Cafe Esperanto - Event - Saturday 23 July 2011

Whitstable Museum and Gallery Education Space 

Oxford Street, Whitstable, Kent, CT5 1DB

Café Esperanto 

'To learn another language is to live another life' - Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk

Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto (Dr. Hopeful), the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. 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.

We propose to create a language café inspired by the idea of Esperanto - a politically neutral language - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto

The café will allow for people to practice a foreign language by speaking with others. An informal interactive language centre for public participation including video and audio activities. A temporary environment where people are encouraged to speak with others using a foreign language. Games and props will be on hand to 

enable dialogue. 

This one-day event for the people of Whitstable will be organised in association with the Whitstable Twinning Association (WTA). The event will take place during the annual Oyster Festival in Whitstable where a large number of tourists descend on the seaside town. The event is planned for Saturday 23rd July 2011 to coincide with a visit from one of Whitstable’s Twin Towns - Albertslund, Denmark. The WTA members are speakers of different languages. 

We will attempt to collaborate with the WTA and utilise their knowledge of other European languages. The event will run from 12pm until 6pm in the Museum’s Education space, a venue that we will transform to give a café atmosphere and which is located on Whitstable high street. It will be a social occasion and an opportunity to bring people together who wish to practice speaking European languages.