orthohawk:

jismith1989:

sudanglo:If Esperanto is ever going to become mainstream

It's not. It's had almost 150 years to do that and failed.

took longer than that for arabic numerals and the metric system.

Maybe, but if that's the case, we'll all be dead when the final victory arrives anyway, so it's not something we need to be planning for! If others want to aim for world domination, fair enough, but I'm happy just welcoming anyone who wants to be a part of the movement as it already is.

Possibly there will be a global language when/if we have global government, but I'm not sure that's something to look forward to (though the global economic system of course already acts to some extent as a global government, and the languages of the market, like English, are already global for that reason).

(In the long-term, it's also worth noting that languages are and have been going extinct very fast, just like we're killing off all kinds of biodiversity, and there are only 7 really major worldwide languages now: Mandarin, English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Russian and Bengali. And these languages are 'eating up' many of the smallest ones. So on that basis, I suppose the logical conclusion would be one worldwide language, or at least a lot fewer than we have now. Which is one argument for the use of Esperanto that's been put forward: if that's the auxiliary language rather than English or something, at least some of these smaller languages will have more chance of being saved. Possibly.)

Most of the things that people on Lernu are calling "deviant" and "socially marginal" will be widely accepted worldwide long before Esperanto ever is. In fact, many of them are already. For sure, there are more LGBT people in the world than Esperanto speakers, and usually when I tell anyone in the local gay community that I speak Esperanto, they ask "Why don't you just learn Klingon?"

Benjamino:Most of the things that people on Lernu are calling "deviant" and "socially marginal" will be widely accepted worldwide long before Esperanto ever is. In fact, many of them are already. For sure, there are more LGBT people in the world than Esperanto speakers, and usually when I tell anyone in the local gay community that I speak Esperanto, they ask "Why don't you just learn Klingon?"

To be fair, I think speaking Esperanto is more of a deviant activity than being gay. (But if it's consensual, why not?)

jismith1989:

Benjamino:Most of the things that people on Lernu are calling "deviant" and "socially marginal" will be widely accepted worldwide long before Esperanto ever is. In fact, many of them are already. For sure, there are more LGBT people in the world than Esperanto speakers, and usually when I tell anyone in the local gay community that I speak Esperanto, they ask "Why don't you just learn Klingon?"

To be fair, I think speaking Esperanto is more of a deviant activity than being gay. (But if it's consensual, why not?)

The only ones that bother me are the flamboyant Esperantists. It's like I get it, you speak a language, but why do you have to walk around wearing a green star and waving a flag and singing "La Espero" and throw it all in my face? Can't you just go and speak Esperanto in the privacy of your home?

I've been going through a lot at school and I am focusing on getting help with my social anxiety so I appreciate the kind words about that. I was hoping this thread wouldn't get hijacked and turned into a political debate which stinks, but fortunately there were a lot of replies before that happened which were helpful and to those of you who stayed on topic and replied to my question thank you so much!
I actually decided I'm going to try to learn Esperanto and focus on that wish me luck

sudanglo:If Esperanto is ever going to become mainstream

It's not. It's had almost 150 years to do that and failed.

smith: In that case, we'll all be dead when the final victory arrives anyway, so it's not something we need to be planning for!

The whole historio of Esperanto has been planning for its adoption. Without such planning you would not have PIV or PAG and a wealth of translated literature and it would be a pretty piss-poor language.

And by the way the extinction of languages is likely to be brought to a halt by advances in machine translation. Why bother to learn another language (and forget your own) when the computer will deliver what you need in the language of your choice. It's language teachers that face extinction.

AlanLadd13:I've been going through a lot at school and I am focusing on getting help with my social anxiety so I appreciate the kind words about that. I was hoping this thread wouldn't get hijacked and turned into a political debate which stinks, but fortunately there were a lot of replies before that happened which were helpful and to those of you who stayed on topic and replied to my question thank you so much!
I actually decided I'm going to try to learn Esperanto and focus on that wish me luck

Good luck!

sudanglo:

sudanglo:If Esperanto is ever going to become mainstream

It's not. It's had almost 150 years to do that and failed.

smith: In that case, we'll all be dead when the final victory arrives anyway, so it's not something we need to be planning for!

The whole historio of Esperanto has been planning for its adoption. Without such planning you would not have PIV or PAG and a wealth of translated literature and it would be a pretty piss-poor language.

And by the way the extinction of languages is likely to be brought to a halt by advances in machine translation. Why bother to learn another language (and forget your own) when the computer will deliver what you need in the language of your choice. Its language teachers that face extinction.

Maybe, but I'm a Raumist anyway. I don't see how it follows that a language needs to achieve absolute world domination in order to justify its body of literature, either translated or original. Esperanto is and will continue to be used for its intended purpose (and unintended purposes!) by a large group of people, just not everyone!

That could be true. Machine translation is pretty crappy at the moment though. It's one of those things that, like voice recognition, has been talked about for decades but is still rubbish. Google Translate, for example, is okay for Esperanto, but it's bad for most natural languages (especially complex ones like Latin, so I presume also for languages like Russian, Chinese etc.) Maybe the future will solve those problems though. And yes, the robots will take all of our jobs eventually (apart from the few people who'll keep them working)! And if what you say is right, there'd be no need for Esperanto in its traditional role as auxiliary language anyway.

AlanLadd13:I've been going through a lot at school and I am focusing on getting help with my social anxiety so I appreciate the kind words about that. I was hoping this thread wouldn't get hijacked and turned into a political debate which stinks, but fortunately there were a lot of replies before that happened which were helpful and to those of you who stayed on topic and replied to my question thank you so much!
I actually decided I'm going to try to learn Esperanto and focus on that wish me luck

Good luck with the learning and your school problems.

(By the way, politics doesn't stink, it's one of the most important things there is, it affects all of our lives so much! You're right that internet debates don't always solve much though!)

Rargos:Well, it's silly to avoid certain foods because some made-up God is supposed to get angry if you eat them. I don't see why people should have to go out of their way to accomodate the fantasies of someone who was tricked into believing in a God who kills tens of thousands of people just because they won't chop off their foreskins.

Not insulting anyone in particular, just my opinion about Judaism -- and you're okay with that, right?

This post would have been deleted if you were saying it about anyone but a forum administrator. We have an unusually high level of tolerance regarding personal insults to ourselves, because we don't want people to feel like they will lose their account for expressing a concern or a grievance about the site. However if you continue to say stuff like this, you do risk losing your account. It's clearly against the site's terms of service.

Incidentally, I never expect suitable food to be provided to me. It's a pleasant surprise if it is, but I normally plan to make my own food arrangements if I know I might not be able to eat somewhere.

orthohawk:oh, but use language a bit out of the norm because of religious reasons and you get your tukhus handed to you by the cabal not to mention mocked and treated as a pariah (or else threatened with such)

I was trying to be friendly by letting you know that a word you used is often used in an offensive way. If you would prefer to go around causing offense, then I suppose that is your prerogative. Next time you use a word that causes wide offense, would you prefer that I let you know about it, or would you prefer that I simply delete your post without explanation? This is a serious question.

erinja:

orthohawk:oh, but use language a bit out of the norm because of religious reasons and you get your tukhus handed to you by the cabal not to mention mocked and treated as a pariah (or else threatened with such)

I was trying to be friendly by letting you know that a word you used is often used in an offensive way. If you would prefer to go around causing offense, then I suppose that is your prerogative. Next time you use a word that causes wide offense, would you prefer that I let you know about it, or would you prefer that I simply delete your post without explanation? This is a serious question.

Yes, THEE did that (and I thank thee for thy concern(?) for my social well-being in Esperantujo), however, there were others here who mocked and "paraiah-igis" (or at least tried) me for doing so (and I'm talking about more than my use of "ci" here). THAT, I prefer would be dealt with, but since at least 2 of them were posters that are part of that "cabal" I mentioned, I guess I'm SOL. However, it's nice to see the original poster's observation exemplified in such sharp relief.
I'll have you know (you, speaking to all of you "more esperantist than thou" types on here) that this attitude came very close to causing me to kabei out of disgust for the shennanigans perpetuated by the METT types. Something you may want to consider before castigating someone in the future for things that SHOULD be perfectly acceptable use of the language. However, to answer thy question, No, I would prefer to not "be let known" about it since I believe most everyone would consider it just a harmless quirk (especially if they bothered to ask about it and get an answer) rather than immediately, and without any evidence of such, think me rude or whatever by doing so.