sudanglo:The logic is that as long as Esperantujo is perceived as a club for weirdo's, it will discourage 'normals' from joining and prevents Esperanto from going mainstream.

So it has nothing to do with whether per se it is a good or a bad thing to be 'unusual'.

When I talk to people about Esperanto (be it online or in real-life), I usually get one of two reactions:

1) I don't know exactly what Esperanto is.

2) Fascinating, I didn't know Esperanto still had speakers.

Both reactions often come with a mild interest in knowing more about EO, or at worst indifference - I have never perceived any hostility in the reaction, aside from one or two comments - "Isn't that kind of useless?" - which had nothing to do with the perception of Esperanto speakers.

I think we flatter ourselves when we say that Esperantists are viewed as such weirdos by the general population. The truth is, many people (especially younger generations) don't even know about the very existence of Esperanto and thus can have no opinion of it at all.

Tempodivalse:

sudanglo:The logic is that as long as Esperantujo is perceived as a club for weirdo's, it will discourage 'normals' from joining and prevents Esperanto from going mainstream.

So it has nothing to do with whether per se it is a good or a bad thing to be 'unusual'.

When I talk to people about Esperanto (be it online or in real-life), I usually get one of two reactions:

1) I don't know exactly what Esperanto is.

2) Fascinating, I didn't know Esperanto still had speakers.

Both reactions often come with a mild interest in knowing more about EO, or at worst indifference - I have never perceived any hostility in the reaction, aside from one or two comments - "Isn't that kind of useless?" - which had nothing to do with the perception of Esperanto speakers.

I think we flatter ourselves when we say that Esperantists are viewed as such weirdos by the general population. The truth is, many people (especially younger generations) don't even know about the very existence of Esperanto and thus can have no opinion of it at all.

This. It's hard to be perceived as weirdos by the general population when they don't even know you exist.

In the fall/winter I wear an (obvious) Esperanto lapel pin and green scarf to match (conversation starter), and I've only ever had two people even ask me what it was about who were not related to me (a Target cashier and a gas station clerk). Of all those I have told about it, only two people had even known of Esperanto's existence (one knew some Elvish, and the other was into language learning). We have more of an advertisement problem than an image problem.

Yeah, I was thinking about that myself; at least where I live (Colorado), Esperanto's only real public image problem is that it doesn't have a public image. When I talk about it, the response I get 90% or more of the time is "what's that?" and the rest of the time it's something to the effect of "nobody speaks it." Like one time I said something about it to a guy I know; I don't even remember what, now; and he asked what it was, and then his fiancee jumped in and answered that it was some attempt at an international language; for Europe I think she said; that fell flat on its face! To which I of course replied that no, that was Volapük, and Esperanto is still alive and well... but they still seem rather incredulous. So far I have not succeeded in convincing anyone to learn it; the closest I've got is one guy who knows about enough words and phrases that you could count them on your fingers; he doesn't study it more, he says, because he's too busy studying the "great international language, Swift!" And then he goes on about his time-clock program, and I declare it to be "volapukajxo".

Christa627:Esperanto's only real public image problem is that it doesn't have a public image.

Unlike most subjects, I think Esperanto is capable of eliciting incredibly strong opinions in people who hadn't even heard about the language five minutes ago. So while it may not have a strong explicit public image, it has a very strong implicit one - it's a failed project, it has no soul, it has no speakers, it's ugly, etc.. For some reason, many people are convinced that they know these things, and are unafraid to express them publicly, without having any experience with the language at all.

That is the real problem.

RiotNrrd:I think Esperanto is capable of eliciting incredibly strong opinions in people who hadn't even heard about the language five minutes ago.

[...]

For some reason, many people are convinced that they know these things, and are unafraid to express them publicly, without having any experience with the language at all.

That is the real problem.

Hmm, I find this quite plausible. Well said! There is a natural tendency in general, I've noticed, (taking myself as a case study) to develop opinions about a topic without having any serious knowledge of the topic. I think it comes from a desire to believe one is more knowledgable than one actually is.

But in that case, there doesn't seem to be a solution. It seems Esperantujo would have to in general get people to have informed opinions. A lot of people simply won't care to make that effort. So ignorant, vocal dismissals of Esperanto can't really be addressed, since their espousers aren't interested in a rational conversation on the subject.

Now. Why should we care what those people think?

Riot:Unlike most subjects, I think Esperanto is capable of eliciting incredibly strong opinions in people who hadn't even heard about the language five minutes ago. So while it may not have a strong explicit public image, it has a very strong implicit one - it's a failed project, it has no soul, it has no speakers, it's ugly, etc.. For some reason, many people are convinced that they know these things, and are unafraid to express them publicly, without having any experience with the language at all.

That is the real problem.

A good point well made.

And TV and radio programmes that present the Esperantists as a bunch of weirdo's just confirm the prejudice.

Tempodivalse:

RiotNrrd:I think Esperanto is capable of eliciting incredibly strong opinions in people who hadn't even heard about the language five minutes ago.

[...]

For some reason, many people are convinced that they know these things, and are unafraid to express them publicly, without having any experience with the language at all.

That is the real problem.

Hmm, I find this quite plausible. Well said! There is a natural tendency in general, I've noticed, (taking myself as a case study) to develop opinions about a topic without having any serious knowledge of the topic. I think it comes from a desire to believe one is more knowledgable than one actually is.

But in that case, there doesn't seem to be a solution. It seems Esperantujo would have to in general get people to have informed opinions. A lot of people simply won't care to make that effort. So ignorant, vocal dismissals of Esperanto can't really be addressed, since their espousers aren't interested in a rational conversation on the subject.

Now. Why should we care what those people think?

One of my favorite classical texts is about how Socrates was told by the oracle that he was the wisest man alive. He immediately rejected the idea and set out to find anyone wiser than he, but failed to do so. It seemed that everyone else, while they may have known a great deal about some subject, incorrectly assumed they knew things when they did not. Socrates was forced to conclude that he was the wisest man only because he knew the bounds of his own knowledge.

Everyone, myself included, is far stupider than we would like to believe. Most people are just too stupid to notice