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From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Re: Eurocentrism redux
Message-ID: <elnaE6K26B.3vu@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <853605030.2652@dejanews.com> <7fiv3e51ay.fsf@phoenix.cs.hku.hk> <elnaE6Bt8D.MCM@netcom.com> <7fohd2w9sz.fsf_-_@phoenix.cs.hku.hk>
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 05:34:59 GMT
Lines: 34
Sender: elna@netcom6.netcom.com

sdlee@cs.hku.hk (Lee Sau Dan ~{@nJX6X~}) writes in a recent posting (reference <7fohd2w9sz.fsf_-_@phoenix.cs.hku.hk>):
>
>Well... Can you successfully buy the Chinese herb that you want from a
>Chinese  herb shop?  Do you  know the 24 annual  events on the Chinese
>calendar  which are essential  to farmers  in  China? Do you  know the
>significance of  the names of these  24 events?  Can you enjoy Chinese
>word games and  riddles based on  the structure of Chinese characters?
>...
Mr Lee, I sincerely hope you write a series of articles for "El popola 
cxinio" on these (and other) subjects! Although your statement 
isinuates that one cannot know such things by means of a neutral language,
and that one would need to study Chinese languages to find this kind of
insight into Chinese cultures, I respectfully disagree.
And since Hong Kong is about to return to Chinese administration, the
Esperanto channels available to you will *greatly* increase on July 1.
If you would but decide to use Esperanto to help educate "gaijin" (is 
there a similar word in Cantonese?) about your profound culture, rather
than merely complaining about its unfairness, we would *all* benefit!


>Yes,  you can learn  many things through  Esperanto, but you also miss
>many things in this way.  You know, translation is always lossy.
                                                           ^^^^^  
I do not know whether this is a funny error, or a profound pun!!>
>
Either way, I find it noteworthy that your command of Esperanto is
significantly better than that of English....


-- 
Miko SLOPER              elna@netcom.com              USA  (510) 653 0998
Direktoro de la          ftp.netcom.com:/pub/el/elna   fax (510) 653 1468 
Centra Oficejo de la     Learn Esperanto! Free lessons: e-mail/snail-mail
Esperanto-Ligo de N.A.   Write to above address or call:  1-800-ESPERANTO
