Esperanto in the World
My daughter reports that on one of her 'Advanced Reading' tests, there was a question mentioning Esperanto. One of the characters in the book she read was a freak named Collette at a circus. The question she noted read: 'Collette was a freak because...' one of the possible answers was '... because she spoke Esperanto'
I suppose the bright side is that my daughter then told her teacher that her father knows Esperanto.
Comments
Dankon al Dio, ke ni
Dankon al Dio, ke ni hejminstruos nian filinon :) Usonanoj pli stultiĝas. Eble se oni instruos Esperanton, niaj infanoj inteligentiĝos. :)
October 19, 2009 by formiko, 21 weeks 6 days ago
Lamers
Well, I think that's a silly answer choice on a test. I suppose the writers of the test thought that there's no "ethnic group" associated with Esperanto to be offended by that remark, otherwise they would have written "Spanish, German, Afrikaans, Chinese" or whatever. Anyone who speaks Esperanto is not to be taken seriously, after all, according to the man on the street. We're really no better than a bunch of trekkies speaking Klingon.
Why are so many Americans so ignorant and narrow-minded?
Well, I'd like to say that the people who wrote that test are probably freaks, especially if they don't speak Esperanto or know how beautiful and useful it is.
Esperantists: We who are not like others. :-)
The few, the proud, the ... Oh, that one's already taken by the U.S. Marines. Never mind!
October 9, 2009 by pauswa, 23 weeks 1 day ago