- Wedgwood Memorial College
Wedgwood Memorial College is a small residential college in
Barlaston , nearStoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. The college, a member of theAdult Residential Colleges Association , offers short courses in literature and languages (French, German and Esperanto); political science and history; and art, art history and architectural history. [http://extwww.sgfl.org.uk/ghumphrey/wmc/tutors.asp College Tutors] ] Wedgwood Memorial College has a non-circulating library with 15,000 volumes available for research and private study. [ [http://extwww.sgfl.org.uk/ghumphrey/wmc/library.asp College Library] ]The college's buildings are also rented out for weddings, parties and small conferences, with eight rooms available that accommodate from ten to 40 people per room. [ [http://extwww.sgfl.org.uk/ghumphrey/wmc/conferences.asp Seminars and Small Conferences] ] One of these rooms is the
Montagu C. Butler Library , located inEsperanto House on the grounds of the college.The college was originally housed in
Barlaston Hall , a nearby building which had been endangered bycoal mining operations and ageological fault , which had caused major diagonal cracks in the walls.There is also a similarly named building in
Burslem , theWedgwood Institute , which is sometimes called the "Wedgwood Memorial Institute". This is a completely separate institution, which houses Burslem public library.Esperanto instruction
The headquarters for the
Esperanto Association of Britain has its main office at Wedgwood Memorial CollegeSince 1960 Wedgwood Memorial College has offered a week-long
Esperanto summer school every August. Esperanto tutorPaul Gubbins , who has taught at the college for many years, declares that students typically learn Esperanto to a more advanced level than students of other foreign languages: "Students of Esperanto do not have to wrestle with the irregularities of a foreign language: these impede fluent, uninhibited expression. This means that often, particularly with an advanced group at the college, I find myself not so much ‘teaching’ Esperanto but exploring the language with students – pushing it, testing it and challenging it to an extent that is impossible in a traditional language classroom."The college offers a weekend course in
Esperanto theatre every January and a weekend residential course in Esperanto language every October. The latter course is particularly suited to people who have completed an introductory free course, whether a traditional postal course [ [http://en.lernu.net/kursoj/ap/index.php Ana Pana] Esperanto correspondence course] or an Internet-mediated one. [ [http://en.lernu.net/kursoj/index.php lernu.net] - Several free on-line courses in Esperanto] TheEsperanto Association of Britain offers a partial subsidy to Esperanto learners attending the Wedgwood Memorial College program and who have first completed such an introductory course. [ [http://extwww.sgfl.org.uk/ghumphrey/wmc/courses.asp?category=Languages#results Languages taught] ]Notes
External links
* [http://www.esperanto-gb.org/ Esperanto Association of Britain]
* [http://www.biblbut.org/ Montagu C. Butler Library]
* [http://butler.esperanto-gb.org/butler.zip Catalogue of Buter Library (downloadable)]
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