Vojaĝoj en Esperantujo (journeys in Esperantoland)
Today, I leave my hosts in Maastricht and head to Utrecht. There, I am staying on the couch of an Esperanto speaker I found on Pasporta Servo. For those of you not in the know, Esperanto is an constructed (invented, artificial) language from the late 19th century that is meant to be a neutral international common language. In practice, English serves this role in the EU now; the advantage of Eperanto is that it is not anybody’s native language, so everyone is on equal footing, and it is significantly easier to learn than any natural language (no irregularities, but lots of idiosyncrasies). I wouldn’t say that it is easier to master than any other language, but it is very easy to reach basic proficiency. Because the grammar is simple and regular, learning the language is pretty much all about vocabulary. The genius (and the creator, Zamenhof, figured this out by trial and error) is that words are derived from one another according to their meaning. For example, “bona” means “good” and “malbona” means “bad”.
The Pasporta Servo (“Passport Service”) is a couch surfing association dating back to the 1970s, when it was published as a small directory of Esperantists who were willing to host travellers. The one rule is “ne krokodilu”, that is, you must speak in Esperanto, even if you have some other language in common. I’m looking forward to it—couch surfing has a distinct advantage over hostels: it’s free!
I plan to stay in Utrecht tonight and maybe tomorrow, then head to Amsterdam. I’d also like to go to Rotterdam at some point, but that may have to wait for another trip. I am planning to be in Lausanne, Switzerland next Friday, and I’ll stay there at least a few days. In the meantime, I’d love to see what else the Netherlands has to offer. Then, on a recommendation from Cíara, I’m planning to go to Bonn, then Strasbourg in Alsace, then on to Lausanne. From Lausanne, I’m planning to go to Italy, which I will cover very, very thoroughly. I got a full breakdown from one of Cíara’s class mates about where to go in Italy. Eventually, I’ll work my way down to Rome.
Being “abroad” is a curious experience. Where is my home? Certainly I feel as “at home” here, despite not speaking the language, as I do in the US. In fact, in many ways, Maastricht was more comfortable than Evanston. Those of you who know me might know that I am an absolutely terrible driver, and, as I tell anyone who will listen, walkability is one of my main desiderata in a place to live (I got myself into a tangle with that sentence, didn’t I?). The Netherlands, of course, is the only country in the world where the cars precede carefully lest they be run over by bicycles. Most of downtown Maastricht is closed to cars, so the roads are comfortable and safe to walk on (though the cyclists will not hesitate to run you down).
Moving in the Netherlands, and in Europe, gives me a new appreciation for the importance of an international language. We have a common measurement system, and Europe has a common currency, and, in practice, it has a common language: English. The Dutch, in particular, speak astonishingly beautiful English: at times, I am embarassed at the roughness of my speech compared to their mastery of the language. Esperanto has the advantage over English of being easier and more neutral (see, not all English adjectives behave the same), but English has a massive bulk of media produced and distributed around the world. Until Esperanto music, movies, and television become as common as English-language media, the “international language” (the formal name for Esperanto is “la lingvo internacia”) doesn’t have a chance. Even if people learn Esperanto, they’ll still have to learn English anyway.
The hope, of course, is that an international language would preserve, rather than plow over, the national languages. One of the beauties of the world outside of the US is the linguistic diversity. Even Limburg, the province of which Maastricht is the capital, has its own dialect of Dutch: all the street signs have two spellings, one for standard Dutch and one for the Limburg dialect. North America, on the other hand, is remarkably consistent linguistically, especially given its size. Esperanto, one would hope, would allow people to speak to one another and protect their ability to speak their own native tongue. Perhaps, though, it would have the same flattening effect that English does. Maybe that has more to do with the mass of US cultural exports than with the language itself. The Dutch, of course, use a number of Anglicisms: the high-school girls on the train in the seats behind me, though they are speaking Dutch, use English terms such as “cringe” and “what the fuck” in the midst of their speech. Perhaps there is a world where they use Esperantisms instead.
