Hey all! My book (The Language Hacking Guide) has been translated to Esperanto, and I'm looking for a C1 certificate holder to go through it and tidy it up a little. The translation was done by another C1 speaker (no certificate), and I have noticed some Portuguese influence at times as the translator is from Brazil. When something is unclear, you can look at any of over 20 translations that may correspond to your native language, or the original English.

It's about 34,000 words long total and very light reading (no overly-technical discussion, so all sentences are very easy to understand/translate). This amount of words is approximately a third of a normal book. I'd estimate you'd need about one week of working 4 hours a day to send it back at the quality I'd like it. Most of it is confirming good sentences, and some of it will be retranslating occasional sentences that don't work well, or rephrasing them. Please confirm you've got a good dictionary!

I can pay 200 euro by European bank transfer (several days of a delay) or International paypal (instant) AFTER receiving your final improved copy. Your name would get a quick mention in the translation page. I'd need final delivery by the first week of September at the absolute latest. Proof of your C1 certificate would be appreciated (quick photo is fine).

If you're interested, please email me here: fi3m.com/contact-me

Thanks!

Just a suggestion Irish Polyglot - why not contact a member of La Akademio de Esperanto. Look at their website for how to contact.

John Wells, Brian Moon, Paul Gubbins, and Humphrey Tonkin are all native speakers of English and of an age where they may have plenty of time on their hands. Marjorie Boulton is I believe in ill health, but might be well enough to help.

You could even divide up the work, coopting different people for different chapters.

EAB (google it) in the UK will have contact details for John as he is the Prezidanto of the Asocio and Paul Gubbins is the Editor of the Brita Esperantisto. Humphrey Tonkin is in America. Brian is somewhere in Switzerland, I think.

I'm wondering just how many people have got such a C1 certificate in Esperanto!

Yeah, most people I know don't have the certificate. The people working on the course for the new lernu, an Academy member and a long-time teacher of Esperanto, neither one of them has the certificate.

I don't have a certificate, though I think the other two lernu team members might have one, or maybe only one of them has one. I think that one (or both) were able to do the exam for free, acting as a test subject for the exam when it was brand new.

It costs money to take the exam, plus the hassle of going to an event that offers it, so most experienced speakers don't bother.

Good luck finding someone, though. Try posting on some Esperanto-language forums, if you haven't already. Some people stop reading the English forum once they reach a high level.

The certificate isn't absolutely necessary. I've met you erinja, so I know your Esperanto is excellent I just want to be sure that the person interested has the level required to ensure high quality text.

If someone doesn't have the certificate, but can indicate something else, such as having written Esperanto for a wide audience, or an Academy member etc., that's fine! Of course the majority of excellent Esperanto speakers would not hold the certificate.

I was going to leave it up for a day in the English forum first and post tomorrow in Esperanto if nobody replies who would have the interest and time this month to do this. Wanted to test the waters a little, and it will take me a little longer to write the message in Esperanto than it would in English and I've only a few minutes to spare today.

Thanks everyone! Will post in Esperanto tomorrow if nobody shows up by then!

Before they were officially launched in 2008 I took part in a written test for the ERF exams, so I somehow passed the exam (getting 98%, sufiĉe kontentige), but didn't get a certificate, of course. But I'm too lazy to repeat it, they're not of real use now.
I think I've read that until now more than 500 people have passed them.

Irishpolyglot, there are a lot of very competent speakers of Esperanto who probably have never even glanced at Lernu. This is after all a site for learners. An email to EAB might produce better results than you have so far had here.

The number of competent Esperanto speakers who don't belong to Esperanto associations is also considerable, but the association may have useful contact details beyond the list of current members.

I suspect that many Esperantist will find the idea that you might obtain a productive competence in a national foreign language in 3 months somewhat alien.

I suppose that an idea which unites most Esperantists is that the national languages require far far too much investment before you can begin to be able to get anywhere near the command enjoyed by a native speaker of his mother tongue, or to the point where you can present yourself at an adult level and have a chance of of successfully arguing your point of view. That's why we are Esperantists.

For an Esperantist it is being able to say what you want to say, rather than just being able to say what you know how to say that represents a proper command of any language.

This is rarely achieved with foreign national languages if learnt in adulthood. Esperanto on the other hand presents the learner with the prospect, at a very early stage, of being in command of the language, even well before fluency is achieved.

An Esperantist may make mistakes, may not have developed yet the most elegant style, may even use from time to time naciismoj, but his relationship to the language is one of being in charge, not the inevitable uncomfortable feeling of inferiority that accompanies the learning of foreign national languages.

He understands in principle early on how to correct himself, grasps a recognition of correct usage and is never in the position of constantly yielding to the authority of a native speaker.

This attitude may well explain why many Esperantists would never dream of bothering with exams.

sudanglo:I suspect that many Esperantist will find the idea that you might obtain a productive competence in a national foreign language in 3 months somewhat alien.

Mormon missionaries do it all the time. Admittedly they are highly motivated, they do it by total immersion (even while training to be missionaries) and they end up with, shall we say, rather specialized vocabularies. It's possible, but I don't know how many people would put forward the effort to be functionally fluent in a language after only three months.

And what happens when you take them outside the area where they have learnt how to say something?

sudanglo:And what happens when you take them outside the area where they have learnt how to say something?

I'm not sure what you mean by that. The ones I've known were able to ask directions, shop for groceries, and do normal everyday stuff in addition to missionary work.

One in particular I met after he served a two year mission in Korea and went to work as an office manager and translator/cultural intermediary in the Seattle office of a Korean shipping firm.