These people have experience of learning from "Talking to The Whole Wide World"
I really appreciated the chance to participate in the language launch and our family got a lot out of it. The opportunity to learn together as a family was great as it fits in so well with home schooling practices and allows the learning to continue naturally at home with other learners/speakers at the same level. The pace of the course was well matched to suit all participants and all were constantly engaged and challenged at an ideal level for each. Penny quickly addressed any issues anybody was having and modified her teaching strategies seemingly effortlessly to quickly resolve them without interrupting the flow of the course. Considering the age and ability range of the participants I thought this was amazing. The course included a good range of learning methods, - songs, rhymes, games, conversation, reading and writing and a fun standing-up exercise where the question words were acted out. There was a good balance of introduction of new material and reinforcement activities. Penny’s delivery was structured yet flexible and she was able to answer any questions quickly and thoroughly. Penny’s beautiful speaking and singing voice was a pleasure to listen to in real life and on the audio provided with the pack. The language learning pack provided with the course is a wonderful resource, very clearly laid out and easy to follow. The pace of the audio component is good: snappy and clear. I am trying really hard to think of an area for improvement because fully positive feedback can be a bit suspect but to be honest I can’t think of anything. Combined with seeing beautiful Adelaide, it was a very worthwhile use of our time and am very grateful we were able to be involved. |
Erin Robertson
Kiam – 9th to the 15th of July 2011
Kio – We played lots of fun games learnt lots, and had tons of fun while learning heaps at the same time! Kie – Learning at the University of Adelaide was a fun thing to do – it’s a beautiful building with pretty surroundings, and generally just a great place! Kiel – The teacher taught us Esperanto in a sort of sandwich – fun games and cute songs to sing in the middle, surrounded by helpful instruction on either side. Kiu – Going through the course with my family was fun at times, but challenging at others, in a fun sort of way. Learning Esperanto with them (Parents in particular) was a great way of keeping me on my toes, and I learnt almost as many things from them as I did from Penny! Penny was a fabulous teacher, taking the time to correct us and explain how the language worked in different ways. She always had an answer and a happy smile for each question or mistake, and wasn’t at all bossy or cross like some teachers. Kial – I think, given the proper amount of speakers, Esperanto could be a great way to talk to anybody from anywhere in the world. As it’s easy to learn, it wouldn’t be hard to set up some place where kids or teens from all over the world could go and talk to one another, and maybe if people from other countries could talk to one another more, and become better friends, one day there might even be whole world peace! ^.^ |
I decided to investigate esperanto a few years ago when I was ill. I couldn’t move much and couldn’t afford classes or tutors so the free esperanto courses on lernu.net seemed like a good idea to give me something to exercise my brain during recovery. It was so easy to learn and communication in esperanto started almost immediately. Now I enjoy regular conversations in esperanto with people around the world. I read books from other cultures that I would never have be able to before. My kids have picked up quite a bit and I don’t even speak esperanto to them. – All for free, in a short span of time, in the comfort of my home. What other language could give me that?
I wish I had learned esperanto in school; I firmly believe it would have increased my ability to learn other languages. I learned French for years and took an immersion course as well but I cannot speak it or write it past the basic level. Interestingly, learning Esperanto seems to have re-awaken those latent French lessons and I have noticed that my understanding of written French has improved significantly in the last year or two. |
I'd recommend Penny's Esperanto course without hesitation to anyone who is in any way inclined to learning another language. The language itself is surprisingly almost intuitive once the basic guidelines have been absorbed and are applied. As Penny pointed out - anyone could credibly become fluent in a fraction of the time required to learn any other national language. One advantage of learning Esperanto I was particularly impressed with was that it is a key to opening the doors to many different cultures as Esperantists (the speakers of Esperanto) all come from many different nations. Contrast this with learning a national language where cultural exposure becomes very much more limited to the cultures of the countries where that language is spoken.
Penny's warm, sensitive and enthusiastic approach to teaching Esperanto went a long way toward smoothing the learning process too. Admittedly our 'class' was small with the advantage that all the 'pupils' were well known to each other, however her confidence, manner and range of techniques for getting the subject across would, I am sure, work equally well in larger groups with more disparate backgrounds. |
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