JUNULARO ESPERANTISTA „ „ , _ „ „ .,„,,.. de nord-ameriko (JEN) The Ovganxzat-Lon of Esperanto-Speaking Young Americana 4 Central Street________________________________Millers Falls, Massachusetts 01349 NO. 15 April, 1969 ESPERANTO ASSOCIATION NOMINATED FOR NOBEL PRIZE SWEDISH PARLIAMENTARIANS AMONG PROPONENTS FOR PEACE AWARD: Among those formally nominated for the 1969 Nobel Peace Prize is the Universal Esperanto As- sociation, which is at the head of the world movement for an international lang- uage. The nominators include 38 members of various parties in the Swedish Parlia- ment, several members of the Italian Parliament, and others. U.S. DENIES PROMOTION OF ENGLISH AS WORLD TONGUE STATE DEPARTMENT CLARIFIES POLICY: The U.S. State Department, in reply to inquiries from the Esperanto League for North America and the News Digest, has recently clarified its policy of teaching English abroad by denying that this "is aimed at making English a world language. The U.S. "has not favored the pro- motion internationally of any particular language, natural or artificial," said Pierre R. Graham, deputy: director of the State Department's Office of Interna- tional Economic and Social Affairs. "The thought has been that the educational systems of the various countries are so diverse, the problems of promoting any one language are so vast, and the need to overcome illiteracy even in national languages within a given country's borders is so urgent that the United States has not chosen to support any universal language program." Graham noted that "the U.S. Government is prepared to be of active assistance to countries desiring help in the teaching and utilization of English" because of that language's cur- rent role in facilitating development and international contact. But, he cau- tioned, "This does not mean that the U.S. Government is promoting English — or any other language — as a universal language." ESPERANTO WINS MORE SUPPORT FROM EAST EUROPE AND U.S.S.R. CZECHOSLOVAKIA: The Internal Affairs Ministry gave prucial approval on January 27 to the constitution of the newly founded Czech Esperanto Association, and formation of a parallel Slovak Esperanto Association is now expected. BULGARIA: Communications Minister Stoyan Tonchev in a special circular last November recommended the establishment of courses in Esperanto for postal and communications workers throughout the country. RUMANIA: Latest crack in the government's anti-Esperanto attitude was a television interview featuring the practical value of the international tongue in multi-national theater workshops and competitions. SOVIET UNION: A 40-page decree published by the Lithuanian Ministry of Education, describing Esperanto as "the most quickly learnable language in the world" and citing its value as an introduction to foreign language learning, has ordered the addition of Esperanto to the curriculum of this Baltic Soviet Repub- lic as a non-compulsory subject in the 7th through 11th grades. Alsovrecently published is an article by a long-time Soviet Esperanto leader, Ints Cace, attes- ting to Lenin's support of Esperanto before and after the Bolshevik Revolution. MORE BORDER REGION MEETINGS ANNOUNCED NEIGHBORING LANDS' CITIZENS GET TOGETHER IN EUROPE, FAR EAST: Because of the success of the experimental use of Esperanto as a linguistic bridge and a working language in a recent conference on "The University of the Future", held Page 2 April, 1969 in Graz, Austria, by the student unions of the universities of Graz and Zagreb, Yugoslavia, the organizers of a second conference, to be held this month in Zag- reb, have proposed making Esperanto the exclusive working'language. From April 4 to 12, young French and German speakers of Esperanto will gather in Kehl, Germany, for a conference on the question, "What Does Today's Youth Want?" and a second meeting is planned for August-September. Regional meetings held last month using the international language include a French-Monacan-Italian convention in Monte Carlo and a Japanese-Korean meeting in Seoul. COMING UP FESTIVAL, SEMINAR BEING HELD THIS MONTH: The 9th annual Young Bulgari- ans' Esperanto Festival is taking place April 5-7 in the Thracian town of Haskovo. Later in April the Copernicus University Student Science Circle, aided by the Po- lish Student Association's University Council, is holding an international stu- dent seminar in Esperanto on cultural and educational problems in Torun, Poland. America h itself wi the Stude SUMMER CONVENTION PLANS DEVELOP: While the Esperanto League for North olds its mid-July meeting at North Adams (Mass.) State College — which 11 be offering an intensive summer course in the international tongue — nta Tutmonda Esperantista Ligo will be meeting in Graz, Austria, to dis- cuss "Studentaj Utopioj, Movilog de Monda Pro- greso". Plans for the 54th Universale! Kongre- so de Esperanto during the last week of July in Helsinki (Photo) are proceeding smoothly. Meeting-minded speakers of Esperanto can go to a "postkongreso" in the Finnish port of Turku after the Helsinki convention, or to an Inter- naaia Junulara Kongreso (International Youth- Congress) held at the same time in Stockholm's suburb of Tyreso, whose inhabitants' average age — fittingly -- is 18 years. A folder on the youth meeting is now available from JEN. RECENT EVENTS U.S. OK'S HANOI FORMULA ON PARIS CONFERENCE LANGUAGES: Hanoi delegates proposed, and the other delegations accepted, a complex formula on languages and translation procedures during the first session of the reorganized Paris talks in late January, according to an account in the Feb. 26 issue of Heroldo de Esperan- to. The agreement makes French the working language and the translation bridge be- tween Vietnamese and English, the two official tongues, and specifies which dele- gation's interpreter shall translate each delegation's statements into French and who shall retranslate from French into the other official language. LANGUAGE PROBLEMS AROUND THE WORLD: An official report on the 19 6 8 crash of a British airliner in France names language barriers as a partial cause of the disaster.... A recent British report on a world conference of power compa- nies, held in Moscow, complained of inadequate translation and the inability of Western delegates to understand much valuable material.... Another British study of East European immigrants has found many of them "intensely lonely because of the language problem".... In Brazil a new movement for the unification of the world's writing systems is reported to have gained considerable support recently, and Esperanto leaders are being consulted on the possible role of that language. Here in the U.S., the University of California at Berkeley held a sym- posium February 14-16 on the "Environment of Language", designed to find answers to why, in spite of the spread of the English tongue in the 20th century, "under- standing grows more difficult among nations, even among people within a nation." Soon thereafter the San Francisco Chronicle reported a meeting between the S.F. Superintendent of Schools and "400 angry students and their parents" in Chinatown, over complaints that "Language and cultural barriers are keeping thousands of Chinese and Spanish speaking children from getting their education in this city." "Every city in the country is facing a crisis," responded the Superintendent. In March, the Lieutenant Governor of Illinois also called attention to the severity of the language barrier for Spanish-speaking students in his state. Page 3 April, 1969 ESPERANTO IN EDUCATION: Crocker Intermediate School, in Hillsborough, California, has a new Esperanto club with 20 young enthusiasts. An Esperanto class at Knolls School, in San Mateo, Calif., is collecting objects from all 50 States for a children's educational exhibit in Yugoslavia this spring; JEN's Erik Felker is assisting. David Jordan, an anthropology graduate student, gave an illustrated lecture in Esperanto on Taiwanese religion before the University of Chicago International Language Society on March 3. Cabrillo College in Aptos, Calif., offered an Esperanto seminar during February and March with Calvin Cope instructing. Statistics on the teaching of Esperanto are now being collected world-wide; teachers should notify the American Association of Teachers of Espe- ranto (1976 Greenview Dr., Rt. 11, Fayetteville, Ark. 72701) about any still un- reported class (curricular or extra-curricular) in a school or college. PUBLICATIONS BOOK NEWS: The February bulletin of the West Coast Esperanto Book Ser- vice (address on p. 4) lists such items as the Esperanto Academy's Aktoj de la Akademio 1963-196? ($1.75); the first issue of the new journal on problems of language planning, La Monda Lingvo-Problemo, from Mouton & Co. ($2.75); a trans- lated collection of two dramas and two stories-by celebrated Japanese writer Tani- zaki Zyun'itiro, El la Vivo de Syunkin ($3.50); and a socio-comical 45-rpm re- cord from Finland called Antaŭen ($2.00).... Among the latest arrivals at the Esperanto Book Center (address on p. 4) are Federico Garcia Lorca's Liriko (selec- Ited poems in Esperanto translation; 80 pp., 9 5$) and Reinhard Haupenthal's valu- lable new bibliographic guide to Esperantic studies, Enkonduko en la Libroseiencon \de Esperanto (44 pp., $1.35). NEWS FROM JEN PEN-PALS AVAILABLE: Many young Esperanto speakers from around the globe now await answers to their requests for American pen-pals. Many in Czecho- slovakia, one 16-year-old girl near Milan, over 100 children in a Budapest elemen- tary school, and several young Brazilians are some of the prospective pen-pals on file with the Correspondence Service of JEN. If you or someone you know can cor- respond in Esperanto, why not write for a pen-pal today? Address on p. 4. SPECIAL RATE IN EFFECT FOR CLASSES, GROUPS: If you are a teacher of Esperanto, a group leader, or a member of any Esperanto class or group whose mem- bers are under 30, now is the time to sign the whole group up as members of JEN, under our special group membership rate! Write JEN now for information on this opportunity. JEN TO ELECT: The size of the JEN Executive Board to be elected in July has been fixed at five. Nominations are open during April and should be sent to the Corresponding Secretary, Julie Tonkin (address on p. 4). (cut here) FREE INFORMATION COUPON JEN and co-operating organizations maintain many activities and services. Please mark the items about which you want more information, verify or print your name and address on the reverse side, and send this coupon to JEN. (No obligation) [ ] Membership or Supportership in JEN [ ] [ ] Group membership in JEN [ ] [ ] Subscription to the News Digest [ ] [ ] Magazine-a-Month Plan [ ] [ ] Local Esperanto groups near me [ ] [ ] Membership in the Esperanto League for North America [ ] [ ] International Esperanto organizations [ ] [ ] Tax-deductible contributions to [ ] Esperanto organizations [ ] Correspondence course in Esperanto Upper-level correspondence course Esperanto home study materials Teaching Esperanto in school Writing a term paper or article on Esperanto Advanced academic research on Esperantic studies Broader studies of language problems Esperanto pen-pals Traveling abroad with Esperanto Page 4 April, 1969 TO INFORM YOU , , . —PLENA ILUSTRITA VORTARO: Typesetting on big new dictionary now completed. —PORTUGAL: Thaw in anti-Esperanto policy being confirmed, as Portugese press increasingly reports Esperanto news. —TRAVEL BROCHURES: Tourist literature in Esperanto has been recently issued by Vsetin, Czechoslovakia; Vichy, France; and Munich, Germany. —VATICAN DECREE: A ruling has extended possible use of Esperanto in the Mass. —GERMAN UNIVERSITY: Dept. of Philosophy at Univ. of Saarbrucken has added Esperanto to its curriculum. —AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSN: Dr. E. J. Lieberman's "soapbox seminar" on Espe- ranto during annual meeting in Detroit is reported in APHA newsletter. —NEW ZEALAND: Esperanto taught in 26 schools there in '68, up from 12 in '67. —JAPAN: Esperanto movement leader & author Fujio Egarni, a biochemistry prof, at Tokyo Univ., has been elected president of Japanese Science Council. —AUSTRALIA: Australian Assn. of School Principals has made Esperanto an offi- cially acceptable school subject in that country. —FRESNO TOPIC: Esperanto literature will be subject of all-Calif. Esperanto Conference May 2-4, in Fresno. a —FLORIDA: Esperanto-Soaieto de Florida now issuing monthly bulletin, La Novajo. IMPORTANT ADDRESSES INFORMATION BOOKS Esperanto Information Center 156 5th Avenue, Room 821 New York, N.Y. 10010 Esperanto Book Center 156 5th Avenue, Room 822 New York, N.Y. 10010 Esperanto Information Center 410 Darrell Road Hillsborough, Calif. 94010 West Coast. Esp. Book Service 2129 Elizabeth Street San Carlos, Calif. 94070 JEN: GENERAL INFORMATION, MEMBERSHIP, SUBSCRIPTIONS CORRESPONDENCE COURSE NEWS DIGEST PEN PALS Mrs. Julie Tonkin (Corresponding Secretary) 2131 Tryon Street; Philadelphia, Pa. 19146 University of Chicago International Language Soc. 1212 East 59th Street; Chicago, 111. 60637 Jonathan Pool (Editor) 5238 South Kenwood, Apt. 1; Chicago, 111. 60615 Miss Ellen Lewis (Correspondence Service Director) 15 Salisbury Road; Brookline, Mass. 02146 JEN 4 Central Street Millers Falls, Mass. 01349 Return Req ues ted Address Correction Requested Non-Profit Organization U. S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 5 MILLERS FALLS, MASS. 01349 DATED MATERIAL