for almost a hundred years. Perhaphs it's more spread in Europe than in America, though this year congress was celebrated in Cuba.
    Anahí

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  2. As the previous posted said it is not "almost extinguished". It is alive and growing, slowly but surely. It has grown from 1 speaker to roughly, depending on who you ask, about 2 million speaker work wide.

    An Esperanto organization was nominated for a Nobel Prize in 2009; this year Brazil passed some legislation to promote Esperanto in it school systems; and there is an Esperanto only graduate school in Europe. =)

    I have a vast plethora of Esperanto links on my BLog. www.ArionsHome.com/esperanto

    Thank you for brining up such a wonderful and little know topic to your students. =) Totally rocking.

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  3. Of course Esperanto's not dead; it won't be unless I'm dead! :-)

    Meanwhile, do drop by at http://www.lernu.net for free courses in some 28 languages!

    Giri
    Hyderabad, India

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  4. Hi!I agree with you. It's an interesting news. I've heard that people who want to become Yoga teachers have had to learn that language because some written material, audio tapes,or videos for certain subjects are developed through that language. It has to do with traditions, Indian traditions.
    Kelro

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  5. Really interesting...excellent post. I loved "Our father" in Esperanto!! Mystic like :P

    Slavonic

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  6. Very interesting! I'd love to learn Esperanto. I like languages very much =)
    Evan

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