Report from North Texas

Report from North Texas

Subject: Presentation about Esperanto to the non-Esperanto public.
Date: Saturday, July 29, 2006, 5pm to 7pm
Location: The Talar Andishe restaurant, 525 W. Arapaho Rd, #26, Richardson, TX 75080
Who: The Esperanto Club of North Texas
How many: 25 in attendance, including 8 from the club

The members of the Esperanto Club of North Texas (EKNT) successfully presented Esperanto to a good group of non-Esperanto speakers. Five members of the club participated in the presentation: Moloud Saghafian, Earl Bills (Jarlo), Fred Meyer, Rhanda Hasley, and Phil Dorcas (Filipo). Susan Meyer helped in many ways with the preparation and registration of the visitors. We welcomed our two newest members, Bill Richards kaj Dan Dockrill.

This restaurant is a cultural center for people of the Iranian culture. They gather at Talar Andishe to chat, have a sandwish and soup, and enjoy their common culture. Therefore, Moloud began the presentation in the Farsi language. The room had a truly international atmosphere. After her good speech in Farsi, the other club members added their comments in English.

We gave an introduction to the language and culture of Esperanto. We told stories about our own experiences, mainly about our arrival in Esperantoland. We sang three songs, Esperanto estas la lingvo por mi, Jen Nia Mondo, and our anthem La Espero. Rhanda accompanied the singing on the piano. To close the presentation, we announced the course that will take place on Mondays, beginning the 14th of August.

At the entry table we had papers to get the names of those who
(1) have an interest in the language,
(2) have an interest in our club, and/or
(3) want to take the course.

In all, five people indicated that they want to take the course.

Two weeks remain until the course begins. Therefore we will further advertise the course to those who possibly will have an interest. We will inform all club members, all nearby members of ELNA, and others who we know in the local area.

For the course we will use the textbook from ELNA, Esperanto, Learning and Using the International Language, by David Richardson. The main instructor will be Filipo, who will get help from other club members. The cost of the course will be $35, which will be for the book, room rental, and for handouts, which the instructor will print and give to students. We will also use the DVD Pasporto al la Tuta Mondo if we have a good enough screen and DVD player. The course will take place in the Plano Community Home.

The main instructor will create the lessonplans with the help and cooperation of other club members.

The goal for the course is that the students will be able to have command of the ten lessons in the textbook by the finish of the course. They will have the four basic skills, reading, writing, listening, and speaking. We will also aim for making new friends and having a fun time together.

Of course, we will welcome the students also to our club meetings, which occur at Talar Andishe each second Saturday of the month at five o'clock.

To enable the presentation to take place, we began the planning two months in advance. The main success was a direct result of the announcements that Moloud gave to her many Iranian friends. We also had the posters in the restaurant for several days. Moloud made many personal face-to-face contacts with our friends. We announced the program in our club email listgroup, and thus all club members were kept informed.

Several days beforehand, I sent announcements about the presentation to various news agencies, such as CNN, Fox, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Morning News, and various radio and television stations. We will also send announcements to them regarding the course itself.

The club works well together. Many thanks especially to Moloud for her strong and inspirational actions, and to our hosts, Elizabeth and Hasad, owners of Talar Andishe.

- filipo reporting to the Educational Secretary. July 29, 2006.
Phil Dorcas
filipo [cxe] grupoj.org