Come on! Be more positive about it!

I've started my adventure with Esperanto about a month ago, so don't expect me to have any great achievements in Esperanto movement. New academic year will begin and we'll see how I can contribute to its prosperity and growth.

I'm not trying to put you down (or put anyone down) but when people seem unenthusiastic about your great ideas, this is probably the reason why. Esperanto speakers have heard many great ideas! They have seen few of these great ideas happen.

erinja:The thing is that there is no lack of ideas in the Esperanto movement, so it is pretty frustrating to people who are active in the movement that they are constantly, repeatedly asked "Why don't you do this and that?

It is so true. All organization suffer from this issue. Even professional companies like Microsoft are constantly getting asked why they don't do this or that.

Like the saying goes, "The first to complain is the first to volunteer" or something like that.

Personally, I have given up trying to work with people. I have been around enough groups in my life to know that people don't do anything unless they are getting something in return (as a general rule). People are somewhat hedonistic. They seek pleasure and avoid pain. It is exciting to start something or throw out ideas, but once they feel the pain of the work, their emotions change. They are guided by emotions.

As a result, if you rely on someone to do something because you are expecting that they have the same passion as you, then you will be disapointed. This has been my experience over and over again.

Now adays, I prefer to do everything on my own. I am a lone wolf as much as possible. It is a lot less stressful this way. I would rather organize an entire event myself rather than chasing after people to do work that they committed to. Also, I don't get involved in helping with other people's projects. I have my own projects to work on.

On the other hand, sharing ideas spurs creativity, and it is just something to talk about. It doesn't undermine any of the hard work that you have done. Maybe, it feels like they are trying to add to your burden.

nmcdejong:- How did you get into Esperanto in the first place?

I used to watch a Youtuber called DanRezler, and a couple years ago he made a video called "La Revo de la Doktoro" about Esperanto. He didn't give much information about the language itself, more about the history and background of the language, but I was interested so I googled Esperanto and started learning it.

nmcdejong:- Do you use the language outside of this website and Esperanto conferences?

I tried to convince my friend to take it up over the summer, but both of us kept putting it off so she never did. If she had, I would probably have started using it with her as sort of a secret-language between us. It's not particularly easy to find other Esperantists anywhere nearby in the US, so I haven't had much chance to speak it. I have been translating things into Esperanto for fun pretty much since I first learned the language, though. Until recently it was pretty bad Esperanto, but that definitely helped me gain more skill with the language that I would have had otherwise, since I can't often speak it.

nmcdejong:- What do you think the future holds for Esperanto? Will more people start speaking the language or will the Esperanto community stay roughly the same size?

I don't think Esperanto will become the lingua franca or even a commonly used international language anytime soon. I think that the Esperanto community will probably stay the same as it is now and generally has been. There may be some growth if something/one manages to make Esperanto more popular, but I doubt it'll affect much. The only great improvement I can see happening is schools starting to teach Esperanto as an introduction to learning second languages. I still think it's unlikely, given how ineffective our schools are, but perhaps someone with power will see the research into how Esperanto helps people pick up other languages faster and decide to take advantage of that.

nmcdejong:
- How did you get into Esperanto in the first place?
- Do you use the language outside of this website and Esperanto conferences?
- What do you think the future holds for Esperanto? Will more people start speaking the language or will the Esperanto community stay roughly the same size?

1. I was studying French and having some difficulties, especially with regard to thinking in the language and not translating so much. I had heard some time ago that Esperanto was supposed to be an easy language to learn, so I went exploring.

2. I now currently use Esperanto to correspond with people around the world and with whom we share no common language but Esperanto. For me, I think that was one of the most pleasing and profound of moments when I communicated with these people far beyond any simple greetings. Ridigas min, it made me smile. Without Esperanto, I wouldn't have met these people, been able to hear their opinions and thoughts, to see glimpses of our world from people raised in different cultures. One interesting effect for me personally has been that I find it easier to be more emotionally direct in Esperanto than I am in my native language of English, so often now when I'm trying to sort through my thoughts and feelings, I find it helpful to think of them in Esperanto and then translate that into English. It's a very strange effect, but I've heard from others who speak multiple languages and how they sometimes find that different languages perform different sorts of thinking for them.

3. I am somewhat cynical about Esperanto's future. I believe that people are somewhat lazy, that without immediate and compelling reasons to do so, they probably can't be bothered to learn. Look, I'm a fairly intelligent person, although maybe not gifted at foreign languages, but it took me a fair amount of time and study and reading to begin to get Esperanto. Perhaps that's some because I have somewhat high standards for what I consider useful and fluent, I like to be able to discuss topics that many people have little interest in. Esperanto may be far easier to learn, but it still requires significant time for an adult learner who has never learned another language beyond their native language before.

The only way that Esperanto would truly grow would be if there was to be a global effort to teach Esperanto as a second language to school children, to teach them during that time when language acquisition is easier. The only thing that I could think of to inspire such a global effort would be if a dominant economic power were to begin instructing their children in Esperanto. That's not going to happen in the United States. China, maybe? If China were to do so, then other countries who wish to do business with China would have incentive to d...

nmcdejong:- How did you get into Esperanto in the first place?

a jazz singer named Kurt Elling wrote a song called Esperanto. that was about 10 years ago. it's a beautiful song and Kurt has a fun anecdote about the title. fast forward to last year, a coworker told me he wanted to learn Latin. i said why Latin? why not learn... Esperanto? and then i thought to myself, hey, why don't i learn Esperanto? so here i am.

nmcdejong:- Do you use the language outside of this website and Esperanto conferences?

yes, other Esperanto websites. i think there may be a couple of Esperantists in my county, but i haven't met them yet. they write Op-Eds to the local paper about Esperanto though.

nmcdejong:- What do you think the future holds for Esperanto? Will more people start speaking the language or will the Esperanto community stay roughly the same size?

because of the internet it's easier than ever for like minded people to find each other. i think EO will continue to be used internationally and enjoy some growth, and perhaps more schools will adopt it as an educational tool.

- How did you get into Esperanto in the first place?
- Do you use the language outside of this website and Esperanto conferences?
- What do you think the future holds for Esperanto? Will more people start speaking the language or will the Esperanto community stay roughly the same size?

1. I wanted to find out how a planned language works. Apart from that, I hoped that it would be easier to achieve a native like competence in it than say in Italian.

2. In fact, I have never used Esperanto outside the so called Esperantujo.
On the other hand, I read various Esperanto websites, listen to Radio Muzaiko programmes and watch videos produced by Verda Stacio. I occasionaly meet other Esperantists in Prague and once a year attend a conference. In order to show the outside world that Esperanto is still around, I have also participated in an oficial examination session organized according to the rules of Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

3. In my opinion the Esperanto community won´t change in size in the future. However, I think that if politicians and language planners stepped in, Esperanto would make an excellent lingua franca within the European Union. The roots of the language are clearly European, which means that the EU citizens should not experience serious troubles learning Esperanto and identifying themselves with it.

PEM71:...

3. In my opinion the Esperanto community won´t change in size in the future. However, I think that if politicians and language planners stepped in, Esperanto would make an excellent lingua franca within the European Union. The roots of the language are clearly European, which means that the EU citizens should not experience serious troubles learning Esperanto and identifying themselves with it.

Advocates of Interlingua make the same argument on behalf of their favored language. In fact, some of them claim that I-gua is even more "European" in a sense than Esperanto. Of course, all this is arguable with claims and counterclaims. E-o obviously is far ahead in terms of users, written materials, and educational texts, so it has the advantage, but assertions of which is more "European" and suitable for the EU would be debated.

Advocates of Interlingua make the same argument on behalf of their favored language. In fact, some of them claim that I-gua is even more "European" in a sense than Esperanto. Of course, all this is arguable with claims and counterclaims. E-o obviously is far ahead in terms of users, written materials, and educational texts, so it has the advantage, but assertions of which is more "European" and suitable for the EU would be debated.[/quote]You are right, of course. Esperanto is not the only solution that is currently available. Moreover, for those outside "the land of invented languages", to quote the title of one interesting book, the difference between Esperanto and Interlingua is nonexistent. However, since we´ve been discussing Esperanto, I still think that it should be mentioned in such a context.

- How did you get into Esperanto in the first place?
- Do you use the language outside of this website and Esperanto conferences?
- What do you think the future holds for Esperanto? Will more people start speaking the language or will the Esperanto community stay roughly the same size?

I read about it on wikipedia many years ago now, and I got into it by learning from this website and getting myself an anki deck to teach more further vocabulary outside of the beginner's course.

I use it here and on Skype where I chat to other esperantistoj. Most of my conversations are had with people on Skype, and it's been probably a large factor in terms of me not only learning vocabulary but retaining it (speaking to people one realizes what words one continually looks up and thus memorizes them faster).

I realize that to get fluent in any language takes time, but to get to a basic conversational level in Esperanto happens very quickly. I was speaking to people and holding basic conversations after 2 weeks of study. I studied Japanese for a year, and I was at nowhere near the same level.

So, with that said I think Esperanto is a great replacement for english as a lingua franca but I do not think that this would be likely anytime soon if at all. the language is a niche interest, and that is likely all it will ever be.