Re. English skills, Denmark came third!

According to this report from a private language school: Denmark is the 3^rd most successful nation in the world as far as English skills are concerned. Congratulations to Norway , who came 1^st and to the Netherlands. who came 2^nd.

How did our neighbouring countries perform? Sweden was 4^th, Germany 8^th and Poland 10^th...

26^th July 2012 was the 125^th anniversary of the publication of the first Esperanto textbook, whose author was Ludoviko Zamenhof. To commemorate this event Esperanto associations in many countries have staged or are staging various events.

For example in Poland an Esperanto Conference and Exhibition: "125-years of Esperanto" has been on view in the Polish Senate since the 17th of October. The following film includes information about the foundation of the Parliamentary Group for the support Esperanto in the Polish Parliament. There is also an interview with the Esperantist business man and philanthropist Etsuo Miyoshi.

Three vice-presidents of the Polish Sejm (lower house of Polish parliament) and senate, a number of M.P.s, the cultural attaché of the Japanese Embassy in Warsaw, journalists and several esperantists from four other countries, in all seventy participants attended the inauguration ceremony which you can see part of in  this
                                                                   Film

Esperanto Forening for Danmark will also  celebrate the occasion at the annual Danish book fair taking place at Bella Center. http://www.bogforum.dk/

You can read further information in Danish here. https://www.facebook.com/events/327251034040173/HERE

What do you do with 'send-ons'?

Everybody gets send-ons. Whether we delete them or send them on is a question of taste and temperament. For fear of causing too many virtual traffic jams I prefer to blog them. 

A friend sent me the following, which  illustrates that:

British  Humour is Different...

  
  

 These are classified ads,  which were actually placed in U.K. Newspapers:     

FREE YORKSHIRE  TERRIER.8 years old,
Hateful  little bastard. Bites!

 FREE  PUPPIES

                    1/2 Cocker Spaniel, 1/2 sneaky neighbour's  dog.

  FREE  PUPPIES.Mother is a Kennel Club  registered German  Shepherd.
Father is a Super Dog,  able to leap tall fences in a single bound.

COWS, CALVES: NEVER  BRED.Also 1 gay bull for  sale.

JOINING NUDIST  COLONY!
Must sell washer and  dryer £100.

WEDDING  DRESS FOR SALE .Worn once by  mistake.
Call Stephanie.

**** And the WINNER is...  ****

FOR SALE BY  OWNER.Complete set of  Encyclopaedia Britannica, 45 volumes.

Excellent condition, £200  or best offer. No longer needed, got married, wife knows  everything.

Statement  of the Century   

Thought from the Greatest  Living Scottish Thinker--Billy Connolly. "If women are so bloody  perfect at multitasking,   How come they can't have a  headache and sex at the same time?"  

Literature on-line

Facebook is a mixed blessing! On the one hand all those up-dates and improvements (?) are well-meant, but very confusing. On the other hand it helps me keep tags on my family, friends and acquaintances. Apart from that  it is brilliant soapbox and I appreciate  all useful information churned out by other people.

Sometimes I go off-line. For example today I read a report in Danish magazine about electronic readers and their lack of appeal in Denmark.  According to the journalist,  this is likely to change in the next few years, when both publishers and the general public catch up with trends in other parts of the world.

There are many advantages.

An electronic reader weighing less than a kilogram can contain a whole library.

No more books that sit on  shelves gathering dust.

When you move house there is less to pack and carry.

Easier on the eyes, because texts can be magnified

Many texts can be down-loaded free of charge.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Certainly if you shudder at the idea of not being able to turn a page you will probably disagree with me,  but an electronic reader isdefinitely on my shopping list.

However back to square one; Facebook.

Today one of my  friends/contacts posted this link, which took me to

 an on-line, free of charge and  recent Esperanto translation of the short story 'The Overcoat' by the 19^th century Ukranian born writer Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

So instead of doing a few tedious jobs I spent half an hour reading it from beginning to end. 

 It is the gripping life-story of a respectable and conscientious clerk,  who although appreciated by nobody, has his hour of glory and then loses everything. Only after his death is justice done. Although it is an intrinsically sad story, Gogol tells the story in an ironically humourous way.

You can find an English translation here. 

If you are wondering why anybody would want to  read it in Esperanto, when they could read it in an English translation, please consider the following.

Accordingto this report from 2000, 17.65% of the world's population speaks English.

Flabbergasting Interest.

I started learning Esperanto in January 2005.

This  new interest flabbergasted most of my friends, who, amongst other things, said:

'What's that?'

' Oh, Esperanto? My granny used to dabble in that.'

'Why Esperanto? Why not Klingon ? You would get much more out of Star Wars.

'Oh no! Have you become an esperantist? I met one of those once......'*

'Why bother learning a language that nobody speaks? It's dead, didn't you know that?'

' Do you mean, you can actually speak it?'

'Stop wasting your time! English is your native language and everybody speaks English!'

'It must be ever so difficult.'

'Couldn't be bothered with that; it hasn't got a culture.'

I too was flabbergasted; why make wild assertions instead of asking relevant questions? These reactions irritated me and I wanted to prove them wrong. What is more even after a few months of studying Esperanto I had discovered that it is alive, it is relatively easy to learn, it is much more useful than Klingon, it has got a culture and it is fun.

 With regard to the universality of English and Esperanto speaking bores:

 English is not as universal as most people think. 

All kinds of people choose to learn Esperanto and some of us end up exasperating our friends; sorry we are only human.

Before Television and Internet took over our lives people used to join clubs and other cultural associations. Nowadays for many of us our social network functions on-line. This naturally also applies to esperantists,

Generally speaking the internet has given a considerable boost to the language, community and movement. This site provides up to date information about Esperanto in the modern world and how you could set about learning it – on-line and free of charge.

Music.

The following is a Catalonian folksong translated to Esperanto. Birdeto mia means my little bird.

My surroundings

I live in Denmark. Here's a statue of Hans-Christian Andersen.

Danish fast-food; hot-dogs.

Why bother to blog?

I scrapped my last English blog, only because it fell foul of a virus. Whom to blame? An unidentified evil genius with a dubious sense of humour, or myself?  Probably the latter, as I do tend to get carried away by widgets and other digital temptations. Anyway, as my true friends and followers decided it was too risky to go on reading my page, I deleted it.

No doubt, if I had had the patience to wade through blogs with incomprehensible (for me at least) I might have resucued it. However I reasoned, , it only takes a couple of minutes to create a new page, so why bother? Two years on, I have found the time to spend a few minutes to create this one. No more weird and wonderful widgets for me. Instead I will get down to the nitty-gritty and start blogging.

Why do WE bother to blog?

This not just a rhetorical question; please feel free to comment.

I blog because:

I find the written word more pleasing than the spoken.

I should like to tell people about the people and things that interest me.

Life can be confusing and it helps me (at least) to sort it out on paper – sorry- on my computer screen.

Speakers Corner in Hyde Park used to be one of my favourite places to be. Although I never dared to jump on a soapbox myself. Blogging is much more convenient: no risk of getting soaked to the skin, hecklers are less of a problem and if you make a mistake, you can always delete it, before anybody else notices it. Check this out other people have already got the idea.

Am I writing this blog because I want to save the world?  NO! With my 70th birthday pending, I'm beyond harbouring  delusions.

Blogging is fun.

What interests me?

Languages especially Esperanto.

Current events.

Music especially songs.

People in general.

My surroundings;

 for example this view from my balcony. 26th September 2011.