Lasu min paroli plu

by Claude Piron

Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Claude Piron, a linguist and psychologist, was a translator for the United Nations (from Chinese, English, Russian and Spanish into French) from 1956 to 1961.

After leaving the UN, he worked the world over for the World Health Organization.

He was a prolific author of Esperanto works. He spoke Esperanto from childhood and used it in Japan, the People's Republic of China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, in Africa and Latin America, and in nearly all the countries of Europe.

In some of his books, he used the pseudonym "Johán Valano."

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the reading book that accompanies and keeps pace with 'Gerda Malaperis', a short story written to assist in learning the Esperanto universal language. It consists of a series of short and random chapters, each comprising a monologue in the form of speech, a letter, or a telephone conversation. It suffers from the same weakness as its companion volume in that the early chapters feel excessively unnatural and contrived. This is, however, inevitable in view of their intention to provide practice in the use of aspects characteristic of Esperanto. As the passages become longer and more complex, they ironically become easier to read, as the text begins to feel more natural, and there is a more comprehensive context. I could have wished that the chapters followed some kind of narrative logic that cumulatively creates a story. But, because each is entirely unconnected with the others, it can take a while to deduce the context and intention of the speaker. This said, I have found it an excellent means of practising the peculiar characteristics of Esperanto, which, though designed to be completely logical and easy to learn, can at times seem irritatingly contrived. I find that, when translating a given passage, it can be a case less of recognising learned words but more of deducing their meaning by breaking them down into their logical parts. This makes Esperanto feel like a mathematician's or logician's language rather than a natural way of communicating. Still, it allows for meaning to be deduced without the need to learn a huge vocabulary. Though I was irritated by the artificiality of the book's early chapters (to the extent that I abandoned reading it for some time), I am glad I did in the end finish reading it. I now feel well prepared to move on to reading more advanced Esperanto texts.

[H.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bonega ekzerco kaj profunda plonĝo en la lernadon de Esperanto, kvankam kelkaj monologoj estas strangaj. Amuze ankaŭ, ke la aŭtoro konfuzas postaĵojn (posteriors) kun poŝtaĵoj (items of mail). Plej verŝajne ĝi estis ŝerco.

An excellent exercise and a deep dive into learning Esperanto, though some of the monologues are strange. Amusing, too, that the author confuses postaĵoj (posteriors) with poŝtaĵoj (items of mail). Most likely it was a joke.