Esperanto-USA

On 5 June 2006 at a private school in Redwood City, California, USA, I taught three 90-minute classes of 25 to 30 students each about Esperanto. This was a one-day word fair, with lots of presenters on different topics, and was mostly meant to be fun for the kids. The 3rd and 4th grade, the 5th and 6th grade, and the 7th and 8th grades comprised the three groups.

Enrique Ellemberg was able to be there and help with all three sessions; he helped move the huge alphabet-learning apparatus, watched over my pronunciation, and helped monitor the kids when they separated into smaller groups to translate (yes, they actually were able to read the simple penpal messages in JunAmiko; the 7th and 8th graders even wrote some simple sentences of their own).

Each student in each class I took learned "Kio estas via nomo?" and "Mia nomo estas ..." and "Kie vi loĝas?" and "Mi loĝas en ..." (which I taught using the direct method). They also learned the Esperanto alphabet, and got a chance to look through some Esperanto books and magazines. They each got green pens with the ELNA address and website URL, and some "cool" candy (who knew there were such things as gummi pizzas?).

Because it is a private school, and because I've been invited back for next year, I don't want to publish photos or an article about this presentation, since that would be encroaching on their privacy. I don't have permission from the school for that. But I'm looking forward to more experiences like this.

I'm not officially a "teacher" of Esperanto. I'm just using my TESOL experience, my Berlitz experience, and my love of the language to generate good feelings about Esperanto in a group of kids. I think they had fun with Esperanto, and so will continue to be favorable to it, whether or not they decide to go on learning it.

I have a long way to go before being a proficient Esperantist, of course, but I'm stimulated in that direction by this experience. I want to thank Trio, my first face-to-face Esperanto teacher, for making it fun for me - I hope that my making it fun for close to a hundred kids is, in a way, a payment of my debt to Trio.