Saluton everyone! So I came across this language/society while looking for resources on my upcoming travels. See, me and my boyfriend are planning to live very sparingly and travel cross country here in the U.S. For some reason, though, Esperanto seems like it would be sacred, you know? Like if I only knew a little and tried to talk to someone, they would test me or something... Am I right in my suspicions? I mean, I've been reading these stories about how people just open up their homes to you just because you can speak it... I would probably test other people too before I did something like that! I think I am looking for an explanation from a real person, and not just wikipedia... you know? Something solid. Also, silly question but, how are you to know if someone speaks it? Just start saying something?

Sal' Snoogins! Welcome to the lernu forums

Short/Long/Middle-sized answer to your question: There isn't any established protocol to figuring out whether someone is an esperantist, and with any language, people generally won't test your EO ability, other than expecting you to be willing to speak and learn EO with them (e.g. if I went to a Japanese person and said "konnichiwa, ogenki desu ka etc et al" they'd probably be quite impressed at my willingness to learn their language and want to see how far I've gotten without turning it into an examination) - well at least I'm guessing this is the case with pasporta servo or any other similar service where Esperantists let people into their homes

Additionally, people who let you board with them register on a site and all or meet with the boarder at a conference or something (so they're already acquaintances) so they're generally already prepared and willing to have a stranger in their house, regardless of their ability to speak EO.

Of course, in these cases where people open up their homes to other esperanto speakers, the two people generally don't speak the same language or don't have an overwhelmingly confident ability to do so, so Esperanto becomes the default communication method out of ease more often than not

See what the other people here say though, I've never met an Esperantist in person before

I travel quite a bit. The first time I ever went to an Esperanto meeting, I was many miles away from my home and in a different country. I walked into the cafe, found the meeting, said 'Saluton' and introduced myself. It was like a secret handshake. I was instantly a part of the group. Nobody tried to test my Esperanto. In fact, the exact opposite happenned. Everyone was very eager to help me learn new words. Nobody laughed at me when I stumbled. Nobody made fun of me. All in all, it was an incredibly positive experience.

Since then, I have not had a single bad experience when meeting another Esperantist. Even though we are quite diverse, we tend to be a very tolerant and open group of people. This is my anecdotal experience.

snoogins: Also, silly question but, how are you to know if someone speaks it? Just start saying something?

When I'm traveling, I like to wear my Esperanto baseball cap at the airport. Haven't met any other Esperantists this way, but I have often been asked about the language.

My friends have met people at airports wearing green stars who turned out to be Esperantists. This hasn't happened to me yet. Someday...

You'll also find businesses using the name who have nothing to do with our language. I once went into an Esperanto Music store in Caracas, Venezuela. The owner knew what the language was, but didn't speak a word. (In fact, he didn't speak anything except Spanish) It was disconcerting.

Hi

I have travelled the Esperanto world a bit, though not through Pasporta Servo. I speak fluently (in many cases, better than my hosts) but I think I can confidently say that your language ability doesn't really matter, and no one will test you. I recall that I met up with one Esperantist abroad (didn't stay with him, just met him for lunch) who was pleasantly surprised that I spoke well. I think he gets a fair number of Pasporta Servo guests whose grasp of Esperanto is limited. I have never heard of anyone being refused for their limited Esperanto, or "tested", or anything like that. And for that matter, though the Pasporta Servo sign-up process is in Esperanto only, there's no guarantee that your host will speak well! So there's no catch, no test, and it's ok if you're a beginner.

My advice to you is to get as good at Esperanto as possible prior to your trip. Since you're talking about travelling in the US, there will be a temptation to just speak English with your hosts. I would try hard to use your Esperanto, in spite of the temptation. This can be an excellent chance for you to get real-world experience with using Esperanto to talk to people. The language skills that you learn on this cross-country trip will serve you well for international travel in the future. It's like travel on training wheels; in the US, you can get an English explanation if you didn't understand something your host said. In another country, your host might not speak a word of English!