Esperanto Blog: Motivating My Cousins

Motivating My Cousins_
(http://www.transparent.com/esperanto/2009/06/10/motivating-my-cousins/)

Posted: 10 Jun 2009 09:48 AM PDT

Bonan tagon! I apologize for the delay in posting. My week has been rather
hectic, to say the least. But, now I should remain on schedule, and with
luck I’ll have a couple of new posts within the next two days. Thanks for
your patience!
I recently talked to my younger cousins about Esperanto. They’re both on
the much younger end of the age spectrum - both have recently begun to study
Spanish in their middle schools, and neither of them knows who Custer is. I
asked them if they had wanted to study any other languages alongside
Spanish, or why they chose to study Spanish in the first place. They both cited
a lack of options - and a firm desire not to study French!
Since it seemed appropriate, I brought up the topic of Esperanto. Neither
of them had heard of it. They were mildly interested at first, but I found a
way to encourage them to give it a try. I suggested it could be used as
their own personal code. Much like you might have spoken Pig Latin with your
siblings when you wanted to keep a verbal message private, my younger
cousins now do with Esperanto and their growing vocabulary.
I may have created a monster, but I think the idea is solid. Maybe one way
we could encourage the younger generation to study Esperanto is to
inculcate the idea of their own coded language. It could make letter-writing a lot
more fun. And, if they start passing notes in Esperanto during their
classes, it will only motivate their teachers to learn the language for
themselves!
Post from: _Esperanto Blog_ (http://www.transparent.com/esperanto)