The personal web site of Rick Koshko (married name Rick Wiegmann Koshko).
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My compendium of links to useful, interesting, and cool web sites.

What Esperanto is
Its status
A living language
The future
An uphill battle
An intriguing hobby

To contact me
Click here for the email form.

Esperanto has had its ups and downs since the European eye doctor who invented it put it in the world's hands. Many people I've met recall hearing something about it in the 1940's or 1950's. But they never heard anything since, until I told them I speak it. They're suprised to find out about two million other people also speak it today.

That figure, from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA, is among the most conservative estimates. I've seen estimates upwards of ten million. It's hard to say exactly how many there are because it's not as simple as counting heads.

People in almost all countries and from a multitude of ethnic groups have learned Esperanto, but nowhere is it as prominent as ethnic languages. Its speakers are well organized in activity groups in some places, while they are scattered too far and wide for organization in others. And some governments have published questionable figures purporting to count Esperanto club memberships.

At any rate, contrary to what you may have heard Esperanto isn't dead.