Esperanto-USA

The following is my response to Nicole Martinelli's second article mentioning Esperanto. She acknowledged a few facts from the responses she received but her belief that Esperanto is "artificial" seems to stem from a deeper level.

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Hello, Nicole.

I was glad to see that you posted a response to the feedback about Esperanto. Most of it was fair but there was one flaw which bothered me. You wrote,

"Though it may have simplified grammar and poetry has been written in it, Esperanto still doesn't come from a culture."

(sigh...) It's an Esperanto thing. You wouldn't understand. ...but with some effort, you could. I hope you might TRY Esperanto but I doubt that you will. Without seeing a photo of you, I would guess that you're an attractive, multilingual woman who doesn't need an international language to augment her social life. That's a pity.

However, Esperanto does have a culture of its own. You mentioned the body of Esperanto poetry and music. Isn't that culture? There are textbooks, fictions, documentaries, magazines and procedings. (The first research paper describing the Jet Stream was written by a Japanese scientist in Esperanto.) There is a growing history of Esperanto events and crises, heroes and heroines, legends and humor. There are dictionaries of jargon for computers, chemistry, and air-traffic control, and there are words for private body parts and for specific styles of sexual intercourse. There are Esperanto organizations, families, political movements, soccer teams, radio broadcasts, web sites, podcasts and chat rooms. There's an attempt at Esperanto television via the Internet, and the portal Gxangalo has recently tried to boost their income by adding a subscriber-only section with some Esperanto soft porn. How's THAT for "culture", eh?
;-)

There is such a feeling of membership in this culture that Esperantists will oftentimes embrace like old friends even when they meet for the very first time. It's a sense of being part of a far-flung family with plenty of common experiences and feelings holding us together. You won't really "get" it until you try it for yourself.