People like money, so why don't we try to save them money. Cost benefit analysis:

To meet this rising demand, there are now an estimated 30,000 organisations or companies offering private English classes in China. The market has nearly doubled in size in the last five years and is now worth around $3.1bn.

Source

Esperanto is a lot cheaper because it doesn't take long to learn. It also has a lot more utility because there is no culture. That is a bonus not a drawback. There are no silly idioms and things like that.

Demonstrate the effectiveness of Esperanto and then it will probably catch on quicker.

In addition to that, Esperantists should study a little bit about marketing to effectively market the product/language

Esperanto is an elegant and rich language, easy to learn, belonging to no one and thus to everyone, which opens doors and minds for learners of it that would otherwise most probably remain sealed off from them forever. It is a language for poets, speakers and writers, but also for travelers, for scientists, for diplomats and adventurers who refuse to be denied access to experiences beyond their normal daily life. It is a communal treasure free for the taking, a gift that keeps on giving. Few speakers? What does that mean? Look around. The woods and towns are full of them. Odd people? Interested and interesting, yes, but odd? Hardly.

Belege!

I don't think our hypothetical objector has committed an AD HOMINEM fallacy.

His point surely is not because Esperantists are weird then Esperanto is weird, but rather simply that he does not wish to speak with (or be associated with weird people).

In any case Ad Hominem can be sound. Sometimes the character of the person can be evidence for doubting that what he says is true, for example in the case of a known habitual liar or fantasist.

sudanglo:His point surely is not because Esperantists are weird then Esperanto is weird, but rather simply that he does not wish to speak with (or be associated with weird people).

I don't think that Esperanto will ever attract people like him. What does that mean that one does you want to speak or be associated with "weird" people? That means you are closed minded and not open for new ideas, different ways of life, other points of view. Those people will not be attracted to Esperanto.

Esperanto as a language and most probably more than any other language is a bridge to a new world. Regarding Esperanto this world is diverse and colorful, full of people with diverse ideas who live a big variety of ways of life. If you call that "weird", then Esperanto is probably not your cup of tea.

Maybe some people nevertheless choose to learn Esperanto without using it in practise (i.e. not using the bridge to avoid contact to the weird). And maybe those are the ones hanging out in flame wars in the vidpunktoj-forum.

nornen:

johmue:

nornen:

rikforto:

sudanglo:I quote: Very few people speak it, and most of those that do are odd people.

AD HOMINEM! *ahem* Sorry, I teach rhetoric to high schoolers, and pointing out informal fallacies is basically a reflex at this point.

All joking aside, this is a terrible, unfalsifiable argument and should be treated as such.

It is ad hominem, but nevertheless a fact. Just take a look at the first page of the Vidpunktoj forum here on lernu.

But lernu is not Esperanto. Actually most Esperantists I met in person are not active in the lernu forums. At least not to my knowledge.

True. Thank you for pointing that out. I did a hasty generalization (yet another fallacy).
...

I have often wondered how much more interesting the forums would be if, say, 80% of Esperantists were active members. We do have a much larger speaker base, and I have no doubt that this would be one of the largest language-oriented discussion forums on the Internet. I think a primary failing of the movement is the lack of an official gathering place online.

A significant online presence would do wonders for convincing people about the validity of Esperanto. Right now we've got maybe between 10 and 20 "active" members who post in the forums one or more times a week on average. Imagine if we had only 1000 active members. We could actually have subforums on a whole host of subjects to draw in "practical-minded" people.

Right now we just have a small base of Lernu members and no general direction once you are capable if you don't want to stay here. We need an Esperanto subnet.

kaŝperanto:I think a primary failing of the movement is the lack of an official gathering place online.

You're not the first and you'll not be the last one to postulate that.

But won't happen. You don't know the Esperantists out there in the real world out of lernu. As soon as you announce them something like an official gathering place, some of them will rip into you with pitchforks saying "Who are you to claim your thing to be something official?" Others will say "So you're official? Know what? I don't give a f::k."

A first thing would be not to speak in English...

johmue:

kaŝperanto:I think a primary failing of the movement is the lack of an official gathering place online.

You're not the first and you'll not be the last one to postulate that.

But won't happen. You don't know the Esperantists out there in the real world out of lernu. As soon as you announce them something like an official gathering place, some of them will rip into you with pitchforks saying "Who are you to claim your thing to be something official?" Others will say "So you're official? Know what? I don't give a f::k."

I guess I mean "official" more in the sense of "de-facto official". Somewhere where the majority of progresantoj would move to themselves and would recommend to other more advanced speakers. Lernu is nice, but is primarily tailored to beginners and Esperanto-themed discussions. Where is THE (or even A) forum for advanced Esperantists to talk to one another and plot world domination? I know there are always the anarchist-minded out there, but when there are no existing options it's hard to say "how dare you" when you claim to be the "official" Esperanto forum.

I would like to be one of the first posters on here to admit that I am weird - and I am glad that I am. If I were not weird I would be like one of my brothers who are definitely not weird but who are so boring that you probably couldn't have a conversation of more than three sentences with them unless it were about 1) having intercourse with young women (my youngest brother) or 2) American football and beer (my other brother). So they are not weird and they will not learn Esperanto of their own free will.
One day maybe lots of boring people will be learning Esperanto for business. Conversations will revolve around such fascinating issues as tax benefits for foreign and off-shore companies, profits amalgamation, hedge funds, etc. Or people will write you letter from Nigeria telling you that a great fortune was left behind by someone and they only need your bank account to help you become a millionaire. Or they will want to sell you pills to enlarge your penis or your breasts.
So I am weird, because those things don't interest me.

kaŝperanto:Where is THE (or even A) forum for advanced Esperantists to talk to one another and plot world domination?

Esperanto is a language, not a club. There are lots of activities in Esperanto on the net, but there is not a center of Esperantism. And there won't be such a center. Same as there is no such center for Latvian speakers. Maybe some minority languages like Sorbian do have something like that, but those are often gouvernment supported things.

You can't explore Esperanto from behind your desk. Just like any other ethnos. If you want to explore Esperanto you'd need to travel "into the country" and talk to people. In the Esperanto context "into the country" means first and foremost to the Esperanto meetups.