Wells dictionary available online

I discovered recently that “Esperanto-English-Esperanto Dictionary”, by John C Wells, is available on Google Play – and it works on my iPad offline! 🙂 A lot more convenient than carting around the physical book.

Informing the world about Esperanto in the 21st century

Partially, and in some ways, the task of making Esperanto widely known is the same as a hundred years ago. But in other ways, it’s very different. Around the world, as never before, English seems to dominate, and there are many new ways to communicate. These provide both challenges and opportunities. Why should we make … Read more

Beautiful Esperanto lullaby

My choir, Jubila Singers, sang a beautiful lullaby in Esperanto during a performance on 13 September, although I’m the only member who speaks Esperanto. It’s title is “Sweet Wind”. Play (Switch to the Esperanto version to read the lyrics.) Music by Joseph Barnby. Thanks to Alan Bishop for providing the score. Thanks to Christine Lindsay … Read more

Art appreciation at the World Esperanto Congress

Art appreciation lecture, Lille

The program for the World Esperanto Congress in Lille has been published but, unfortunately, the “Congress Theme” sessions lack details. So, I want to announce that “Congress Theme 2” (Monday, 11:15–13:45) will include two lectures by Franz-Georg Rössler – about architecture (towers) and music – and a lecture by me. Mine will be “Art-appreciation for … Read more

9,600 people have started learning Esperanto in two days

[This is my translation of an article in Esperanto, 9.600 homoj eklernis Esperanton en du tagoj, from the website Libera Folio. (Unfortunately that article has since been removed.)] Two days after the launch of an Esperanto course at the popular language learning site Duolingo, the course has already gained almost ten thousand participants. The number … Read more

An open letter to Gaston Dorren, the author of “Lingo”

A book called Lingo: A language spotter’s guide to Europe has recently been published. Chapter 51 is titled “The no-hoper: Esperanto”. As has already been reported, it has received some flak from Esperantists. Here is my open letter to its author, Gaston Dorren: Dear Mr Dorren, I know you have received a number of messages … Read more

Typing Esperanto characters in Mac OS X

In recent versions of Mac OS (at least since 10.5), you can type the accented letters of Esperanto very easily, without downloading anything or using a website, as long as the language of your system is English. To prepare your computer (required only once): 1. Open “System Preferences…” from the Apple menu. 2. Click on … Read more

Constructed languages (not just Esperanto)

If you have heard of Esperanto (and there are many who haven’t) you might be surprised to learn that it is only the most successful of literally hundreds of constructed languages (“conlangs”), going back to the 17th century (or even the 12th century, if you include the private language of Saint Hildegard of Bingen). A … Read more