Boris Grigorevich Kolker (; born July 15, 1939, in

Tiraspol Tiraspol (, ; also /; , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Transnistria, a breakaway state of Moldova, where it is the third-largest city. The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River. Tiraspol is a regional hub of cul ...

Moldavian ASSR The Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, shortened to Moldavian ASSR, was an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, autonomous republic of the Ukrainian SSR between 12 October 1924 and 2 August 1940, encompassing the modern territory ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

) is a language teacher, translator and advocate of the international language

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

. He was until 1993 a Soviet and Russian citizen and since then has been a resident and citizen of the United States residing in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

. In 1985 he was awarded a Ph.D. in linguistics from the Institute of Linguistics of the

Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Biography

Dr. Kolker learned Esperanto in 1957 and is the author of articles on

interlinguistics Interlinguistics, also known as cosmoglottics, is the science of planned languages that has existed for more than a century. Formalised by Otto Jespersen in 1931 as the science of interlanguages, in more recent times, the field has been more fo ...

, book reviews and three famous Esperanto textbooks for students of different levels. Due to the great popularity of his book '' :eo:Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando (Travels in Esperanto-Land)'', which is both a proficiency course in Esperanto and a guidebook to Esperanto culture, he is known to many as a guide to Esperanto-Land. Kolker is a member of the Academy of Esperanto,Oficialaj Informoj de la Akademio de Esperanto
/ref> an honorary member of the World Esperanto Association (Universala Esperanto Asocio), and an associate editor of the monthly magazine '' Monato''. For two decades he headed a large-scale Esperanto correspondence course in Russia that graduated around 900 students. He also taught Esperanto at American universities in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. Currently he runs the International Proficiency Correspondence Esperanto Course and is also Vice President of the International Examination Board for the International League of Esperanto Instructors (ILEI). At various times he was steering committee member of the World Esperanto Association (Universala Esperanto Asocio), co-founder and co-leader of nationwide Esperanto organizations in the

and Russia. He has lectured and spoken publicly at several World Congresses of Esperanto and in 2000 he directed the theme of the 85th

World Congress of Esperanto The World Esperanto Congress (, UK) is an annual Esperanto convention. It has the longest tradition among international Esperanto conventions, with an almost unbroken run for 119 years. The congresses have been held since August 5, 1905, every ye ...

in Tel-Aviv.

References

External links

Doctoral thesis

*
Вклад русского языка в формирование и развитие эсперанто
' (The contribution of the Russian language to the emergence and development of Esperanto). - Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences, Linguistic Institute, 1985. - 23 p. Synopsis of doctoral thesis in Russian language.

Textbooks

*
Vojaĝo en Esperanto-lando. Perfektiga kurso de Esperanto kaj Gvidlibro pri la Esperanto-kulturo.
' (Travels in Esperanto-Land. Proficiency Course in Esperanto and a Guidebook to Esperanto Culture). *

'. (Esperanto textbook. Elementary course.) *

'. Ekspres-kurso. (Esperanto in 16 days. Express-course.) *
Internacia lingvo Esperanto. Plena lernolibro.
' (International language Esperanto. Complete textbook.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kolker, Boris 1939 births Living people People from Tiraspol Moldovan Jews Jewish Esperantists American people of Moldovan-Jewish descent Akademio de Esperanto members Russian Esperantists American Esperantists Academics from Cleveland