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How do you get a grumpy 7 year old to learn Esperanto?

od uživatele ceigered ze dne 6. prosince 2008

Příspěvky: 20

Jazyk: English

ceigered (Ukázat profil) 6. prosince 2008 7:26:38

How do you get a grumpy 7 year old to learn Esperanto? I've been trying to get my brother interested, but its not exactly the easiest thing to do... Especially when you consider that he's an absolute genius (he finished Call of Duty in two days, first FPS he's ever played), he's reluctant to do anything that might bore him.

Any advice?

Miland (Ukázat profil) 6. prosince 2008 13:12:00

If he's sufficiently curious, you might try showing him the film Gerda Malaperis! (which is available on DVD), or the cartoon-course Mazi en Gondolando - the latter is not available commercially, but you can find it on the internet here.

ceigered (Ukázat profil) 6. prosince 2008 13:43:28

Granda dank' Miland!

Dare I say it, the second video might just be crazy enough to get him interested - he might be bright but he does have interesting television tastes ridego.gif ha ha ha...

And it also seems to assimilate the listener quite well, unfortunately I won't know how a non-esperanto speaker will go until I try tomorrow, last time I tried to get him to watch a cartoon in another language he cracked up laughing, but then again Smeshariki (a Russian kids comedy) probably would have sounded insane to him.

Sprechen of which, Smeshariki has been translated by 4kids entertainment, it's now called 'gogoriki' in English and Krosh is called 'pogoriki' - what I want to say right now has something to do with 'Tia granda stako de feko!'... Oh deer, 'tis a sad day for international cartoons.

erinja (Ukázat profil) 6. prosince 2008 15:35:25

Children learn best through hearing people speak it. Mazi might work. There's also "Pasporto al la tuta mondo", which would probably bore him.

Unfortunately, the best way for him to learn would be to be with someone speaking it, but you are probably not comfortable enough with the language yet, to really speak it to him so he learns.

Bribery is always an option as well okulumo.gif

Polaris (Ukázat profil) 6. prosince 2008 15:48:09

Make it your "special, secret language" between you and him. Tell him that this way, the two of you will be able to talk around Mom and Dad without any danger of them understanding. Come up with a few expressions just for that very thing. Things like "hurry and ask Dad while I distract Mom" should go over well. If you make it kind of an adventure, he'll be tantilized by the excitement of it.

Next write him short little notes in Esperanto, and leave your dictionary out so he can look them up. Make signs for his room like "No Girls (or parents) ALLOWED!" Just to tease him, put one on your door that says "No Little Brothers Allowed".

If he has access to a computer, turn on the flying marquee screen saver and put up messages like "Seven Year Old Brat For Sale--CHEAP!"---but put it in Esperanto so he has to look it up. Let him take a stab at playing with you the same way.

Once you've got him playing with it, THEN bring in Gerda Malaperis---get him good and hooked on the idea as you develop your "secret language" with a few more words here and there.

The main thing is, you've got to have fun with it and make it fun for him.

ceigered:How do you get a grumpy 7 year old to learn Esperanto? I've been trying to get my brother interested, but its not exactly the easiest thing to do... Especially when you consider that he's an absolute genius (he finished Call of Duty in two days, first FPS he's ever played), he's reluctant to do anything that might bore him.

Any advice?

Miland (Ukázat profil) 6. prosince 2008 16:47:06

Polaris:Make it your "special, secret language" between you and him.
That reminds me, there's a good story called Peter Jameson's Secret Language by Sylvan Zaft. It was once available online though the links appear to be missing at present. It was originally directed at 10-12 year olds, but many adults of all ages have enjoyed it. There's a good review here.

erinja (Ukázat profil) 6. prosince 2008 17:42:37

I found the book a little cheesy but cute.

You can access it through archive.org's "Wayback machine", which shows defunct websites. The link is here:
Peter Jameson's Secret Language

ceigered (Ukázat profil) 7. prosince 2008 6:53:16

I like the idea of the 'secret language', thats partially why I want to teach it to him ridego.gif he he he

Dictionary wise, I don't have a hard copy. I looked in Borders (a book store downunder, don't know if the rest of the world has one) in the languages section, but I seem to find Estonian, English and other random things easier than Esperanto. Next time I'll have a look and see if they've restocked. Mind you, knowing all things Esperanto, any good dictionary should have a massive green star on it somewhere. I've been able to get him interested in Lonely Planet's phrase books for West, East Europe and Russian, maybe they have an Esperanto equivalent?

I'll try the various suggestions, but the last book may be a bit too old for him, and it also sounds a bit like propaganda ha ha ridego.gif Even though what it says is true...

Miland (Ukázat profil) 7. prosince 2008 11:05:09

ceigered:Dictionary wise, I don't have a hard copy..
General bookshops like Borders are not the places to look for books on minority languages like Esperanto. A better idea would be to contact the Australian Esperanto Association. Here's the contact webpage.

Apart from that, you might try to acquire a used copy of a dictionary via the internet. I recommend the one by John Wells. There's quite a few on sale listed on this webpage.

danielcg (Ukázat profil) 8. prosince 2008 1:31:02

You will think I'm crazy, but I just can't use Esperanto as a cryptic language. I figure Zamenhof would revolve in his tomb if he knew his wonderful creation was being used to hinder understanding instead of fostering it.

Nevertheless, this idea could work to make a boy interested in Esperanto.

Regards,

Daniel

Miland:
Polaris:Make it your "special, secret language" between you and him.

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