_______________________________________________________________________ E A B N E T N E W S No 16 (24 Apr 2003) _______________________________________________________________________ *** Keeping you up-to-date about Esperanto, for people in the UK *** From Esperanto Association of Britain (For contact details please see footer) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. IRAQ: WHY CAN'T THEY SAY 'KEF'? 2. TEACHERS ASSESS NEW NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR LANGUAGES 3. THIS SATURDAY: LONDON CLUB CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS 4. EAB INFORMATION OFFICER APPOINTED 5. WHAT, WHERE? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. IRAQ: WHY CAN'T THEY SAY 'KEF'? There's a belief that wherever you are in the world, if you shout loudly enough in English they'll understand you. In a programme on BBC Radio 4 recently, a reporter described an interesting variation on this theme; he played back some recordings of coalition soldiers yelling in English at bemused locals in Baghdad, whilst pointing a gun at them. The reporter asked why the marines didn't use Arabic. "They all speak English", he was told. "But they don't", the reporter pointed out. "The Arabic for 'stop' is 'kef'", the reporter stated, proceeding to give a few more simple examples, including one in the polite form, which might just have gone down rather better, especially considering that it was a Friday. In the last EAB NetNews, just before the war, I wrote, "I wonder what the international stage would have looked like now if President Bush had been a fluent speaker of Arabic, Farsi and Korean. It wouldn't have solved the central problem, but at least we'd have had less of the crusading talk". Now, like the BBC reporter, I have to wonder how yelling in English is the best way of winning the hearts and minds of the people in Iraq. Of course, they wouldn't have understood Esperanto any better than English, but I don't think I would find many Esperantists who wouldn't at least have made the effort with a few life-or-death expressions in the local language, and been aware of some of the local sensitivities, when put into that sort of situation. The Universal Esperanto Association runs an email discussion group as part of its 'Language of Peace' programme ("Lughatu-ssalam / Lingvo de Paco"). The group aims to encourage dialogue between Arabs and non-Arabs, in any language, including Esperanto. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. TEACHERS ASSESS NEW NATIONAL STRATEGY FOR LANGUAGES In NetNews 10, we reported on the thinking behind a new national languages policy in the UK, and asked whether this could present an opportunity for Esperanto. The report was published late in December, under the title 'Languages for All: Languages for Life. A Strategy for England'. OK, it's not UK! That raises the question of what is happening in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but apart from that, the report is more-or-less as envisaged. So will it provide an opportunity to resume teaching Esperanto in our schools, which had to be abandoned when the National Curriculum laid down restrictions on which languages could be taught? Grahame Leon-Smith, as EAB spokesperson on Education, has drawn up a short strategy document for the Association, under the title 'A New Strategy - Language Learning for All'. The gist of it is that qualified teachers who are positive towards Esperanto should be encouraged to get involved with educational organisations. "We must actively campaign for more and better language teaching at (a) primary school level, (b) secondary school level, (c) Language Specialist Colleges, (d) Further Education Colleges, (e) Lifelong Learning, and (f) On-line learning", says Grahame's report. He is keen to get teachers involved on a professional basis, rather than as Esperantists. We should "campaign for language teaching in primary schools, emphasising the need to offer a choice of languages (not just French, which proved to be a disaster in the 1960s!)", writes Grahame. We should also "campaign (with other language teaching organisations) to reverse the Government's announced policy of removing a Modern Foreign Language as a compulsory subject a Key Stage 4 (14-16). This will be disastrous not only because very few pupils will opt to study a Modern Foreign Language at Key Stage 4 and obtain a GCSE qualification, but even fewer will study at A level, and even fewer will study a Modern Foreign Language at university. There is already an acute shortage of language teachers. If this policy is implemented, in a few years time there will be virtually none at all, thus making it impossible for pupils to achieve even moderate fluency in a language other than their own." A further point is to organise training courses for potential teachers and Teacher Associates. The National Strategy for Languages envisages the immediate removal of the present restrictions on which languages schools may teach. It also envisages widespread use of Language Assistants, who need not be qualified teachers, but who would be speakers of the foreign languages, perhaps having been brought in from abroad, or perhaps being bilingual local people. The National Strategy includes plans to support training courses for Language Assistants, as well as for teachers of other subjects, who wish to also teach a language. This should open up the field enormously for good speakers of Esperanto abroad, who wish to spend some time teaching the language in a foreign country, as many young Esperanto speakers do at present. The United Kingdom last year joined the Council of Europe's European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) based in Graz, Austria. "People with a professional stake in language learning will be able to contribute to and benefit from current best practice across Europe", says the Strategy document. The complete text of the National Strategy for Languages report may be downloaded from (46 pages in pdf), or requested in hard copy from: DfES Publications, Tel: 0845 6022260, email: . Grahame has set up a 'virtual education committee' email group. The first step in getting involved is to join that by sending a blank email to . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. THIS SATURDAY: LONDON CLUB CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS The famous campaigning journalist W. T. Stead, as editor of St. James Gazette in 1887, had been the first to report on the publication in Warsaw of the book 'International Language - Introduction and Complete Textbook, by Dr Esperanto'. But it wasn't until 1902 that he campaigned for Esperanto as editor of The Review of Reviews, which he had founded in 1890. He may well have been prompted by his secretary, Miss E A Lawrence, who had become interested in the language on a visit to Germany in 1901. This led in 1903 to the founding of the London Esperanto Club, in Stead's office at 14 Norfolk Street, The Strand, where the painter Felix Moscheles (son of the pianist Ignaz Moscheles, and godson of Felix Mendelssohn) became the club's first president. From that day on, the London Esperanto Club has served as a meeting-place and forum for Esperanto-speakers based in and around London, and also for the many overseas visitors who come here on business, to study, or as tourists. The Club now meets each Friday (except public holidays) at Fred Tallant Hall, 153 Drummond Street, NW1 2PB, near Tolmers Square. During these gatherings, all lectures, presentations, discussions, study sessions and business meetings use Esperanto as the sole means of communication. This Saturday (April 26), there will be a ceremony in Esperanto and English, with interpretation, to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the London Club. The time: 13:00. The venue: the Main School Lecture Theatre of the of the School of Oriental and African Studies in Thornhaugh Street. The first part of the meeting will be bilingual, and it is hoped to be interesting both for Esperanto speakers and others who may be just curious. The press have, of course, been invited. Further information from: Hussain Al-Amily Tel: 020 8842 4192 e-mail: hmalamily@hotmail.com. For Esperanto speakers, there will be a Festive Evening on Friday at the Club, and a 'Friendship Dinner' at Ana Montesinos's place in London. Stead's obituary can be read at . On the club's 75th anniversary, a book was published on the club's history (Londono Vokas 1903-1978, Harry Holmes) Hopefully, it will be available for sale at the celebrations. An outline programme is given at the club's website (English version) at . For locations look at Mutlimap and enter 'WC1 HOXG' for Saturday's event, 'NW1 2PB' for the London Esperanto Club meeting place. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. EAB INFORMATION OFFICER APPOINTED EAB now has a part-time information officer, who is working on publicity and promotional activities for the association. In the last NetNews we reported on Angela Tellier's appointment as Education Co-ordinator, with responsibility for the association's range of courses. The appointment of an Information Officer means that the association can now actively promote the language in a much more proactive way. The new information officer is ... well, erm... it's me, folks! The arrangement is a similar arrangement to Angela's, working from home on a one-day-a-week basis, so I'll be pretty busy (I really need one week a day!). I'll be taking over responsibility for the EAB website once the password reaches me. Initially I'll just keep it updated, until I've got an overall redesign ready. I'll also be looking at other areas, such as the Members' Handbook. In a previous incarnation, I took on similar work for the association, on a voluntary basis, as the committee member for press and public relations (That was for BEA, before the EAB Charity status had been registered). Then I had a working group to run the Press Panel, Esperanto Lobby, encourage local Press Officers, set up a Speakers' Panel, produce national press releases, and keep the international Esperanto press informed on what we were doing. One result was an increase in press cuttings received from our press cutting agency from about 285 per year to about 950 over a two year period. We also managed to set up an Esperanto Parliamentary Group, which just grew and grew, and at one stage had more MPs than the governing party had (when I mischievously claimed victory following a general election - I must have a rummage for that press release!). The same principles still apply, but the environment is very different. The Esperantists are much more geared to using the language internationally, on a day-to-day basis, over the Internet, or by phone. This is good from the promotional point of view, but only if the promotional Movement doesn't get subsumed by the Community. The outside world has changed, too. The two main objections to Esperanto used to be "They all speak English", and "It can never work!". It's not difficult now to show that Esperanto does work - just show a few video clips of children using the language, and you're there. The main point now is to show that whatever the position of English, we need to learn foreign languages. That is a point being made by the Government, as well as by the whole language teaching profession in the UK, and we are being told that by various ministers in the EU, too. I recently set up an joint meeting of the EAB Education Committee and the EAB Publicity Committee, for an open-ended discussion on policy. The point of this was that education, publicity and information are inextricably linked, and we need a joint strategy, and to work closely together. The highlight of the discussions turned out to be the National Strategy for Languages, which had been reported in previous issues of NetNews. One high priority for my own work is to collect information on what is happening in the field. I'd be interested if any Esperanto activists reading this could just drop me a quick email to alert me to local activities in their area - local clubs, courses, anyone willing to be a local representative, or anyone quietly beavering away on some project that we might not be aware of! It's crossed my mind that there might be some interest in an idea of having local 'activity centres' as an alternative, or a supplement, to local clubs. In the same way that people can run local courses without necessarily having a club, perhaps one could run local promotional activities to create more public awareness of Esperanto, without the need for a formal club. In the past, the natural route for those learning the language has been first to join the local club. But now, it's often just as easy - or perhaps even easier - to make contact with the whole world via the Internet. This prospect is far more attractive to people learning the language, and wanting to get out there and use it, especially for younger people, who don't usually show as much interest in local clubs as they would have done in, say the 1930s, when local clubs of all sorts were at their peak. Would the idea of local Activity Centres be popular, I wonder. I'm at . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. WHAT, WHERE? I've just been trying to upload an application form for this year's the British Esperanto Congress on the EAB website, having just received a password - but it didn't seem to want to let me in. So instead, I've posted it, as I did last year, on the NetNews archive site (see footer). So if you've been thinking about coming along to the this weekend event in Glasgow (23-26 May), here's your chance to turn thoughts into actions! Details are at . I read in EAB Update that there will be at least two forums, and an education session is also planned. We're hoping for a session on the National Languages Strategy, but I haven't requested this yet, and the event is getting a bit near. There'll be a talk by Ian Fantom, but I don't know what it will be about. Some aspect of information or communication, I expect. There'll be a lot of interesting stuff, too! Wedgwood Memorial College recently announced a new 'Course-you-can' course for Esperanto beginners and post-beginners, in October (24-26). See the bottom of . The same page also features this year's Esperanto Summer School (not for beginners). It looks interesting - there'll be a language session wandering around the village. If you want a quick lesson on Esperanto in Staffordshire by course tutor Paul Gubbins, take a look at the local BBC webpage at :-) If you're not thinking of going to Sweden for the World Esperanto Congress (July 26 - August 2: see previous NetNews), then interesting news has just come in: they're to broadcast it on the web at (enquiries to Franko Luin . Just a quick reminder of the Language Advantage party on May 8 for language mad people, and the SATEB weekend in Barlaston (May 16-18). -- ***************************************************************** EAB NETNEWS - a newsletter from Esperanto Association of Britain Wedgwood Memorial College, Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent, ST12 9DG, Tel: 01782 372 141 Fax: 01782 372 393 Website: Editor: Ian Fantom, eabnetnews@esperanto.org, tel: +44(0)1635 38592 Previous issues: Requests/cancellations to the editor. Introduction to Esperanto: ******************************************************************