I live in Des Moines, Iowa, but I have not had any luck in finding an Esperanto group in the area. I was hoping that someone in the forum might have some knowledge where I could find one.
I'm to the point in my learning where I feel it would be a great help if I had someone else to talk to - rather then sounding like some crazy person talking to himself.

Mythos:I live in Des Moines, Iowa, but I have not had any luck in finding an Esperanto group in the area. I was hoping that someone in the forum might have some knowledge where I could find one.
I'm to the point in my learning where I feel it would be a great help if I had someone else to talk to - rather then sounding like some crazy person talking to himself.

I have had at least one Ana Pana student from Iowa. Go to the user search form (Communication > Users > Search) and search for Iowa in the "City" block. A lot of people put both their city and their state. You'll find 8 or so users who list Iowa as their locations. If you click on their username, you can get information on when they last logged in, to find out who has been involved in recent times.

Incidentally, when I was searching for Marylanders, I was able to type in MD as a search term in that block. But IA comes up with too many hits, so that won't work out for you.

And even more incidentally, your mention of "talking to yourself" struck a chord with me. A few years back I participated in an Esperanto youth weekend in Boston. The organizer of the weekend invited a reporter from the Boston Globe to come. I still remember the article that appeared. I believe it was entitled "Talking to themselves". And they misquoted me, too, which has made me forever distrustful of newspaper quotes.

erinja:I have had at least one Ana Pana student from Iowa.

That could be me. Since I'm slowly working my way through that course right now.

Go to the user search form (Communication > Users > Search) and search for Iowa in the "City" block. A lot of people put both their city and their state. You'll find 8 or so users who list Iowa as their locations. If you click on their username, you can get information on when they last logged in, to find out who has been involved in recent times.

Thank you. I was able to find some active users about two hours away - and their EO group (too bad they meet on nights I work).

And even more incidentally, your mention of "talking to yourself" struck a chord with me. A few years back I participated in an Esperanto youth weekend in Boston. The organizer of the weekend invited a reporter from the Boston Globe to come. I still remember the article that appeared. I believe it was entitled "Talking to themselves". And they misquoted me, too, which has made me forever distrustful of newspaper quotes.

Sadly, many papers (those who write the articles) will write what they feel, and think the readers will want to read - rather then the whole truth. I have always been wary of the media (print and otherwise), there is always a back story that they never share.

Mythos:

erinja:I have had at least one Ana Pana student from Iowa.

That could be me. Since I'm slowly working my way through that course right now.

Nah, it wasn't you. I recognized one or two other names on the list of hits when I did a search for users.

Thank you. I was able to find some active users about two hours away - and their EO group (too bad they meet on nights I work).

You should suggest that they switch the day every now and then to allow you to attend. Esperanto speakers are generally pretty good about taking pity on other speakers unable to attend meetings due to schedule conflicts.

Mythos:I live in Des Moines, Iowa, but I have not had any luck in finding an Esperanto group in the area. I was hoping that someone in the forum might have some knowledge where I could find one.
I'm to the point in my learning where I feel it would be a great help if I had someone else to talk to - rather then sounding like some crazy person talking to himself.

Hey, mythos! have you found any other esperantists? I'm in Iowa City. There's at least one other person in the area (Tipton, about 35 miles east) that is interested.

Mythos:

erinja:And even more incidentally, your mention of "talking to yourself" struck a chord with me. A few years back I participated in an Esperanto youth weekend in Boston. The organizer of the weekend invited a reporter from the Boston Globe to come. I still remember the article that appeared. I believe it was entitled "Talking to themselves". And they misquoted me, too, which has made me forever distrustful of newspaper quotes.

Sadly, many papers (those who write the articles) will write what they feel, and think the readers will want to read - rather then the whole truth. I have always been wary of the media (print and otherwise), there is always a back story that they never share.

I would only like to add two little unimportant things:

First, having been working in the bush for twelve years now, I found myself looking very strange to the city dwellers, as I have been used to talk to myself a lot for two main reasons: fear of bears (I want to let them know I'm around before I walk nose to nose with one), no one around to remind me everytime how silly it is to talk out loud to myself when I am the only one to get the message anyways (the habit rooted itself deeply into my mind, and go get rid of it after!)

Second, I don't trust journalists either, for I happened to be called once by my local French paper for an interview. I live in a very remote area of northern Canada where almost everybody have an interesting story to tell when asked the reason that brought them there. Plus, it is mostly English that is being spoken around, the French population being around 800 (out of 14000), so with one random reader of the paper being interviewed every week, my chances of going through this process in the 9 years I've been around the area were high enough to say I am not overly surprised to have been chosen one time. Well, in the end, I discussed for probably an hour with the journalist and he re-invented almost everything I told him in his own words, but nevertheless making it appear as if they were my words by putting quotes all over the article. I was so ashamed I decided not to play this type of game anymore.

Ho well!

Let's all this not preventing me from wishing you better luck than mine in your quest for Esperanto-speakers, Mythos!

Filu, are you in North Ontario? I'm in north west of Québec province. I often talk to myself out loud too when i'm walking in the wood. Sometimes, i practise my esperanto while going biking, hiking and/or camping alone.

If you ever encounter a bear who speak espranto, it probably migrated from my area!

BeRReGoN:Filu, are you in North Ontario? I'm in north west of Québec province.

I believe you are from Rouyn, aren't you? I grew up in a small village just North of Val d'Or, but I lived in Yellowknife since March of 2000. If a black bear manage to make it this far from Abitibi, I believe he might have lost his Esperanto along the way.

See this friend of mine, though... (you'll quickly understand he's not from your area... nor from around Yellowknife, actually).

Filu:

Mythos:

erinja:And even more incidentally, your mention of "talking to yourself" struck a chord with me. A few years back I participated in an Esperanto youth weekend in Boston. The organizer of the weekend invited a reporter from the Boston Globe to come. I still remember the article that appeared. I believe it was entitled "Talking to themselves". And they misquoted me, too, which has made me forever distrustful of newspaper quotes.

Sadly, many papers (those who write the articles) will write what they feel, and think the readers will want to read - rather then the whole truth. I have always been wary of the media (print and otherwise), there is always a back story that they never share.

I would only like to add two little unimportant things:

First, having been working in the bush for twelve years now, I found myself looking very strange to the city dwellers, as I have been used to talk to myself a lot for two main reasons: fear of bears (I want to let them know I'm around before I walk nose to nose with one), no one around to remind me everytime how silly it is to talk out loud to myself when I am the only one to get the message anyways (the habit rooted itself deeply into my mind, and go get rid of it after!)

Second, I don't trust journalists either, for I happened to be called once by my local French paper for an interview. I live in a very remote area of northern Canada where almost everybody have an interesting story to tell when asked the reason that brought them there. Plus, it is mostly English that is being spoken around, the French population being around 800 (out of 14000), so with one random reader of the paper being interviewed every week, my chances of going through this process in the 9 years I've been around the area were high enough to say I am not overly surprised to have been chosen one time. Well, in the end, I discussed for probably an hour with the journalist and he re-invented almost everything I told him in his own words, but nevertheless making it appear as if they were my words by putting quotes all over the article. I was so ashamed I decided not to play this type of game anymore.

Ho well!

Let's all this not preventing me from wishing you better luck than mine in your quest for Esperanto-speakers, Mythos!

So, maybe you can answer this: If a man is speaking in the middle of a forest and there is no woman around, is he still wrong?

Is this thread still active? I live in Des Moines and would love to start a group, if there are any other Esperantists around.