Andreo Cseh (born András Cseh; 12 September 1895, in
Marosludas, Hungary – 9 March 1979, in
the Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
, Netherlands) was a Hungarian/Dutch Roman Catholic priest and
Esperantist
An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperant ...
known for inventing the
Cseh method of
Esperanto instruction.
Biography
Cseh, an Esperantist since 1910, became a Catholic priest in 1919. In
Sibiu
Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...
in 1920, he designed the famous
Cseh method of Esperanto instruction. Because of the method's success, Cseh was invited to
Târgu Mureș
Târgu Mureș (, ; hu, Marosvásárhely ) is the seat of Mureș County in the historical region of Transylvania, Romania. It is the 16th largest Romanian city, with 134,290 inhabitants as of the 2011 census. It lies on the Mureș River, the ...
, where he led several Esperanto courses. From there he went to
Cluj
; hu, kincses város)
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, native_name=
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, subdivision_type1 = County
, subdivision_name1 = Cluj County
, subdivision_type2 = Status
, subdivision_name2 = County seat
, settlement_type = City
, le ...
, where he led courses and began to reorganize the Romanian Esperanto movement. In the autumn of 1922, he traveled to
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
on the invitation of
Henriko Fischer-Galați, with whom he founded the
Romanian Esperanto Center (''Esperanto-Centro Rumana''). He spent two years in București and neighboring cities, teaching and advertising the Esperanto movement.
Starting in 1921, Cseh was a chief delegate to the
World Esperanto Association. In 1924, his bishop, Count Majláth, gave him leave to dedicate himself completely to the dissemination of Esperanto. In the same year, he became secretary of the
Internacia Centra Komitato and was given the task of traveling through various countries to spread Esperanto. He participated in the organization of the
Esperanto World Congresses in
Geneva
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, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
in 1925, in
Danzig in 1927, and in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
in 1929.
In the autumn of 1927 he was invited by the mayor of Stockholm and Prince Charles to lead Esperanto courses in Sweden, including in the Swedish parliament. In April 1929 the first printed edition of his course appeared in book form, written in shorthand and published in Stockholm.
Having led courses in Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Switzerland, he moved to the Netherlands for good in 1930. Everywhere, his courses were such an extraordinary success that
Esperanto magazines began to talk about a "renaissance" of Esperanto. Thus, demand grew for courses intended for instructors of Esperanto. Cseh led international schools for educators, first in Budapest (1929) and later in
Arnhem
Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both ban ...
, Netherlands, for many years.
On 24 May 1930 he,
Julia Isbrücker
Julia Catharina Isbrücker-Dirksen (22 September 1887 - 14 January 1971) was a Dutch esperantist, Honorary Member of the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA), member of the International Central Committee and of the examination committee, member ...
, and her husband founded the
Internacia Esperanto-Instituto. As a result, the World Esperanto Association became dissatisfied with him, and he was not permitted to participate in the 1931 World Congress in
Krakow. In 1932, he founded and became the editor-in-chief of the Esperanto magazine ''
La Praktiko'', which was published until 1970. (In its later years, starting in 1964, the magazine was run by the World Esperanto Association.)
In 1931, he traveled to Berlin several times to teach.
In 1942, during the
German occupation of the Netherlands
Despite Dutch neutrality, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 as part of Fall Gelb (Case Yellow). On 15 May 1940, one day after the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces surrendered. The Dutch government and the royal family re ...
, Cseh and Isbrücker held a secret meeting to found the
Universala Ligo, a
World Federalist organization which they continued to lead for years.
Revocation and reinstatement of priesthood
Cseh led successful Esperanto courses for all types of people, unaware that due to concerns about marriages of mixed religions, the current bishop of Harlem, J.D.J. Aengenent, whose diocese included the Hague, prohibited his priests from giving lessons to groups that included both Catholics and Protestants. As a result, Aengenent used his
ecclesiastical right to prohibit Cseh from staying in the diocese of Harlem. Cseh's comprehension of Dutch was poor, so he did not fully comprehend Aengenent's order; for this reason, he continued to teach his Esperanto courses as he had before. After some time, Aegenent responded by revoking Cseh's priesthood. In the ''Huize Royal'' retirement home where Cseh was living at the time, the leader of the Parish, Father Genemans, visited Cseh to ask him about his life. He decided to take steps to allow Cseh to attain priesthood once again. As a result, on 6 January 1978, Cseh received a touching letter from Monsignor Zwartkruis, then bishop of Harlem, which informed him that his rights as priest had been reinstated. Copies of the letter were sent to the bishop of Rotterdam, Monsignor Simonis, and to the bishop of Transylvania.
ĜOJIGA HONORADO DE LA GRANDA ESPERANTO-PIONIRO ANDREO CSEH
(from "Universala Ligo" 1/1978)
The Cseh Method
The Cseh method consists of:
# Not using a textbook
# Not using the students' native language, but instead explaining new words using words that have already been learned
# Having the students answer in unison
# Using conversation about current events rather than artificial examples
# Thoroughly using humor and jokes
# Allowing the students to discover the rules of the language and construct the grammatical system themselves
Literature about Cseh and his method
* ''Esperanto en perspektivo'' ("Esperanto in perspective"), London, Rotterdam, 1974
* ''Enciklopedio de Esperanto {{Esperanto sidebar , expanded=Services
Encyclopedias in Esperanto ( eo, Enciklopedioj de Esperanto) are Esperanto-language encyclopedias. There have been several different attempts of creating an encyclopedia of all Esperanto topics.
History
I ...
'' ("Encyclopedia of Esperanto"), Budapest, 1933
* ''Vortoj de Andreo Cseh'' ("Words of Andreo Cseh"), Artur E. Iltis, Saarbrücken, 1984 / Internacia Esperanto-Instituto, Hague, 2003
* ''Metodologio de lingvostudado kaj parolproprigo'' ("Methodology of language study and proper pronunciation"), D-ro I. Szerdahelyi, Budapest, 1975
* ''Memorlibro omaĝe al Andreo Cseh'' ("Memorial book in homage to Andreo Cseh"), edited with an attached text by Katalin Smidéliusz, Szombathely, 1995
* ''Vortoj de Andreo Cseh'' ("Words of Andreo Cseh"), Ed Borsboom, Internacia Esperanto-Instituto, 2003
* ''Vivo de Andreo Cseh'' ("Life of Andreo Cseh"), Ed Borsboom, Internacia Esperanto-Instituto, 2003
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cseh, Andreo
People from Luduș
Dutch Esperantists
Hungarian Esperantists
20th-century Dutch Roman Catholic priests
20th-century Hungarian Roman Catholic priests
1895 births
1979 deaths
Esperanto educators