The Esperanto bus

I know that in Warsaw there is ulica Ludwika Zamenhofa and ulica Esperanto. Worthy homages. But I don't think there's much to see in those places.

This week I was sightseeing in Warsaw with a friend. Among many conversation topics, I mentioned that this year I learned Esperanto. I explained that I continue to learn it because I like the decisions in the design of the language. I told him that one learns Esperanto through 180 hours of study, English through 900 hours of study, Polish through 2000 hours of study, and Chinese through 2400 hours of study.

Not a minute later, we saw a bus called "Esperanto" on the street. A simple normal daily bus, probably taking passengers towards the Esperanto street. It was going in the direction of the old city center.

Marketing professionals know that it usually takes 3 or more impressions to make a sale. A consumer will buy the thing after he has seen it a few times. In this sense, the passing of the bus certainly helped me not to look like a crazy nerd to my friend, who had never heard of Esperanto before.

Later I told this to my wife, who would not learn Esperanto. She joked:

— And then you signaled for the bus to stop, and when the door opened you sang to the driver: "Buenan diooooon"... and he turned to the other side, muttering "I swear, this bus line is the worst in the country"...

"Buenan diooooon"! I can't make up this sweet! (Correct Esperanto would be "Bonan tagon".)

And she's even right, since I pick my clothes like a 4-year-old who sees a t-shirt with a dinosaur on it and feels it represents him. In Warsaw I bought a Chopin-branded cap and a Chopin-branded t-shirt. I would definitely also wear clothes about Esperanto if I could find them. It's wonderful to live in an exceptional time when one doesn't have to hide one's eccentricities!

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But the story isn't over. My friend and I came upon an urban bicycle scheme and I pointed out:

— You see that word, "Veturilo", the name of the urban bike network?

— Yes.

— That's an Esperanto word. It means "tool to get around".

— Why is the name in Esperanto?

— More than a decade ago, when the urban bicycle network was implemented, the city allowed citizens to suggest names, then vote. The head of the Polish Esperanto Youth suggested "Veturilo". Common Varsovians didn't care (it wasn't important), and he organized for the world Esperanto community on the internet to vote for it, so "Veturilo" won.

And then when we had lunch, I actually wanted a Coke, but ordered a Mirinda instead...

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Anyway, it is not true that the Esperanto bus has passed. We can get on it at any time. As the dollar and the English language step aside for the yen and the Chinese language to pass, the world would do itself a huge favor by agreeing to use Esperanto instead, saving billions of dollars and trillions of hours of study.

In other words, sooner or later, economics guarantee the final victory.

In 1986, China even proposed that Esperanto become the main language in the United Nations.