If you have only just begun to take an interest in Esperanto and wish to know some basic information about this fascinating subject, please start your reading at the first article of this series. Having already completed 83 articles, I am now at the stage of writing articles for those readers who have learned quite a lot about the Esperanto language and movement already, and who are now wanting to find out more than just the basic introductory information. To get to the beginning of this series, please just click here:
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1146...
After you have read the first article, click on the link at the top of the page which says "Articles" to find the rest of the series, which is listed in reverse chronological order. ___________________________________________________
In this Topic article I am pleased to introduce to you a new voice, that of Alan Mendelawitz . Alan is a member of the Esperanto League of Western Australia and he has kindly sent to me his own ideas about teaching and learning a language. Included in the article is a brief description of a Cseh-method class which Alan witnessed at the 58th UK in Spain.
LEARNING NATURALLY
Contrary to what I read a while ago in an article written by a misguided academic, language does not begin with writing. No doubt he was only considering the languages of the major nations but most of the world's languages don't even have a system of writing. Nevertheless they function adequately because language begins with sounds which express concepts and not with symbols. Writing developed much later than speech.
Nobody taught me to speak English. Is it now a miracle that I can speak this language fluently? Perhaps it might be if I had been raised in a Chinese or Hungarian family but I wasn't, I was raised in an Australian family living in Perth, Western Australia. So it's only natural that I can speak English.
I've talked to intelligent people who were taught languages by means of the classic method of a providing a firm foundation of grammar plus an extensive vocabulary. This basis was supposed to be enough to enable them to speak the language. It worked well for some people but for others it was simply an arduous business which left them years later merely with a few remembered phrases.
Italian, Spanish, Esperanto - I've learned something of each and picked up a smattering of other tongues. After studying Italian for four years in the conventional way and even gaining a Certificate of Fluency some years ago, I can't speak it and I only understand bits here and there when I watch an Italian film, although I can usually get the gist of newspaper articles. After two terms of Spanish lessons at TAFE in 1999 I visited Spain and found that I spoke just enough to help me catch a train or order a coffee. Conversation was not possible.
