I didn't go to Afton Station this morning because some important things came up here in Tulsa. This is the last time I'll allow this to happen, but I decided it was a good day to get some somewhat urgent things done at home since it's another ugly rainy day which is probably not very traveler-friendly anyway.
I found this strange video on the internet. It's the song "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" sung in Esperanto. If you've never heard of Esperanto, it's defined in Wikipedia as "the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. The word esperanto means "one who hopes" in the language itself. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy to learn and politically neutral language that would serve as a universal second language to foster peace and international understanding."
In other words, it's a language that isn't really spoken by anyone, but it's there in case we need it. :-) Obviously, someone learned enough of it to translate this song. I'm posting it here just because I think it's kind of bizarre.
5 comments:
Maybe I could get my wife to sing "Route 66" in Mandarin. And get my deaf friend to sing it in American Sign Language.
Trevor, that's actually a great idea! I'd post both of them!
Wow. Agnieszka (the singer) has such a nice voice!
There are actually quite a few people who speak Esperanto, even here in the USA. It's a great way to share one's culture with folks from other parts of the world. Speaking of YouTube, there's a video called Esperanto estas... that explains it nicely. :-)
Not bizarre for people who speak Esperanto, however :)
There are enough second and third generation Esperanto speakers now, many of whom have this global language as their mother-tongue.
See http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=l0ErKbLL5WQ
Yes, I did a little reading on Esperanto before posting this, because once years ago I thought about learning it myself. I didn't realize, however, that there are worldwide Esperanto clubs where people get together to practice and speak the language. The idea of having an international language definitely appeals to me. Singing "Route 66" in Esperanto was the thing that struck me as bizarre.
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