Certainly it is the personal choice. But the research of bilingual in early age would be the point to consider. If I have the children, I would make the whole family speak Esperanto and if every family does that, the children would not be feeling no partners to talk to.

For those still think English is the major language, please think twice and the native speakers of English might like to consider saving English before it drifted to be Panglish. I would certainly not going to learn Panglish.

In fact, New York Times reported in 1921 that French Chamber of Commerce was going to use Esperanto but was disallowed by French government then who thought French would forever be in the big great world. If more Esperantists would inform the commercial sector of this research, it might save them time and money

Any language which attempt to dominate the situation would suffer the change and this could be a lost to the language and the tribe. The good example is the Bahasa Melayu in Indonesia is disappearing into Bahasa Indonesia. By decades, the mixed of local language and the Bahasa Melayu will be totally gone, in fact, the word Bahasa Melayu is only appearing in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei but not Indonesia.

se:Certainly it is the personal choice. But the research of bilingual in early age would be the point to consider. If I have the children, I would make the whole family speak Esperanto and if every family does that, the children would not be feeling no partners to talk to.

While that is certainly a good reason to speak teach one's child Esperanto, you can't expect every family to suddenly adopt a second (or third) lanugage, and forcing a (somewhat) rare language on a child that doesn't have peers with which to speak is a failed attempt. A school teaching Esperanto to a class of children is a different situation than the one most parents would find themselves in, which is that of a child learning a language that cannot be used by the child. That's a very difficult spot to be in, from the perspective of the child.

My mother tried to teach me German when I was young, but I couldn't use it with my father or any other kids on the playground. The only people I could have spoken to were her baking friends, all in excess of 40 years old. Hard to identify with people like that when you can barely tie your own shoes. As a result, I rejected it and to this day, cannot speak German. It's only in the last 4 years that I realized how beneficial it would be to speak a second language, and I regret not allowing her to teach it to me. However, I also recognize that I wouldn't be able to understand any sort of reasoning like this at that age.

evanamd:
While that is certainly a good reason to speak teach one's child Esperanto, you can't expect every family to suddenly adopt a second (or third) lanugage, and forcing a (somewhat) rare language on a child that doesn't have peers with which to speak is a failed attempt. A school teaching Esperanto to a class of children is a different situation than the one most parents would find themselves in, which is that of a child learning a language that cannot be used by the child. That's a very difficult spot to be in, from the perspective of the child.

My mother tried to teach me German when I was young, but I couldn't use it with my father or any other kids on the playground. The only people I could have spoken to were her baking friends, all in excess of 40 years old. Hard to identify with people like that when you can barely tie your own shoes. As a result, I rejected it and to this day, cannot speak German. It's only in the last 4 years that I realized how beneficial it would be to speak a second language, and I regret not allowing her to teach it to me. However, I also recognize that I wouldn't be able to understand any sort of reasoning like this at that age.

That is an interesting part of it; My mom tried to get me to learn Spanish (though nobody else in the family was fluent), but I gravitated towards Japanese instead. Now my little sister is learning Chinese.
I'm not sure what her reasons for learning Chinese are- I suppose I wanted to learn Japanese for the games and anime. In a way, I kind of want to make games and animations in Esperanto to kind of achieve the same "feeling" I had when I was learning Japanese.

I wonder if having two parents speak Esperanto if it would be sufficient for a kid to want to use, or would there have to be a wider appeal.

I think a crucial aspect of having a kid grow up with a language is making sure they're exposed to it outside the parents.

In the case of Esperanto, it would mean making a concerted effort to attend Esperanto events as a family (especially the annual event explicitly aimed at Esperanto families). In the case of another language, it might mean visits to the parent's home country, where that language is spoken.

I had a lot of friends who grew up speaking a different language at home. Their parents had a wide social circle of friends speaking that language, and usually the kid had grown up visiting the parents' home country at least a couple times during their childhood. It helps. Also, associating the language with something fun. Speaking Chinese gave my friend access to Chinese movies that she enjoyed, speaking Hindi gave another friend access to Bollywood, etc. There has to be a point to the language, a beneficial aspect of it other than talking to Mom and Dad.

Moosader:I thought of this during the discussion in "Preconceived idea of Esperanto as conceited?" but I didn't want to trail the conversation off-topic too much.

tonymec:

Moosader:[…] I mainly just got that idea from this interview with a native speaker. […]

I had often noticed that (and wondered why) “native Esperantists” often stop using Esperanto once grown-up. This article gives me a lot of insight into the “why”. In this case the author's parents were too enthusiastic, and their very enthusiasm was a cause of failure. After being “force-fed” Esperanto the way he was, there was a high risk that an adolescence crisis would throw it all away. I know other families where Esperanto is the house language, because that's the language Mom and Dad are most easy with for talking to each other; but in some such families one parent talks Esperanto with the children and the other the language of the surrounding country; in at least one such family (Danish-Belgian living in Belgium) everyone in the family talks Esperanto before lunch and Dutch afterwards (or is it the other way round?): that's maybe a little weird but it works.

I'm just wondering if you (random person reading this, not specifically tonymec) intend to teach your children Esperanto, as well as any other languages you know? Why or why not? Also, what approach would you take?

Yes, Absolutely I plan to teach them Esperanto. I'm teaching my children English and Esperanto. I am also talking to them about Latin, Spanish, German, and a language that my family uses to communicate; or did use. Now we have Esperanto.
Having children who can speak in different languages is so good for their development.
Also, Esperanto has helped my children with English.
There is nothing vain about it. We are responsible to teach our children many things. It’s what they choose to do with this information when they become adults is completely up to them.

To my mind there is no sense in teaching one's children Esperanto until they reach the age of reason, unless, of course, one of the foreign parents is not comfortable in the local language where the family is living.

The whole point about Esperanto surely is that it designed to be easy to acquire in adulthood and that it is for when another language won't do.

The idea that you hear from some Esperantists that Esperanto is now just another language like the rest is patently false.

Esperanto is not attached to any particular society. It is largely free of idiom and register, and other features of those languages which are used for daily living. It is just an invention for a specific limited purpose, and it is likely to remain so until it is so universally adopted that one can with confidence speak of many millions of speakers.

When you can go shopping in Esperanto, when you can watch films dubbed or subtitled in Esperanto on the TV, then we will be living in a different world, and the language will reflect that.

In that world it may make sense to teach young children Esperanto.

It also may make sense, before then, to teach Esperanto in schools for its educational value, not necessarily for the purpose of it being a springboard for the learning of other languages, but for what it can teach about language in general.

I love languages but, I see no reason to teach esperanto to my kids without them showing interest in it. Some kids who were bought up bilingual will keep one and reject the other so, I'd rather teach French or Spanish as a birth tongue and add esperanto if they show and interest in languages if they want to learn something else suggest esperanto first.

erinja:I think a crucial aspect of having a kid grow up with a language is making sure they're exposed to it outside the parents.

That's very, very true.

i don't plan to ever have children, but if i do then sure, why not?

If ever a child I spawn, I won't be teaching them Esperanto. The child will be her/his own person and certainly should decide for themselves what they wish to learn. No use foisting it upon them, so to speak.