Esperanto survival kit

About this kit

Esperanto is a constructed language created by Polish physician Ludwik Zamenhof in 1887. Designed as a universal auxiliary language, it is now spoken by several hundred thousand people worldwide, with an active community on every continent. Its 100% regular grammar and phonetic alphabet make it the fastest language to learn. With this kit, you have the bare minimum to get by at a world congress, a Pasporta Servo stay, or an Esperanto meeting.

Esperanto was born in 1887 from the pen of Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, a Polish Jewish ophthalmologist born in Bialystok, a multicultural city torn by linguistic conflicts. His ambition was to create a neutral auxiliary language, easy to learn, capable of serving as a bridge between all peoples without favouring any. More than a century later, Esperanto remains by far the most successful constructed language in the world, with speakers on every continent and estimates ranging from a few hundred thousand to two million practitioners. Its grammar fits into sixteen rules with no exceptions: nouns end in -o, adjectives in -a, verbs in -as in the present, -is in the past, -os in the future. The 28-letter alphabet includes six letters with accents (ĉ, ĝ, ĥ, ĵ, ŝ, ŭ) and each letter is pronounced in one way only. This phonetic regularity allows beginners to read correctly from the first day. The Esperanto movement is structured around the Universala Esperanto-Asocio, the annual world congress and countless local clubs. The Pasporta Servo network offers home hospitality around the world reserved for Esperantists. On the spot, you will discover a tightly-knit international community, a rich original and translated literature, radio shows, podcasts and even songs. This kit gathers the bare essentials to handle an arrival at a congress, a taxi ride, a restaurant order, an emergency and a smooth departure. Memorize these expressions and you will already have the basics to take part in an Esperanto meeting anywhere in the world.