Should We Teach American Children Esperanto?
I came across an idea about introducing Esperanto as a foreign language subject in American schools a couple of weeks ago on the social action network, Change.org. According to the web site, “The Ideas for Change in America competition was created in response to Barack Obama’s call for increased citizen involvement in government.” The top 10 rated ideas on the site will be presented to Obama’s administration on January 16.
When I first saw the Esperanto idea, I didn’t give it too much thought. At the time, it had only about 300 votes. But I checked back today and there are now 2,682 votes, putting it in a close second place among ideas in education, and 29th place overall.
What do you think of this? Here’s the link: Introduce Esperanto as a foreign language subject in schools to help American kids succeed.
I am a HUGE supporter of early language learning. I am passionate about it. I teach my own children, I teach high school students, I devote hours to this Foreign Language Fun site, and I promote language learning whenever and wherever I can. I think Esperanto is cool. But I would not vote for this idea.
I don’t believe that any one language should be endorsed over another, and especially not by the American government. I understand that the premise is to introduce students to Esperanto first, and then to continue later with other languages. But there are people who will argue for Spanish only, or Mandarin only, or (sadly) English only. I, for one, can make a great case why children should learn French. But isn’t the important issue the fact that U.S. children need to learn languages and develop cultural understanding? I cringe when school districts eliminate choices or when individuals dismiss the value of any language.
What I want to see are diverse, high-quality language programs in elementary schools across the country with the funding to support them. But I don’t want the government deciding that all children must learn a particular language. Any early language learning will have a positive impact on future language study.
Again, I am not opposed to Esperanto. I just refuse to endorse any one language over another.
Please share your comments. I am really curious to find out what you think about teaching American kids Esperanto.
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Comments
It’s interesting that in Briton, all the children learn a foreign language for about 4 years, but most of the adults in Briton only speak English. Most of the ones that do speak a foreign language do so because the have some kind of practical investment in the country/culture.
For me, learning a foreign language in school was a hard chore that I was glad to be free of when my secondary school finished and I had the freedom to choose my own educational path. After the 4 years I had a very bad knowledge of French, and no interest in the country or culture. My education had put me off languages for good.
If I would had learned Esperanto however, it may have given me a confidence and advantage to pursue other languages of personal interest.
Esperanto helps you learn other languages, and it only takes a little kid two years to become fluent, as if it was one of their first languages. Compare that to Spanish, where it takes six to seven years for a little kid to become fluent. And while Spanish is helpful in learning some other languages, the fact is that it isn’t really going to be that big of a plus when learning non-romance languages. The same with most other languages.
Esperanto, on the other hand, has been shown to increase a person’s ability to learn other languages. So when teaching it to a little kid, they will probably do better with a foreign language than someone who was *not* introduced to Esperanto at an early age. There are children who learned Esperanto as their first language, and went on to become what we can call ‘hyperpolyglots’. That is, they have learned around thirty languages fluently. And considering there are more native Esperantists who became hyperpolyglots than not, it can’t just be a coincidence.
I think you are missing the point of learning Esperanto.
Teaching Esperanto is the only way to teach languages without endorsing any language over another. Because it is kind of a mix of lots of languages, and it’s not attached to a specific culture or country. That’s why it can really be called a “universal language”.
I think Esperanto is an special and exceptional language, and it should be thaught everywhere. Simply because what I’ve just exposed, and because it’s easy to learn. Also, knowing Esperanto makes it easier to learn new languages in the future.
So, it’s not endorsing one language over another. It’s provinding children a powerful tool for learning new languages, without endorsing one country/culture over another.