<£er^ INFORMATION CENTER ESPERANTO LEAGUE for NORTH AMERICA ^itvi no. 3 NEWSLETTER JUN. 1970 ACCOMPLISHED LINGUIST CELEBRATES 25th ANNIVERSARY OF PRIESTHOOD Polish, Italian, Esperanto, English - the Rev. Sigmund Klimowitz spoke in all four languages at a meeting to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his ordin- ation as a priest of the Capuchin Order, arranged by his Polish parishioners of St. Josephs in Passaic, N.J. Born in Russia and brought up in Poland, Fr. Sigmund was imprisoned for four years in the concentration camps of Sachsenhausen and Dachau. It was during this period that he learned Esperanto. He was ordained in France in 1945, continued his studies in Belgium and then Rome, receiving his doctorate from the Gregorian University there in 1951. He was then sent to Australia to minister to Polish migrants. In 1964 he was assigned to the Polish Capuchin Fathers in the United states and was made Superior of that order in 1967. Six New York members of E.L.N.A. and the American Catholic Esperanto Society attended the Passaic meeting. -o- Esperanto as First Foreign Language As preparation for middle-school study of French and Spanish, children are learning Esperanto in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades at Highland school in San Mateo, Calif, in addition to testing the value of Esperanto as a first foreign language, it is also expected that the courses will provide an intro- duction to the world and its peoples via an international language, a better understanding of their own language, and comprehension of the basic structure of other languages, according to Philip Vandor, principal of the Highland school. The experiment will be carried on for three years. -o- Languaqe Teachers View Esperanto Book Display Exhibits at the spring conference of the Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association included a display of Esperanto books supplied by William Simpson of Harrisburg and Margot Gerson's Esperanto Book Center in New York. The con- ference, held at Kings College in Wilkesbarre, was attended by some 175 lan- guage teachers. Mr. Simpson, a member of E.L.N.A.'s Board of Directors, manned the exhibit with the assistance of Moses Sirotkin of Bethlehem. The books were later displayed for a month at the State Library in Harrisburg. -o- In England the Esperanto Teachers Association sent copies of the Public Affairs pamphlet, "Wanted: A World Language" by Mario Pei, to all university professors of language and linguistics. FOR DETAILS OF E.L.N.A. CONGRESS AGENDA JULY 22-26 SEE PAGE 2 NL 6/70 READ ALL ABOUT XT'. PROGRAM FOR ELNA CONGRESS JULY 22-26 The annual Congress of the Esperanto League for North America (E.L.N.A.) will begin Wednesday evening, July 22, with a champagne reception and get- together session in the main lounge of Verducci Hall at San Francisco State College. Delegates will sleep, eat and meet in Verducci during the Congress. Registration tables will be manned all day Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday morning after welcome-to-our-city remarks by William Harmon, Local Congress Committee chairman, the Congress will be formally opened by Francis E. Helmuth, E.L.N.A. president, and Congress committees will be named. William Auld of Lornshill Academy, Alloa, Scotland, will address this ses- sion, which will be open to the public and the press. Mr. Auld, renowned Esperanto author and editor, came to the U. S. to teach two Esperanto courses at the college. The courses overlap the Congress by two days but Congress work" ing sessions will be held in the morning to enable students to attend. The American Association of Teachers of Esperanto (A.A.T.E.) will hold its annual meeting after lunch Thursday. Later, buses will take E.L.N.A. dele- gates to San Francisco's famous Chinatown where a walking tour of the area will be climaxed by dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Friday afternoon, a boat tour of San Francisco Bay will take off from Fisherman's Wharf. On Saturday there will be a bus trip through the wine country and Valley of the Moon, returning via Golden Gate route. The annual E.L.N.A. banquet will be held that evening at the Claremont hotel. At the closing session Sunday morning, election results will be announced and standing committees appointed for the coming year. IMPORTANTI If you expect to attend the Congress, get your name in the pot now; For one thing, all rates go up by $2.00 for registrations after July 1. For another, the Local Congress Committee must know well in advance how many reservations to make. So send in the form included with this News- letter even if you are undecided about some of the details. Payments can be adjusted later to accord with your final plans. FOR INFORMATION ON ESPERANTO COURSES AT THE COLLEGE, SEE REVERSE SIDE OF CONGRESS REGISTRATION BLANK ENCLOSED WITH THIS ISSUE. -o- MAKE YOUR BALLOT COUNTS The Ballot Committee reports that some of the election ballots distributed with the April Newsletter have been received with- out name and return address on the outside envelope. This invalidates the ballot as the names must be checked against the membership list before the envelopes are opened. If you have not yet mailed your ballot, carefully follow the instructions on it. -o- Jose Diaz Pinto of Sao Paulo, Brazil, superintendent of a plant manufact- uring automobile spare parts, visited U.S. auto centers in May. His native language is Portuguese, he knows almost no English, but he and his family speak Esperanto fluently. Appraised of his coming, the New York Esperanto Society arranged a Sunday picnic; when rain ruled that out, the group met with Sr. Pinto at his hotel. He saw the city and the United Nations under the tute- lage of John Lewine, society president. In Detroit, Rudiger Eicholz served as guide. Sr. Pinto is a delegate of U.E.A., the World Esperanto Association. -o- The World Federalist for March-April has a column-length article on Esperanto as a world language by Dr. James Lieberman of Washington, D. C. He is chairman of the Esperantic Studies Foundation. I REGISTRATION FORM ^for 18th NATIONAL ELNA CONVENTION July 22-26, 1970 No. of CONVENTION FEE (after July 1, ADD $2 in ALL categories) Persons Amou-it Adults (ELNA members) $15.00 _______ ______ Husband and Wife (ELNA members) 27.50 _______ ______ lion-ELNA members - adults (each) 18.00 _______ ______ Students 10.00 _______ ______ Children (under 13) 7.50 _______ ______ FOOD & LODGING (Includes FULL BREAKFAST & LUNCH) **N0T2: I will be sharing double room with: IMPORTANT '. Name other person If you are taking the Esperanto Course July 6-24 handle housing DIRECTLY through Housing Office at San Francisco State College **Double Room - $8.75 per night per person Single Room - 11.75 per night per person Student-only Rate $5.75 per night per person in DoubleRoom Wednesday, July 22 (through 7/23 Lunch) ______ Thursday, July 23 (through 7/24 Lunch) ______ Friday, July 24 (through 7/25 Lunch) ______ # Saturday Night Lodging only (Double $6 each) ______ (July 25) (Single $9 each) ______ (Student $3 each) ______ // Congress fee includes Sunday Breakfast I want vegetarian meals: J___j EXCURSIONS (Includes transportation from and to Convention Headquarters) 1. CHINATOWN TOUR (includes dinner) $6. _____ 2. FISHERMEN'S WHARF - Bay Excursion 6. 3. MUIR WOODS-GIANT REDWOODS-NAPA VALLEY WINERY 4.50______ (Sack Lunch packed by College for (under 16, $4) ______ those staying at college) Make check covering ALL costs to: Esperanto Information Center Total: MAIL TO: Esperanto Information Center 410 Darrell Road Hillsborough, Ca 94010 NAME__________ address zip DATE OF ARRIVAL at San Francisco State College 1 wiH/ will not be taking the Esperanto Course at San Francisco State July 6-24 If NOT staying at San Francisco State College, check here \~ / List namejof ALL PERSONS covered by this registration HURRY, HURRY, HURRY! Want to take a 3-week, 3-credit course under William Auld in San Francisco July 5-24? It may still be possible. All inclu- sive fees - $80.00. Write Summer Sessions - Esperanto 195-H, San Francisco State College, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, Ca. 84312 for application blank, or phone (415) 468-1373. Specify whether you want the afternoon introductory course or the evening advanced course. Room and Board at Verducci Hall is $58 per week for a single room or $43 for double room, including three meals a day Monday-Friday. Write College Housing Office at the Holloway Ave. address. NL 6/70 BRITISH TEXTBOOK AUTHOR AND HYMNOLOGIST DIES Montagu C. Butler, whose "Step by Step in Esperanto" has been used in countless classes since the early 1920's, died at the age of 86 at his home in Kingston-on-Thames, England, on May 5. A memorial service was held at the Qua- ker meeting house there, where he was a member. The eighth edition of his text- book - originally entitled "First Steps in Esperanto" - was published in 1965; a revised edition of "Himnaro Esperanta," containing 279 hymns, in 1966; and an Esperanto-English Dictionary in 1967. Secretary of the British Esperanto Association 1916-34 and editor of the British Esperantist for a long period, Butler was currently a member of the International Academy of Esperanto and on the Language Committee (1918-49). His early writing included lessons for children, "Raporta Stenografio" of which the fifth edition was published in 1920, an Esperanto songbook (1926) and the text for a set of Linguaphone records in Esperanto. -o- Every Man His Own Lexicographer On the appearance of this book I received various suggestions for its improvement. I was advised to omit all stories about wives or mothers-in-law (as giving a wrong outlook on life); the story about the cannibal (as immoral); jokes of any kind (as undignified); English verse (as doggerel); Esperanto verse (as wasted space); translation exercises (as unsuitable for beginners); proverbs (as obscure). ... A Scottish correspondent urged the publication of an expurgated edition labeled "For Sale in Scotland," which should omit all reference to a certain insect apparently unknown in that country, though other- wise sufficiently international. Various friends advised me to rewrite the whole book on completely different lines; unfortunately the plans were mutually exclusive. — From the preface to the second (1924) edition of "Step by Step in Esperanto" by Montagu Butler. -o- ESPERANTO TAUGHT IN HAWAII'S SCHOOLS A pilot course in Esperanto for Hawaiian elementary schools has been introduced in 16 classrooms of eight cities in the 4th, 5th and 6th grades. Next year the number of classes will be doubled. As part of a language arts curriculum called "Perspectives in Communica- tion," Esperanto provides a contrast with English, a "natural" language. It is taught for ten 50-minute periods through brief dialogues - its sound and writing system, vocabulary, morphological devices, sentence structure, word order, etc., and then in five more periods, these features are contrasted with English usage. Professor Donald A. Sanborn of the Department of Education at the University of Hawaii, describing the course in a letter to L.A. Ware of the American Association of Esperanto Teachers, said: "While regular language arts teachers have been reluctant initially to teach the unit, they soon discover that the materials are largely self-instruc- tional. Thus they learn along with the students and need not play the role of expert. Student acceptance and interest has been high." The original unit was developed by Mary Catherine Lichtenstein who had taught Esperanto to children at La Honda, Calif., for several years. THEY PASSED THE EXAMS NL 6/70 The following persons have successfully taken the elementary proficiency examination in Esperanto since the last Newsletter report, according to Dorothy Holland, secretary of the Examination Service (asterisk = "with honors "); OHIO: *John Weed, Joan Perkinson, Helen Hammock, all of Columbus; *Elda Stone, Worthington; *Lewis Cook, Jr., Circleville. CALIFORNIA: Albert Wickham and Takako Negi of San.Francisco; *Gerald Carlton and William Gruneison of Sacramento; Leroy Edwards, San Diego; Janet Brugos, Sausalito; Frank Lanzone, Jr., San Carlos; Helen Grunter, Walnut Creek; Edward Fratini, Petaluma;Erna Wells, Napa. BRITISH COLUMBIA: *Kathleen McBurnie, Eva Buski and Eva N. Howie of Burnaby; *Barry Adam, Delta; Sophie Smith, Vancouver. Also *Dorothy Hughlett, St. Petersburg, Fla.; *Rev. D. Rex Bateman, Chicago; ♦Horace Montgomery, Wayne, Pa.; and*pierre Ullman, Milwaukee. The intermediate examination was passed by Californians Sid Castle and Jay Berry of San Francisco; Minerva Rees, Hillsborough; Robert Bailey, Redwood City; and *Martha Walker, Napa; also by Cornelius McKown, State College, Pa. -o- "Actually, I am optimistic," writes Jim Deer in the Saturday Review of May 30, commenting on an earlier article on "Prospects for a Global Language" by Mario Pei. "Who would have thought even five years ago that population con- trol and ecology would be the subject of popular interest today? The same thing can happen to the international language problem whenever conditions bring about a focusing of public attention on the matter. . . . "Nobody in the U.S. can make a living using Esperanto, but as a hobby it is possibly the world's greatest. No matter what your interest, from bee culture to ballroom dancing, you are sure to find pen pals in every country who want to exchange ideas with you. . . . When they [^American Esperantistsĵ go abroad, they are received not as 'Yankee imperialists' but as fellow hu- man beings who happen to live in America." Mr. Deer pointed out that the 1972 World Esperanto Congress would be held in Portland, Ore. He is chairman of the Local Congress Committee for that occasion. -o- The first of a series of international dinner meetings was held June 5 at Esperanto House in Covina, Calif. This was an all-Italian meal and was followed by the monthly meeting of the San Gabriel Valley Esperanto society. ,rfj|«*jjj |W| ESPERANTO LEAGUE rot NORTH AMERICA '^jC^P 156 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK. NY. 10010 Return Requested Address Correction Requested NON-PROFIT ORG. U. S. POSTAGE Paid New York. N.Y. Permit No. 657 DATED MATERIAL