Skip to the content
Reply

Did you ever accidentally meet an Esperantist?

by boon, October 8, 2012

Messages: 44

Language: English

boon (User's profile) October 8, 2012, 11:58:49 AM

Did you ever "bump into" an Esperanto speaker? There are Esperantists all over the world but they are relatively few and far between. Most often, speakers get together deliberately to use the language.

Imagine if you were travelling in a foreign country and struggling with the native language, when a local asks, "Ĉu vi parolas Esperanton?". That would be very cool!

Of course, maybe we don't need to imagine. Maybe it has happened to someone. Also, it would be almost as good if it happened in your own country.

sudanglo (User's profile) October 8, 2012, 12:28:16 PM

Boon, see my post on Esperanto Insignia.

It could easily happen that you pass someone in the street who happens to speak Esperanto, and now that the wearing of Insignia has fallen out of fashion you wouldn't know.

I did recently have a conversation with someone who turned out to have met a big cheese in the Japanese Esperanto movement and it also recently emerged that the father of the local MP (who lives in the same square as me) was an Esperantist in his time.

boon (User's profile) October 8, 2012, 1:19:02 PM

Yes, I've probably walked past many Esperantists without knowing. I may have met Esperantists but the subject of Esperanto never came up in conversation.

That reminds me, I met a guy whose grandfather (I think) was a big cheese in the British Esperanto movement. But the guy I met didn't speak any Esperanto, unfortunately!

Insignia, eh? I'll keep that in mind!

hebda999 (User's profile) October 8, 2012, 2:24:38 PM

It would be much easier if all the esperantists were green colored (like those infamous aliens). Otherwise how could you know? Anyway I actually did bump into one of the sort - on a mountain trip, far from any city. He was not green at all, but he spoke good Esperanto, and it is all that counted... ridulo.gif

Sudanglo:

Funny: English "big cheese" is Polish "gruba ryba" (fat fish).

Leke (User's profile) October 8, 2012, 3:03:55 PM

Yes, a work colleague had a sticker on her monitor. I would never have guessed that she would speak Esperanto without the sticker.

Hundies19 (User's profile) October 8, 2012, 3:24:09 PM

I'll have to sew a discreet green star onto my favorite clothes.... maybe someone will notice.

whysea (User's profile) October 8, 2012, 4:43:44 PM

Hundies19:I'll have to sew a discreet green star onto my favorite clothes.... maybe someone will notice.
I think even better than a star would be the melono (you know...this one ЄЭ). A star could just be a star after all; the jubilea symbol is more unmistakeable. It's your clothing though, put what you want on it!

jchthys (User's profile) October 10, 2012, 2:00:21 AM

But the jubilea symbol is ugly. Better to put a green star with an E inside. That shouldn't be ambiguous!

RiotNrrd (User's profile) October 10, 2012, 6:20:00 AM

jchthys:But the jubilea symbol is ugly.
+1.

Call me a traditionalist, but I'm totally pro-star. Nice and simple.

That melon thing is hideous (not to mention helping keep alive the old semi-joke of the Esperanto movement being "green on the outside, red* on the inside" ). I'll take the star, or the whole flag, any ol' day.

---------------
* "Commie red", of course. Not sure what the Pantone number of that is.

Demian (User's profile) October 10, 2012, 6:31:33 AM

boon:Did you ever "bump into" an Esperanto speaker? There are Esperantists all over the world but they are relatively few and far between. Most often, speakers get together deliberately to use the language.

Imagine if you were travelling in a foreign country and struggling with the native language, when a local asks, "Ĉu vi parolas Esperanton?". That would be very cool!

Of course, maybe we don't need to imagine. Maybe it has happened to someone. Also, it would be almost as good if it happened in your own country.
Never in my entire life. malgajo.gif

Not only that I have yet to talk to an Esperanto speaker in person.

Back to the top