ESPERANTO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1941, Page 7

ESPERANTO

MASTERTON CLUB MEETING. The weekly meeting of the Masterton Esperanto Club, held last evening, was well attended. Mr W. J. Beresford, who presided, referred to the teaching of Esperanto in Britain and stated that the Society of British Esperantist Teachers had met at Oxford from April 10 to 15 last. The conference was attended by members from various parts of Britain and had been arranged to provide an opportunity of hearing the experiences and opinions of Esperantist teachers in the different types of British schools. In addition, an aim of the conference was to explore and discuss the various phases of Esperanto teaching, one of the most important being the provision of reading material suitable for the child mind. Of special interest were the reports regarding the general instruction of Esperanto and on the exchange of Esperanto correspondence between the pupils of six schools, this scheme having been adopted as a means of overcoming the difficulties met with in international correspondence concomitant with the outbreak of the war. An anecdote session, introduced for the first time, proved to be an interesting and- entertaining innovation. In addition, members were afforded an opportunity of receiving practical experience in the international language. The session was followed by _ further conversational practice obtained by the “direct” method of study, together with the use of the blackboard and sketches centring around “The Adventures of Adamson.” The concluding item was contributed by the secretary, Mr W. H. King, who delivered another short talk in his series “From the life of a Soldier.”