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Esperanto for Dummies

de Cisksje, 3 de novembro de 2011

Mensagens: 11

Idioma: English

Cisksje (Mostrar o perfil) 3 de novembro de 2011 23:03:48

"Esperanto for Dummies" - sounds to me like a good read, if only someone would write it! okulumo.gif

It would also be good publicity for the language.

What do you think the chances are of such a book making an appearance in the series?

lgg (Mostrar o perfil) 4 de novembro de 2011 07:52:52

There's no chances. It's like we had Armenian or some other minority language first.

sudanglo (Mostrar o perfil) 4 de novembro de 2011 11:26:29

We already have an Esperanto for Dummies - it is the sixteeen rules of la 'Plena Gramatiko'.

Miland (Mostrar o perfil) 4 de novembro de 2011 13:52:14

Perhaps Erinja's forthcoming Esperanto for backpackers might be something like this?

erinja (Mostrar o perfil) 4 de novembro de 2011 15:39:17

Esperanto for backpackers will be very specific in the vocabulary it teaches, to be relevant to backpackers. It would have a lot of words and phrases that might seem useless to a person sitting at home and studying the language, planning to write a letter to a pen pal.

ceigered (Mostrar o perfil) 4 de novembro de 2011 17:36:06

There's a "complete idiot's guide to managing people" in Esperanto on Amazon apparently, if that makes anyone feel better!

Mind you, complete idiot's series seems not as nice as dummies' - I was reading "Complete idiot's guide to Yiddish" and while it was interesting the format of the book itself seemed hard to follow. Perhaps the editing isn't as good as the authorship.

Miland (Mostrar o perfil) 4 de novembro de 2011 19:20:16

I've just had a look at the website of Wiley, the publishers of the "for Dummies" books. For them to publish such a book, a prospective authors would have to send them a proposal which would include their curriculum vitae and a proposal including:

•The proposed title and a description of the topic or product
•An explanation of why the product is needed by the marketplace
•The intended primary market and secondary markets
•A profile of the typical reader / user
•A description of why the topic is important, and/or any problems the product can help solve
•A review of competitive works and how the proposed product differs
•The table of contents (if available)
•A partial or complete manuscript
•Reviews of the author's previous works

So a case would have to be made for commercial demand for the book. On the list on the Dummies webpage. I found Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, the major European languages (including Russian), but no major Indian language, nor Welsh or Gaelic.

So, regrettably, I doubt whether Esperanto would be accepted.

ceigered (Mostrar o perfil) 5 de novembro de 2011 04:56:17

•The proposed title and a description of the topic or product
(self explanatory)

•An explanation of why the product is needed by the marketplace
(Due to the lack of recognisably branded products teaching the language, and its potential as starting point for language hobbyists (No way could you use the "for the promotion of THE international language" argument, you'd be giving them laughs and an excuse to use the "rejected" stamp))

•The intended primary market and secondary markets
(Language learners, backpackers and travellers (pasporta servo), hobbyists, people looking to explore something new.)

•A profile of the typical reader / user
(bah, someone can come up with this one and as long as they leave the propaganda crap out of it it should work well enough for any business person)

•A description of why the topic is important, and/or any problems the product can help solve
(The topic is an important page of linguistic history, but also something that has helped set of a trend and craze of "language making", aka "conlanging", found on the internet (another important contributer was Tolkien!), and learning Esperanto can give the reader insight into the idea that something as "natural" as language can be "artificial" - perhaps contributing to debate about the ethics of AI)

•A review of competitive works and how the proposed product differs
(Someone can figure that one out)

•The table of contents (if available)
(ditto)

•A partial or complete manuscript
(ditto)

•Reviews of the author's previous works
(ditto)

@ Miland, they do however have many non-profitable publications I think from that perspective - I think "for dummies" readers are less likely to be fussy or busy people and don't mind picking up obscure hobbies.

qwertz (Mostrar o perfil) 5 de novembro de 2011 08:17:28

Miland:
Perhaps Erinja's forthcoming Esperanto for backpackers might be something like this?
erinja:Esperanto for backpackers will be very specific in the vocabulary it teaches, to be relevant to backpackers. It would have a lot of words and phrases that might seem useless to a person sitting at home and studying the language, planning to write a letter to a pen pal.
Hui, that's cool. rido.gif Where I can find project informations about?

That "Esperanto for Backpacker" could be good initial motivation for learning Esperanto. Because it firstly limits the Esperanto language vocabulary set someones has to learn for usage during travelling. With help of that limited language set someones could be capable to relate Esperanto language to personal experiences. Which of course could bring some strong motivation to improve Esperanto language.

erinja (Mostrar o perfil) 5 de novembro de 2011 14:23:07

qwertz:Hui, that's cool. rido.gif Where I can find project informations about?
Nowhere. I am (slowly) writing the course but there is no website with information.

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