Dunstable Today_
(http://www.dunstabletoday.co.uk/around-the-county-news/VIDEO-Esperant...)
VIDEO: Esperanto celebrates anniversary of founder
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By _Bev Creagh_ (mailto:bev.cre...@bedsnews.com)
According to Terry and Anica Page of Milton Keynes, Esperanto is the
language of love. They met at an international conference in Amsterdam in the
1960s and have been together ever since.
Slovenian-born Anica says: "We call it 'our' language and it can be very
romantic."
Esperanto first fired the imagination of Cambridge graduate Terry, a
retired science teacher, after he read about it in an encyclopaedia when he was
eight.
Several years later he borrowed I B Kellerman's Grammar of Esperanto from
his local library and to his astonishment, it worked. But it was some time
before he met anyone who actually spoke the language.
"It was quite by chance," he recalls. "I mentioned it to a friend at
school. His grandfather spoke it. We talked to each other over tea and
eventually I became pretty fluent."
Anica explains why Esperanto is so easy: "Its like Lego with words. You
simply add a prefix or suffix for a different meaning. There are no irregular
verbs. There's one sound for each letter."
Terry blames politics for the fact that Esperanto has never been adopted
universally. "It was put forward at the League of Nations in the 1920s. But
England wanted English and France wanted French. It was the death knell for
Esperanto."
The Esperanto Association's treasurer, Joyce Bunting, lives in Harpenden
and came to Esperanto late in life.
"I was 47," she said. "I went to a summer school which offered practical
Esperanto. I was good at French and had a taste of Greek and Latin.
"Esperanto was different. It was logical. It has a beautiful sound - the
vowels are clear, like they are in Italian. I went to a beginners' class in
London every week and started teaching myself. Within a matter of weeks I
was corresponding with people all over the world.
"The association is spearheading a campaign to teach language awareness in
schools, using Esperanto as a bridge language. There are five pilot
projects under way."
For more information call 0845 230 1887 or _click here_
(http://www.esperanto-gb.org/)
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