Hello folks, I received an off-list note in reply to my last message. I've already replied off-list, but I wanted to say two things here.
When I posted my question, I hadn't specifically remembered Concordia Language Camps, although that concept was still in the back of my mind. I recall that there is something similar in Quebec for French. I read all about Concordia when my son was a baby, and I'm glad to be reminded of it. Considering the cost, however, I'm not sure it's an option at this point. If I'm figuring my figures right, it comes down to roughly two grand plus transportation for a week at Concordia, compared for four or five grand for two weeks in Europe, including transportation. I also wanted to clarify for people who don't know me what my "situation" is. Since it's unusual, it is often misunderstood. We live in mid-western New York state and have three children - from 6 down to 1. We all speak Esperanto. Esperanto was invented in 1887 and was specifically designed to be easy to learn as a second language (see www.esperanto.net and www.esperanto-usa.org). As a result (and thanks to a lot of hard work), my wife and I speak Esperanto with near-native fluency. It is the only language I ever speak with my children. We believe that bilingualism is valuable in and of iteself, and that knowing Esperanto has certain practical advantages which make it worth passing on to the children in this way. These include, but are not limited to making friends in other countries and having a head start in learning other languages. It's a common misconception that nobody speaks Esperanto ... but people who have heard about our experiences know this isn't true, but there's a temptation to go to the other extreme and start to think that there are tons of families who speak Esperanto. This is not true either. In North America, not counting my family, there is exactly one(*) other family with children under the age of 18 who speak Esperanto. I have tried many times to organize a meeting of Esperanto-speaking families in North America and have concluded that it is not possible. The best I can hope for is to travel at my own expense to visit individual families, or to go to Europe where, due to the multitude of language and the short distances involved, a truly international meeting of Esperanto-speaking families is possible. This is why I'm starting to think that it's time to explore alternatives. (*) Exactly one family: This excludes families where the parents are speaking Esperanto to babies who do not yet say more than a few words, children who understand but do not speak Esperanto, and one family from Western Canada with somewhat older children who possibly do still speak Esperanto. This also excludes families where Esperanto is being "taught", as a subject in school is taught, rather than simply "spoken." It may well be possible to organize a convention of families where the children *don't* speak Esperanto but want to learn. European esperantists make this suggestion to me all the time - but the distances involved in North America make even this idea difficult to pull off. I suppose "difficult" does not mean "not worth it". Anybody interested? One last thing, I dreamed that someone was asking how Maria J is doing. I know she's doing fine, but I thought I'd mention that I was thinking of her -- or mention that I was dreaming that someone was thinking of her ... or something like that. Amike salutas, Thomas/Tomaso ALEXANDER. www.NightinGael.Net ---Anything below this line is not from Thomas --- __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/multilingualmunchkin/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
