Esperanto at Stanford University

Curriculum - Syllabus

Classes at Stanford > Curriculum / Syllabus

Requirements

No language prerequisite (not even English).

Students should buy at least a small dictionary, a notebook for homework and journal entries and in later quarters subscribe to at least one international journal. All the options are in the materials list.

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.

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.

3rd quarter

To read, write and speak well enough to pass the Basic Level international examination administered by Dorothy HOLLAND out of Santa Barbara (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.

Time committment

Classroom:

2 hours a week: 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 "fluent" (not "expert").

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