18
votes
Accepted
What is "La Leĝo de Tonjo"?
The Leĝo de Tonjo is a humorous law mocking the fact that a large portion of conversations in Esperanto end up getting derailed by a discussion about grammar. The original text of the law is:
Ju ...
18
votes
Accepted
Does Esperanto make people friendlier?
I'm sure there are several factors at play - including confirmation bias, since there are some Royal Jerk Esperantists out there - but to the extent to which it's true that Esperantists are friendlier,...
17
votes
Accepted
Who are some of the well known female Esperanto activists today?
Here are seven important names that immediately come into my mind (ordered by how important I consider their current or very recent contributions to be):
Katalin Kováts, the leader of edukado.net, a ...
17
votes
Accepted
Is Esperanto a viable language to put in the "languages spoken" section of my resume?
We discussed that question here:
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/15562777
I said that if you put Esperanto on your resume, the response at an interview (if you get one) will certainly be "what the ...
16
votes
Accepted
How did the color green become associated with Esperanto?
The origin of the use of green can be traced back to Dr. Zamenhof. In 1911, he wrote:
About the origin of our green star I no longer remember very well. It seems to me that Mr Geoghegan drew my ...
15
votes
Accepted
Kiu estas Liza en la kanto de Persone kaj kial ŝi pentras bildojn?
Mi fakte scias, kiu estas Liza. Mi eĉ renkontis ŝin plurfoje. Sed mi ne povas doni pli da detaloj pri ŝia identeco.
Ŝi pentras bildojn, ĉar ŝi estas artistino.
La kantisto transiris al aliaj ...
14
votes
Accepted
Is there an official Hex Color Code for the Esperanto green and what is it?
The Esperanto Wikipedia article about the flag happens to have a section about this.
There is no official color, and various organizations and people have used various shades of green for the flag ...
13
votes
Accepted
Did the writer George Orwell hate Esperanto, and why if it is the case?
George Orwell doesn't appear to have hated Esperanto, though he seems to have feared the potential for abuse found in a universal language.
He was exposed to Esperanto through a friend of his aunt, ...
13
votes
What is the purpose of the annual Universala Kongreso?
The UK is so big, that there is not its one and only purpose. People go there for various reasons.
For example
Meet their Esperanto friends from all over the world. Many Esperanto speakers have ...
13
votes
Why are many companies using Esperanto words for their brand name?
I can think of a few reasons:
They are not using Esperanto words on purpose. Esperanto uses a lot of Latin roots, so there are often similar-sounding words with similar meanings in Latin and other ...
13
votes
Accepted
Ĉu ekzistis aŭ ekzistas Esperanta mono?
En 1907 svisa Esperantisto René de Saussure proponis la internacian monunuon "spesmilo". Ĝi estis dividebla al "spesoj" (mil spesoj = unu spesmilo). Ĝis la komenco de la unua mondmilito (do ĝis ĉirkaŭ ...
12
votes
Accepted
"Dear" is used a lot in the Duolingo course. Why is that?
Saluton kara! Chuck Smith, the coordinator of the Duolingo course, responded to a similar question in the Facebook group for Duolingo Esperanto Learners:
It's definitely used more in Esperanto than ...
12
votes
Accepted
Is there a place to buy Esperanto merchandise?
I'm a big fan of La Sekreta Societo de Esperantistoj. They specialize in T-shirts and stickers. I have their stickers on my laptop and my car.
You can also order supplies from the Esperanto USA ...
12
votes
Are Vikipedio articles written using good Esperanto?
Yes. The Esperanto Wikipedia does contain well-written articles, but that does not mean all articles are well written. According to my experience, language quality in the Esperanto Wikipedia is mostly ...
12
votes
Accepted
Is there an ideal Esperanto congress for beginners?
There is Somera Esperanto Studado particularly interesting for beginners, as it has a focus on learning, courses in the morning, other stuff in the afternoon and evening.
Further more I'd recommend ...
12
votes
Accepted
Cursing and swearing in Esperanto
Swear words in any language are emotionally charged and are, as you say, highly intertwined with a language's culture. Some languages use religious imagery (Sweden: "jävlar!" Québécois French: "...
11
votes
Accepted
Where do people use Esperanto?
Esperanto can be found in many places.
Certainly people use Esperanto at Esperanto events and online, but it is also used in other places.
The Chinese government has an Esperanto news service and ...
11
votes
Where do people use Esperanto?
Where do people use Esperanto?
I have personally used it to move furniture around town, steer a boat, cook, talk about the best way to get back home and avoid the rain during a bicycle tour...
I ...
11
votes
Why some esperanto-speakers call others "samideano"?
It's a reference to "la interna ideo", which Zamenhof described like this: "La interna ideo of Esperanto, which is in no way obligatory for any individual Esperantist, but which [...] is and always ...
10
votes
Accepted
Is there an Esperanto publisher that I could buy books from?
There are a lot of bookshops and publishers from which you can order Esperanto books. Given that sending costs can depend on how far you live from the location of the bookshop of publisher, I will ...
10
votes
What is the purpose of the annual Universala Kongreso?
The Univerala Kongreso brings together the biggest number of Esperantists, including many of the most active and most experienced ones. It has a lot of program:
Organizational program: Major ...
10
votes
Did the writer George Orwell hate Esperanto, and why if it is the case?
It seems to be based on personal experience. Here are several links that give some background:
http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/orwell-esperanto1.html
http://www.englishlanguagefaqs.com/2013/06/...
10
votes
Are Vikipedio articles written using good Esperanto?
You can find a list of featured/good Wikipedia Esperanto articles down here
Featured articles (Elstaraj artikoloj)
Good articles (Legindaj artikoloj)
10
votes
Accepted
Is there an Esperanto Vikipedio meetup?
Yes, there are many Esperanto Wikipedia meetups. Those are usually organized as a part of Esperanto congresses, or sometimes, as a part of Wikimanias (e.g. https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/...
10
votes
Accepted
Is there a contemporary "Promeso", a promise to learn Esperanto if there is a certain number of prospective learners?
No, not to my knowledge.
In my opinion, the closest thing we have to such a count is the number of Esperanto learners on Duolingo: currently over 500,000 with over 1,000 new learners per day. With ...
10
votes
Accepted
Kiel pluramemo iĝis populara en Esperantio?
Mi pensas ke ĉiuj kiuj spertis la eŭropan junularan Esperanto-movadon dum la lastaj dek jaroj povas atesti ke pluramemuloj abundas kaj sufiĉe malfermas. Kaj ke estas kreskanta tendenco.
Se nia ...
10
votes
Accepted
Which is the longest book published in Esperanto?
Something like this is best answered by someone who works at an Esperanto library. I am not sure, but I can give you a list of contenders. I don't own these books, so I can only judge by the reported ...
9
votes
Accepted
How are the locations for the Universala Kongreso chosen?
The board of the Universala Esperanto-Asocio, UEA, is the specific organization that decides where the congress takes place. They make the decision based on proposals by local/national organizations. ...
9
votes
Accepted
What is a Gufujo and how is it different from a Kafejo?
A gufujo is a room at an international Esperanto (usually youth) meeting, in which various teas are served in a calm atmosphere during the evening and at night. It was invented as an alternative to a ...
9
votes
Ĉu ekzistas feminisma movado en Esperantujo?
Ekzistas grupo kiu nomiĝas Egalecen kaj ili multe aktivas pri feminismaj temoj. De ilia retpaĝo:
Ni estas kolektaĵo de Esperantistoj, kiuj celas blogi pri pluraneca feminismo en Esperanto. Ni ...
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