Message-Id: <199311071840.AA00827@eli.CS.YALE.EDU>
Date:         Sun, 7 Nov 1993 13:38:23 EST
Reply-To: Jorge LLambias <jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU>
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN%CUVMB.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU>
From: Jorge LLambias <jorge@PHYAST.PITT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: another new query (ketco)
To: Erik Rauch <rauch>
Status: RO

la lojbab cusku di'e

> I received another snail mail query, in this case from Colombia, written in
> Esperanto.  I suspect that the person has therefore seen the Esperanto
> brochure and/or been given our address by Esperanto Central.  In any event,
> I have no evidence that the person knows any English.

I bet he does. He must have read an issue of ju'i lobypli, given that
he writes to its address.

> I don't know if Nick/Mark S. ever translated anything more than the brochure
> (they talked about doing more at one time), and Nick's draft Esperanto gismu
> list, or whether you have considered writingor translating anything into
> Spanish.

I started translating the gismu list into Spanish, but haven't finished yet.
Somehow it seems that anyone interested in learning Lojban will have learned
English first. And I must admit that I wouldn't advise anybody to learn Lojban
as their first second language (or any language other than English, for
that matter, simply for practical reasons. I hope no Esperantist hears me
saying this. :)

I'd be interested in seeing the draft Esperanto list, could you send it Nick?

> In any event, I would appreciate it if you could answer this person in
> Esperanto or Spanish as you feel appropriate, and keep me informed.

I will answer in Esperanto, with some comment in Spanish, in case he
prefers that.

> If he wants any materials in English, I can send them, but see no reason to
> do so if he can't read them.

I'll ask him, but I'm sure he can at least read English.

BTW, I didn't receive any answer from the guy from Spain yet.

> I'm ccing this to Nick and Mark, so they can comment as approproate.  We seem
> to be increasing in queries in both Esperanto and Spanish in the last few
> months, and we need to consider our international information spreading and
> teaching capabilities at some point.  If you think a List discussion is
> useful, by all means.  Veijo might have some ideas, for example, or Colin
> Fine.

Yes, by all means, I love discussions. In my opinion, to have information
material in other languages would serve only to give a more international
image, but it would have little practical use. I very much doubt that anyone
who doesn't already speak English would consider learning Lojban at this
point, and anyway, it's not much use having brochures if to learn the
vocabulary you need to understand English.

It would have been nice to have the list defining gismu in more than one
language, so that the meanings were not too attached to particular English
words, but I don't think that is much of a problem. I think that the first
things to translate should be the gismu and cmavo lists.

Jorge

> lojbab
> =======================
> Luis Guillermo Restrepo
> Apado. Ae'reo 4262
> Medellin
> COLOMBIA
>
>
> Medelli'n.  oktobro 19a, 1993     Internacia Lingvo ESPERANTO
>
>
> JU'I LOBYPLI
> Grupo por Logika Lingvo
> 2904 Beau Ln.
> Fairfax, VA 22031-1303
> USONO
>
>
> Gesinjoroj:
>
> Mi estas interesata pri recevi informojn pri via Lojban projekto, kaj
> viaj publikajoj.
> Bonvole sendu respondon al mia pos^ta adreso.
>
>
> Dankon. Amikece via:
>
> Luis Guillermo RESTREPO RIVAS
> =====================
> End of forwarded message