esp[e]ranto.

An auxiliary language useful for precise, private (due to it's relative obscurity) verbal communications, Esperanto is a fun & flexible tool. Any language which uses a green pentagram as it's logo can't be all bad!

This course has been formatted for the web from it's original ASCII version sent to me when I took the lessons years ago. This page contains the introduction, or Welcome Letter. Following this, pop-up lessons for on-line submission of the lessons.

To begin, read the Introduction and download the text version of the Free Esperanto Course in its entirety (select "Save Target As" with a right click of your mouse). Then if you'd like to take the course, contact an Esperantist from the "Getting Connected" section below or write me of your intent with an introduction & mailing address before sending any of the exercises from the Faction site. ~ RoikaXul

[from "the stranger" aug 12, 1999]

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS ESPERANTO?

Esperanto, the international language, is a language developed to make it easier for people of different cultures to communicate. Its author, Dr. L. L. Zamenhof (1859-1917), published his "Lingvo Internacia" in 1887 under the pseudonym "Dr. Esperanto". It is now spoken by at least two million people, in over 100 countries. There are thousands of books and over 100 periodicals published currently. But what makes it any more international than French, English or Russian?

Incorrectly termed 'artificial' (the right word is 'planned'), Esperanto is specifically intended for international/intercultural use, so those who use it meet each other on an equal footing, since neither is using his or her native language. With national languages, the average person isn't able to express himself as well as a native speaker or the gifted linguist. Thanks to its simple, logical, regular design, anyone can learn Esperanto fairly rapidly.

A LIVING LANGUAGE

Esperanto is a living language, used for everything people use any other language for. But it's much easier to learn than a national language. Even people who can't remember a word of a language they studied for years in high school or college need only months of intensive study to become fluent in Esperanto. It is also more useful than national languages if your goal in learning a language is to get to know people from different places, since virtually everyone who speaks Esperanto has learned it for this reason.

ABOUT THIS COURSE

This course is based on ELNA's Free Postal Course, which is, in turn, based on a very popular postal course in use today in England. The course is a bit old-fashioned, and we are working on a more appealing version. In the meantime, you will have to bear with it. Upon successful completion of the ten lessons, you will receive a framable Certificate of Completion.

A note about the orthography: To facilitate distribution of this course over the net, we have chosen to represent the two diacritical marks (the circumflex or ^, and the breve, a 'reversed circumflex' unavailable in standard character sets) by adding an x immediately following the character. Hence the combinations cx, gx, hx, jx, sx, (where x = ^) and ux (where x = [breve]) should be thought of as single characters.

[Note by Roika: a number of Esperanto fontsets are available for download from the web. Ones that I have found useful:
Garamond SudEuro TTF for Windows
Bostono [for MACs]]

GETTING CONNECTED

Here are the WWW sites of national Esperanto associations in the major English-speaking countries. If your country isn't listed, ask us and we can find the address for you.

 

download:   fesperac.txt
     
LESSONS ON ANON:   One
(Sends mail to Roikaxul)   Two
    Three
    Four
    Five
    Six
    Seven
    Eight
    Nine
    Ten

 

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