Esperanto at Stanford University

Curriculum - Syllabus

Classes at Stanford > Curriculum / Syllabus

Requirements

No language prerequisite (not even English - but i don't do miracles :).

Students should have some computer/pad/phone device with wifi capabilities to access the 'net. In class you'll use that device to follow the lessons, and you'll use it to do your homework, send me email, and read articles and books online. In later quarters, please subscribe to at least one international journal.

Goals

1st quarter

To learn simple grammar.
To read and write with "level 1" vocabulary (500 roots - that's a lot, but surprisingly, not too much).
To learn the basics for a conversation, as if meeting someone for the first time.
Email your daily word lists to me at stanford@esperanto.org.
It would be good to keep an online journal or blog.

2nd quarter

To learn more complex grammar.
To read and write with "level 2" vocabulary (an additional 500 roots - which brings the student to the level needed for most general conversations and journals).
To have basic conversations.
To subscribe to an international journal in Esperanto and report on the contents.
To begin learning about the culture of Esperanto.
To attend an esperanto event (club meeting, picnic, committee meeting, congress... anything) and report on it in Esperanto.
Regularly read online blogs, news, social media, etc. in Esperanto.

3rd quarter

To read, write and speak well enough to pass any of the KER exams (more about these in class). This is entirely optional - you don't have to take the exam, i just want to feel that you're ready for it.
To begin corresponding with an esperantist in a foreign country (not one in which the student knows the local language or has local contacts - that would be too easy :)
To attend another Esperanto event.
To learn more esperanto history and world culture.
To be able to have a basic conversation with someone you meet in the world for the first time, as well as understand conversations going on around you.
Can you handle international correspondence? Letters are more than $1 each now, so this can add up depending on how much you write. OR... You can make this cheaper by only corresponding via e-mail, but then there's a lot more correspondence itself, and, of course, your choice of correspondent will be filtered by circumstances (the most obvious being, who, in the world, can afford a computer).

Time committment

Classroom:

2 hours a week: usually Tuesday's 18:30 to 20:30 at the International Center on the Stanford campus.

Homework:

15 -> 30 minutes a day: every single day for the rest of your life... or until you're good enough that you don't need to do the homework anymore. :) For many people that means 1 year to be "a decent speaker" (not "fluent").

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