When I first read about Nancy Roof’s work about 10 years ago I was immediately drawn to her ideas and felt I had to try to get in touch with her. I still remember thinking that this what Nancy was doing seemed almost impossible to have been achieved but there she was really doing it. I failed to establish the contact then but succeeded in subscribing for Kosmos and felt privileged to have access to the magazine. When Nancy Roof and Stephanie Shorter invited translators from all over the world to volunteer for Kosmos, I believed I was the happiest person in world for having this opportunity to get involved in this fascinating project and give my little contribution to Kosmos’ efforts in building the new global civilization but was not sure they would be interested in having Kosmos texts translated into a fairly ‘small’ language such as Serbian. I was wrong, however, as they were pleased to accept my work in their very Kosmospolitan way. Now I think of my work in terms of ‘pre-Kosmos’ and ‘after-Kosmos’ …..
I have been using Kosmos for teaching English to graduate students planning to continue their studies abroad as well to those who wish to make their contribution to the positive changes in our society. This academic year my youngest student who is a fervent reader of Nancy’s editorials has started a debate club in his high-school, based on ideas from Kosmos .
Update, January 2013: I have started an e-edition Kosmos Digest that will be placed on the FORS web site on January 15. There will be another issue in May 2013. It will be comprised of articles written by university students in the Journalism department at Belgrade University who are currently taking English classes with me (see www.edinex.rs, Kosmos Salon). They will write in Serbian about topics we discuss in English and which are based on articles from the Kosmos Journal.
Finally, I would cite Eve Constantine: Thank you, Nancy and Stephanie and Kosmos staff, for affording me this honor and opportunity.
Stanimirka Milovanovich, MATEFL, Program Director of EdinexP-S8 Educational Consultancy, www.fors.org.rs FORS-Forum for Sustainable Development of Serbia
