Hey guys, so the title says it all. I am new to Esperanto and recently started the Kurso de Esperanto. As such, I have a few questions that maybe you guys can help me out with.

1. What is the situation with Esperanto entertainment? It seems that most of the translations of known works are quite old and not even available in nice printed copies. And as far as I can tell, there are no modern works being officially translated into Esperanto, and there also doesn't seem to be a great deal of new literature either.

Beyond books, what about Esperanto films? Most of what I've found is old and also not of very high-quality. Are there any actual good films in Esperanto, or any current projects to make such films?

How about podcasts?

2. What is the state of the Esperanto community currently? Is it an active, vibrant community where it is easy to find other speakers? What exists outside of Lernu and the annual Kongreso?

3. How good is the Esperanto Wikipedia? For instance, is the quality of the writing high, with mostly good error-free Esperanto? Are there are a lot of good articles on there to read? Does anyone here actively contribute to the Vikipedio?

4. With persistent effort, how long should it take to become proficient in the language, if we define proficiency as the ability to read fairly smoothly and quickly, and the ability to write with relatively few errors?

I guess that does it for now! Thanks for any help anyone can provide. I appreciate it. I hope to really become a part of the Esperanto community!

Esperanta Vikipedio ja estas bona retejo por lerni Esperanton, kvankam ĝi havas iom da eraroj. Ekzemple, ĝi rimarkas, ke la nomo de Militŝipo Yamato devenas Otto Von Bismarck _(:з)∠)_

(I'm not very good at English,sorry.Here're my answers)

English:
To be honest,I know about Esperanto's translation not much,too.But in the forum of lernu! there're many users that you can find to and talk with.And you can learn Esperanto in lernu!.When your Esperanto level is enough,you can look through in Universal Esperanto-Association( [url=uea.org]uea.org[/url] ).
To read fairly smoothly and quickly and write with relatively few errors,I think that probably you need only one year(even less than one year!) to get that level by learning Esperanto seriously.Because Esperanto is very easy to learn!

Esperanto:
Fakte ankaŭ mi ne scias pri la Esperantaj tradukaĵoj multe.Sed en la forumo de lernu! estas multaj uzantoj,kiuj troveblas kaj kunbabilebas por vi.Kaj vi povas unue lerni Esperanton en lernu!.Kiam via Esperanta nivelo estas sufiĉa,vi povas foliumi en [url=uea.org]UEA[/url].
Por ke legu klare glate kaj rapide kaj skribu erarmalmulte,mi pensas,ke vi nur bezonas unu jaron por ekhavi tiun nivelon per lerni Esperanton atente.Ĉar Esperanto estas tre facila por lerni!

PrimeMinisterK:

The number of Esperanto speakers is often estimated to 1-2 millions.
Nowadays, technically, anyone can easily distribute videos through Internet, but good film making by professionals remains expansive, and Esperanto speakers is a very small market.
However, Esperanto music is better.
You can have a look here :
https://www.vinilkosmo-mp3.com/en/
http://muzaiko.info/
Sample :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ylse9mDYts

Litterature is more abundant, with thousands translations and original works.
My first readings were novels and short stories by Claude Piron.
After 3 monthes, I was able to read a complete novel ("La Alkemiisto", by P. Coehlo, translated from portuguese).
Then I read "Flugi kun kakatuoj", by Trevor Steele, a novel written in Esperanto (available as printed book).
You can also find dozens of more classical novels and articles here (mostly translations) :
http://i-espero.info/files/elibroj/

PrimeMinisterK:Hey guys, so the title says it all. I am new to Esperanto and recently started the Kurso de Esperanto. As such, I have a few questions that maybe you guys can help me out with.

1. What is the situation with Esperanto entertainment? It seems that most of the translations of known works are quite old and not even available in nice printed copies. And as far as I can tell, there are no modern works being officially translated into Esperanto, and there also doesn't seem to be a great deal of new literature either.

Beyond books, what about Esperanto films? Most of what I've found is old and also not of very high-quality. Are there any actual good films in Esperanto, or any current projects to make such films?

How about podcasts?

2. What is the state of the Esperanto community currently? Is it an active, vibrant community where it is easy to find other speakers? What exists outside of Lernu and the annual Kongreso?

3. How good is the Esperanto Wikipedia? For instance, is the quality of the writing high, with mostly good error-free Esperanto? Are there are a lot of good articles on there to read? Does anyone here actively contribute to the Vikipedio?

4. With persistent effort, how long should it take to become proficient in the language, if we define proficiency as the ability to read fairly smoothly and quickly, and the ability to write with relatively few errors?

I guess that does it for now! Thanks for any help anyone can provide. I appreciate it. I hope to really become a part of the Esperanto community!

Saluton!

New books originally written in Esperanto are published regularly. I believe that this is the same for translations.
Honestly, yes, books can look old (understand: their edition is from 2008) or really old (understand: their edition is from 1982).
But there are also plenty of new and nice looking books, and you will find plural of them on Amazon.
However, there are not many books in Eo on Amazon, let's be honest.
But you willl a huge amount of books here: https://katalogo.uea.org/
There are not many films in EO, to be honest. The more known is the adaption of Claude Piron's Gerda malaperis.

Here is something cool, pleasant, and factual: talking about an annual "kongreso" is fake news! There are events where one can speak Esperanto everyday in the world. It is the media that is saying this, because usually it does not really care about Eo. Actually, the "kongreso" (named the "UK", the Universala Kongreso) is the biggest, but not the only one at all!

Find the Esperanto events that may happen in your country here: http://eventaservo.org/

(the COVID-19 is really likely to cancel many Esperanto events. If you find nothing, don't worry. You can see the old events to take a look).

Actually, I don't know about podcasts, but there are radio stations in Esperanto. You can find them on esperanto.net.
About the Esperanto Wikipedia:
If you want to have an idea of its size... It is currentky bigger than the ones in Hebrew, Estonian, Greek or Danish!
The Esperanto wikipedia is really good when it deals with...Esperanto, esperantists and esperantism. But too often in my opinion, the article is only a short translation of an article in English or French etc.
Nevertheless, there are several good ones; many esperantists want to make other esperantists discover their own national culture, their favorite historical figure, etc...
Yes, sometimes there are little mistakes.
The Esperanto Wikipedia is in constant improvement, please remember this!

It took me 10 months to reach a level that is surely the B1 level in Esperanto.
I've reached such a level in English only after 6 years of learning. Period!

Actually it will depend on how many time you will be able to spend on Esperanto. But with the current situation, I believe you will have enough time.

I hope my message wasn't too long.

Bonvenon al Esperantujo!

First some background info…

During the cold war there was in some eastern European countries official lists of foreign languages, such that if you mastered one of those, you were entitled to a higher salary. For some reason Esperanto had ended up onto those lists. Because Esperanto is easy many took a course, got a certificate and got a higher pay. Any lists ceased to exist after the system change and interest in Esperanto dropped. I think this is one of the main reasons, why there are so few post 80's works – at least when it comes to Europe.

To my understanding Esperanto is alive and kicking in Brazil, I don't know about other parts of Americas. Esperanto is gaining foothold in some parts of Africa, and UEA has a project going on in Indonesia. Now to your questions.

1. You're right, there aren't that many new literal works. Old works are available, but they may indeed fall short of "nice printed copies". This lack of new literature concerns both translated and original, fact and fiction.

There are a few short films, likely demonstrations of skill by theatre students. Practically no long films. You may hear excerpts in Esperanto in the background in some films.

Music in Esperanto exists. Besides some ,eh, less-contemporary works there are metal, reggae, rap, schlager music. Not overwhelmingly many works but a very good start.

By contrast there are a lot of Youtube videos and podcasts. While most videos concentrate in the language itself, podcasts tend to have other content. Search this Lernu for discussion and tips of these.

2. The situation varies from country to country. My understanding is, that there are small scattered groups here and there. Some of these are dying out, some are doing well. The overall interest in la movado is in decline: younger generations want to achive something with the language, the language itself isn't a goal but a means. Many of the living groups are more or less virtual.

3. While the Esperanto Wikipedia is one of the biggest ones, many articles are machine translated, e.g. hundreds of descriptions of asteroids. I remember having seen a list of articles, which are classified as high quality. Ofc there are poor ones as in every language.

4. Learning a language depends on a lot of factors: what's your native language, what other languages have you learnt, how skilled are you to study, how motivated are you to study, how many hours daily/weekly you put into studies etc. If your native language is an Indo-European or you have studied Indo-European languages, you can well learn to read texts of simple to medium level of difficulty within a year or even less given you're motivated. With other background it will take longer or requires more effort.

Remember that repetition in language learning is the key. It's better to spend ,say, fifteen minutes every day than two hours in just one day in a week.

Bonvenon al Esperantujo!

teo屹立在大地之上:Esperanta Vikipedio ja estas bona retejo por lerni Esperanton, kvankam ĝi havas iom da eraroj. Ekzemple, ĝi rimarkas, ke la nomo de Militŝipo Yamato devenas Otto Von Bismarck _(:з)∠)_

Dankon!

flanke:
To be honest,I know about Esperanto's translation not much,too.But in the forum of lernu! there're many users that you can find to and talk with.And you can learn Esperanto in lernu!.When your Esperanto level is enough,you can look through in Universal Esperanto-Association( [url=uea.org]uea.org[/url] ).

Thanks, is the Lernu forum really active? Is there a lot of conversation going on around here everyday?

flanke:To read fairly smoothly and quickly and write with relatively few errors,I think that probably you need only one year(even less than one year!) to get that level by learning Esperanto seriously.Because Esperanto is very easy to learn!

Thanks for the info. I've only been studying for about a week so far but I've been trying to put a lot of time into it. With the coronavirus going around and there not being anywhere to go, there's nothing to do but stay home and study!

Hopefully I will progress at a good speed. Or how would you say that in Esperanto? Mi esperas ke progresi tre rapide? It's something like that at least.

LM59650:PrimeMinisterK:

The number of Esperanto speakers is often estimated to 1-2 millions.
Nowadays, technically, anyone can easily distribute videos through Internet, but good film making by professionals remains expansive, and Esperanto speakers is a very small market.

If someone who actually had some legitimate skill as a filmmaker were to try to crowdfund an Esperanto film, I wonder if members of the Esperanto community would get behind that and chip in. I would do it. Even though I only started really studying the language about a week ago, I have known about it for a long time. I would love to see a legitimate movie in Esperanto.

Do you know if there is any way to get Esperanto subtitles for existing films? As long as the subtitles were of good quality and grammatically correct, it would seem like watching films in a foreign language that you can't understand with Esperanto subtitles would be a good way to learn.

LM59650:However, Esperanto music is better.
You can have a look here :
https://www.vinilkosmo-mp3.com/en/
http://muzaiko.info/
Sample :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ylse9mDYts

Cool, thanks for the links. I will have to check those out.

LM59650:Literature is more abundant, with thousands translations and original works.
My first readings were novels and short stories by Claude Piron.
After 3 monthes, I was able to read a complete novel ("La Alkemiisto", by P. Coehlo, translated from portuguese).
Then I read "Flugi kun kakatuoj", by Trevor Steele, a novel written in Esperanto (available as printed book).
You can also find dozens of more classical novels and articles here (mostly translations) :
http://i-espero.info/files/elibroj/

Thanks. I actually found that last link a few nights ago. It looks like there are some good books in there for sure, though it would be nice to have attractive, professional-looking printed versions instead of PDFs (I say attractive because a lot of the Esperanto books that I have seen pictures of look, frankly, pretty ugly with weird covers). I wonder how anyone ever got rights to do a translation of Murder on the Orient Express. That one is not out of copyright.

I read The Alchemist in English. That is an interesting book. Perhaps I will have to track down the Esperanto version, though it doesn't seem to be available anywhere right now.

I did find a copy of La Hobito on Amazon and I ordered it. I also read some good things about Marvirinstrato by Tim Westover and I ordered that too. Other than those and the ones in the link you provided, I don't know what are considered to be the great works in Esperanto.

Are there any writers who are active today and still publishing books in the language? Any contemporary bestsellers (relatively speaking)?

Zam_franca:
Saluton!

Saluton!

Zam_franca:New books originally written in Esperanto are published regularly. I believe that this is the same for translations.
Honestly, yes, books can look old (understand: their edition is from 2008) or really old (understand: their edition is from 1982).
But there are also plenty of new and nice looking books, and you will find plural of them on Amazon.
However, there are not many books in Eo on Amazon, let's be honest.
But you willl a huge amount of books here: https://katalogo.uea.org/

First, I'll mention that I'm a little bit weird when it comes to books. I feel like they should be works of art, both internally and externally. They should look nice sitting on a shelf. I have looked at some of the books at esperanto-usa.org and, almost without exception, they all look very strange. I am talking about the covers here. Really weird, off-putting cover art across the board. It also seems like they are all very old, as if they were printed up 40 years ago and still haven't been purchased.

I will see what's available at uea.org. Do you know of any "hot" authors writing in Esperanto at this moment? Are there any modern works that are considered the bestsellers in the language?

Zam_franca:There are not many films in EO, to be honest. The more known is the adaption of Claude Piron's Gerda malaperis.

Thanks, I'll have to check that out. If a competent filmmaker tried to crowdfund an Esperanto film, do you think it would work?

Zam_franca:Here is something cool, pleasant, and factual: talking about an annual "kongreso" is fake news! There are events where one can speak Esperanto everyday in the world. It is the media that is saying this, because usually it does not really care about Eo. Actually, the "kongreso" (named the "UK", the Universala Kongreso) is the biggest, but not the only one at all!

Find the Esperanto events that may happen in your country here: http://eventaservo.org/

(the COVID-19 is really likely to cancel many Esperanto events. If you find nothing, don't worry. You can see the old events to take a look).

Cool, thanks for the info! I'll have to look into that.

Zam_franca:
About the Esperanto Wikipedia:
If you want to have an idea of its size... It is currentky bigger than the ones in Hebrew, Estonian, Greek or Danish!
The Esperanto wikipedia is really good when it deals with...Esperanto, esperantists and esperantism. But too often in my opinion, the article is only a short translation of an article in English or French etc.
Nevertheless, there are several good ones; many esperantists want to make other esperantists discover their own national culture, their favorite historical figure, etc...
Yes, sometimes there are little mistakes.
The Esperanto Wikipedia is in constant improvement, please remember this!

Yeah, I have looked through it a little and I did notice that many of the articles are very short. I have done some writing in the past for magazines, but I know nothing about how to edit Wikipedia and obviously I'm brand new to Esperanto, but if someone who's an editor on there would want to do the translating, I could write up articles in English and supply my sources and have them translate and post them.

I wouldn't know how to actually find someone who is an editor on there, though.

Zam_franca:
It took me 10 months to reach a level that is surely the B1 level in Esperanto.
I've reached such a level in English only after 6 years of learning. Period!

Actually it will depend on how many time you will be able to spend on Esperanto. But with the current situation, I believe you will have enough time.

I hope my message wasn't too long.

Bonvenon al Esperantujo!

I am going to keep working at it and hopefully in a few months my skills will be much better and we can talk in Esperanto!