Postal Address: P.O. Box 8140, Symonds Street, Auckland 1035, New Zealand

Email address: nzea@esperanto.org.nz

Telephone: 0800 350 781

The New Zealand Esperanto Association is a voluntary organisation set up to promote Esperanto in New Zealand. Some of our pages are in English and give information about Esperanto or about NZEA; other pages are in Esperanto, to inform Esperanto speakers about Esperanto in New Zealand. There is also a Site Index. The New Zealand Esperanto Association is affiliated to the United Nations Association of New Zealand (Inc).

La Nov-Zelanda Esperanto-Asocio estas volontula organizo en Nov-Zelando por Esperanto. Informo en la angla lingvo estas por informi nov-zelandanojn pri Esperanto kaj nia Asocio; informo en Esperanto estas por informi esperantistojn pri Esperanto en Nov-Zelando. Estas Indekso de nia retejo.

NZEA has produced a new leaflet containing a summary of information about Esperanto and about NZEA. You are welcome to print it out.

NZEA works in conjunction with the Australian Esperanto Association to produce a bi-monthly magazine, Esperanto sub la Suda Kruco (Esperanto under the Southern Cross). NZEA also publishes a newsletter Arĝenta Filiko twice per year.

The Oceania Congress in Auckland, 14 to 23 January 2008 was a big success! TV1 even had a short report about it on the first day. NZEA President David Ryan was interviewed. A full report on the congress is in our latest edition of Arĝenta Filiko. We also have a photo of those attending the Oceania Congress.

News:

2008-05-11: Reta kunlaboro rezultis en 20-lingva filmo pri Esperanto.

2008-05-09: La 24-a Aŭstralia Esperanto-Somerkursaro 2009 okazos en Sidnejo inter la 11a kaj 25a de Januaro 2009 ĉe "International House", loĝejo de internaciaj studantoj de la Universitato de Sidnejo en la urbocentro. Demandoj al: aesk@esperanto.org.au

2008-05-09: The 24th Australian Esperanto Summer School 2009 will take place in Sidney from 11th to 25th of January 2009 at "International House", hostel for international students of the University of Sidney in the city centre. Enquiries to: aesk@esperanto.org.au

2008-05-08: A new book called "Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto" by Geoffrey Sutton, is to be published in New York. This reference work charts the evolution of the original literature of Esperanto from its first publication in 1887 to its present worldwide use of all kinds. See details and ordering information.

2008-02-09: Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of International Mother Language Day, 21 February 2008. UEA has produced leaflets (in various languages) in support of International Mother Language Day. UEA grants anyone interested the right to use these pamflets. Here is the English one.

2008-01-25: You can read the Annual Report of NZEA for the 2006-2007 financial year in English or in Esperanto.

2008-01-25: Oni povas legi la jarraporton de NZEA por la financa jaro 2006-2007 en la angla aŭ en Esperanto.

2007-12-21: A report on the 2008 Universala Kongreso de Esperanto which took place in Yokohama, Japan. Another report

2007-12-13: Claude Piron has a video clip on dotsub.com called The Language Challenge. In this eight and a half minute presentation Piron talks about his experience of international communication and discusses Esperanto. Piron is a psychologist, and a former translator at the UN and the WHO. He puts some strong arguments in favour of Esperanto. Very worth eight and a half minutes to watch it.

2007-10-09: A warning about using on-line translation engines. A "group of Israeli journalists used a translation engine in sending an email message" (translated from Hebrew into English) "to the Dutch Consulate in Tel Aviv. They wanted to discuss an upcoming visit to The Netherlands for a seminar on Dutch politics, but they ended up asking the minister several nonsensical questions about his mother." The result was embarrassment all round.

2007-09-14: Peace events.

• 16-09-2007 Forum on the Alliance of Civilisation
• 21-09-2007 Ihttp://www.uea.org/dokumentoj/komunikoj/gk.php?no=280nternational Peace Day
• 23-09-2007 United Nations International Day of Peace
• 26-10-2007 United Nations Day
• 2001-2010 U.N. International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World. See also Wikipedia.
• 2008 United Nations INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF LANGUAGES

2007-08-31: The 92nd Universal Congress of Esperanto speakers took place in Yokohama, Japan, from 4 to 11 August 2007. About 1900 persons took part, from 57 countries, including two kiwis. For congress reports see the Universal Esperanto Association website. The next Universal Congress will take place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 19 to 26 July 2008.

2007-08-19: The latest version of the program for the Oceania Congress has been posted to this site.

2007-08-19: La plej lasta versio de la programo por la Oceania Kongreso estas alŝutita al ĉi tiu retejo.

2007-06-04,2007-07-01: Oceania Congress The next congress in New Zealand will be a joint one between the New Zealand Esperanto Association (NZEA) and the Australian Esperanto Association. It will take place in Auckland on 14-23 January 2008. Details...

2007-06-04,2007-07-01: Oceania Kongreso La venonta nov-zelanda kongreso estos kuna kongreso inter la Nov-Zelanda Esperanto-Asocio (NZEA) kaj la Aŭstralia Esperanto-Asocio. Ĝi okazos je 14-23 January 2008. Detaloj...

2007-05-13: Esperanto Sub la Suda Kruco (May-June 2007) reported that on the 10th of March 2007, the Academy of Esperanto published the 9th official addition to the "Fundamento" (the basis of Esperanto). 209 more root words have been officialised. The status of this publication is a strong recommendation. All 209 words are defined in Esperanto in this addition. The full list is available in the web site of the Academy.

2007-03-17: Numero 23 de nia gazeto Arĝenta Filiko enhavas artikolojn pri nia kongreso en januaro 2007, pri la diverseco de Nov-Zelando, pri agado dum 2006 en la kampoj de scienco kaj tekniko, kaj pri aliaj aferoj. Number 23 of our review Arĝenta Filiko includes articles about our congress in January 2006, about the diversity of thinking in New Zealand, about Esperanto activities in the fields of science and technology in 2006, and on other matters.

2007-02-21: With Children's Day coming up on 4 March 2007 it is a good time to think about Foreign Language Learning for Children This article by Chris Perkinson mentions some interesting facts. "In Europe and worldwide, it is natural for children to learn several languages at once... There is an increasing awareness of the incredible learning potential of children, particularly in the first 5 years."

As we have reported on this site before, learning one language boosts understanding of one's first language. Studies in schools in Australia and in Europe have shown that learning Esperanto before another language actually saves time! The two languages can be learned more quickly than the other one alone!

2007-02-13: The annual congress of the New Zealand Esperanto Association (NZEA) took place in Christchurch on 3-5 February 2007.Congress 2007 - report. Reports on the congress are to appear in Arĝenta Filiko and in Esperanto sub la Suda Kruco

2006-12-20: Stefan Maul has previously reported (Monato 2006/6, p. 7) about problems that German people have with their own language and with English. He quoted scientists who criticised the excessive or almost exclusive use of English in science and said that 30% of Germans have no knowledge of English, a further 30% have only a rudimentary knowledge (i.e. they learned it but don't know it). From that one could conclude that one third of Germans know English. Now, he has reported (Monato 2006/12, p. 5), that is contradicted by new research which asked 3700 students about the English language. 34% said that they know it well, 38% said very well. But follow-up language tests showed: only 1% know English very well, only 4% well, and 76% satisfactorily (not well). Note that these results refer only to students (an elite), not Germans in general. These students have studied English intensively for 8 to 10 years. So from these results, one must conclude that there has been a great fiasco in teaching and learning English. That is no wonder, because, in contrast to often repeated assertions to the contrary, for Germans, English is a very hard language.

In spite of this, some polititians in Germany continue to push the learning of English. Gűnther Oettinger, Premier of Baden-Virtembergo, in putting the case for English, argued: “English has become the working language. German remains the language of the family and leisure time, the language in which one reads at home.” So according to him, German should be reduced to a dialect for play. Those for whom US English is their mother tongue automatically have a big advantage, while everyone else has to struggle to learn it, costing enormous energy, time and money. The people of Britain and US don't have to learn any foreign language and can invest their energy, time and money in other things and therefore they can surpass all others economically and culturally. One can rightly say therefore that so called globalisation is in fact nothing but americanisation of the rest of the world. Stefan Maul said that it is a perpetual puzzle to him that many persons, especially polititians, don't realise and cannot comprehend this obvious injustice.

2006-12-17: This site is now listed by NZS.com, "the definitive map of New Zealand web space".

2006-11-01: This year Zamenhof Day (15th December) will be part of a new initiative called Human Rights and Esperanto Week (9th to 16th December 2006), Renato Corsetti (President of UEA) has announced. UEA is calling on all Esperantists to take part. It will also include the anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights (10th December). Note that the Declaration explicitly includes language rights. UEA wants to emphasise the way Esperantists support language rights.

UEA is encouraging Esperantists to take part in activities related to language rights. For example, collect information about instances of lack of respect for language rights in your community and send evidence of it to UEA, who will collate the information received and send it on to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Renato Corsetti says that it is time to progress beyond theorising about language rights to practical action. For example, you can arrange a meeting with non-esperantists to explain to them why Esperanto is part of the global struggle for human rights.

A very good example of action was begun some months ago by a group of activists and has already had some success. Take a look at their web site.

UEA wants to use Human Rights and Esperanto Week to remind the world about language rights and how Esperanto can help to support them, and to celebrate Esperanto at the same time.

2006-10-05: Numero 22 de nia gazeto Arĝenta Filiko enhavas artikolojn pri la venonta kongreso en januaro 2007, pri UNANZ kaj pri ferio de Jaquie kaj Brian en Njue-Insulo.

2006-09-22: Brilliant Bay environmentalist dies. Hawkes Bay Today reported the death of highly regarded Hastings anaesthetist, doctor Peter Lloyd, aged 45. He was an Esperanto speaker.

2006-09-14: During its half-year as president of the European Union, Finnland has been publishing news about the EU in English, in French and in Latin. The use of Latin pays homage to European culture and is to remind readers of the roots of European society, which lie in the ancient classical period. The news have also recently been made available in German. The Latin news-in-brief provided by Finland's EU Presidency is now available also in Esperanto. The news-in brief in Esperanto translated by Suomen Esperantoliitto (Esperanto Association of Finland) are available at: conspectus.wordpress.com Strangely the news is not available from the official Finnish EU site in the official languages of Finnland, namely Finnish and Swedish. However they are available in a section of a site maintained by the Finnish Ministry of Foriegn Affairs.

2006-09-06: The AEA holds a fun Esperanto Summer School in Australia every year, for a couple of weeks in January, at the same time as the AEA Congress. Classes are available for all levels, including complete beginners! For information you can go straight to the website of the Australian Esperanto Summer School.

2006-08-30: The 2007 Congress of the New Zealand Esperanto Association, in Christhurch from 3 to 6 February 2007. Kongreso 2007 - anonco

2006-08-13: The 91st Universal Congress of Esperanto speakers took place in Florence, Italy, between 29 July and 5 August 2006. 2209 persons registered for the congress and 22% of them were from outside Europe. For congress reports see the Universal Esperanto Association website.

2006-07-07: The official policy of the European Union (EU) is that all the official languages of the EU have equal status, and that all citizens of the EU can receive EU documents in their own language. In practise this is far from the truth. The Grin report (commissioned by the Ministry of Education in France) clearly says that Britain is making at least 17 thousand million dollars per year selling services related to the English language. People in ther EU countries are paying. Why should Britain (and Ireland) have such a big advantage over the poorer countries of the EU? If the EU were to use a neutral language, such as Esperanto, it would save 25 thousand million dollars per year, and the saving would be shared by all EU countries. The Austrian newspaper Der Standard did a survey asking what would be the most convenient language for common usage within the EU. The results showed that 54.8% wanted Esperanto, 15.8% wanted German, and 14.5% wanted English. (From article by Zlatko Tislar, Monato, July 2006, page 7)

2006-06-30: Many people disregard the need for language democracy: removing discrimination against those who speak certain languages; freedom to communicate in one's own language; political power in each country should not be reserved for those who speak a particular language. In some places real discussion of such questions is a taboo subject. A new multi-language web site has appeared with the name Nitobe Centre for language democracy. It aims to facilitate discussion of this subject.

2006-05-11: The University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia, has a new course which includes the teaching of Esperanto. The Institute of Languages of the University of New South Wales is responsible for teaching future teachers of foreign languages. It already had courses in several languages. The Esperanto course was added in April 2006. Students who pass the course will receive an official professional qualification recognised by the Australian government, which will enable them to teach Esperanto professionally. The course takes six months and includes language theory, the history and special problems of language teaching, methods of teaching languages, preparation of courses and lessons, the special features of Esperanto, and lots more. General information about courses in the Institute of Languages of the University of New South Wales is available here.

2006-04-10: In March 2006 UEA (Universala Esperanto-Asocio) opened a new office in Africa. It is in the city of Lokossa, in the Republic of Benin. The Africa Office has a staff of two. They are under the direction of the General Director of the Central Office of UEA in Rotterdam. Their main tasks are informing the public about Esperanto and organising the teaching of Esperanto. Finance for running the office comes out of the UEA budget and donations to UEA's Africa Fund. For more...

2006-02-9: Discrimination continues in the European Union in favour of native English speakers. In 2005 the UEA (Universal Esperanto Association) complained formally to the EU about adverts for situations vacant in the various EU organisations discriminating in this way. Hans Erasmus, a lawyer who has now retired from working for the EU, told the 2006 Congress of NZEA that nothing much has changed in this regard. The wording of the adverts no longer says "native English speakers" but the discrimination continues. This is despite the EU charter which says that all the official languages of the Union have equal status. Hans Erasmus was one of the visitors from overseas attending the annual NZEA Congress in Wellington between 4th and 6th February 2006.

2005-12-13: Nova Servo Disponeba al la Esperanta Komunumo As from the beginning of December 2005, the web site PledgeBank.com has an Esperanto version at the disposal of the Esperanto community. PledgeBank ("PromesoBanko") was founded by the British charity "mySociety", whose primary mission is to build Internet projects which give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives. For more details see the FAQ.

2005-12-2: The Guardian newspaper in UK has published an article about Esperanto.

2005-11-19: The 2006 Congress of the New Zealand Esperanto Association in Wellington 4 to 6 February 2006. Further details or contact the Association (contact details above).

2005-10-14: The China Esperanto League has a new president. He is Mr Chen Haosu, who is also the president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. This Association is well known to members of the New Zealand China Friendship Society. Mr Chen was elected at the 6th Chinese Esperanto Congress, held in Quanzhou, in Fujian province, in September 2005. The theme of the congress was "Esperanto and building a harmonious society". The 230 participants discussed the progress in the last two years, including the World Esperanto Congress, which took place in Beijing in 2004, elected a new executive, and planned future activities.

2005-09-14: World Esperanto Congress. The 90th World Esperanto Congress took place in Vilnius, Lithuania, from 23rd to 30th July 2005, with about 2300 participants from about 62 countries from all around the world, talking together without interpreters!
2005-09-18: This congress took place 100 years after the first World Esperanto Congress (Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, 1905). The congress took the opportunity to discuss the whole series of 90 world congresses. Through decades characterised by social changes, political troubles and wars, the congresses retained their most outstanding feature - that of a forum for people to meet people, with a strong desire to overcome the barriers of nationality and ideology. Several congress sessions were dedicated to discussing the usefulness of the congresses to those who take part. Many emphasised the educational value - not only for increasing knowledge about various subjects, but also for awareness of intercultural communication at the most personal level. The participants demonstrated their continuing determination to work together with good will to improve cooperation between the peoples of the world.
The Vilnius congress, which took place in the region where Esperanto began, once again showed the success of a week-long gathering of people united by the language Esperanto, together putting into practise communication without prejudice and other limitations. The participants firmly believe that the history of a century of World Esperanto Congresses, as a successful example of intercultural communication, will be continued, and therefore call on other people of good will to learn Esperanto and experience a similar occasion to that which has just taken place in Vilnius.

2005-08-29: A translation of the story "Toki" by New Zealand author Patricia Grace has been published by our official magazine "Esperanto sub la Suda Kruco". Go to the AEA site, then choose the "la Suda Kruco" page and download ESK_076.pdf (July-August, 2005). The translation is on pages 20-22.

2005-07-27: The web site Nesto aims not only to teach Esperanto language, but also to inform readers about Esperanto. It has recently added Radio Nesto, which functions 24 hours a day, and presents examples of spoken and sung Esperanto. It is coordinated by a group in Sao-Paulo, Brazil. The site has information in many different languages.

2005-06-16: Debate on English Language Learning in China. In the 1980s China started to open up to the outside world. This is taken by many Chinese to mean "Westernisation" or "Americanisation". Now there is considerable debate about whether this is the right direction to take. How successful is the policy of encouraging the learning of English language in China? Here are some snippets taken from English-language publications in China.

2005-03-24: The 2005 New Zealand Esperanto Congress and AGM of NZEA, 4th - 7th January 2005 in Auckland. A report has been published in Arĝenta Filiko 19.

2005-02-15: This year the Esperanto movement is again taking part in celebrating International Mother Language Day (2005 February 21). This annual event has been organised by UNESCO since 2000. The President of the World Esperanto organisation UEA has issued a statement of support. This year UNESCO is drawing particular attention to Braille and sign languages. These forms of communication are also expressions of certain groups which have been often ignored up to now. Similarly ignored are many languages which don´t belong to politically strong groups. UEA reasserts most strongly that a policy of communication and development which is indifferent to and often directly hostile to local languages, condemns to a violent and untimely death the majority of the languages of the world and the cultures linked to them. UEA calls on all governments of all countries and to all people to follow the recommendations of the United Nations, of UNESCO and of the most outstanding thinkers, who acknowledge that no real education is possible in a foreign language, as Ghandi said. The international language Esperanto is a language for use only in international relations as a neutral means of communication without forcing one´s own view of the world on other people. Therefore it protects the continued existence of mother languages, whose function it does not aim to take over, as has been done through history and is still done by national languages, when they are used for international relations. For these reasons the Esperanto movement is celebrating, along with UNESCO, the International Mother Language Day, which is also a time to celebrate the equal value of all languages and of all cultures and the international communication based on equality and mutual respect.

2004-10-23: Launch of the OpenOffice.org Esperanto web site. The leaders of the OpenOffice.org Esperanto translation project have announced the launch of the project's new web site. It contains information in Esperanto about the project and about OpenOffice.org generally. It also has forums and distribution lists for users and those interested in OpenOffice. The project is in the process of translating all the menus, help documents and messages etc. in the OpenOffice suite into Esperanto. Thousands of different phrases are involved. OpenOffice is already available in more than 30 different languages. The team plans to publish an Esperanto version of the OpenOffice suite of programs in the first half of 2005, soon after the launch of OpenOffice.org 2.0. Esperantists and Esperanto organisations are invited to visit the web site and to help grow the community of OpenOffice.org in Esperanto.

2004-10-16: Congratulations to the Masterton Esperanto Club. The international independent magazine Monato announced that the Masterton Club won the third prize in their Otanom 2004 competition. To win a prize readers had to read the magazine over a nine month period to find key words fitting clues given in each month's edition. When they had collected all the key words they had to work out where a virtual talisman was hidden. The answer turned out to be Pago Pago, in Eastern Samoa. Twelve correct entries were received by the editors of Monato. To separate them each entrant had to guess how many correct entries there would be. The Masterton Club was only one out: they guessed thirteen.

2004-08-07: 2004 World Esperanto Congress in Beijing, China. 24-31 July 2004. About 1750 participants from about 50 countries from all around the world, communicating without interpreters!

2004-03-21: Reports on the joint congress of the the New Zealand Esperanto Association and the Australian Esperanto Association, held at Margate near Brisbane in Queensland. Dates: 19 to 25 January 2004. Photos supplied by Jackie Fox.

2004-01-04: The annual congress of the the New Zealand Esperanto Association for 2004 is a joint congress with the Australian Esperanto Association. The venue is the Margate Conference Centre, Redcliffe, which is about 30 km north of Brisbane in Queensland. Dates: 19 to 25 January 2004.

2003-12-20: The Economist reports that Mozilla, an open-source web browser, now is available in 65 languages, with 34 more planned. OpenOffice, the leading open-source office suite, is available in 31 languages, including several Indian languages and another 44 languages are soon to be added. Esperanto is among the languages already available for Linux, Mozilla and other open-source software. Read our summary of the article in the Economist.

2003-09-18: The President of the world Esperanto organisation UEA, Renato Corsetti, has been involved in discussions in Brussells on the language policies of the European Union. Member states are becoming concerned that with the growth in the number of members of the EU, there is potential for the translation and interpretation budget to blow out. Multilingualism is the official policy of the EU, and it is a positive thing for Europeans which should be continued. However in practise there is discrimination, with some languages being treated as "more equal than others". UEA has been promoting the cause of the minor languages, pointing out the unfairness of advertisements which show that jobs in the EU are given to those who have English as their first language. This could be regarded as racist. Prof Corsetti reports that there is more sympathy towards Esperanto than formerly.

2003-07-29: About 1600 people enrolled for the 2003 World Esperanto Congress, in Gotenburg, Sweden. During the congress from 26 July 2003 to 2 August 2003, news about the congress was available at on the Internet. The news media in Sweden showed considerable interest in the congress. Newspapers such as Metro and Expressen and magazines published long articles with examples in Esperanto, with Swedish translations.

2003-06-18: New Zealand Government considers promoting learning of languages other than English in intermediate schools. NZ Herald article

2003-06-05: New article "English as the first foreign language in Swiss schools: realism or crawling?" by Claude Piron.