The Fall 2022 issue (#196) of Communities magazine published an article by member Jeremy Genovese titled “Esperanto: The Rise, Fall, and Rise of an Intentional Language Community.”

The article is especially apropos, given that the theme of the issue is The Language of Community. The author presents a general introduction to the language, its history, and culture, and it touches on the interest in Esperanto that has accompanied the rise of the Internet:

… Esperantists could communicate rapidly, first with message boards and email, later with Skype and social media. There are now internet platforms, such as Lernu.net and Duolingo, where one can learn the language. This process was vastly accelerated by the pandemic, when many Esperanto groups migrated to Zoom and similar online services …

It concludes with a description of the author’s personal experiences with the language:

I now have friends and acquaintances in places like Brazil, Egypt, and India, whom I never would have met outside of the Esperanto community. […]

As a native English speaker I may enjoy an advantage over those who come to English as their second language. Except for a handful of people who learn Esperanto as young children, for the majority of Esperanto speakers it is our second language. Thus, our conversations take place on a much more equal playing field.