This year saw the last GCSE in Esperanto, the international language which takes its vocabulary from the main European tongues.
Financial constraints killed off the papers which were set by the Northern Examining Board.
There were 38 candidates in this summer’s final cohort and they did well with six gaining starred A grades. There was a consistently high spread of grades, including an A and a B gained by a 13-year-old and a nine-year-old who were both taught and entered by their parents.
Why is it that the obvious benefits of a simple international language are so widely neglected? Many will point to the worldwide popularity of English, a view usually put forward by those whose mother tongue is English, and very rarely by those who have to struggle for years to master it.
So what are the advantages of Esperanto?
* Esperanto is much easier to learn than most national languages.
* The grammar is completely regular and very simple.
* The vocabulary, although considerably smaller than that of most other languages, is capable of all nuances of expression, due to its very clever use of basic root words in combination with a range of prefixes and suffixes.
* It is widely used in most scientific and academic disciplines, and allows full expression of complex concepts. Research papers written in Esperanto often have a wider readership than those written in a national language. Having no country of its own, all Esperanto speakers have had to learn it in addition to their own language, so the “embarrassment factor” hardly exists.
* There is an extensive literature, both translated and original, covering all fields.
* Research has shown that students who have first learned Esperanto find the learning of another language much easier.
* There are worldwide penfriend and hospitality networks.
* If Esperanto were to be used in the European Parliament, more than two thirds of their entire budget would no longer have to be spent on translation services.
Are you prepared to take up the challenge of learning Esperanto? If you are, or are already teaching it, I would be delighted to hear from you.
Ann Morse-Brown took her GCSE in Esperanto in 1990 and currently teaches the language at a community centre in Stourbridge, Staffordshire. She can be contacted via The TES.
