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From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Re: Languages in the EC
Message-ID: <elnaD45vM6.E28@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <3h5dv3$8sv@solar.sky.net> <3h826t$dv4@gabriel.keele.ac.uk> <DUNCAN.95Feb9174429@lightning.eee.strath.ac.uk> <RC85j7W.padrote@delphi.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 1995 20:30:05 GMT
Lines: 27
Sender: elna@netcom14.netcom.com

John <padrote@delphi.com> writes in a recent posting (reference <RC85j7W.padrote@delphi.com>):
>Duncan THOMSON <duncan@lightning.eee.strath.ac.uk> writes:
> 
>>Seems like my sojourn in Brasil where I used almost exclusively
>>Esperanto was all a dream then.  Damn nice one too... shame...
> 
>   My God, I could think of no more stultifying way to visit Brazil. Did you
>meet any shopkeepers who spoke Esperanto? Any waiters in restaurants? Could
>you use Esperant to bargain in street markets? To haggle with taxi drivers?
>Were you propositioned by any prostitutes? Did you hear any music in
>Esperanto? "La knabino impanemeno" perhaps. What a horrible thought.
>
I keep hoping that Mr. Thomson will tell a few stories of his visit....

I wonder why John thinks it is "stultifying" to visit people in another
country and talk with them in a neutral language.  I suspect that Duncan
got a much better experience of Brazilian life than he would have by
travelling in the normal English-language-tourist fashion. How many Americans
or British actually have a chance to hang out and talk about politics, or
art, or [insert your favourite topic here] with people they meet in other
countries? Duncan uses Esperanto to overcome the language barrier and you
call it "stultifying"-- I wonder how your picture of the visit in question
matches up with what actually happened.....

Miko.

 
