I never heard anything about Esperanto before I started learning it. I was one of the "Stainless Steel Rat" learners, I heard about it from Harry Harrison's books and I wrote to the address he put in the back for information. I didn't have a chance to hear anything negative about it.

...but I got made fun of at school for studying it, by students who presumably never heard of it except through me.

In a way I can understand why people would find it funny. It does sound like a naive and idealistic idea ("Languages are hard. Let's make up a new language that's easy! and then we'll all learn it and talk to each other easily!" ), and the fact that many people haven't heard of it leads them to assume that the idea is a complete failure ("Except that I haven't heard of it so it must have really failed, and that's funny! ha ha ha!" )

The problem with the logic that leads to mockery, of course, is that Esperanto hasn't failed at all; those of us who bothered to learn it have access to a thriving and friendly community of speakers, lots of international events, a network of easy international travel, etc.

The funny thing is, that there ARE things to mock in Esperantujo (the stranguloj [weirdos], for one easy example), but the people doing the mocking never mention these things, because they don't know anything about it. You have to bother going to an Esperanto event to see any of that.

Always interesting to hear how people actually got into Esperanto. In my case I spent so long in a bookshop in Ramsgate (my home town) reading their copy of Teach Yourself Esperanto, that I then felt compelled to buy it.

Then, once I had laid out money for my own copy of the book, I felt compelled to read it further.

And because, in a moment of enthusiasm, I had also paid the deposit on an international youth congress taking place that Summer (1961?) in the UK, I then felt compelled to actually go, even though my enthusiasm had diminished at the time.

It was going to that congress that converted me. The presence at the congress of a good number of attractive girls from the Continent (ooh là là) had a strange effect on my teenage brain.

erinja:I never heard anything about Esperanto before I started learning it. I was one of the "Stainless Steel Rat" learners, I heard about it from Harry Harrison's books and I wrote to the address he put in the back for information. I didn't have a chance to hear anything negative about it.

...but I got made fun of at school for studying it, by students who presumably never heard of it except through me.

What is a "stainless steel rat" learner?

As for the teasing thing, im pritty sure that is just how kids learn how to talk and mix with each other. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of hurt feelings before their skills are refined into something more socially acceptable. At least thats how i can understand it.
As for the Adult experience, i find most people cant even comprehend most of the technical stuff that i deal with every day, so can't talk to me on that level. They revert back to the age old "comedy" approach. Esperanto is the one thing that stumps them; most have no idea how to respond. I generally keep it to myself though

As for the reason why i started, i just wanted to know what it was like to speak another language. It just was never going to happen with natural languages. When i discovered Esperanto, i figured this was going to be the last chance for me. I must admit, i don't care for the idealology of the movement.

chrisim101010:What is a "stainless steel rat" learner?

The Stainless Steel Rat is a series of science fiction books where the characters speak Esperanto. The books have an address printed in the back saying that Esperanto is a real language, and you can learn it if you write to a certain address to get a copy of a free postal course. That's how I heard about it, and I wrote to the address and I did the free postal course. I'm not the only one who did this; I'd say that anyone who learned the language because they learned about it through the Stainless Steel Rat would be a "stainless steel rat" learner.

As for the teasing thing, im pritty sure that is just how kids learn how to talk and mix with each other. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of hurt feelings before their skills are refined into something more socially acceptable. At least thats how i can understand it.

Adults do joke about it, though differently than kids do. It doesn't hurt my feelings in the slightest because I know how much Esperanto has given me. It makes me feel sad for the people who make fun of something that is so fun and useful, and it's quite annoying then they joke about it. I've made a practice of keeping it to myself in my new workplace. I was quite open about it in high school, and medium-open about it in my last workplace, and now I'm more careful to avoid talking about it.