Do you currently teach Esperanto? Or have you done so in the past? If yes, do you mind sharing the location?

(This is just out of curiosity. I likely won't attend unless you are in the same country as me).

Formal teaching, or informal?

With the Internet, I think any skilled Esperantist is in position to be a teacher of the language. I've done a lot of "informal tutoring" over the Internet, as have others.

EO is the kind of langauge that doesn't have to be learned in a serious classroom setting

Though I too would be very interested in hearing of actual academic courses offered in Esperanto.

Tempodivalse: Though I too would be very interested in hearing of actual academic courses offered in Esperanto.

Here you can see about the postgraduate program in interlinguistic studies at Adam Mickiewicz University.

Here you have a video about this postgraduate program.

EO is the kind of language that doesn't have to be learned in a serious classroom setting

Esperanto is sui generis. If Esperanto stopped being a language which you could acquire the fundamentals of by self-instruction, it would sort of defeat its purpose.

It would be an obstacle to the widespread adoption of Esperanto in schools, for example, if this required an army of teachers with thee-year graduate qualifications in Esperanto.

It is my understanding that in Australia they are teaching Esperanto in primary schools with a course that is based on the idea of non-specialist teachers keeping a few steps in front of the pupils. The teacher learns as the course progresses.

Of course, I wouldn't suggest that the KEFR exams do not have super propaganda value, along with university-level courses. They serve to imbue the study of Esperanto with a certain gravitas. But really it's all spin.

The only formal qualification that might be useful in the teaching Esperanto would be one embracing the latest discoveries in cognitive science. But how many teachers of natural languages have that?

If you can communicate, motivate, and have a good ear, you can teach Esperanto.

sudanglo:It is my understanding that in Australia they are teaching Esperanto in primary schools with a course that is based on the idea of non-specialist teachers keeping a few steps in front of the pupils. The teacher learns as the course progresses.

I hope they don't do this. They really need someone who has a bit of experience under their belt. It is important so that the proper pronunciation is used. I have been learning Esperanto for almost a year now and I still struggle when I see a new word sometimes.

Have you ever considered participating in NASK? It's in North Carolina this year. People make a lot of progress in the immersion environment.

Alkanadi:
I hope they don't do this. They really need someone who has a bit of experience under their belt. It is important so that the proper pronunciation is used. I have been learning Esperanto for almost a year now and I still struggle when I see a new word sometimes.

The project is called Talking to the whole wide world. It is not too successful.

The best is to ask the Hungarian Esperanto Association as Esperanto is listed in the education as a foreign language.

Of course, the Edukado site has listed all the teachers, volunteers there.

Alkanadi:I hope they don't do this. They really need someone who has a bit of experience under their belt. It is important so that the proper pronunciation is used. I have been learning Esperanto for almost a year now and I still struggle when I see a new word sometimes.

The course that se described, Talking to the Whole Wide World (TTTWWW), is the one. I've got a copy of it. It's not a bad idea, because it's based on pragmatics. We want Australian school kids to learn a second language. The problem is that realistically, no one can get fluent in a second language in the time allocated for LOTE (Languages other than English). Broadly speaking, LOTE has been a failure at teaching languages.

Another reason that LOTE has failed is manpower. In theory, pupils can study any language, but in practice, we lack the teachers. Pupils generally get to choose from what's available only. Or, suppose we as a country chose just one foreign language to learn. Say Chinese; that seems like a pretty important one from Australia's point of view. We simply lack the teachers to teach these thousands of Chinese classes, or the money to hire them en masse.

So, LOTE now is pretty much a boutique course, not really important. LOTE focuses a lot on learning about another country's culture, rather than functional language use. And as a pupil, if you are lucky enough to go overseas and visit a sister school, the fact that LOTE is not that important will be rammed home when you see functionally, everybody there using English. (Note: I only saw four examples of Australian schools visiting Japanese schools, but it was the same each time -- English was the 'language of business'. There are no doubt exceptions.)

But TTTWWW is a good idea. It boasts, honestly, that a good level of fluency in a foreign language can be achieved in the limited time available for studying LOTE; that is is actually useful for talking to people on any continent, and can be taught by non-specialist, ordinary classroom teachers, thus solving the manpower problem.

I proposed teaching Esperanto last year at a school. My job there was 'release teacher', i.e. to teach some particular subject to a class, while the normal classroom teacher took an hour's break. The head teacher asked me what I wanted to teach. I proposed Esperanto, and whipped out my copy of TTTWWW. My idea was rejected. The reason was reasonable -- my school was in a part of the country where the kids were all aboriginal and spoke English as a second language, so the school wanted to focus on English. However, I'd taught some of the kids for fun, and they seemed to like it, saying 'Saluton' to me on the playground, pointing at something and asking me how to say that word, etc.

I will teach a class next month in a nearby public library, if we can get enough participants. PM for details.

I teach Englsh in Quebec schools, but I would like to help the Esperanto vision by learning it and (in the furture) teaching.

Vous trouverez sur ce site tout ce qu'il faut pour l'apprendre et sans doute avez vous déjà contacté l'association locale, qui a failli organiser le congrès international cette année. Motivé comme vous semblez l'être, vous le parlerez probablement couramment dans un an. Bonan kuraĝon!