I Speak Esperanto

By: James Nugent

Narrated by: Stan Jenson

Length: 39 mins

Publisher's Summary

I went to learn more about Esperanto, a language that was invented 126 years ago. In the end I found hope for the future.

©2013 James Nugent (P)2013 James Nugent

almost no info about Esperanto; poor pronunciation

As an Esperantist of more than 25 years, I was not looking to learn any Esperanto from this book. I was, however, hoping that it would present some basics about the language.

I found instead that this book consists mainly of a series of bland generalisations about Esperanto and about the culture of Esperantists, but contains virtually no information about the language. And, on the rare occasion when an Esperanto word is actually uttered, it is in every case pronounced very poorly.

If this book didn't cost only two dollars, I would return it. I strongly recommend not buying it. This book will do nothing to inform anyone about the facts of Esperanto, or to induce anyone with a curiosity about the language to learn it. And that is a shame, because Esperanto is a truly remarkable phenomenon. The language's small set of exception-free grammatical rules could indeed have been presented in a manner that is likely to spur further interest.

So I must say that the author, James Nugent, did a very poor job with his subject matter. And the narrator, Stan Jenson, did an utterly horrendous job in rendering the few Esperanto words which he was asked to pronounce. Mr. Jenson could easily have researched the proper pronunciation of that handful of words.

9 people found this helpful

big mistake.

i was hoping to hear esperanti being spoken. i need to get my money back!

4 people found this helpful

Not really about esperanto

I really don't care what the author had for dinner while learning esperanto. I was hoping for discussion of the language, but that was maybe a quarter of this.

1 person found this helpful