It’s now official~! The JEB summer meetup will be taking place on the weekend of 19th and 20th July in Buxton, Derbyshire. For more information, please see the leaflet attached below. If you’re interested in coming, please get in touch with us as soon as possible so that we can help you find some suitably-priced accommodation.

JEB Summer Meet-up

Look forward to seeing you in Buxton

News reaches us that the Esperanto Association of Britain’s Geoffrey Sutton’s ambitious mission to produce an encyclopedia of the congeries of literature produced during the 121 years since Esperanto’s introduction has been accomplished

Here’s information from the official press release:

• a unique work of international reference
• an English-language companion for the literary enthusiast
• a ‘must’ for every serious library and media reference section (more…)

Just to inform you that the British Esperanto Congress is taking place in Southport, Merseyside from Friday 9th May 2008 to Sunday 11 May 2008. Southport is a vibrant seaside town, easily accessible both by road and public transport, and this year’s congress promises to be a thoroughly enjoyable event.

If you wish to read more about the weekend, which is organised by the Esperanto Association of Britain (EAB), please click on the following link to the EAB website which provides further details: http://www.esperanto-gb.org/eab/eab_events/bk_payment.htm#ko ngreso You can also sign up and pay via this page; the cost is £10 for JEB members but to read how you could claim your costs back via NoJEF please see the following part of the JEBsite http://www.jeb.org.uk/attend-eo-events-for-free (more…)

The next JEB meetup is scheduled to take place on Saturday, 8th March in Peterborough.

This is an informal affair, to which everyone is welcome We’re likely to be meeting around lunchtime, probably somewhere in the vicinity of the station as most of us will be arriving by public transport. (more…)

 My first excursion into Esperantujo has already been well documented in Issue Three of Saluton.  Whilst attending ‘Ni Festivalu’ was an enjoyable and fulfilling experience, it was not one which passed off entirely without incident.  Alas, whilst I long for a quiet and simple life, I rarely seem to achieve it!  Having lacked the time to attend any Esperanto meetings during the spring and early summer months, my second attempt at speaking Esperanto was scheduled to be the JEB Somera Renkontiĝo in July.  This time, I felt confident that nothing could possibly go wrong… (more…)

The Esperanto Association of Britain runs a programme called Springboard which offers teaching to primary schools using Esperanto as a faciliating device to create language-awareness.

Along similar lines, the Springboard staff asked me to give a presentation to a primary school in Leicestershire in recognition of the European Day Of Languages last September. It went pretty well. Here is the report that I provided to them. (more…)

Five British Members of Parliament recently undersigned a nomination to have the Universala Esperanto-Asocio considered a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

They were approached by activists from the UK’s “Esperanto Lobby”.

The five original signatories are Roger Gale, Mike Hancock, Oliver Heald, Brian Iddon, and Austin Mitchell. They were later joined by Rob Marris and Lord Teverson.

The nomination they submitted reads:

The International Language Esperanto is regular and relatively easy to learn, is currently in use by a worldwide community and is employed in world travel, correspondence, cultural exchange, conventions, literature, language instruction, radio broadcasting, and on the internet. Esperanto already serves as a common auxiliary language, fostering effective and fair international communication.

The Universala Esperanto-Asocio (UEA) supports linguistic diversity, democracy, human emancipation, and a global culture for peace.

Because Esperanto contributes to, education for international understanding, and because understanding is essential for peace, I wish to nominate the Universala Esperanto-Asocio for the Nobel Peace Prize 2008.

Wouldn’t it be poetic for UEA to win the award during the International Year of Languages

January 3^rd, 2008

We had to vacate our rooms by 09:00, so there was no chance of a lie-in. As had become par for the week, I dragged my sorry carcass out of bed after far too little sleep, this time feeling like death after my cold decided to bookend the holiday. (more…)

January 1^st, 2008 - Part 1 - Midnight till the early hours

Happy New Year!

So, I went downstairs leading up to the stroke of midnight. Cue “The Final Countdown”, and everybody singing along with it. It amazes me that foreign people actually know the lyrics, whilst I and the other English folk have to make do with loudly voicing “La-la-la laaa, la-la-laaaa”. (more…)

It would appear that circumstances have led me to already cease updating every day. That’s not very good, I know.

So, rather than wile away the three hours leading to the stroke of midnight over here in the disco, I figured it appropriate to sit down, take advantage of nobody else being around to leach the net connection, and play catch-up.

Now just to hope that I can remember everything … (more…)