Bonan tagon! I apologize for the delay in posting. My week has been rather hectic, to say the least. But, now I should remain on schedule, and with luck I’ll have a couple of new posts within the next two days. Thanks for your patience!

I recently talked to my younger cousins about Esperanto. They’re both on the much younger end of the age spectrum – both have recently begun to study Spanish in their middle schools, and neither of them knows who Custer is. I asked them if they had wanted to study any other languages alongside Spanish, or why they chose to study Spanish in the first place. They both cited a lack of options – and a firm desire not to study French!

Since it seemed appropriate, I brought up the topic of Esperanto. Neither of them had heard of it. They were mildly interested at first, but I found a way to encourage them to give it a try. I suggested it could be used as their own personal code. Much like you might have spoken Pig Latin with your siblings when you wanted to keep a verbal message private, my younger cousins now do with Esperanto and their growing vocabulary.

I may have created a monster, but I think the idea is solid. Maybe one way we could encourage the younger generation to study Esperanto is to inculcate the idea of their own coded language. It could make letter-writing a lot more fun. And, if they start passing notes in Esperanto during their classes, it will only motivate their teachers to learn the language for themselves!