2004 sep - The resources available for learning Esperanto online have
vastly improved over the years. Perhaps my class will become obsolete? :)
But seriously, while the online resources are adequate
for learning to read and write the language, they are not capable of
teaching you to speak nor for practicing
conversational skills.
Nevertheless, here's what i
can recommend.
- Textbook:
The RICHARDSON textbook is back in
print and i will be bringing copies of the book to the first class so you
can buy them. But if you want an alternative, you can use my own web pages
as a textbook. I don't have any fantasy that this is adequate, but i
don't think it's totally unreasonable as a first step.
- Online Dictionaries:
I would really prefer that you acquire the BUTLER dictionary (which is
still in print and easily available) because it is
the "bible", the "Cadillac", the "Esperanto" :) of dictionaries for
Esperanto to English (despite its age).
Nevertheless, for those who want to be totally paper-free, there are
some ranslation resources on the 'net. Unfortunately, the best of these is
not anywhere near as good as the "not very comprehensive" WELLS dictionary
listed on the materials page. I believe the 'net
dictionaries will get better, but they are not really very good yet.
Nevertheless, as a public service, here are some Esperanto resources (in
the order of their value, in my opinion).
- ReVo (Reta
Vortaro)
This online dictionary has the most promise, despite the primitive look
and methodology at
this time. It starts in Esperanto, so just put a word to search for in
the first box and press "Trovu", which means "find it". Once you search
for a word it should become clearer how to use this dictionary. It's easy
to get lost, so just click back here to restart. (2004 sep 27 - There is a
new
collaborative dictionary in progress at VikiVortaro
which is a "wiki" website. As i write this there are only 154
words in it and the interface is ridiculously complicated. But i expect
this to improve tremendously over time.)
- Picture Dictionary
This is a dictionary all in Esperanto (although some definitions have the
word translated into 9 national languages) but with pictures! So, if
you don't know what to do when you get there, simply click on a letter and
then a word and you'll get a picture. Not comprehensive, but
understandable.
- Travlang
Travlang has great resources in many languages. This dictionary is not
very complete, but the workings are much better than ReVo. On the other
hand, they don't seem to be putting any effort into it to improve it.
- Traduku This
is a web version of the dictionary of words from the RICHARDSON textbook,
but this web version goes from English to Esperanto AND back.
Nevertheless,
it's pretty limited and i don't believe the webmaster is
working to
increase the capabilities.
- EOXX Interesting translator of sentences. It's very
simple, but may be useful.
- DMOZ
The DMOZ project is great. There are lots of Esperanto to other
non-English language dictionaries listed here.
- Specialized
Dictionaries This is another DMOZ list of specialist wordlists:
astronomy, botanical, Go (the game), etc.
- Shhh... here's a silly list of taboo words.
- Homework:
Just send me, Stanford (@Esperanto.Org), your
homework
in e-mail EVERY day. Of course, you take vacations and so do i. I won't
respond EVERY time. But if you want to learn the language you can't let 2
days, in a row, go by without losing ground. (After your first year you'll
be able to lighten up.)
- Reading Material:
If you come to the class and don't have access
to the 'net, then please ask for some reading material that i can loan to
you.
I have marked some things "easy" because
they are familiar to you as readers of English. That doesn't mean the
Esperanto in the reading is easy, just that you might have access to an
English copy and therefore some reference for figuring out what the
Esperanto is. (On the other hand, i, for one, don't usually read English
works in Esperanto. Why should i? I already know English and can read the
original. I prefer to read works originally written in Esperanto and/or
works from other languages where they must be translated anyway. Why not
read an Esperanto translation rather than an English one? There's almost
no way to know which translation is "better", since i only know English
and Esperanto, so i always feel that if someone from that culture bothered
to translate it to Esperanto, then they would at least have some passion
in their translation. Obviously, that is not necessarily the case, but for
lack of a reviewer's notes, i still prefer reading it in Esperanto.)
Here are some ideas:
- Gerda Malaperis - This is a
teaching tool that has been graciously released into the public domain by
its author Claude PIRON. It is a "Mystery" story that uses easy vocabulary
and grammar in the beginning and then progressively gets more difficult.
We will be reading this in class after the lessons run out. This is listed
as "intermediate"
by every source i've seen, but frankly, i believe it is "easy" and then
progresses to "intermediate" by the middle (i have yet to finish it -
don't tell me how it turns out! :). - Don't forget to look at the
dictionary file that accompanies the text. It has definitions for each of
the words used, by chapter.
- Marked "easy" by it's publisher - i'm not so sure.
Please let me know what YOU think. Karlo by
Edmond PRIVAT (local copy
in case the
first
link disappears)
- Don HARLOW's Esperanto Literature index. Just the
index, which is in English and Esperanto, is worth reading by beginners.
Intermediate students may find something that piques your interest there.
- Analects of Confucius - just the beginning, but if
you have a copy in your own language, it might be a good beginning choice.
(local
copy)
- "Proverbs" -
This is a nifty
proverb server in Esperanto. They're not easy, but they're short. :) Try
to figure one out. If you don't like that one, just hit the "Montru
hazardan proverbon" link and it will give you another.
- Murder on
the Orient Express - i haven't even looked at the file, so tell
me if this is busted. It's in PDF format so you'll need Adobe Acrobat
Reader to view it. And it's LARGE, over 400k!
(local
copy)
- Samumo - "Drama in the Desert" by
Julio BAGHY, a famous Esperantist-writer. I have no clue about this one at
all. Let me know what level i should list it at.
(local
copy)
- Online Courses:
There is now a considerable amount of effort going into online
courses.
For example, i
have heard only good reports about lernu.net.
So,
if you
can't come to my classes and/or want to supplement the class, please check
out the online courses at the bottom of the Super Site Map.
Just a note about copyrights: There are many items listed
above that i
have "stolen" and made available here. Why? Simple paranoia. Everything
was freely available on the 'net and i give the link to the original
first.
I have taken copies
of
some of
them and made a second, local copy available only because i am afraid that
they might vanish from the 'net, as things seem to do. If any copyright
holder has a problem with that, please contact me directly.
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