Esperanto team - TAC 2016 - Team Thread

[Brun Ugle]

This post just appeared a short time ago on the Duolingo Esperanto course Facebook page:

I understand that the team is considering/working on an Esperanto tree 2.0. I believe that Duolingo is now supporting agglutinative word building. Will the new tree be structured in a way to take advantage of this and teach affixes both individually and applied to words?

(Source: Korean to English Duolingo Incubator)
"Korean is agglutinative, which means that, unlike in English, different grammatical pieces are squeezed into one word through suffixes rather than remaining separate. When we started building the course Duolingo didn't allow us to teach those pieces separately, so each combination had to be created in the system, multiplying as we added more base nouns and grammatical particles.
But, however, we are very excited to say that we can now teach each suffix individually one time. This means that our progress might stall for the next few days as we switch over to the new system, but once we get started moving forward again this will help us proceed faster than ever before "

And the reply from Ruth Kevess-Cohen, one of the course developers:

Yes, we are working on ways to incorporate this new functionality into the new tree.

I thought it might be of interest to some of you.

[Radioclare]

That sounds like a pretty cool development for Esperanto

How is everyone getting on so far this year? I've not used much Esperanto so far this year, but I'm going to the British Esperanto Conference (where I'll hopefully meet Spoonary!) this weekend, so trying to get into an Esperanto frame of mind at the moment

[Brun Ugle]

I haven't done much Esperanto at all this year, in spite of being on this team. Esperanto is weird though. Every time I use it, even if I just think of how to say a tiny little sentence in Esperanto, it feels like it takes over my brain and I have trouble switching back to thinking in other languages. It's like a virus in my brain or something. Maybe it's because it's so easy to use Esperanto even when you don't really know it well, while other languages take a lot more effort.

[rdearman]

I haven't done much Esperanto at all this year, in spite of being on this team. Esperanto is weird though. Every time I use it, even if I just think of how to say a tiny little sentence in Esperanto, it feels like it takes over my brain and I have trouble switching back to thinking in other languages. It's like a virus in my brain or something. Maybe it's because it's so easy to use Esperanto even when you don't really know it well, while other languages take a lot more effort.

Yes, if we're doing confessions, I haven't done much other than read a grammar book and do about 10 anki cards.

So I'm guessing we won't be conversing in Esperanto at the Polyglot conference?

[Brun Ugle]

I haven't done much Esperanto at all this year, in spite of being on this team. Esperanto is weird though. Every time I use it, even if I just think of how to say a tiny little sentence in Esperanto, it feels like it takes over my brain and I have trouble switching back to thinking in other languages. It's like a virus in my brain or something. Maybe it's because it's so easy to use Esperanto even when you don't really know it well, while other languages take a lot more effort.

Yes, if we're doing confessions, I haven't done much other than read a grammar book and do about 10 anki cards.

So I'm guessing we won't be conversing in Esperanto at the Polyglot conference?

Oh yes we will! I find I can sort of have a conversation in it. In fact, I was surprised to be able to have something of a conversation after only studying for a week. With Esperanto, you can just sort of make it up as you go along and it still turns out OK.

As I understand it, there are tables for different languages at mealtimes. So, I'm going to find you and drag you over to the Esperanto table one day. (Mostly so I can have someone equally bad at speaking it. Misery loves company.)

[jeff_lindqvist]

You're always welcome to use your Esperanto on me (who haven't done anything else than Anki cards this year).

T-shirts with prints like "Mi estas Esperantisto", "I speak Esperanto - what's your superpower?" or simply a green star is usually a sign that you're in front of an Esperanto speaker. And there's a lot of those at the gathering.

[Iversen]

Apart from textstudies I have done wordlists in Esperanto. The difference between this language and most others I now is that it consists of 100% loan words - but from which languages? Which words, and with which minor alterations? You couldn't have guessed that the Esperanto word for "and" is "kaj" (from Greek) so you need to learn it. But because almost all Esperanta words either are slightly altered loans or derivations they are easier to remember than totally unknown new words in other languages, and that means that I can simplify my repetition sheets - I just quote the Esperanto words with no translations and cross fingers that I have learnt their meaning properly.

And why do any of this? Well, mostly because I now that Esperanto is the most important world language at the gatherings in Berlin after la Angla lingvo, and last year I had hardly prepared myself for that situation. I don't want to stand there again "bouche bée" because I can't understand people or answer them in such an important language which everybody there seems to know inside and out. Later this year I'll get a booster in Nitra, but that won't help me in Berlin.

[Stelle]

I've put my active study on hold for now, since I accidentally started learning Italian. I'm only doing about 10 minutes of Memrise/Duolingo per day so that I don't lose what I've already learned. Still, 10 minutes per day is more than 0 minutes per day!

[Brun Ugle]

Duolingo Esperanto is out of beta. They are now working on some improvements and additions to the course and helping with the Esperanto for Spanish speakers course.

https://incubator.duolingo.com/courses/eo/en/status

[Spoonary]

Saluton al ĉiuj!

I thought it was about time that I popped in to let you know that Clare and her esperantist friends definitely didn't kidnap me at the Esperanto conference the other weekend and lock me in a small room with green flags all over the walls

Despite being nervous and unsure on the Friday, by the end of the Saturday I felt more comfortable among the seasoned esperantists and young komencantoj alike. There were some interesting talks to be heard at the conference, as well as a brilliant song contest where the participants sang Beatles songs translated into Esperanto, and a comedy quiz which contained elements from Mock the Week and Would I lie to you? (two successful British TV programmes) and was actually really funny when I understood what the contestants were saying (which was more often than I thought I would, actually). In short, I had a great time and would definitely recommend that all of you budding esperantists go to at least one of this kind of event if you get the chance.

I can only thank Clare (once more) for letting me know about the event and the funding available, and allowing me to get a glimpse of Esperanto culture