creedelambard:

erinja:.... but I also never expected to be eating in a restaurant and have Bill and Hillary Clinton walk in and sit down for a meal, and it just happened to me tonight. You never know what's going to happen in your life, do you?

I'm guessing it would be a lot more likely to happen in Washington, DC than in Seattle, though.

It's a fair point! When I called my sister and told her that someone famous walked in as I ate, she asked "President Obama?"

That wouldn't have been the question if I lived pretty much anywhere else

In 'Esperantujo', Hungary is probably the place where you have the best chance of running into an Esperanto speaker by accident (yet perhaps the least likely that they would identify themselves to you).

I am of course excluding any city where the Universala Kongreso is currently taking place. There, on the day of the Kongreso largely devoted to tourism, you definitely do run into groups of Esperanto speakers in all of the touristy parts of the city. It was probably one of the highlights of my trip to Copenhagen to get in a train car and hear groups of people speaking Esperanto in there. It's one of those 'normal' life experiences you expect to have for other languages but not Esperanto.

It's happened I think about once a year on average to me, or perhaps a bit more often.

(Of course it happens quite often when walking around a city where there's an Esperanto event... So all the following anecdotes were in "normal life", away from any Esperanto events.)

One time my wife and I were on a day trip with another (non-Esperantist) couple to a castle. There were lots of tourists. Walking along, we heard a group pass us in the other direction speaking Esperanto. It was a visiting couple from abroad along with a local host. We chatted for several minutes. Our friends were impressed to see that indeed Esperanto works with random strangers.

Another time my wife was in a train and called me on her cell phone. Afterward, another person in her compartment who'd heard the phone call said "Do vi parolas Esperanton", and they started chatting. It turned out he was a university student who learned Esperanto well enough to speak it OK, but this was his first real-life conversation in Esperanto!

Another time we were on the London underground. At one stop, the doors opened and in walked an Esperantist we know from Slovakia - we had no idea he was even in London. Sadly we had only a couple minutes to chat as our stop was next.

And most recently - just a couple weeks ago - we were marching in a local march for equality & tolerance & gay rights etc, where we met someone who had learned Esperanto long ago but then not used it in years - but he remembered enough to say "Mi lernis Esperanton antaŭ multaj jaroj" (and then mostly used to Polish and English since his Esperanto was so rusty)...

I have never bumped into an Esperantist, but I did discover that a friend, who is a linguist, learned Esperanto at a school club while he was a teenager in England.

The late Peter Harvey, a Scottish Esperantist, once told me that he was posting a parcel covered in Esperanto insignia in Glasgow, and took the opportunity to explain what it all meant to the clerk, who responded, "Mi bone komprenas la internacian ligvon," but elaborated no further. I suppose that was in the days when old folk still existed who had learned the language in classes organised by trade unions and workers' movements. Peter, himself, was of the same stock having been a railway worker.

I did have a rather magical experience last night, somewhat akin to an unexpected chance encounter with a total stranger who turns out to be an Esperantist.

I should explain first that recently I have been feeling inordinately pleased with myself. Here's why.

A few days ago, passing a junk shop in Ramsgate (incidentally on the very same street that the Kongresejo for the Brita Kongreso 2013 is situated) I noticed in the window a very clean-looking portable radio. I could see that it was a Roberts, a respected brand, and of some vintage, as few modern portable radios have a shortwave band.

Now the shopkeeper couldn't demonstrate that the radio was working, the antique lantern batteries (flat) were of a design that could easily be no longer available, and to boot I didn't really need another radio. However a price was agreed.

It turns out that this model an R707 was last made in 1977 and is considered by connoisseurs to be the finest radio ever produced by Roberts (who are still in business). It is undoubted a collectors piece, and joy, the batteries were still available, the radio worked and the tone beautiful on FM.

But here's the icing on the cake. It's about 11.30 in the evening, I am sitting in the kitchen just having listened to a comedy program on Radio 4 (on this set), and I get the notion of trying out the shortwave.

Disappointingly, there are few stations. I suppose many shortwave transmitters have now been closed down and been replaced with Internet broadcasting. Gloomily, I reach the end of the tuning dial. What's this? A Spanish station? I listen more carefully. Knock me down with a feather! The station is broadcasting in Esperanto!

Turns out that it is China broadcasting to South America (it is not even the broadcast aimed at Europe) Quelle belle surprise! I listen until midnight.

If only I had a better ear I could now tell you the Chinese for 'Take me to the central hospital'and 'I know the way I am skilled driver'

I answer phone call not with hello but saluton. I greet the shopkeepers in my living area with saluton.

You can know who you are looking for if all of us use saluton to answer the phone call and greeting to all friends.

sudanglo:I did have a rather magical experience last night, somewhat akin to an unexpected chance encounter with a total stranger who turns out to be an Esperantist.

I should explain first that recently I have been feeling inordinately pleased with myself. Here's why.

A few days ago, passing a junk shop in Ramsgate (incidentally on the very same street that the Kongresejo for the Brita Kongreso 2013 is situated) I noticed in the window a very clean-looking portable radio. I could see that it was a Roberts, a respected brand, and of some vintage, as few modern portable radios have a shortwave band.

Now the shopkeeper couldn't demonstrate that the radio was working, the antique lantern batteries (flat) were of a design that could easily be no longer available, and to boot I didn't really need another radio. However a price was agreed.

It turns out that this model an R707 was last made in 1977 and is considered by connoisseurs to be the finest radio ever produced by Roberts (who are still in business). It is undoubted a collectors piece, and joy, the batteries were still available, the radio worked and the tone beautiful on FM.

But here's the icing on the cake. It's about 11.30 in the evening, I am sitting in the kitchen just having listened to a comedy program on Radio 4 (on this set), and I get the notion of trying out the shortwave.

Disappointingly, there are few stations. I suppose many shortwave transmitters have now been closed down and been replaced with Internet broadcasting. Gloomily, I reach the end of the tuning dial. What's this? A Spanish station? I listen more carefully. Knock me down with a feather! The station is broadcasting in Esperanto!

Turns out that it is China broadcasting to South America (it is not even the broadcast aimed at Europe) Quelle belle surprise! I listen until midnight.

If only I had a better ear I could now tell you the Chinese for 'Take me to the central hospital'and 'I know the way I am skilled driver'

Gratulojn! It always feels good to get a real bargain.

As a lifelong shortwave listener, I can tell you (responding to Sudanglo's aside) that many broadcasters have indeed abandoned the airwaves for the Internet. The costs are much lower and the reach is almost as great, and you don't have to worry about poor atmospheric conditions. Sad but true.

But buying a "new" radio, randomly tuning it to shortwave and hearing a broadcast in Esperanto is nothing short of amazing.

I've found accidentally several persons that, in the past, spoke or learned esperanto. The thing is profit the right moment to ask someone about languages, and not to be afraid of saying "I speak esperanto".

One of the funnier cases was when I argued to a crazy defender of english as international language, that she never found an esperanto speaker, because she probably not very often asks people about what languages they can speak. She, very arrogantly, answered: "every single time". Few months later, it turned out that her own father learned esperanto when he was young.

Ĝis, Novatago.

I can add to that Novatago.

A few months back I approached the Member of Parliament for my area (she happens to live near me) about formally opening the British Congress 2013 in Ramsgate. In the ensuing conversation it turned out that her father (also in his time a member of parliament) had learnt Esperanto.

He apparently tried to teach her the language when she was a child, but she resisted.

But buying a "new" radio, randomly tuning it to shortwave and hearing a broadcast in Esperanto is nothing short of amazing.

Isn't just, CD.

By the way I tried again the following night at the same time (11.30pm UK local time) and discovered that in the second half of the broadcast, which consists of a lesson in Esperanto for those wanting to learn Chinese, they were still banging on about getting to the central hospital. Makes you wonder about the traffic conditions over there.