If you had to choose a single esperanto event for a new speaker to attend which would it be?

Internacia Junulara Kongreso.
It has lots of people, and light hearted, so they are not bogged down with the officialdom of the Universala Kongreso. Even the IJK in Kiev was good for me, despite the fact that the more experienced travellers talked about how bad it was. From my perspective, I have a good story where the beer was warmer than the shower, and the toilets were long drops with a single, shared toilet roll outside the cubicle! You will never hear such stories coming out of the UK

I would say that the best single event for a given person depends a lot on their personality, and also on how much time and money they want to spend on travel.

You didn't mention what country or region you live in, so I can't recommend anything local to you.

If you're very outgoing and find it easy to talk to people you don't know, and willing to pay for an international trip, then something like IJK is great. If you find it hard to go up to random people and talk to them, then a smaller event might be good. I found smaller events easier as a beginner, because I don't find it very easy to meet people in large groups. Your choices also depend on your geographic location and willingness to travel a long distance.

UK (Universala Kongreso) is really big and it's easy to get lost in it and it can be hard to find your niche, so I wouldn't really recommend that as a first event.

If you like to party and you're willing to travel, then JES in Poland (sometimes in Germany) is a good bet. It's a week over New Year's, focused on fun/partying/dancing/etc.

If you want to improve your Esperanto and do some tourism on the side, then SES in Slovakia is a good bet (mix of classes and tourist excursions).

If you want mainly to improve your Esperanto, then NASK in the US is a good bet; it has a bit of tourism too, but less than SES in Slovakia.

I really enjoyed MeKaRo in Canada (Mez-Kanada Renkontiĝo). It rotates between a few cities in Quebec and Ontario, and it takes place over a three-day weekend in the spring. It is totally focused on tourism and it's very informal, it's just hanging out with Esperanto speakers and having a great time, no fancy official program or sign up sheets or speeches or talks - just going around and doing fun stuff in Esperanto. Very refreshing, compared to some Esperanto events, but it might be unsettlingly unstructured for a newbie.

There are a couple of other regular week-long Esperanto events that are not as big as IJK, so those are choices as well. You have IJF in Italy (around Easter-time) - Internacia Junulara Festivalo. And IJS in Hungary in the summer, Internacia Junulara Semajno. You could think about a place you might want to visit, and then check out what Esperanto events might be happening there. Stuff really does go on all over the world, so if you just think about a major country you'd like to visit, it's more than likely that you can arrange to attend some Esperanto event of theirs.

I am from the north east united states. I would definitely want to attend something in another country. SES caught my attention since I primarily want to practice esperanto speaking but dont want to spend all day in a classroom. I believe I learn significantly faster with a little immersion.

Is there a list of all the major esperanto events? I think it would be very helpful for many people to locate some of these events as they are not necessarily being advertised on websites such as this one.

hoketo:Mi ne konas vian aghon.
Bonaj renkontiĝoj estas jarfine (27.12.2012 - 3.1.2013) la renkontiĝo de "EsperantoLand" en Xanten/Germanio, ĝis 200 partoprenantoj el 15 landoj.
Similbona estas la paska renkontiĝo PSI en Germanio (23.3.2013 - 1.4.2013) en St. Andreasberg apud la "Esperanto-urbo" Herzberg. La atendata nombro de partoprenantoj estas 150 el 15 landoj.
Dum ambau menciitaj aranĝoj okazas lingvaj kursoj.

Admin: Please translate your message into English; this is the English forum. Bonvolu traduki vian mesaĝon en la anglan, ĉar mesaĝoj devas esti en la angla en ĉi tiu forumo.

Message translated:

I don't know your age.
A good event is the end-of-the-year (27.12.2012 - 3.1.2013) "EsperantoLand" in Xanten/Germany, with up to 200 participants from 15 countries.

An equally good event is the Easter (Pasko) event PSI in Germany (23.3.2013 - 1.4.2013) in St. Andreasberg next to the "Esperanto-urbo"("Esperanto City") Herzberg. The expected number of participants is 150 from 15 countries.
During both mentioned events Esperanto language classes will be offered.

smonkey:I am from the north east united states. I would definitely want to attend something in another country. SES caught my attention since I primarily want to practice esperanto speaking but dont want to spend all day in a classroom. I believe I learn significantly faster with a little immersion.

Is there a list of all the major esperanto events? I think it would be very helpful for many people to locate some of these events as they are not necessarily being advertised on websites such as this one.

If you had written your message a month or two ago, I would have recommended attending ARE, which is an annual Esperanto weekend over Columbus Day weekend. It has been at Lake George, New York for the past few years. The attendees are about half Americans and about half Canadians. There is a large contingent from Quebec. It isn't foreign, but everything is in Esperanto and pretty much no one goes around speaking English, and with the Quebec contingent, there isn't much temptation to speak English anyway (particularly if you choose the lodging option of staying in a cottage with a large number of people - you will be doing preparation of simple meals 'in Esperanto' as well as all of your other activities).

SES is a good option for a foreign trip with some learning but mostly just having fun. The SES classroom sessions are a relatively small percentage of the time you spend there. (It's like three mornings in a whole week of events, more or less). Few native English speakers attend SES.

Here is an account (in esperanto) of the latest Mekaro in Quebec City. Next year, it's going to be held in Ottawa -- not a bad venue.

http://www.esperanto.qc.ca/files/riverego/LaRivere...