So, about three years ago, I took an Esperanto exam at level B2, and figured that would be the highest level I would take; partly since certification in Esperanto is pretty pointless anyway and partly because I didn’t think I’d ever get to C1, as I thought that’s basically native-speaker level.

But this year, I decided (more or less on a whim) to ( Read more... )

So when signing up for SES 2012 in Nitra (an Esperanto meeting), the choices for “sex” were ina (female) and malina (opposite-of-female). I picked the latter.

Just now, looking through the Kauderwelsch guide to Slovak, I see that malina means “Himbeere” (raspberry).

This amuses me :)

Hm, now I wonder whether ina means anything in Slovak; it ( Read more... )

I remember at a meeting of the Hamburg Esperanto Society, someone mentioned that pronouncing “n” as a velar (rather than alveolar or dental) nasal before “g” or “k” was wrong; words such as “benko” should always be [benko] “ben-ko” and never [beŋko] “beng-ko”. And that this was supported by tapes that Zamenhof supposedly made and sent out for ( Read more... )

Today, I found out that in Esperanto, “ĝis la revido” means “up to the dream-child” („bis zum Traumkind“). A curiously idiomatical phrase for a farewell :)

Fun stuff!

The other day, while practising my Esperanto flashcards on Anki, I got a new word: bankalsono.

I didn’t recognise it, so I tried to parse it: bank'al'sono? Something about making a call to a bank? bankal'sono? A “Bankal sound”, whatever that might be?

Then I asked it to show me the answer: “Badehose” (swimming trunks).

Oh! It’s ban'kalsono!

( Read more... )

I went to the Hamburg Esperanto meeting again tonight.

Dominik gave a presentation about SES 2010 in Nitra, where he took part. (Apparently as part of a trip half-way across Europe and back, taking in a couple of other Esperanto meetups along the way!)

He talked about the morning classes, the afternoon activities, where it is, and basically ( Read more... )

I went to a meeting of the Hamburg Esperanto Society on Thursday: my first Esperanto meeting.

( Read the whole thing )

I love languages and wish I could learn ALL THE LANGUAGES!

Typically, I have one language at a time which fascinates me particularly and where I spend some time learning it (with more or less fervor); I buy books, look for web resources, and so on.

Then, at some point, another languages comes along which fascinates me similarly. And I don’t ( Read more... )

So speaking with n_true made me consider going to an Esperanto meeting at some point to take part in a course and learn more and/or to have some opportunity to speak the language.

After all, I had found there that, despite never having spoken the language before, I was able to carry on a reasonable conversation with him, just based on what I had ( Read more... )