Open Thread: What do you like to do with Esperanto?

I use Esperanto when I go to Africa. Years ago I began corresponding with an African Pastor in the city of Lubumbashi, D.R. Congo. He would write to me in unintelligible English, and I would write back to him in worse French. I had on hand a French language Esperanto course which I sent to him. Within about three month we were writing back and forth in Esperanto with clarity and understanding. Over the next 20 years a wonderful friendship developed. I've been able to visit him twice and we used Esperanto almost exclusively during our travels in Zambia and the D.R. Congo. I do a lot of other things with it too, but this is a use that really helped me over the years. Esperanto is the international language that works!

For me, it feels good to be on Skype, for example, and find another Esperanto-speaker, one I've never met before. And yet there's a connection, an immediate bonding, because we understand pretty much where the other person is coming from. Esperanto people are generally progressive, peace-loving, internationalists. We're accepting of others regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or lack thereof, socio-economic level, and other factors which seem to other people such insurmountable barriers. I'm 68 now, and have been involved with Esperanto (sounds like a girlfriend!) since I was around 15.

For me, international friendship is something I really enjoy with Esperanto. It is possible with Esperanto to make new friends across the barriers much more easily than with other languages, especially English.

Congresses, international magazines in Esperanto, Facebook, many other webpages, e-mail networks and lists, friends of friends, Pasporto Servo, many local and national organizations, and UEA all help to increase inter-understanding across the borders of country, class, and culture.

Even through I was in over 80 countries before I learned Esperanto, it wasn't until I learned Esperanto that that I "got it." And I hope I am still "getting it." I could never have "gotten it" (understood the need) while my only language was English.

It is a great joy for me to have a neutral, respectful, rich method of communication that is a successful tool in creating and sustaining international friendships.

Amike,
Filipo de Teksaso

For me my favorite thing to do with Esperanto has been to tell other people about it. I have already done two presentations on Esperanto. I have tried to teach a course on it at the community college, but the leadership hasn't liked the idea.

I have already taught some Esperanto to my daughters (we home-schooled), and they really enjoyed it. They were, however, disappointed that they couldn't get a good penpal. (I finally invented an imaginary one with long eyelashes.) They are not, however, continuing their Esperanto. They're not linguists like their father-- who could have imagined that I would be the father of chemists!

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Por mi la plej amata afero pri Esperanto estas diri al iu pri ĝi. Mi jam faris du prezentigojn pri Esperanto. Mi provis instrui ĝin kiel komunika kurso, sed tio ne plaĉas al la estroj.

Mi jam instruis Esperanton al miaj filinoj (ni hejminstruis), kaj ili tre ĝuis tion. Ili tamen malgajis pri la maleblo de gajni bonajn korespondulojn. (Mi fine faris imagan koresponulinon kun tre longaj okulharoj.) Ili tamen ne daŭrigas Esperanton. Ili ne estas lingvistoj kiel sia patro-- kiu povus imagi, ke mi fakte estas la patro de kemiistoj!

Saluton,

I'd like to enforce more adapting of excisting malesperantujo music culture into esperantujo. So in the past I pushed that esperanto karaokeo project (eobo) to get more karaokeo songs (currently 55x/ cxirkaux 2.5 hr).

http://ikso.net/kantaro/diskutejo/wiki/user/isaro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqZ4J9u3UWM

Currently I'm a little bit tired of that karaoke creating. So my next project will be to make some ryhmes with the help of that special eo rimo listo. May be I can handle it to wrap beginners tutorial vocabulary into some ryhmes. I got this idea seeing that Hip Hop Freestyle video at 4:13 minute: unu person diras unu vorto kaj repisto rimas tion vortojn. La malrepisto perceptas ke repisto ne scias kelkaj rimoj. La malrepisto donas nova vortojn... Kun instrumentaj fono muzika aux sen instrumentaj fono muzikojn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8MLz3yzskg

http://esperanto-jeunes.org/ravo/ravo.html

http://hotfile.com/dl/12665671/ba1371e/eo-rimolisto-16-septembro-2009a.p...

http://hotfile.com/dl/12665700/b4f92d2/eo-rimolisto-16-septembro-2009a.o...

Gbx,
Erik

I like talking with my non-native-English-speaker SO whom I met thanks to Esperanto.
I like reading books and magazines from various countries.
I like rediscovering poetry and enjoying it more than I ever did before.
I like translating poetry and fiction and nonfiction into Esperanto.
I like going to Esperanto events, talking with people in a very international atmosphere, meeting new friends who give fresh perspectives and ideas, reconnecting with old friends, learning cool interesting stuff in lectures and other presentations, enjoying concerts, plays, films, playing games, etc.
I like reading news without a US/British slant.
I like reading about the history, culture, and politics of this unique language and its community.
I like expanding my knowledge and experience of linguistics and languages.
I like "paying back" the help I got as a beginner by helping beginners learn.
I like contributing to various projects (e.g. Reta-vortaro.de, Vikipedio, lernu) and organizations (E-USA, UEA, etc).
I like playing boardgames in Esperanto, and taking them to Esperanto events to play boardgames with people from other countries in Esperanto.
I like playing Go online with other Esperantists.
I like translating song fragments into Esperanto and incompetently playing guitar and singing them for fun.
I like mixing languages for fun, putting Esperanto suffixes onto Polish words or whatever.
I like having dreams in Esperanto.
I like that I know there are many other things I enjoy doing which I didn't even think of when typing this list. :)