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From: elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America)
Subject: Re: Esperanto as a stepping stone?
Message-ID: <elnaD2A7G6.2tx@netcom.com>
Organization: Esperanto League for North America, Inc.
References: <HCANNON.118.2F0F0796@macalstr.edu> <elnaD22xoI.Hwz@netcom.com> <3f0ajbINNodl@suned.zoo.cs.yale.edu>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 07:28:53 GMT
Lines: 42

horne-scott@cs.yale.edu (Scott Horne) writes in a recent posting (reference <3f0ajbINNodl@suned.zoo.cs.yale.edu>):
>In article <elnaD22xoI.Hwz@netcom.com>, elna@netcom.com (Esperanto League N America) writes:
><
><This is of course
><quite novel, because Chinese ideograms give no clue to the sound of the 
><word; the sound of each symbol must be memorized individually.
>
>What are "Chinese ideograms"?
>
Oh dear me, has this phrase gone out of fashion?  Do tell-- what is the 
currently accepted description?

><If the same Chinese student were to preface her study of French or English
><with a basic course in Esperanto, she would gain a simple, regular framework
><of the structure of European (dare I say Indo-European?) languages
>
>Please tell me what Esperanto teaches one about Maltese and Armenian.
>
Rather little.  

><Several studies have been done which demonstrate that a group of students
><learn a target language faster if they first take some time to study 
><Esperanto. Forr example, two classes of German students set about to learn
><French-- one group spent five years on French, the other spent one year on
><Esperanto and four on French. The second group learned more French, and had 
><also learned Esperanto!
>
>How many such studies have been done on students who don't speak English,
>French, or German and aren't studying any of those three languages?
>How many studies have put five years of French against four years of French and
>one of Yoruba?
>
None that I know of.  Care to conduct one?  There are surely many variables,
and little or no funding to research these and related topics.  I am simply
reporting that Esperanto works in this context; doubtless there are several
other solutions to various aspects of the problem. Esperanto addresses many
issues simultaneously.

Miko Formiko
MSloper@aol.com


