2008-02-20

Komuna Semiario 2007 - Repeated History.

Komuna Semiario 2007 - Repeated History.

Among young Esperantists in China, Japan and Korea, we have an annual gathering namely "Komuna Seminario" (A common seminar). Young esperantists in one of those three lands host a small seminar. The Seminar gathers usually about 50 people from those three lands. It's an Esperanto gathering and a typical Esperanto meeting is a truely international one, because there are always found some 'foreign' people outside those three lands. This year (Dec 28~30, 2007), we had two foreigners - one from Ghana/Africa, the other from Malaysia.

Inter junuloj de Ĉinio, Japanio, kaj Koreio, ni ĉiujare okazigas Komunan Seminarion. Kutime pli malpli 50 personoj amasiĝas el tiuj tri landoj, kaj kiel en kutimaj esperanto-renkontiĝoj, aperas pli fremdaj homoj. Ĉijare venis unu el Ganao/Afriko, kaj unu el Malaizio/Sud-Azio.

The Seminar has already a very long history - 26'th in 2007. This kinds of meetings among young people could be very hard to be continued because young people always disappear as they get job and get married. This year's hosting president was Mr. SONG Ho Young (Gloro, esperanto name), who worked very hard to make a successful seminar.

La seinario jam havas ne-mallongan historion - 26a en 2007. Ĉi tia junulara renkontiĝo estas vere malfacile daŭrigebla ĉar junuloj ĉiam malaperas pro labro aŭ pro geedziĝo... Ĉi jara prezidanto, S-ro SONG HO Young (Gloro, lia esperanto-karesa nomo) klopodis tre diligente por gastigi la seminarion sukcese.

Unfortunately... it had turned out that he had very few information about the long history of the Seminar, and he had very little experience handed over from previous people. Alas... I am one of those previous people.

Tre malfeliĉe... la prezidanto de ĉijara seminario (Gloro) ne bone gajnis la longan historion de la Seminario, kaj li havis tre malmulte da sperto transdonita de lia antaŭ-uloj... Ho... ve... Mi estas unu el tiuj antaŭ-uloj.

When I was in a team of local committee of the Seminar in the year 2001 (seven years ago), I felt the same difficulties and I decided to make the experience reproduceable by other people, and I planned a complete CD-ROM about the Seminar of the year. That was on the net, http://www.mobigen.com/~hiongun/ks .

Kiam mi estis en la loka komintato de la seminario en la jaro 2001 (sep jaroj antaŭe), mi sentis la saman malfacilecon, kaj mi decidis, ke mi faru la tutan programon rekorditan kaj ĝin transdonu al aliaj poste-uloj... en la formo de KD-ROM, kaj ĝi estas ankoraŭ akirebla tra reto. http://www.mobigen.com/~hiongun/ks .

After 7 years, I found that I was not successful enough to transfer my experience to younger people. And I also find that previous generation also had tried a lot to give precious experiences to us...

Sep jarojn poste, mi trovis ke mi ne estis tiom sukcesa sufiĉe por transdoni la sperton al pli-junaj homoj... Kaj mi trovas, ke ankaŭ miaj antaŭ-uloj ankaŭe multege klopodis transdoni valorajn spertojn al mia generacio...

Looking back those seven years... I think myself to be just a link in a longer chain, chain with deeper meanings. At that time, I wanted to be a gold or a diamond on that chain.

Retro-vidante la sepjarojn, mi sentas min ke mi estas nur unu parto de la pli longa ĉeno. Tiutempe mi volis ke mi estu diamanto sur la ĉeno.

Perhaps my son (an Esperantist from the birth) would hold his own Seminar after 20 years... Just hope it would last by that time. By that time, my pages would already be a part of history.

Mia filo (denaska esperantisto) okazigus sian propran Seminarion post 20 jaroj... Nur mi esperas, ke la seminario daŭriĝu ĝis tiu tempo. Tiam mia paĝo kaj memoro jam estus historio.

After the Seminar, early this year during the final summarization of the seminar, Mr. SONG (Gloro) found that 'antique pages of KS in 2001' and asked me for some advice on how to make a homepage of the Seminar, and I told that a persistency would be important and an open team Blog would be helpful.

Post la seminario, dum la post-resumado de la seminario, hazarde trovinte mian 'antikvan paĝaron de KS 2001', S-ro SONG (Gloro) petis rekomendon pri la sur-retigo de la Komuna Seminario, kaj mi rekomendis, ke 'daŭrigado' de tiu paĝaro estas la plej grava afero, kaj do vi malfermu 'Blogon', komune zorgeblan de junuloj en la tri landoj....

The result is a team blog: http://komuna-seminario.blogspot.com/ . At the moment, that blog contains only one page, but it is certain that a lot of pages are wating to appear.

Li jam malfermis paĝaron de la Komuna Seminario. http://komuna-seminario.blogspot.com/ . Nuna paĝaro enhavas nur unu solan paĝon, sed mi antaŭvidas abundon da paĝoj aperontaj...

The blog was open by current Korean part. If it would be successfully transferred to Chinese or Japanese people, the new blog would be a good part of the history.

Nuna blogo estis malfermita de koreoj, sed se ĝi estos trans-donita sukcese al Ĉinoj aŭ Japanoj, la blog-paĝaro mem fariĝos bona parto de la historio.

--Nomota, 2008-02-03.


Followings are a photos captured by my new Smart Phone, M620 Black Jack.

Jen la fotoj de la 26a Komuna Seminario de 2007 (Dec 28 ~ 30), Iksano, Koreio.





















Links: http://multilingual.tistory.com/
http://blog.daum.net/effortless (Korean)

Sponsor Link: http://www.mobigen.com/ http://product.mobigen.com/

Claud Piron talks about Esperanto

Claud Piron talks about Esperanto
Mr. Claud Piron from Swiss is one of my favorite writers in Esperanto. He is famous for his easy novels in Esperanto. When I had first read his book "In fact or in fantasy" (Fakte aŭ Fatazie), which was written only in beginners' words (with only about 500 very basic words), I was shocked by the beauty of the style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHALnLV9XU

Personally I haven't met Mr. Claude Piron, but he's very intimate to me. Now I found his voice at YouTube... thanks to the Internet. In this video clip, my hero introduces Esperanto in English.

--Nomota.

Links: http://multilingual.tistory.com/
http://blog.daum.net/effortless


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Chojus Family - a model case of a multilingual family.

Chojus Family - a model case of a multilingual family.

Chojus /choyous/ is a long friend of mine and his family is a perfect model for a multilingual environment. He, a native korean, has married to a Lithuanian wife and has a 6-year-old daughter. His family is now at Vilnius, Lithuania. His daugher, Yogaile, speaks 4 languages now, Lithuanian/Korean and Russian/English. How is that possible?

Ĉojus estas malnova amiko de mi, kaj lia familio estas perfekta modelo de multlingveco en familio. Li, koreo, edziĝis kun Litova edzino kaj havas nun 6-jaraĝan filinon. Lia familio nun estas ĉe Vino, Litovio. Lia filino, Jogaile, nun parolas 4 lingvojn, la litova/korea kaj la rusa/angla. Kiel tio estis ebla?

My friend Chojus, the father, always speaks in Korean, and the mother always talks in Lithuanian. It's a famous principle of multilingual family - OPOL (One Person One Language). He and his wife quite simply follow the rule, because each parent simply speaks in one's own mother tongue. He stresses that each parent should stick to only one language, at least up to first 3 years from the birth.

Mia amiko Ĉojus, la patro, ĉiam parolas en la korea, kaj la patrino ĉiam parolas en la litova. Estas fama principo de multlingva familio - UPUL (Unu persono, Unu lingvo). Li kaj lia edzino tre facile sekvas la principon, ĉar ili parolas nur en la lingvo gepatra. Li diras, ke la gepatroj devas sekvi la UPUL principon tre rigide, almenaŭ ĝis 3-jaraĝo.

After a long sleep, Russian will again be an important language in the near future. So, Yogaile, the daughter, goes to a Russian-speaking kindergarden. As for English, nobody teaches her. She learns herself by watching on TV comic channel for children. Almost all the time at home, the TV is on playing English comic films. He puts it this way - "I pay the electricity bill, instead of sending the daugher to a private English school."

Post longa dormo, la rusa denove fariĝos grava lingvo en tre proksima estonto. Kaj do Jogaile, la filino, iras al infana ĝardeno de rusa lingvo. Por la angla, neniu pri-zorgas. Ŝi lernas ĝin kun si mem, rigardante la televidan bildo-filman kananlon por infanoj. Preskaŭ ĉiam en la hejmo, la televidilo estas ŝaltita ludante bildo-dramon en la angla. Li klarigas la situacion ĉimaniere - "Mi pagas kontraŭ la elektro, anstataŭ sendi mian filinon al privata lernejo de la angla."

He and his wife speak in Esperanto each other. They just met each other in a Esperanto society. And the daughter always listens her parents speaking in Esperanto everyday, and she understands the fifth language.

Li kaj lia edzino parolas en Esperanto unu la alia, ĉar ili konatiĝis unu la alia ĉe Esperanto-societo. Kaj la filino ĉiam aŭskultas la gepatrojn parolantajn en Esperanto ĉiutage, kaj ŝi komprenas la kvinan lingvon.

Oh, how many languages! But this kind of multilinguality is not rare at Esperanto family in Europe. I think this case is a perfect example of a successful family. The key success factor in this case is not the languages themselves, but the stability of the family filled with love, with very little disturbance. Love is more needed than languages, for a child.

Ho, kiom multe da lingvoj! Tamen ĉi tia multlingveco estas ne malofta en Esperanto-familio en eŭropo. Mi pensas, ke ĉi tiu familio estas perfekta ekzemplo de sukcesa familio. La kerna sukses-ŝlosilo de ĉi tiu familio ne estas la lingvoj mem, sed la stabileco de la familio plena je amo, kun tre malmulte da malhelpoj. Amo estas pli necesa ol la lingvoj, por infano.

Here's the daughter talking in Korean with his father. She speaks Korean fairly well, though her pronunciation isn't quite natural.

Jen la filino parolas en la korea kun sia patro. Ŝi parolas la korean tre bone, kvankam la prononco ne estas perfekte natura.

http://flvs.daum.net/flvPlayer.swf?vid=MU7pwhy39lA$

Here's Yogaile playing with a toy duck, talking to herself in English.

Jen estas Jogaile kiu ludas kun anaso-pupoj, parolante en la angla.

http://flvs.daum.net/flvPlayer.swf?vid=1G4N_8uJoAA$


--Nomota, 2008-02-12.

Links: http://multilingual.tistory.com/
http://blog.daum.net/effortless (Korean)

Sponsor Link: http;//www.mobigen.com/ http://product.mobigen.com/

Excellent homepage for bilingual family...

Excellent homepage for bilingual family...

Seemingly when parents start to build their own family as a bilingual one, they find a lot of difficulties and they are eager to share their know-how about the solutions, just like me. Here's an excellent link to a hompage of a bilingual family. A good introduction to how to be a parent of bilingual children.

http://www.bilingualfamiliesconnect.com/

--Nomota, 2008-01-10.

Useful links for multilingual parenting

Useful links for multilingual parenting

If you think of parenting your children bilingually or multilingually, you'll have to learn a lot about what it would mean to be a parent of bi(multi)lingaul children. Followings are good links to start with. My recommendation is to read at least 2 or more books specifically written for parents of bilingual family, before you start.
It's quite interesting to see native speakers of Esperanto (a planned/artificial language) -- I'm one of those parents. There are a lot many people who succeeded to raise the children in this artificial language. That's because the parents love the langauge, Esperanto. (Se vi komprenas Esperanton, bonvolu viziti cxi subajn ligojn)
--Nomota, 2008-01-02.


Links: http://multilingual.tistory.com/
http://blog.daum.net/effortless


Sponsor Link: http://www.mobigen.com/

Bringing up a child bilingually with minor languages

Bringing up a child bilingually with minor languages


Raising children bilingually is a wonderful thing. It's like you endow your children with a lifelong advantage for some areas. In Korea, English is regarded as some kind of privileged language, and a lot of parents find the bilingualism (Korean/English) as the perfect gift for their children.
As far as English is concerned... that's relatively easier, because there are everywhere found abundant English materials.

However, if the concerned language is some minor (or regarded as minor) language, the problem becomes quite serious. As for my case, I'm bringing up my 4-year-old son as a Korean/Esperanto bilingual. Most of neighbouring people show some kind of uneasy worry about the language of the child. Wouldn't it be better to give him English?

Jinho, 4 years old, Korean/Esperanto bilingualIn my opinion, English is a language of school... So my son will learn English anyway, throughout the course of education. Even the kindergardens provide English program in Korea. So I think that English for my son is all up to himself. He'll get English without any help from me.

I have a plan of Chinese for my son. When my son will start to learn Chinese letters (roughly at the age of 13) I will help him only in Chinese(Mandarin) pronunciation for each letter. If he gets certain level of Mandarin pronunciation, he'll learn the Mandarin a lot easier than me. That's my plan, and eventually I expect my son will learn at least 4 languages. (Korean/Esperanto natively, English himself, Chinese with the help from me) Perhaps he'll choose at least one of other major languages - Russian/German/French/Italian/Japanese, totally up to his own interest. Just like I learned myself German/Japanese/Chinese of my own interest.

One principle of multi(bi)lingualism for parenting is ...

"You care for the minor languages only. Major languages will be learned by child itself anyway."


--Nomota, 2008-01-02.


Links: http://multilingual.tistory.com/
http://blog.daum.net/effortless (Korean)


Sponsor Links: http://www.mobigen.com/
http://product.mobigen.com/