Thank you all for the deep concerns in regards to my brothers. My youngest brother is hardly interested in marrying again (he has practiced this unsuccessfully three times and is paying alimony through his nose. My other brother also has three marriages behind him, but one of his former wives passed away and he reached a judicial agreement with one of the others to give her a one-time payment and so he only has one alimony to foot. Neither of them communicate with me much because I am gay and they don't approve of my loose life style. However, my husband - with whom I have been for over twenty years - is also weird since he learned Esperanto. We are really living proof of how weird Esperanto is. We do all sorts of strange things like getting up and going to work every day, cleaning house, watching TV, tending the garden and all of the other cranko stuff that weirdos do. Oh, I forgot to mention, that we didn't watch the super bowl and we always miss the world series. Just more proof of our strangeness.

It does seem that Esperanto draws a lot of philosophically-inclined individuals. Your disdain for the label "normal" shows your place among our ranks.

I's say a great failing of our society is the lack of philosophical teaching. I truly grieve when I see someone who has wholly succumbed to an "asleep" life. I suppose we are easier to rule when we are all predictable, simple-minded consumers, doing our civic duty in endlessly stimulating the economy until we kick the bucket. It is unfortunate that "The first rule of fight club.." is the only thing people remember from an otherwise enlightening movie/book.

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." -Oscar Wilde.

I think the way I could ever be offended, is if someone were to call me "normal". Being erratic and "odd" is rather part of my identity now. I've mostly stopped trying to conform to societal expectations about how a person my age should look, how he should talk and act, and what his interests should be. It hasn't won me much popularity, but it *does* mean that, on the rare occasion I meet another "kindred spirit", we can get along on a meaningful level. I have not had the good fortune of meeting another Esperantist face-to-face (yet), but those that I've met on the internet, seem to have much more in common with me than anyone I might run into on the street (or at university).

I was a member of the "Normal is Boring Club". We had great fun, but then the other member moved to another state . She doesn't speak Esperanto, but she sometimes sends me messages partially Google-translated into Esperanto, and has never belittled me in any way for speaking it, which is something.

Tempodivalse:
"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." -Oscar Wilde.

I think the way I could ever be offended, is if someone were to call me "normal". Being erratic and "odd" is rather part of my identity now. I've mostly stopped trying to conform to societal expectations about how a person my age should look, how he should talk and act, and what his interests should be. It hasn't won me much popularity, but it *does* mean that, on the rare occasion I meet another "kindred spirit", we can get along on a meaningful level. I have not had the good fortune of meeting another Esperantist face-to-face (yet), but those that I've met on the internet, seem to have much more in common with me than anyone I might run into on the street (or at university).

Ve, now I'm in quote mode:
“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” - Marcus Aurelius

It is that line of thinking that got me, of all people (if you knew me), to buy a motorcycle; and it is the line I quote when people call me stupid/crazy for it. I know the rest of the world sees it as recklessness or youthful stupidity, but I know every fellow rider I pass on the road knows otherwise. Life is deadly; pretending otherwise leads to a sad existence.

Maybe, this is a good start for Esperanto PR

A very good video Alkanadi. Now, specifically, how do we use the principles outlined to promote Esperanto?

Alkanadi:Maybe, this is a good start for Esperanto PR

This won't work. To make people Esperantists, it's not enough to make them say yes once. It's not about persuading them paying a tip. To make people Esperantists you need to convince them not only to say yes once, but to persistently learn, practice and use Esperanto over years. Simple marketing foo like shown in the video isn't of any use there.

sudanglo:A very good video Alkanadi. Now, specifically, how do we use the principles outlined to promote Esperanto?

Here are some ideas:

1- Reciprocity: Esperanto clubs can do some volunteering or community service (maybe, while wearing some green stars). I know some groups do this and it is effective.

2- Scarcity: Esperanto is the only created language that has become popular.

3- Authority: UNESCO recognizes Esperanto. Google translate, duolingo, Microsoft, Ubuntu, and many others have language support for Esperanto.

4- Consistency: Try to get people to agree to learn how to say "Hello", "Goodbye", and "How are you" in Esperanto. Try to encourage them a bit more.

5- Liking: Convince people, who are already liked, to mention Esperanto.

6- Consensus: Tell people that right now about 2 million people speak it and the number is growing. Lots of youth are learning it at a young age. Also, wearing a star will make Esperanto more visible and more apart of the mainstream.

To make people Esperantists, it's not enough to make them say yes once. ....To make people Esperantists you need to convince them not only to say yes once, but to persistently learn, practice and use Esperanto over years.

Actually the problem is not so much creating dyed-in-the-wool Esperantists as making some (even a little) knowledge of Esperanto seem to be useful.

History demonstrates that there will always be enough 'spertuloj' dedicated to the language to keep it alive and fresh, and work on such things as the production of coursebooks, grammars, dictionaries, websites, translation of classics into Esperanto and the creation of original literature.

The prospects for Esperanto would be quite rosy if there were, say 250,000 spertuloj, and 50 million with basic Esperanto. This would largely defeat the argument that few people speak Esperanto so there isn't much point in learning it.

The prospect of being able to understand a menu in Esperanto in a foreign Restaurant, or being able to use it abroad to order a drink in a bar, or ask for directions, or get the heating turned up in your hotel, or report a theft to the police, or describe your symptoms to a pharmacist, would make the language much more attractive.

johmue:This won't work. To make people Esperantists, it's not enough to make them say yes once. It's not about persuading them paying a tip. To make people Esperantists you need to convince them not only to say yes once, but to persistently learn, practice and use Esperanto over years. Simple marketing foo like shown in the video isn't of any use there.

My argument is based on the assumption that a certain percentage of people who try it will stick with it.

Maybe, the percentage who stick with it would be higher if we advertised to language lovers.