Tim Doner speaks more than 20 languages. Here is his Youtube channel. I just send him a message about Esperanto. Maybe, we can spam... I mean... message polyglots and encourage them to try Esperanto.

Alkanadi:Tim Doner speaks more than 20 languages. Here is his Youtube channel. I just send him a message about Esperanto. Maybe, we can spam... I mean... message polyglots and encourage them to try Esperanto.

Forget about him, pointless to let these people to tell the world about Esperanto. How good is he in Chinese ? Can he understand the poems and classical Chinese literature.

Definition of polyglots must be redefined.

se:

Definition of polyglots must be redefined.

What's the current definition?

deltasalmon:

se:

Definition of polyglots must be redefined.

What's the current definition?

There is no hard-and-fast definition, I thought .I'm not aware of a technical linguistic term, "polyglot", aside from a very general definition of: one who speaks multiple languages (poly + glot = plur + lingvo + ulo). This could ostensibly be as few as two or three languages.

Alkanadi:Tim Doner speaks more than 20 languages. Here is his Youtube channel. I just send him a message about Esperanto. Maybe, we can spam... I mean... message polyglots and encourage them to try Esperanto.

Sending unsollicited messages to random people sounds like a great idea if you want to make them dislike Esperanto. I'm not entirely sure if you're kidding or not.

Mutusen:

Alkanadi:Tim Doner speaks more than 20 languages. Here is his Youtube channel. I just send him a message about Esperanto. Maybe, we can spam... I mean... message polyglots and encourage them to try Esperanto.

Sending unsollicited messages to random people sounds like a great idea if you want to make them dislike Esperanto. I'm not entirely sure if you're kidding or not.

I agree. The trick in promoting Esperanto (or almost anything) appropriately, in a way that will bring about lasting results, is to raise awareness of it in a subtle, time- and context-appropriate manner, not "throwing it in your face" - which will turn off your target audience.

I know I would not be terribly pleased if, say, I were a computer programmer and someone sent me a message out of the blue saying, "Look at this new programming language! You totally ought to learn it." It's just not pertinent.

There is a fine line between "spamming", and appropriate raising of awareness, that is hard to draw sometimes. Esperantists looking to promote the language should be sensitive towards it.

Tempodivalse:

Mutusen:

Alkanadi:Tim Doner speaks more than 20 languages. Here is his Youtube channel. I just send him a message about Esperanto. Maybe, we can spam... I mean... message polyglots and encourage them to try Esperanto.

Sending unsollicited messages to random people sounds like a great idea if you want to make them dislike Esperanto. I'm not entirely sure if you're kidding or not.

I agree. The trick in promoting Esperanto (or almost anything) appropriately, in a way that will bring about lasting results, is to raise awareness of it in a subtle, time- and context-appropriate manner, not "throwing it in your face" - which will turn off your target audience.

I know I would not be terribly pleased if, say, I were a computer programmer and someone sent me a message out of the blue saying, "Look at this new programming language! You totally ought to learn it." It's just not pertinent.

There is a fine line between "spamming", and appropriate raising of awareness, that is hard to draw sometimes. Esperantists looking to promote the language should be sensitive towards it.

I'd disagree that this guy (or his audience) would be a bad target for a cold call. He's already a "polyglot", and I'm assuming he is somehow well-known for this fact. To use the programmer analogy, we're not cold-calling some random Java developer with some C knowledge from university about how great Forth is; we're cold-calling an objectively open-minded developer who blogs about various programming languages and knows a great deal about procedural/object-oriented/functional languages but has yet to hear about Forth. The call is totally justified: you just have to do it right.

I'd wager that he already "knows of" Esperanto and has already made up his mind, so I would approach the "call" with this assumption so as not to start off on a bad note. If he was genuinely unaware it is then a logical and easy step to cover what it is. If I were addressing his audience/followers, I would start by showing what evidence I have about how Esperanto can help one learn another language or about why Esperanto is worth learning as a language in its own right.

These types seem to me like "collectors" of languages, so Esperanto might be sold as a novelty since it is the most successful IAL to date.

kaŝperanto:The call is totally justified: you just have to do it right.

Well said. Given an appropriate context, introduction, etc., there's no particular problem with bringing up Esperanto with an audience.

My worry, however, stemmed from the original poster's talk of "spamming". That seems like the wrong mindset to have.