1 post tagged “esperanto”

I don't come in contact with Esperanto much. First time was several years ago when I was in China, when an old Chinese man did attempts to talk Esperanto with me so he could play International Chess (Esperanto-writ rules) with me.

Luckily my knowledge of Romance languages was good enough for me to understand this 'neutral' language. Nevertheless I lost miserably (I'm not a very decent chess player). But last Snowboard holiday I ran into it again, on probably the most unlikely place I've ever thought possible: A bag for Sanitary Pads. This is what it said:

Higiena saketo
por menstrusorbiloj.
Bonvolu ne meti ĝin en la pelvon,
sed en la tiucelan ujon.
La ĉâmbristino forigon ĝin.

Now I don't know much of Esperanto, but I recognise it when I see it. And it only leaves me to wonder "why?". What exactly possessed anyone to put Esperanto on a Bag for Sanitary pads?

The choice of languages on the bad itself was already a bit odd, right above Esperanto we find:

Lütfen Adet bezlerinizi WC
atamayiniz, bu torbaya koyup
çöp tenekesine atiniz.

Turkish. In Switzerland?

Let me just transcribe the other ones for your pleasure.

für
Damenbinden
Bitte nicht in' s WC, sondern in den Toiletten-Eimer werfen.

in' s instead of ins. Was this bag designed by one of the 200 to 2000 rumoured native speakers of Esperanto?

Bag for Sanitary Pads
Please do not throw in WC., but in the pail,
will be removed by chamber maid!

Sac pour Serviettes Hygiéniques
Prière de ne pas jeter dans les W.C.,
la femme de menage les enlevera!

Sachetto
igienico per fascie igieniche
Si prega de non gettarie nel gabinetto,
bensi di metterie nel cestino toilette.
Sarà allontanato dalla cameriera.

I thought some of you would find this amusing. I did.

Assuming that I'm identifying the last quoted language correctly as Italian, I wonder why there isn't any Rhaeto-Roman. The region where I was in Switzerland, Rhaeto-Roman is still the native tongue of everyone there, and classes are given in said language.  Surely it can't be the obscuritym, since they're including Esperanto.

Oh well. I'll see if I can make a picture of it.