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Comversation buddy needed

by Falsum, April 25, 2007

Messages: 25

Language: English

erinja (User's profile) July 23, 2007, 3:27:35 PM

I do not normally post my e-mail address; I think it's better to exchange it in a personal lernu message to someone, for added security.

By the way, regarding the FEC - I am pretty familiar with the course (I learned with it myself) and I think lesson 6 is late enough that you should feel free to write back to someone. If you understood his or her message, and if you can compose something to say, I would do it. The later lessons mostly involve more complex grammar that a beginner is not likely to need in a simple message, anyway.

mnlg (User's profile) July 23, 2007, 4:30:30 PM

I know FEC too, I have taught the language with it for a few years. I remember that FEC presents all correlative words in lesson 5 or 6 and it might be difficult for a beginner to know how to use all of them straight away... I remember the tutor group was very unhappy with that and that's part of the reasons that prompted us to use another source for our course.

erinja (User's profile) July 24, 2007, 1:45:04 PM

I agree that it would be difficult. But if a beginner can understand enough Esperanto to understand a message received, then I think he or she could patch together a reply, perhaps with the help of a correlatives table that has a translation of each one.

I don't see the harm in trying, at any rate. I like to see beginners getting into speaking or corresponding quickly, even if it's halting at first, because it allows them to meet some new people and see the benefits of learning, beyond translating sentences in an exercise.

mnlg (User's profile) July 24, 2007, 2:06:04 PM

I do not question the usefulness of conversation (I always suggest my students to get a penpal), I wasn't sure about the fact that FEC's lesson 6 should make a student feel comfortable enough to reply. I'm sure they can reply if they set themselves to it but I can imagine that it could still be confusing enough to prefer waiting a little more.

erinja (User's profile) July 24, 2007, 2:42:46 PM

Yes, certainly each student should do whatever he or she feels comfortable with. If a student truly wants to wait until finishing a course before replying, then that's fine of course. I just wouldn't want a student to delay beginning correspondence simply because they think that's what's expected. I wouldn't want them to think it was somehow wrong to start using the language before completing the course. I just wanted to let Gatton know that you shouldn't feel obligated to complete the course before starting to use the language.

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