The British Esperanto Congress 2010 will take place from Friday 14th to Monday 17th May 2010 in the beautiful town of Llandudno, North Wales.

The organisers have put together an excellent website where you can find detailed information about both the local area and the event itself.

If you’re interested and would like to sign up, you’ll need to go to the website of the Esperanto Association of Britain where it is possible to register and pay online. The cost of the weekend is £43, which includes tea and coffee (meals and accommodation payable separately). Don’t forget that if you’re under 26 and able to write a letter in Esperanto, you may be able to apply for funding from NoJEF to cover the cost of the congress for you.

As ever, we hope that there will be a strong JEB presence at the congress and will be holding our AGM on the Saturday afternoon at 2pm. All are welcome to attend, either as a member or as a spectator if you’re no longer under 30. If you have any issues which you would like us to put on the agenda for the meeting, feel free to drop us a line.

If you have any questions about the congress, would like some help with finding accommodation, or haven’t attended a JEB meeting before and would like to get to know some of us in advance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at the JEB forums. In the meantime, don’t forget that the next JEB meeting will be taking place on Saturday 6th February in Cardiff

The JEB Spring Meet-up will take place on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th February 2010 in Cardiff, Wales.

JEBanoj will arrive in Cardiff from around 10am onwards, with the majority aiming to arrive around midday. We will meet in a Wetherspoon’s called the Prince of Wales, which is within easy walking distance of the main railway station, before heading elsewhere for something to eat.

As this is the first time in recent years that JEB have been to Cardiff, we hope to spend some time exploring the city with the help of Heather Eason and the local Esperanto group.

Due to the length of the journey involved, many of us will be stopping over in hotels on the Saturday night. The cheapest we’ve found so far appears to be the ETAP – see the forums for more information.

If you would like to come along, don’t hesitate to get in touch

150 years ago today, December 15th, Ludwik Zamenhof was born. His was a divided city, partitioned in four quarters. Four identifiable groups (Germans, Poles, Jews and Russians) lived in Białystok, each category keeping to its own area.

The young Zamenhof was touched by the unnecessary violence exhibited towards others who were different, the segregation. Having witnessed for the umpteenth time the beating dished out to a member of one group who strayed into another’s area, the young Zamenhof thought to himself that the situation would not have arisen had the two groups involved been able to talk to one another.

So he started work on his project for an international language, a mutually understood yet neutral language that each group would have in addition to its own. The Russians would still have Russian, but switch to the international language when speaking to Germans, who would keep their Germanic tongue, but opt for the international language when in conversation with the Poles, and so on.

At the party for his 18th birthday Zamenhof presented to his friends his lingwe uniwersala, the first draft of what would become nine years later Esperanto.

Since the 1920s Esperanto-speakers have celebrated December 15th as “Zamenhof Day”. Having started with only one member Esperanto has wound its way around the globe; the World Esperanto Association has members in 121 countries. Not a bad rate of success for a project started by a teenager, especially when compared to the results of efforts of intellectual heavyweights such as René Descartes

(Past the break Google rather kindly helps us celebrate.)

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Lastatempe, mi tralegis la JEB forumojn, kaj mi rimarkis interesindan mesaĝ-titolon: “Bonega mirinda donacema propono de mi”.

JEBano, senofta forumparolanto, skribis, ke li estas membro de muzikgrupo “The Automatic (La Aŭtomata)”.  Ne nur tion, sed li afable proponis, ke li aldonus Esperantistojn sur la gastliston por senpaga ĉeesto, se iuj dezirus veni paroli en la internacia lingvo kun li.
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The October – December edition of EAB Update has now been released electronically and is available to download here. Update is the quarterly newsletter of EAB, which is posted to all members and supporters of the association in paper format. However, a few weeks after each edition is published, a pdf-version is uploaded to the EAB website so that even non-members have access to the latest news and articles

The October – December 2009 issue features a report on recent JEB activity by JEB secretary, Clare Hunter. The newsletter also contains information about the forthcoming Language Show in London, where JEB members will be helping to man the EAB stall during a weekend event visited by thousands of language enthusiasts.

Don’t miss the launch of EAB’s new competition, designed to reward outstanding written or photographic contributions to all of EAB’s publications. The competition is open to members and non-members alike with total prize money of £45, so get writing

Update also contains a variety of reports about recent Esperanto events in the UK and beyond, not to mention a whole host of letters and opinion, making it well worth a read for any British Esperantist!