Esperanto arrived in Argentina in 1889. Currently, it is estimated that there are
8,000 speakers of this language in the country
, according to the Argentine Esperanto League.
That is, one in every 6,000 Argentines speaks it.
Young people are the most interested in learning it, since it takes less time to learn compared to English and offers its speakers the possibility of doing tourism in other countries at a lower cost.
An ideal option for traveling.
“I met Japanese, Chinese, Finns who speak Esperanto and it was quite nice to learn about their cultures.
Furthermore, when you learn a language you are always in inferior conditions with the natives, but
in Esperanto this is not the case because we all learn it
, for everyone it is secondary.
For all this I loved him so much,” says Silvia Rottenberg, president of the
Bonaera Esperanto-Asocio
(BEA), in Spanish the Buenos Aires Esperanto Association.
She learned the language in one of the courses they previously gave, which lasted 5 months, and now she is one of the promoters of this language.
She relates that Esperanto, a planned auxiliary language,
was born in 1887 and was created by the Polish Lázaro Ludovico Zamenhof
, as an alternative to promote peace and unite the world.
Zamenhof grew up in an environment where there were many problems and little understanding because people spoke four different languages: Polish, German, Lithuanian and Russian.
It is in this context that he decided to create Esperanto, seeking to make it the secondary language of the entire planet.
To gain followers, Esperanto presents itself as "
the easiest language in the world"
.
According to their publications, it is five times easier than English and French, and 10 times easier than German and Russian.
To support this data, they assure that the determining factor is that this language does not handle exceptions or complicated pronunciations, it is only governed by 16 rules in which the language revolves.
Map of Esperantists who offer free accommodation to people who speak this language.
“Esperanto is a logical and exact language in its rules, there are no exceptions.
It has 16 rules and once you understand that, you can learn vocabulary and speak it without any difficulty,” highlights Nicolás Chocobar, an Esperanto teacher and polyglot from Tucumán who knows more than nine languages.
He comments that he started learning it online and then perfected it at the BEA.
“My motivation is that it is a language that has
an international identity
, all languages have an identification with a country, Esperanto does not have that, it belongs to everyone.
“It has a special magic.”
Like him, Juan Manuel Fertino Igor, secretary of the BEA, says that he still learned Esperanto online, although in his case it was through the
Duolingo
application in 2022 and in 2023 he perfected it with a book.
“It's the first time I've learned a language simply for fun.
I have no obligation or need to learn it, I simply wanted to learn it.”
He highlights that knowing Esperanto gives many opportunities to get to know other countries and cultures.
Every year an international congress is held in a different country, in which Esperantists share with other people who speak this language.
Additionally, another benefit is the
servo passport
.
This is
a system created by the Argentine Rubén Feldman González in 1974
.
This network allows Esperantists to contact other speakers who offer
free accommodation
to those who communicate in this language.
The president of the BEA said that this system is very useful, since it allows them to get to know other countries and also have someone they trust in that nation.
She said that an example of her benefit is the story of a Frenchman who, using the
servo passport,
began to travel the world until he arrived in Argentina, fell in love and got married.
"It is an example of what can be done by knowing Esperanto."
To access this system you just have to go to their website, register and contact the people who offer accommodation.
The only requirement is that communication always be in Esperanto.
When reviewing the map offered by this website,
Clarín
was able to see that there are more than
30 countries with speakers who provide accommodation
, mostly in Europe.
Esperanto also has a door for those who love football, whose team was created by Jorge Montanari in 2014. Photo: Cleo Bouza
According to the information managed by the BEA, the Esperanto League of Argentina and other Esperanto associations in other countries, the number of speakers is around
2 million worldwide
.
In Argentina there are approximately 8,000 people who speak Esperanto, this is an estimate given that there are several who learn virtually, according to the president of the Esperanto League of Argentina, Gabriel Wagner.
He highlights that in the country classes are taught in several regions such as Rosario, Entre Ríos, Neuquén and Buenos Aires, but each one is independent in its organization.
Wagner highlights that in recent years they have noticed an increase in the interest of young people in learning this language, on average 25 years old.
"Across the world in general it is the interest of young people."
He mentions that one of the attractions of learning this language is the opportunity to go sightseeing at a lower cost with the
servo passport
.
In CABA, the Esperanto classes given by the BEA begin on March 5 for level 1. They will be two days a week, each class lasting one and a half hours.
And level two starts on March 8, but with only one weekly class.
It takes
20 weeks to learn the basic rules of Esperanto
and have basic conversational fluency, says Nicolás Chocobar.
Level 2 is to perfect everything learned.
On the other hand, the
Argentine Esperanto League
also offers courses, but with a duration of 6 months and fewer hours per week.
Esperanto is currently not an official language in any nation, but it was
recognized by international organizations such as UNESCO
.
Furthermore, Google incorporated it into its translator in 2012.
Esperanto also has a door for those who love football, since they have their team that competes in international matches in the NF-Board association.
This organization does not depend on FIFA and brings together teams that represent cultural identities, dialects and unrecognized movements.
The technical director of the Esperanto team is the Argentine Jorge Montanari, who put together the team in 2014.
P.S.