Hm. I get the point, but I'd say ist goes more in that context. It sort of is an unpaid profession. It's definitely limited in time in that when the kids are grown you're done, but I'm guessing that if someone has a short term career (by choice or getting laid off, etc) you'd still use the ist while they were employed in that field. If it's the seriousness of the interest and/or your involvement in it that is important, then definitely ist.

I don't know Esperanto well yet, but given what was written here, I'd say ist.

So would you call an elementary school kid a "lernisto"? "lernanto" is pretty standard, I've never heard another word, but you could make the same argument, that school is this kid's "job" for 12 years or so.

jismith1989:(rather than the old-fashioned sounding dictionary word dommastrino). Of course, I'm not saying whether I agree with that or not (and I'm not a housewife in any case!), but it does show how the language we use can be political.

Honestly, in my book, the lady of the house is the dommastrino and the man of the house is the dommastro - even if they both work outside the home! I'm aware of the traditional meaning but to me there's more to being a dommastr(in)o than staying home all day. Even if you work outside the house, the tasks still need doing, by anyone who lives there.

erinja:So would you call an elementary school kid a "lernisto"? "lernanto" is pretty standard, I've never heard another word, but you could make the same argument, that school is this kid's "job" for 12 years or so.

Ah, I just edited my post about that. I don't think you could see it as equivalent to a job/occupation/hobby, if they're forced by the state (and their parents) to go, so I can see why you wouldn't use lernisto there (but that doesn't apply to people teaching their kids at home). It can't be something that defines who they are, because they had no say in it. A professional researcher might be a lernisto though. But, then again, the vortaro at the side gives esploranto for 'researcher', which is surely a proper job, so I can't really grasp the logic (obviously I can see why you'd use esplori, just not how the distinction between -isto and -anto comes about -- in reality, I suppose all languages have to have some ambiguity, primarily because humans are such ambiguous and conflicting creatures, so it's probably hard to make really clear distinctions -- unless, as I said, it refers to someone who's only very temporarily researching, e.g. someone researching their family tree).

Come to think of it, I also like the fact that if you do work as a researcher in the depths of the library, in Esperanto you can get away with people thinking that you go and trek the Amazon! So that's another ambiguity, not necessarily a bad one though. On the other hand, I just looked up esploristo in the PIV, and it seemed to give definitions like 'land-surveyor' and 'oil-explorer', without mentioning 'researcher'. Maybe that's the reason why you can't use -isto there then, because of the ambiguity, but that seems pretty arbitrary, if so.

What is the difference between ant and ist?

If you have just begun your Esperanto studies you are a komencanto, but even beginners might rate themselves as Esperantistoj.

erinja:-ist- indicates a profession or a serious hobby. -ant- indicates simply an activity that you are currently doing.

I know that if you teach home school, it is certainly something that is very serious and it eats up a big portion of your life. But it's a sort of limited-time thing, once your kid graduates you don't expect to continue with it, so in this case I'd prefer the -ant- suffix (unless you did expect to continue with home teaching after your kid graduates?)

To me it's analogous to a child in school, who is a 'lernanto' and not a 'lernisto'. It's a limited-time thing, it's not a profession or a hobby. A lernisto would be someone whose profession or very serious hobby it is to learn.

Ssooooooo............once you're an Esperantisto you're still an Esperantisto after you've kabei'd? I was a teacher at a private school when I lived in missouri over 16 years ago. I don't teach now except on a very ad hoc basis, usually serendipitously (oh, no, the verb esperar already has the "for" in it: to wait for, so you don't need to use the Spanish preposition "para" along with the verb"). I knew that was going to end the minute i left missouri, so i was never an instruISTo, just an instruANTo?
Other than my example, I'm sure many homeschoolers would take issue with your saying their teaching their children isn't a profession.

orthohawk:Ssooooooo............once you're an Esperantisto you're still an Esperantisto after you've kabei'd?

I'd say "eksa Esperantisto" in that case.

I was a teacher at a private school when I lived in missouri over 16 years ago. I don't teach now except on a very ad hoc basis, usually serendipitously

I'd say you were an eksa instruisto. It was your profession and now it isn't.

Other than my example, I'm sure many homeschoolers would take issue with your saying their teaching their children isn't a profession.

I tried to be pretty clear in my message that I have the highest respect for people who teach in home school but it looks like you've perhaps managed to be offended anyway.

I cook a lot for myself and I enjoy it as a hobby but I'm not a kuiristo. I just think that when an -ist- word is a common profession, the threshold for calling someone a [x]-isto should be a bit higher than the normal "he likes to bicycle so he is a biciklisto"

I wonder what people call themselves in English. If someone asks such a person, "What do you do?", would the person respond "I am a home teacher", or would the person use another expression, perhaps "I teach home school" or "I teach my children at home"? that is, a noun form "teacher", versus use of an expression with a verb.

erinja:

I tried to be pretty clear in my message that I have the highest respect for people who teach in home school but it looks like you've perhaps managed to be offended anyway.

Well, thee may have tried.........

If thee truly has "the highest respect for people who teach in home school" thee really should make sure ALL of thy words reflect this, not just the "disclaimer"

I challenge thee to find any homeschooling parent who thinks of educating their children as just a "hobby" or just something they "happen to be doing at the time." If you teach, you're an instruisto, whether you get paid for it or not, whether the students are your own children or others'. As the line from "Man Without a Face" goes: "I make my living otherwise, but I am a teacher."

orthohawk:

erinja:

I tried to be pretty clear in my message that I have the highest respect for people who teach in home school but it looks like you've perhaps managed to be offended anyway.

and thee even has friends that are goyim, right? . If thee truly has "the highest respect for people who teach in home school" thee really should make sure ALL of thy words reflect this, not just the "disclaimer"

I challenge thee to find any homeschooling parent who thinks of educating their children as just a "hobby" or just something they "happen to be doing at the time." If you teach, you're an instruisto, whether you get paid for it or not, whether the students are your own children or others'. As the line from "Man Without a Face" goes: "I make my living otherwise, but I am a teacher."

I don't appreciate your use of a disrespectful term for non-Jews. Incidentally, I was born a non-Jew, so yes, I have lots of friends who aren't Jewish, in addition to, uh, my ENTIRE FAMILY. Thanks.

I don't mean any disrespect with my vocabulary preference, but I do draw a distinction between someone who studied to become something and does it as their chosen profession, versus someone who does it on a limited basis, for a limited time. However, if someone who taught their kids at home referred to themselves as an "instruisto", I wouldn't tell that they're wrong and correct them; however, if I made this choice myself, I likely would not refer to myself as an "instruisto" in Esperanto. My language suggestions to other people who are learning reflect my own personal use; in this case it reflects how I would call myself if I were to find myself in that situation. I respect the right of others to make a different choice. For the record, I've taught Esperanto classes on and off over the years, but I wouldn't call myself an "instruisto". I'm not a teacher, I never felt "called" to the teaching profession, and I would be totally mystified if someone were to give me a mug that said "best teacher" or some such, after having taught an Esperanto course. I'm not a teacher. I'm an engineer who has taught occasionally.

orthohawk:
Well, thee may have tried.........

If thee truly has "the highest respect for people who teach in home school" thee really should make sure ALL of thy words reflect this, not just the "disclaimer"

For what it's worth, if you want to speak Middle English, you'd use thou in all of those cases, not thee. Thou is used for the subject, thee as the object. Like he and him. Or vi/ci and vin/cin.

But then you'd probably also have to conjugate the verbs a bit, like 'thou mayst' etc.