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Yes, Ok, but..

fra sudanglo,2011 12 13

Meldinger: 81

Språk: English

Miland (Å vise profilen) 2011 12 14 20:21:28

erinja:..As if the clerk could tell by looking that this lady was a French speaker!
Sometimes at Esperanto Congresses, people might wear a badge of a national flag or label to indicate their origins. Was this lady wearing a French flag or label?

Chainy (Å vise profilen) 2011 12 14 20:39:17

Miland:
erinja:..As if the clerk could tell by looking that this lady was a French speaker!
Sometimes at Esperanto Congresses, people might wear a badge of a national flag or label to indicate their origins. Was this lady wearing a French flag or label?
Erin said it was in 'downtown Copenhagen', which I think we can safely take to mean that it wasn't at the congress itself, but at a location completely unrelated to the Esperanto event. Just in some random shop down the road. That is the whole point of the funny story.

Miland (Å vise profilen) 2011 12 14 21:35:14

She might not have been in the kongresejo, but she may have been still wearing a badge of the French tricolour, for example. I would like to know whether that was the case.

erinja (Å vise profilen) 2011 12 14 23:32:08

Miland:Sometimes at Esperanto Congresses, people might wear a badge of a national flag or label to indicate their origins. Was this lady wearing a French flag or label?
There was no visible indicator whatsoever of where she came from. I don't even know for a fact that it was France, all I know is that it was a French-speaking country. It could have been Belgium or Switzerland, for all I know.

Few people were wearing those kinds of flags in Copenhagen. Nametags gave country of origin but of course not everyone wore theirs, especially late in the week, when I met this lady.

Vestitor (Å vise profilen) 2011 12 14 23:39:50

I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to say that the French tend to get a lot more miffed if they are addressed in English. French is a pretty large language, but not like it use to be and there are still a sizeable number who won't readily speak English.

I can imagine a French Esperantist being doubly annoyed at being addressed in English; I suppose it's just tough luck, English is the lingua franca, that's just how it is.

The bookshop clerk didn't have to say he/she could manage French. She could have said: 'learn Danish, speak English or sod off!'

Miland (Å vise profilen) 2011 12 15 10:51:41

She was probably trained to be polite to all customers. I believe there's a Chinese saying that goes "Someone who doesn't smile shouldn't open a shop."

Kajgiestis (Å vise profilen) 2011 12 16 04:23:03

There's also a saying that goes "If you don't take a job because you hate french people, you could become poor and starve to death."

qwertz (Å vise profilen) 2011 12 18 09:10:50

Kajgiestis:There's also a saying that goes "If you don't take a job because you hate french people, you could become poor and starve to death."
This only serves some stereotype. Apart I don't understand what it points to. At Munich there are only two French "crowded" companies. EADS and European Patent Service. Sure, to get an job there could be usefull to speak French. But high level English language proficiency is much more important at business. Of course someones has to have very good expert knowledge, too.

Brajchjo (Å vise profilen) 2011 12 20 01:47:58

I would never ask anyone to "become" an Esperantist ; the word sounds quasi-religious and Esperanto is not a religion.

To me the word Esperantist can mean someone who also supports the language. The definition "Esperanto speaker" is certainly more precise and lets people know, also, that Esperanto is a living language.

ludomastro (Å vise profilen) 2011 12 20 07:24:54

I loved the book. I found it an intertaining and even a somewhat informative read. I was surprised that Esperanto was mentioned. Further, I was pleased by what I read and felt that it more than fair.

I came to Esperanto from Ido because of the greater user base and availability of online resources. To be honest, there are elements of Ido that I prefer because they appeal to my personal sense of style. Nonetheless, I'm using my time to learn what I consider to be a fully functional and useful language that is good enough. (Perfection being the enemy of the good enough.)

Comments that denigrate the efforts of others do nothing to further the cause of promoting Esperanto and end up making this community look like the weird ones.

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