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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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