The Life and Meaning of Esperanto Clubs and Organizations

Some of what makes Esperanto more than a language

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

A “Happy to chat bench” – wow!

In our modern world, it really is necessary to arrange special benches or special gatherings for singles, or whatever, for people to feel that they are allowed to talk to each other.

On the Internet, everything is different. There, here, everybody can talk to anyone, anywhere. In principle. Because, in reality, almost everybody don’t do it. They watch the Internet, like they would watch a TV channel. But they never say anything. That goes for maybe 95% of the users of social media. There have been various studies giving different numbers, but it is something this high.

So, we are 5% of the social media users who actually feel that we can say something.

That bench on the photo. We have one in a park here in Malmo, Sweden, where I live. It is very easy to find, as it has been painted in a different color than the other benched in the park, and there’s a placket on it, telling that it is a “Friendship bench” where anyone feeling lonely can sit, and others then know that they would like to talk – and can sit down and talk to them.

I have never seen anyone sit on that bench. I tried sitting there myself for about an hour one day, when other people were in the park too. Not because I felt lonely, but because I wanted to see what happened. And nothing happened. People who were anywhere near that bench looked the other way and pretended not to see that someone presumably lonely was sitting there, wanting to talk.

Because Swedes are like those social media users, all the time. 95% of them don’t want to get in touch with anyone, ever. They look the other way in the park, in the supermarket, in traffic. You can never catch their eyes, never start a conversation, if you’re not already acquainted – and even then, they mostly don't want to.

That’s a major reason for having clubs and organizations of all kinds. Because there, even in Sweden, people do talk. I meet hoards of Malmo’ers each weekend, walking together in smaller or larger groups, talking and laughing together, when they are on their way to the football stadium to take part in a match. They are dressed up with the local club’s colors, and they look happy.

But even these people, how happy and seemingly social they might look, seek absolutely no contact with other people they meet on their way. So, having seen these groups of football fans passing by hundreds of times during the years I have lived in this city, I have never talked to any of them. They look the other way if I look at them, or, at best, they might look back with an annoyed or even angry expression in their face.

The world is not like that everywhere. When traveling in Southern Europe, for instance, or Thailand, I have met many eyes and smiles, and many moments of chatting with strangers. It is possible, in some places.

But in some other places, people need to be in some kind of structured framework, like a football fan club, in order to want to talk to anyone, and then only the other people in that same fan club.

And that’s where such a thing like Esperanto comes into play. It is a chance to meet other people in some kind of structured context, making it possible to talk to them.

During my life, I have tried that kind of thing in various courses, where the students felt that they needed to talk, or were allowed to, with each other. And such as golf clubs, sports-fishers’ clubs, and anything else. It’s no wonder why Scandinavians are so fond of creating clubs at any given opportunity, and around any thinkable topic – they need these, as they would otherwise never talk to anyone.

But Esperanto takes this phenomenon to a higher level: in your local club, everything may look like so many other clubs, but you know all along that the purpose of learning and practicing the language, the idea of reading books about it and planning courses, exhibitions, and all other kinds of arrangements, and going to conferences or “Esperanto weekends” together with other both known and unknown Esperantists – is to talk.

Esperanto is a language, and any kind of club building and world movement around it is about, ultimately, speaking this language.

For this reason, there are probably 95% of the world population – or perhaps just of that part of the world population that is represented on social media – that would never consider joining any kind of Esperanto club.

At least, if the same reasons they have for not talking in social media contexts are still valid when meeting real people in what perhaps seems like more safe settings.

Because, that’s another thing about such clubs: they offer a friendly, closed group of people to talk to. You may not pick these people yourself, as they have mostly decided to join the club without specifically asking you first, but you can expect that they are there for about the same reasons as you are – to be part of something that involves talking, being social, and working together with others on a bigger perspective.

So, perhaps more than 5% would do that, if they knew that it was possible?

Maybe 10%? Or 20%?

We do see such rates of joining higher educations. In some countries even a lot higher rates. And we do see such rates of people going to a cinema, or a music event of some kind, even though anything like that seems to be mostly connected to being at a certain age level.

Hence, it is definitely possible to assume that 20% of the world population, given the right circumstances, could be interested in being part of such a social activity like an Esperanto club.

But of course, what is potentially possible, isn’t always what then happens. I can say that, as far as I know, there isn’t a single person among my family, friends, colleagues, etc. – among all the people I have ever had any kind of relationship to – who has shown any interest in Esperanto. Apart form those I have met in the Esperanto clubs, of course. And now, with this Substack, some more people start showing an interest.

In my life, we are very far from hitting 20% – we are closer to 1%, approaching even that from below, and still only at a small fraction of it.

There are special groups of Esperantists as well, not just the “generalist” types. When looking around, you’ll find groups of Christian Esperantists, gay esperantists, socialist Esperantists, blind esperantists, and no doubt almost any other kind of Esperantists you can imagine. Of course, there are special clubs for young Esperantists, and for those taking part in a certain education, or studying at a certain university, or even working at a certain workplace.

My guess is that most of these clubs and groups are open to letting in new members, because that’s why they are there – to be social, and to work with the Esperanto language as a social element in connecting the world. Esperanto is very much about bringing people together, so that is deeply rooted in the people who join an Esperanto club.

Some of these clubs offer to assist schools, companies, and others to arrange courses in Esperanto, or they give speeches, take part in various larger arrangements of the surrounding society, such as exhibitions and touristic promotions. And some clubs take part in charity, political debate, and just about anything else you can imagine. Because they are people gathering, and that’s what people do when they gather.

I’m not out in a mission to make everybody show interest in Esperanto, but I think that it can make sense to let the message be out there: telling that it is a possibility. Then everyone can choose for themselves if they want to sit on that bench – or approach someone who is sitting there already.

With the right attitude, we should soon see more benches like that in the parks. Maybe they would all one day become “friendship benches”. That’s definitely not a strange thought for an Esperantist.