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A message for the fluent Esperanto speaker (written in English)

by flgirl2012, April 5, 2014

Messages: 11

Language: English

flgirl2012 (User's profile) April 5, 2014, 10:43:42 PM

Hi! I don't know Esperanto, I just wanted to get this message out. This is for fluent Esperanto speakers.

The language learning app, Duolingo, is very popular and has many users, including myself (I use it to practice the Spanish I use in school). I just recently discovered that they have a website to add new languages and I was thinking how amazing it would be to add Esperanto. Through the website, fluent speakers volunteer to build a basic course in the language. The website is called Duolingo Incubator and the web address is incubator.duolingo.com I'm visiting it in the U.S., so I'm not sure if the website is available in other languages. If you're a fluent Esperanto speaker, I would suggest to you to begin building a course in Esperanto. I hope it gets developed and I would love to be able to use it someday!

Thanks!

If you speak any other languages, you can use the site, too, to create a course in another language.

flgirl2012 (User's profile) April 5, 2014, 10:48:36 PM

Hi! I just wanted to add something.

On the website, you have to apply to contribute. On the main home page, you will see a blue button with "Contribute to a Course" on it. Fill out your information on that page.

Thanks!

Rikat (User's profile) April 6, 2014, 10:55:39 PM

We have had several of these "please build a Duolingo Esperanto course K THX BYE" threads.

Apparently Duolingo is extremely addictive to some people. After they get their Esperanto course, I wonder if they will be become actual long-term members of the Esperanto community, or just work through the E-o course to get their dopamine fix and then start clamoring for some other Duolingo course to be created so they can get another buzz?

flgirl2012 (User's profile) April 7, 2014, 3:36:48 AM

Rikat:We have had several of these "please build a Duolingo Esperanto course K THX BYE" threads.

Apparently Duolingo is extremely addictive to some people. After they get their Esperanto course, I wonder if they will be become actual long-term members of the Esperanto community, or just work through the E-o course to get their dopamine fix and then start clamoring for some other Duolingo course to be created so they can get another buzz?
I would probably use Duolingo to get started in the course (I rarely use my computer), and then I would continue the course on Lernu. I really want to learn Experanto, and I think that releasing it on Duolingo would help Esperanto get closer to achieving the goal it was created for.

marco_ (User's profile) April 7, 2014, 11:20:57 AM

Facebook - Esperanto on Duolingo
Laborgrupo por Duolingo en Esperanto
The creator of Duolingo (Luis von Ahn) said that Esperanto is the most asked language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7aTabdzr5Q
(and then he laughed along with the audience...)

erinja (User's profile) April 7, 2014, 2:05:38 PM

Getting Esperanto on Duolingo is not the task of this website's community -- it's the task of Duolingo's leadership. Many Esperanto speakers have already indicated that they have registered as course translators at Duolingo, but haven't been asked about starting work.

I'll give you the same advice I give to everyone who comes to this forum asking this question - it doesn't come off well to come into a community and say "Someone please do [whatever work], so that I can benefit from it". You might not realize it but it comes off sounding entitled. These requests sound a lot better when it's not "Hey, how about you all do this work for me?", but "I have registered to do this work and I am doing this work; does anyone want to work with me so we can get it done faster?".

My suggestion is that if it is important to you to have Esperanto on Duolingo, you should learn the language first, then register as a translator. There are plenty of PDF and printable Esperanto materials on the internet, so it's easy to study Esperanto even without your computer, even if you don't want to use lernu. I am sure if you would like to ask for offline resources, members of this forum would be glad to direct you to them.

robbkvasnak (User's profile) April 7, 2014, 8:48:24 PM

I just looked up Luis von Ahn. I read his "home" page. He sounds just a tad arrogant. If he really did write what was reported on here, he is exactly the kind of person I run from. He is more likely to hurt and enjoy hurting others than really helping. He claims that he gets more email than he can answer. So I for one certainly won't bother him.
Or course, it is possible that he seems more arrogant than he is due to the fact that English is not his first language. He may have learned the technical components of the language but not the pragmatics and discourse construction of English. But though I give him the benefit of the doubt, I do not want to be one who taxes the capacities of his email box. ridulo.gif

erinja (User's profile) April 7, 2014, 9:40:37 PM

Duolingo is fun, I've played with it a bit, and I have no particular opinions about its creator. But people who don't speak Esperanto coming here and asking others to register as Esperanto Duolingo translators is getting a bit old. Seems like lots of people have already registered, so at this point the ball is really in the court of the Duolingo people and not the Esperanto community.

Bemused (User's profile) April 8, 2014, 12:05:53 PM

I agree erinja that it can be a little tedious that people continue to come to this site and request for experienced Esperanto speakers to contribute to other sites.

On the other hand it could be regarded as a compliment to the lernu team that when people are thinking of learning Esperanto they are thinking of the lernu site.

rcardwell1988 (User's profile) April 8, 2014, 3:54:44 PM

Erinja, I find it absolutely hilarious that you are giving anyone advice on what does or doesn't "come off well" since almost every post of yours I have ever come across did not "come off well" to me. The OP is clearly a first-time poster and presumably not experienced with lernu or with Esperanto in general, so it is understandable that she was not aware that there have already been similar posts. When I read her first post, I did not interpret it as "hey everyone, please do this work for my benefit, k thnx bye!" but as "Hi, I'm letting you know that this language-learning platform exists, and you might be able to utilize it to spread awareness and learning of Esperanto."

Erinja, I have seen other posts of yours with comments that you might not realize come off as rude and condescending. You should think about what kind of impression of Esperantists you are giving to komencantoj. If you are the first interaction that someone has with the Esperanto community, they might get discouraged from learning Esperanto, because who wants to learn a language that is only spoken by rude and arrogant people? This was actually how I felt several years ago when you responded to one of my messages on the lernu forum. Fortunately, I also met some wonderful people at Esperanto events, which encouraged me to continue learning and using Esperanto.

I will say up front that I will not be revisiting this thread, because I have said all I want to say and I am not interested in the back-and-forth forum battle that would inevitably ensue.
Belan tagon.

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