Gathering dust: Esperanto
On Saturdays I rummage through my old cabinet, pull out and dust off an item, and present it here on Roots. Today: Two Esperanto certificates of Th.J.G.A. Pardoen (1914-1978).
Esperanto is an artificial language created in the late 19th century. The intention of the creator of this language was that everyone would learn Esperanto as a second language so that all people could converse with each other, thus promoting mutual understanding and, ultimately, world peace.
My (maternal) grandparents and several of my grandmother's siblings subscribed to this idea, and promoted world peace by learning Esperanto. They took Esperanto classes, and went to events where they could meet other Esperanto speakers.
According to my mother, my grandparents occasionally spoke Esperanto at the dining table, but it is unclear whether they discussed things their children were not supposed to understand or they were just practising.
Below are two course certificates that prove my grandfather attended Esperanto courses in the 1930s.
File: Theodorus Joannes Gerardus Adrianus Pardoen
Labels: esperanto, gathering dust, pardoen
By Henk van Kampen on 10 April 2010
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4 Comments:
For the present, dust-free state of the language, you may take a look at http://www.uea.org/info/angla.html
How good to see these Esperanto certificates. Esperanto continues to attract young idealists, and it has a steady, slowly growing speaker population.
The second certificate is the most interesting. The Cseh method was a way of teaching Esperanto by the direct method, i.e. not going through the mother tongue.
It must be good to find such old documents. Esperanto is still well alive, especially on the Internet. My favorite site to learn about the language is http://www.lernu.net
Certe bonas trovi tiajn malnovajn dokumentojn. Esperanto ankoraŭ bone vivas, aparte en Interreto. Mia plej ŝatata retejo por lerni pri Esperanto estas http://www.lernu.net
I learnt esperanto as a teenager and I have been to your country several times and used always esperanto.
First time I came your street-telephone even had instructions in esperanto how to call my friends when I arrived.
Many years later a not to close relative called my mother and asked: Anybody speaking esperanto?
She found in the attic a dusty box not touched since
1932, books between 1898-1912.
This was a goldmine for me.
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