Being Colloquial in Esperanto: A Reference Guide for Americans

Rating:
Summary: Well-organized and thorough.
Review: This is a wonderful, and up-to-date advanced textbook for English speakers to gain fluency in the international language, Esperanto. While it covers a wide variety of topics, it focuses special attention on those words and grammatical issues that present particular problems for English speakers learning Esperanto. This is a fine addition to any English-speaking Esperantist's library.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent tool for those who want to attain real fluency!
Review: With dozens of excellent examples, leavened by the author's trademark sense of humor, this work provides an excellent guide to real-life practical use of the language (my daughter is especially fond of using "Danko ne necesas; vi ricevos mian fakturon" instead of the everyday "Ne dankinde" ;-) ). Jordan is an anthropologist (specializing in Chinese studies, I believe) and this background shows itself in his concern that the student understand from the start that Esperanto is not simply an artificial language, but a "speech community". During the time I was a tutor in the e-mail Esperanto course for English-speaking beginners, I found myself turning again and again to this volume for just the right way to explain to intelligent, curious students why we say it _this_ way and not _that_ way... or why there sometimes _is_ no one answer to usage questions. Its one lack is a detailed cross-index... but even without it, because of the detailed table of contents, it's an immensely useful book. Definitely belongs on the shelf with Wells' bilingual dictionary and Auld's "Pasxoj al Plena Posedo".