ways spell Paris the French way, although we do not
pronounce it the same way; that is, "Paree."

Prof. CHRISTEN. But London is not London in French; it is "Londres" in
French.

Mr. TOWNER. Do you mean to say that if a letter were addressed to London
from Paris the Frenchman would not pronounce and write it London but
Londres?

Prof. CHRISTEN. Yes.

Mr. TOWNER. He does not say London?

Prof. CHRISTEN. No, he says Londres. And the same is true with Dover;
Dover is not French; The French would be Douvres. However, I want to say
this, that after the first three or four years after I took up Esperanto
geographical or proper names were left optional and they were not given
any particular spelling in the Esperanto language and are not now. Many
Esperantists now would say Washington and London. But you can make the
change if you want to.

Mr. TOWNER. Internationally, has not that come to be the custom, to
pronounce the geographical names and proper names in the way they are
pronounced in the country in which they originate?

Prof. CHRISTEN. I think so. As I said, there is no arbitrary rule about
personal names or geographical names. Now, let me proceed with this
marvelous scheme and repeat that every part of speech is distinctive
in itself; that is the reason a child, when it follows Esperanto, will
not find English so hard and will understand English better than in any
other way. Such a child will understand English far better than if it
did not understand Esperanto, and that is a statement I often make in my
lectures.

Mr. RIPLEY. We had a man here the other day who has a language which he
claims is an improvement on Esperanto.

Prof. CHRISTEN. Yes?

Mr. RIPLEY. He is from Ohio, I believe.

Prof. CHRISTEN. I know. Since Esparanto began to move forward there have
been at least 30 to 40 different schemes elaborated, and that is easily
done. You can do it overnight. But there is no scheme that has ever
touched and no scheme that can ever touch Esperanto, because it has hit
the mark from the first. (8)

Mr. TOWNER. What do you do with adverbs? Do they have a definite form?

Prof. CHRISTEN. Every derived adverb ends in "e."

Mr. TOWNER. So you could not distinguish from the form between a verb
and an adverb, could you?

Prof. CHRISTEN. Perfectly. The adverb ends in "e" and the infinitive
ends in "i."

Mr. RIPLEY. It is your contention that children will do better in
English if they acquire a knowledge of Esp