Full Name: Amanda Lynn Higley   Address (City, Country): Carmichael (Sacramento), California, U.S.A.   Age: 24   Nationality: American   Profession: Before the trip: Temporary Secretary After the trip: Who knows?

When and how did you get interested in Esperanto?

One day in my 3rd year of college, I happened across an introductory Esperanto course in the extracurricular course list. I didn't know anything about the language, but it sounded interesting, so I signed up. The more I learned about the ideals of the language, the more I liked it. And the language worked like a puzzle, logical and neat, which made learning it more fun than work. After that I went to an international 3-week intensive Esperanto course in San Francisco during my summer vacation, for 3 summers in a row, and after I graduated from college I started using it to travel around Europe, which I've been doing for the past 14 months.

Why do you consider Esperanto important?

Two reasons. First, its theory: that the people of the world should have an easy to learn international language that doesn't belong to any country, so it's neutral. That way nobody has an advantage because they were born in a country that speaks the internationally used national language (which currently is English, though a century ago it was French, and before that Latin...and maybe in the next century it'll be Spanish or Chinese!). And nobody has to study a national language they don't like just because they need it for their career.

Second, for practical reasons, it's very important to me personally. Thanks to Esperanto I've explored Europe alone for months, meeting hundreds of friendly locals who have taught me about their cultures from an insider's perspective. The whole time I've stayed with Esperanto speakers who are listed in a host address list called 'Pasporta Servo', and it doesn't cost anything; I stay with them for free. I've also participated in many international Esperanto youth conferences in Europe, where I've met lots of interesting people and made good friends from all over the world. Esperanto been an amazing bridge to other cultures for me.

Do you see any particular importance in Esperanto for teens and young people?

If they don't like being forced to learn English and want the world to use a neutral language instead, they have the ability to change that. Young people have a lot more power to change the world than the rest of society because they're full of ideas and hope, and they have their whole lives to make their ideas become reality. Just imagine, if all the young people in the world refused to learn English and demanded to learn Esperanto instead, the change could happen overnight.

Does it bring people closer together?

Yes, unquestionably. The loving, tolerant, friendly atmosphere among Esperanto speakers is like nothing else I've ever experienced, and it's what keeps lots of us coming to the Esperanto meetings again and again. I'll give you two illustrations of the difference between the closeness of Esperanto speakers and the distance of English speakers.

One time I was at an Esperanto youth discussion seminar that shared a building with another international group which communicated in English and French. While we became a very close group of friends, the other group was always in little cliques of French-speakers, English-speakers and Italian-speakers who didn't mix very much. Also, several of them didn't speak either 'working' language as their native tongue, and only used English or French when they were forced to, and then made lots of mistakes and could only communicate the basics. It was such a huge contrast to the equality and great atmosphere of the communication in our group! For example, during the last night we were all so sad to leave each other that we made a big 'ungoodbye' circle with our arms around each other and sang songs and swayed for a long time. The atmosphere between us was like that of old friends even though we'd known each other for just one week.

Another example: one day when I was visiting my distant german cousins I went with my cousin to meet some English-speaking friends of hers at a cafe, who she wanted me to meet because they're fluent. Although their English was very good, they were very cold and unfriendly. I had to work hard to think of things to chat about with these untalkative people. Shortly afterwards, desperate to have a conversation with someone who would be interested in me, I went to visit an Esperanto-speaker who lived in the area. From the first moment I met her, we were so interested in learning about each other that we talked enthusiastically non-stop for about 3 hours! I realized then that without the network of caring, friendly Esperantists, I would have quickly been very lonely on my trip, and probably would've gone home after just a month. In general, Esperanto speakers are unusually helpful, welcoming, loving and unselfish. And that's something I don't find in the average English-speaker on the street.

What are some advantages for young people who learn Esperanto?

The biggest advantage is the kind of travelling I'm doing. Adventurous young people who want to travel for very little money, decide where to go spontaneously, and make friends from across the world will find nothing else as useful as this list of Esperanto speaking hosts on the entire travel market.

If they don't have time or money for extended travelling, during school vacations there are lots of Esperanto youth meetings they can go to make international friends and be part of the incredible atmosphere. Germans are especially lucky, since every winter after Christmas the German Esperanto Youth Organization puts on a week-long party in a different youth hostel every year. (This winter it was in Wetzlar, and I went for the first time. It was the best atmosphere of all the Esperanto meetings I've been to, by far. With young people from all over Europe and a few from other continents, I partied by night and attended lectures, dance classes and concerts by day.) During the summer, there are similar meetings all over Europe, but if they can't travel at all, they can exchange letters with correspondents from around the world on an equal linguistic basis.

Why as a native speaker of English do you feel it necessary to speak Esperanto, when English is considered a common language in the world and you can get around almost everywhere with it?

You're right, I could get around with English. But only just get around with it. It certainly doesn't help me make contacts with the locals, in fact it makes that harder because they stereotype me as a typical American tourist when I speak English. Yes, I can almost always find people in big cities who can help me find something I'm looking for, or sell me a train ticket, but that's it. They usually aren't interested in having a conversation. I certainly have a big advantage in tourist offices, of course; brochures and guided tours are almost always offered in my native language. I'm just lucky I wasn't born Hungarian, Namibian or Vietnamese, because then I'd have to struggle to understand a guided tour or brochures in a foreign language. Besides, of all the English-speaking europeans I've met during my trip, about 1 in 10 speaks the language as well as a native speaker. The others make themselves understood, but they still seem a bit less intelligent than they are. I hate that, and instead of using English when I need to ask questions, I always try to use the few words I know of the local language.

Fortunately I have Esperanto. Thanks to it, I always have local contacts that I live with, who go out of their way to help me with all my logistical arrangements, help me decide what to visit, and translate for me whenever I need it. I eat with them, see how they live, talk with them about their culture, their opinions and their local perspective, communicating with them in a language we both had to learn, so we feel equal. I learn about the places I visit from the inside, without making them speak my language or vice versa.

English is just fine for English-speakers who make short, touristy trips and see only the surface of the culture. But for those of us who don't like using the language of imperialism to make contacts with the locals, Esperanto is a necessary solution.

Do you know if there are there lots of people in the English-speaking world who speak Esperanto?

In Britain, yes. In America, no. In Britain, the Esperanto-speakers are very active and have one of the highest numbers of Esperanto host families in my address list. In the U.S., most people have never heard of Esperanto, and the majority of Americans don't speak any foreign language anyway. In a country where kids only have to learn 2 or 3 years of one foreign language, usually starting when they're 14 or 15, most people end up thinking they're bad at languages. And they also hardly ever need foreign languages, since everywhere they travel (usually major cities where the hotels, luxurious restaurants and tourist offices all cater to rich English-speakers), they get the impression that everyone speaks English. Anyone who's tried to use English to get around in rural Hungary knows better.

Do you have friends who speak Esperanto?

I have made most of my friends through Esperanto. I have friends from Hungary, Germany, France, Belgium, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, England, Argentina, Scotland, Serbia, and the Netherlands. Only one of my 4 closest friends in the U.S. speaks Esperanto, and she learned it before I did, which I found out by coincidence when she mentioned it one day. She had even participated in the 3-week San Francisco State University Intensive Esperanto Summer Course, which I decided to do with her during the three following summers. Before Esperanto, we were just acquaintances, but through Esperanto we became close friends. Since our friendship developed in Esperanto, it's weird to speak English with her, and she's actually nicer when she speaks Esperanto. I think I'm the same way. Somehow Esperanto manages to make us more tolerant, patient and unselfish.

What then is the advantage of Esperanto over English?

Esperanto is about 10 times easier to learn, for one thing. Second, it doesn't have cultural ties to any country, and it doesn't represent an imperialistic history, like English, Spanish and French do, for all of their past colonies. English, right now, is the language of American economic domination, the language of Coca Cola, Microsoft, McDonalds, and Hollywood. For a lot of people across the world, for example in many Islamic countries, America is very impopular, to say the least, thanks to its politics. And so of course, the language of the Americans is also disliked. Languages carry a lot of cultural baggage.

And third, English has lots of dialects and accents: 'Oxford' English, Irish, Scottish, Australian, New Zealand, South African, Northeastern U.S., Southern U.S., Western U.S....take your pick! And we don't always understand each other. Put me in a room with an Irishman and I'll soon start calling for a translator. For example, in Britain, 'rubber' means the thing at the end of a pencil, and in America it's slang for 'condom'! That's funny, but in business, that kind of misunderstanding can create embarrassing situations that can make a bad impression. People who learn English as a second language have to be incredibly well-educated and lucky to avoid those kinds of mistakes. But in Esperanto, there is a universally used 'international' pronounciation which most people succeed in learning, and the vocabulary and expressions used are the same all across the world.

Is Esperanto difficult to learn? How long, on average, does it take to learn Esperanto?

Esperanto doesn't have any conjugations or gendered nouns. That cuts learning time in half compared to French, Spanish, or German. It's also a phonetic language: what you hear, you automatically know how to spell, and what you read, you know how to pronounce, with no exceptions. That makes it about 10 times easier than English pronounciation. And because you can create words by putting prefixes, affixes and suffixes onto your small list of word roots, you don't need to memorize nearly as much vocabulary as in any other language.

Learning time varies, depending on how much opportunity you get to practice the language. Some people who are good at learning languages and often go to Esperanto meetings learn Esperanto in 6 months; others don't really try hard to learn it, and stay beginners for 5 years or forever. But most young people learn it within a year or two, I'd say. I got fairly fluent in Esperanto in 9 weeks (spread over 3 summers, 3 weeks each summer.)

Is it odd speaking an "artificial" language?

I have to admit my Esperanto friends and I had a good laugh about the strange idea that speaking Esperanto would feel unnatural. No, it feels the same as when I speak my native language, only more fun. I love speaking Esperanto as much or more than I do English. I certainly enjoy pronouncing Esperanto more, since I think it sounds much more beautiful than my American English.

Do you speak any other languages besides English and Esperanto? If yes, how does learning and speaking Esperanto compare to the other languages you have learned? Is there a difference in the way you learn it or any other differences you noticed learning and/or speaking it than with learning/speaking a non-"artificial" language?

Yes, I speak French, but nowhere near as well as I speak Esperanto. I studied it for 3 years in high school, which was too short to achieve fluency, but when I came to France last April I remembered a lot of it. But I still feel very self-conscious speaking it, because there are so many things to mess up: congugations, gendered nouns, tu and vous, plus a huge vocabulary. Esperanto is so much easier and more fun to speak because I don't have to worry about all that unnecessary grammar. And besides, Esperanto speakers are so tolerant and patient with beginners! They all had to go through that phase themselves, so they understand. Native French speakers, on the other hand, don't remember what it was like learning French because they learned it when they were babies, and they're understandably less tolerant. Any native speaker is like that; they can't help it.

One of the main differences between learning French and Esperanto is that in Esperanto I learned the basic grammar and vocabulary very quickly and within a week of being immersed in an Esperanto-speaking medium I began having simple conversations, while in French I'm at that level right now, after 3 years of studying and 3 months of using it in France. In Esperanto you jump right away to being able to speak, and that is absolutely exhilarating. It was the most incredible feeling to have for the first time a real, deep conversation in another language, which I had never experienced (and still haven't, really) in French.

How has Esperanto changed your life?

To make a long story short, before I got into Esperanto my life was a lot less interesting. I've become more internationally-minded, more culturally aware, more educated about other countries, more open, more self-appreciative and I have a lot more friends than I did before Esperanto. That's mostly because I've been able to realize my dream of travelling, for a lot longer and more profoundly than if I were staying in youth hostels the way American students usually travel. I've become a different person thanks to this trip and Esperanto, and I like myself a lot better now. And most of all, my ideas about what I want to do with my life, and what profession I want to have, have flowed endlessly during this trip. My direction in life has totally changed.

What kind of activities are out there for Esperantists (travel opportunities, schools, camps etc)?

There are local, regional, national and international activities of all kinds, but the best ones for young people are the Pasporta Servo (the host address list that I'm using for my trip) and the international meetings every summer. For instance, this July in Finland there's going to be a cultural festival, with theater, dance, music and other arts performed in Esperanto, and in Belgium there will be a seminar for environmentalists about organic composting, as well as youth meetings in Hungary and Scotland in August. Also every year the World Esperanto Youth Organization puts on the International Youth Congress, which this year is in Hong Kong, and a small intensified discussion seminar at the Council of Europe Youth Center, where 30 youths from all over the world spend a week discussing an important world problem.

What kind of literature is there? Are there novels or newspapers/magazines written in Esperanto? Is literature from other languages translated into Esperanto? Can you read, say, the Bible in Esperanto? Or Charlie Brown? Or Shakespeare?

Yes, all of those, except maybe Charlie Brown; I'm not sure if anyone's translated that yet (maybe I should!). The first book I read in Esperanto was The Neverending Story, which I had never read in English. I've also read french Asterix comics, hungarian poetry, and the Bible in Esperanto (which was translated from the original hebrew and reveals lots of mistranslations in the English Bible!) There are hundreds of magazines in Esperanto, for diverse interests and ages, and also lots of original literature in Esperanto exists, including everything from prize-winning poetry and fiction to steamy novels and comic books.

What is your favorite Esperanto-related literature or activity? There's a really great rock group that's become legendary among young esperantists, and my absolutely favorite thing is to be in a crowd when they're singing. The atmosphere is incredible. Everybody sings along and shouts the refrains and dances and laughs and sways with their arms around each other....it's like nothing else anywhere. Just say the word 'Amplifiki' to any esperantist who's been to one of their concerts, and you'll get a glowing response.   Is there such a thing as songs in Esperanto? Pop music translated? The songs of Madonna or the Back Street Boys in Esperanto? Songs in Esperanto, yes, by the hundreds. There are dozens of CD's available of music in Esperanto: renaissance chamber singing, hard rock, french chansons, original esperanto folk music, you name it. Translated pop music, no, not Madonna or the Back Street Boys, (are those translated into German?) but lots of common guitar songs from around the world have been translated, like Bob Dylan, Irish whistle songs or American gospel. And lots of classical sung music is translated into Esperanto: Mozart, Beethoven, etc.

Can you recommend some good Esperanto web sites for people who are interested in learning the language?

The best place to start out is www.esperanto.net. You can choose whatever language you want and it hooks you up with lots of useful links, like to the webpage of the German Esperanto Youth Organization. There's also a webpage in many languages for the host list I use, 'Pasporta Servo'. Or just type the word 'esperanto' in any web browser and you'll get more web pages than you could possibly imagine.

Please greet our Spot On readers in Esperanto and explain what you said in English.

Koran saluton al vi, kaj gratulon ke vi sukcesis kompreni min en mia malfacila angla lingvo. Espereble vi baldau lernos Esperanton kaj tiam ni povos komuniki pli facile kaj egale!

[Note: the reporter recorded me saying this over the telephone, and the readers could call in to hear my voice and pronounciation. In the magazine they asked the kids to see if they could guess what it means, and printed the following translation on another page upside down as the solution to the quiz. To hear the recording (during June and July only), call this phone number in Munich, Germany: (00 49) 89 8568 1313]

A heartfelt hello to you, and congratulations that you managed to understand me in my difficult english language. Hopefully you'll soon learn Esperanto and then we'll be able to communicate more easily and equally!

Please give a brief (sentence or two) history of the language.

About 100 years ago a man who grew up in a lot of ethnic conflict wanted to help cultures reach understanding and international cooperation, so he successfully created a carefully constructed neutral second language to get rid of the language barrier. His dream of making everyone in the world speak Esperanto as well as their native language was mostly ignored or suppressed by the world's powerful governments, but after he died, people continued to speak and promote the language despite prosecution and discouragement, and Esperanto has become the most widely spoken artificial language ever created, currently with about 2 million speakers.