de^ord-AmerikrWJEN) The °^9aniaati&n °f Yspevanto-Speaking Young Americans PUBLICITY SECTION News Digest 4 Central Street Millers Falls, Massachusetts 01349 No. 7 November, 1967 NEW JOURNAL TO CAP RIGHTS YEAR ACTIVITY: The Center for Research and Documentation on the World Language Problem, located in London, has announced that it will launch a new multilingual scholarly journal as the culmination of its contribution to the International Year of Human Rights 1968, proclaimed by the United Nations. The journal will be entitled La Monda Lingvo-Pvoblemo (The World Language Problem) and will publish articles on the social, legal, political, economic, psychological, and linguistic aspects of the language problem through- out the world. The first issue will be dated December 10, 1968, the 20th anni- versary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and will constitute the beginning of Volume I (1969) of the journal, which will come out three times a year. La Monda Lingvo-Pvoblemo will contain articles in many languages, with summaries in the international language Esperanto. It will be under the direc- tion of an Editorial Committee of eminent scholars, including professors Mario Pei (United States), Gaston Waringhien (France), and E.A. Bokarev (U.S.S.R.). EDITOR EXPLAINS AIMS: Dr. Victor Sadler, who will edit the new journal, writes about its purposes in an article in this month's issue of the magazine Esperanto. "The language problem", says Sadler, "is undoubtedly more severe and more widespread today than ever before in history. And yet the world's poli- ticians, scientists, and other intellectuals mostly act as if the problem did not exist. Large sums of money go to support linguistic research on forgotten dia- lects or tombstone inscriptions, while the basic rights of linguistic minorities, language discrimination in international relations — in short, the living prob- lems of living people — are almost totally ignored. Some simply resign them- selves to the language problem as a natural pestilence that will never be over- come; others flee into the comfort of a limited unilingual environment and for- get that in other situations and other countries conflict over language is lead- ing to suffering, hostility, and even death." INFORMATION CAMPAIGN PLANNED ON LANGUAGE DISCRIMINATION: In observance of the International Year of Human Rights, declared for 1968 by the United Na- tions, the Universal Esperanto Association is planning wide-ranging activities, including a campaign to make the world more conscious of language discrimination, which the second article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights specifical- ly condemns. As the first step the Association has reissued the Declaration in Esperanto and is distributing it throughout the world. The Declaration has been printed in 61 languages since its original proclamation in 1948. ESPERANTO ADDED TO CURRICULUM AT FINNISH UNIVERSITY: On October 2, 1967, two official courses, one elementary and one advanced, in the internation- al language Esperanto were added to the curriculum of the University of Helsinki, the largest university in Finland. They are taught by Vilho Setala, a member of the Academy of Esperanto and the author of a popular Esperanto textbook used' around the world. These courses are one more instance of the recent trend toward officialization of Esperanto in universities, where it is often given as an extra- curricular subject. The latest count (1965-66) of official university Esperanto courses showed them to be given in at least 16 universities, in countries ranging from Franco's Spain to Mao's China, and including the United States and Great Britain. Page 2 November, 1967 JEN LASHES LANGUAGE BIGOTRY ON COAST: A member of the Executive Board of JEN — the organization of Esperanto-speaking young Americans — has written a letter of criticism to Mrs. Cecilia Ross, editor of the Northern California For- eign Language Newsletter, after she called the international language a "gadget" with "no literature of its own" and alleged that "there are no mothers who speak it to their children". Editor Ross's anti-Esperanto views, together with exerpts from letters of William H. Schulze, member of the Executive Board of the Esperan- to League for North America, appeared in the May and October issues of the news- letter, which is published by the Foreign Language Association of Northern Cali- fornia (FLANC) and is read widely by language teachers in that area. Among Mrs. Ross's arguments is the assertion "that throughout the globe English has become the language of communication", as evidenced, for example, by her discovery in Baghdad that "those Arab dealers squatting down on the warm stones all know the numbers in English." JEN DECLARES: YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR: Francis R. Lanzone, Jr., a member of the Executive Board of JEN, has written Editor Ross a letter of protest on behalf of the entire JEN Executive Board. Taking up the alleged cultural barren- ness of Esperanto, the letter says, "when you say Esperanto has no soul, you have gone too far. It is precisely because Espe- ranto has a soul that it has survived eigh- ty years of the kind of scorn you have seen fit to cast upon it." Lanzone goes on to cite the romances, the humor, the drama, and the poetry (written by everyone from California elementary school children to the late Julio Baghy of Hungary) which owe their existence — and give a soul -- to Esperanto. PENNSYLVANIA PROFESSOR OFFERS CORRECTIONS: Dr. Humphrey Tonkin, assis- tant professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, also wrote Editor Ross, giving evidence and references in support m i. i \ I. -■ j of the contentions that Esperanto is a -*J-.lHlr\ ^WT\'^~ complete language, not a gadget; that M ^»—f 1 ll^'O Esperanto has an extensive and diverse literature; that many children do grow up in homes where Esperanto is one of the family languages; and that other asser- tions made by Mrs. Ross were based on a lack of acquaintance with the relevant sources of information. Observing Mrs. Ross's examples of how English is supposedly conquering the world, Tonkin con- cluded, "Are not foreign language teachers dedicated to the belief that each language has qualities uniquely its own, which should if possible be preserved and defended against cultural domination from outside? A neutral second language seems the answer — a kind of unity in diversity." PUBLISHED ESPERANTO TRANSLATIONS JUMP 400% IN DECADE: The Center for Research and Documentation on the World Language Problem has reported a 400% increase in the number of published translations from other languages into Espe- ranto during the ten years ending in 1966, in a document issued in October for UNESCO's annual Index Translationum. Of the 344 listed translations (mostly books) published during the decade, 137 were literary, 92 were on social topics, and 45 were of works dealing with history, geography, or biography. The statis- tics also show that Esperanto translations discriminate less against the world's small languages than is commonly observed elsewhere: although more than 70% of all the translations in the world are from English, Russian, French, and German, less than half of the translations into Esperanto are from these major tongues. The document does not cover the large body of works written originally in the international language. Esperanto has also proved itself useful as a translation "bridge", not only between East and West, but also between the languages of the Far East. A volume of short stories from Vietnam is now a big success in Japan, after being translated from Vietnamese into Esperanto and thence to Japanese. Called In the Middle of the Flames, the Japanese edition has already had several printings. Page 3 November, 1967 RECENT EVENTS YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS FOUNDED IN TWO SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES: Colombian and Brazilian young speakers of the international language Esperanto have recent- ly set up national organizations to further their interests. The international organization of young speakers of Esperanto — TEJO — aided the establishment of the group in Colombia. Introduction of Esperanto into the schools will be one of the main projects of the new organization in Brazil, where educational and other authorities have for long maintained a friendly and supporting attitude toward the international language. ESPERANTO SHOWING NEW LIFE IN U.S.S.R.: Word coming from the Soviet Union indicates that an increasingly vigorous Esperanto movement, with youth playing an active part, exists in that country. 580 speakers of the inter- national language, of whom 150 were students, met in Lithuania during the past summer, while to the south and east in Sochi and Uzbekistan Esperanto camps were held. These events and others give hope that Esperanto, frowned upon under Stalin, is once again being tolerated and even encouraged in the U.S.S.R. PROFESSOR CALLS FOR SCIENTISTS' SUPPORT: Professor L.A. Ware, of the University of Iowa, has been communicating with scientists and engineers in a campaign to increase American support of Saienaa Revuo, the journal of the Inter- national Society of Esperanto-Speaking Scientists. Ware has written that scien- tists "owe it to their professions to make some attempt to solve the growing problem of vast and expensive programs of translation among an increasing number of languages, and to their self respect to show that they are not defeated by a problem which actually has a comparatively simple solution." Information about the Society and its journal is available from Prof. L.A. Ware, Engineering Buil- ding, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52240. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ESPERANTO SPEAKERS MEET: The second Southern California Esperanto Conference was held October 27-2 9 at San Diego, with the theme, "Esperanto in Foreign Travel". Among the approximately 40 participants were guests from England, Denmark, and Japan. As a result of discussions at its business meeting, the Conference offered a 5-point plan to promote the use of Esperanto in facilitating travel, especially of foreigners to the United States. Part of the meeting on the second day of the Conference was covered by ABC Tele- vision and telecast that evening in San Diego. PENINSULA SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ADDRESSES TEACHERS ON ESPERANTO: Dr. Edwin Feldman, principal of Meadow Heights School in San Mateo, California, gave a luncheon talk to a Foreign Languages in the Elementary Schools (FLES) conference, attended by about 250 teachers, in San Francisco on October 21. Feldman des- cribed the successful educational experiences that San Mateo school children have had with Esperanto, as well as the use he himself made of the international lang- uage during his sabbatical study tour of European schools during 1966-67. He stressed the broader horizons that Esperanto offers a school child, in giving him communication with the whole world rather than only one nation and culture. JEN MEMBER STARTS ESPERANTO BROADCAST: Beginning this fall, JEN member Scott Aleshire is conducting a Wednesday-evening broadcast partly in and partly about Esperanto, on KSPC (FM), a college station in California. Individuals or groups with news items of general interest about Esperanto are invited to send them to Scott Aleshire, Oldenborg Center, Pomona College, Claremont, Calif. 91711. PUBLICATIONS EDUCATION AIDS OFFERED BY INFORMATION CENTER: A complete line of edu- cational resource kits for teaching Esperanto is now being offered by the Espe- ranto Information Center of Hillsborough, California. The kits, many of which include sets of language laboratory tapes, are useful at all school levels, from elementary to college, and including adult education. Write for a free catalog of these kits to the Center (address on page 4). Page 4 November, 1967 NEW DICTIONARY CALLED BEST YET; The Esperanto-English Dictionary, by Montagu C. Butler, which was published this year in London, has been called "absolutely the best Esperanto dictionary in English that has thus far appeared" by J.C. Wells in a lengthy critical review in the October issue of Esperanto, the official journal of the world movement for the international language. The need for an up-to-date Esperanto-to-English dictionary has been acute, since the dic- tionary of Edward A. Millidge, which has been the standard work until this year, has not been fully revised since 1924 and more recent dictionaries have been of pocket size. The new dictionary by Butler is available from the West Coast Espe- ranto Book Service (address below). Price: $3.50. /IMPORTANT ADDRESSES/ INFORMATION CENTER, ESPERANTO LEAGUE (E.I.C.) Room 821, 156 5th Avenue, New York, New York 10010 ESPERANTO INFORMATION CENTER (WEST COAST E.I.C.) 410 Darrell Road, Hillsborough, California 94010 WEST COAST ESPERANTO BOOK SERVICE 2129 Elizabeth Street, San Carlos, California 94070 /HOW TO WRITE TO JEN/ Send general inquiries to Arthur Morse, Secretary of JEN 4 Central Street, Millers Falls, Massachusetts 01349 Send inquiries about membership, supportership, and subscriptions to Robert Rothenmeyer, Membership Secretary of JEN 4 Central Street, Millers Falls, Massachusetts 01349 Send orders for the Research Bibliography (25t for JEN members, 50«? for others) to Francis R. Lanzone, Jr., Treasurer of JEN 2129 Elizabeth Street, San Carlos, California 94070 Send inquiries about international correspondence with Esperanto to Miss Ellen A. Lewis, Director of JEN Correspondence Service 15 Salisbury Road, Brookline, Massachusetts 02146 Send material for the News Digest, and inquiries about the International Corres- pondence Course, to Jonathan Pool, Editor and Course Director of JEN 377 International House, 1414 East 59th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637 MEMBERSHIP — SUPPORTERSHIP — SUBSCRIPTION It is time to renew memberships, supporterships, and subscriptions for 1968. Please use the enclosed blank, and renew promptly so that your News Digest will keep arriving without interruption. If you are under 30 years old, we invite you to be a member; if 30 or over, we hope you will be a supporter. Any person, group, or institution may also simply subscribe to one or more copies of the News Digest. (Members of the Esperanto League receive the News Digest auto- matically. They will receive another copy — handy to give to friends who ask about Esperanto — plus additional JEN publications and privileges if they become members or supporters of JEN.) In addition, JEN is again offering its highly popular Magazine-a-Month Plan, which gives you a fresh issue of a different Esperanto magazine each month (12 in all) throughout the year. JEN picks from the most interesting and attrac- tive magazines published around the world. A perfect way to introduce yourself to the periodical literature in Esperanto or to collect items for a display about the international language — and a great gift! If you know of young persons who would like to join JEN, why not start them out with a gift membership? In addition, a gift subscription to the News Digest is an excellent way to keep your older friends and your newspaper, library, school, and civic leaders informed of the progress of Esperanto in the United States and around the world. Simply fill out the enclosed blank and send with your remittance (made payable to JEN) to Robert Rothenmeyer, Membership Secretary of JEN 4 Central Street Millers Falls, Massachusetts 01349