Step by Step in Esperanto

ARRANGEMENT. The book consists of small sections, each dealing with one subject only. This aids clarity, and makes it easy to divide it up into lessons of any desired length.

To help students of various ages and types, the contents are intentionally very varied. Omit anything unsuitable for your class.

ORDER OFPRESENTATION. This has been carefully planned. Work straight through, and, in general, resist the temptation to dip ahead. If you dodge here and there, you must blame yourself if you find the book unsatisfactory (as you certainly will). At six- seven pages a week the book will be completed, and the students far beyond the Preliminary Examination stage, by the end of the usual three-term course.

In order to accustom the learner to use the nominative after a preposition, the accusative has been introduced very late. Opin- ions will dififer as to the wisdom of this. For conversation, at any rate, the accusative is almost indispensable. Introduce it as early as you think desirable.

For class conversation, a few useful words and phrases (e.g., lernejo, Bonan Tagonl) are introduced prematurely. They should be learned without explanation: this is given later in due course.

ROOTS. An effort has been made to build up a useful vocabu- lary. In the first few pages new roots have been introduced freely, for exercise in pronunciation; but as they are English, and safely guessable, this will not strain the memory. Point out, however, that Esperanto does not simply add an ^uo" to every English word! Pigo-magpie (not pig); porko=pi# (notpork); lardo=6acon (not lard).

ETYMOLOGY. After the first few pages, new roots are shown by bolder type on their first appearance. When an unfamiliar root occura, point out when possible—and it usually is—that it exists

also in English, and that a knowledge of Esperanto thus helps to understand English. E.g., moia is found in emollient, mollify; salti in somersault; pano in pantry> companion; sorto in consort.

Many Esperanto roots are etymologically related. Explain, for example, the connection between aŭskult, skolt, and scout; apenaŭ, pen, and pains; lum, lun, ilumin, alumet, lunatik, and lund. Such notes are omitted to save space.

MNEMONICS. No apology is made for "childish mnemonics".