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                  F R E E   E S P E R A N T O   C O U R S E

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                               Introduction



WHAT IS ESPERANTO?



Esperanto, the international language, is a language developed to make it

easier for people of different cultures to communicate. Its author, Dr. L.

L. Zamenhof (1859-1917), published his "Lingvo Internacia" in 1887 under

the pseudonym "Dr. Esperanto". It is now spoken by at least two million

people, in over 100 countries. There are thousands of books and over 100

periodicals published currently. But what makes it any more international

than French, English or Russian?



Incorrectly termed 'artificial' (the right word is 'planned'), Esperanto is

specifically intended for international/intercultural use, so those who use

it meet each other on an equal footing, since neither is using his or her

native language. With national languages, the average person isn't able to

express himself as well as a native speaker or the gifted linguist. Thanks

to its simple, logical, regular design, anyone can learn Esperanto fairly

rapidly.



A LIVING LANGUAGE



Esperanto is a living language, used for everything people use any other

language for. But it's much easier to learn than a national language. Even

people who can't remember a word of a language they studied for years in

high school or college need only months of intensive study to become fluent

in Esperanto. It is also more useful than national languages if your goal

in learning a language is to get to know people from different places,

since virtually everyone who speaks Esperanto has learned it for this

reason.



ABOUT THIS COURSE



This course is based on ELNA's Free Postal Course, which is, in turn, based

on a very popular postal course in use today in England. The course is a

bit old-fashioned, and we are working on a more appealing version. In the

meantime, you will have to bear with it. Upon successful completion of the

ten lessons, you will receive a framable Certificate of Completion.



A note about the orthography: To facilitate distribution of this course

over the net, we have chosen to represent the two diacritical marks (the

circumflex or ^, and the breve, a 'reversed circumflex' unavailable in

standard character sets) by adding an x immediately following the

character. Hence the combinations cx, gx, hx, jx, sx, (where x = ^) and ux

(where x = [breve]) should be thought of as single characters.



GETTING CONNECTED



Here are the addresses of national Esperanto associations in the major

English-speaking countries. If your country isn't listed, ask us and we can

find the address for you.



Australian Esperanto Association    British Esperanto Association

P.O. Box 313                        140 Holland Park Avenue

Sunnybank, Queensland 4109          London W11 4UF

+61 7 345 2402                      +44 71 727 7821



Canadian Esperanto Association      Esperanto League for North America

P.O. Box 2159                       P.O. Box 1129

Sidney, BC, V8L 3S6                 El Cerrito, CA 94530

                                    +1 510 653 0998

                                    +1 800 377 3726 (that's +1-800-ESPERANTO)

The World Association is:

Universala Esperanto-Asocio

Nieuwe Binnenweg 176

NL-3015 BJ  Rotterdam

The Netherlands

+31 10 436 1044 or +31 10 436 1539

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