If commercial television is anything to go by the world is obsessed with reality TV, cooking, home renovation, and gardening.

Vestitor:In particular less, much less, focus on sci-fi/fantasy. It may shock a section of the Esperanto community, but the majority of the world is not transfixed by deformed elves, zombified creatures, vampires or troll-like characters.

Quality sci-fi in the vein of J.G. Ballard or Will Self is far removed from the kind of dross usually passed off as science fiction.

I'll reiterate that Esperanto's perceived relationship to childish fantasy fiction keeps it in the realm of the mocked subculture.

So, I take it thee would not be too fond of translations of the "Nancy Drew" and "Hardy Boys" mystery series?

MrMosier:

Vestitor:In particular less, much less, focus on sci-fi/fantasy. It may shock a section of the Esperanto community, but the majority of the world is not transfixed by deformed elves, zombified creatures, vampires or troll-like characters.

Quality sci-fi in the vein of J.G. Ballard or Will Self is far removed from the kind of dross usually passed off as science fiction.

I'll reiterate that Esperanto's perceived relationship to childish fantasy fiction keeps it in the realm of the mocked subculture.

So, I take it thee would not be too fond of translations of the "Nancy Drew" and "Hardy Boys" mystery series?

These are children's mystery books. Yes, they'd be excellent for children or adults with a low reading level.

Bemused:If commercial television is anything to go by the world is obsessed with reality TV, cooking, home renovation, and gardening.

Haha, that's true. Esperanto bake-off is probably the way to go if popularity is the requirement.

Translations of the sorts of textbooks/manuals/guidebooks that would be useful in poorer and/or predominantly rural countries in which English is not widely spoken and where such information is therefore harder to come by for the general populace. Agricultural stuff, medical stuff, basic engineering type stuff, etc. "Peace Corp" level information, if you know what I mean.

This is probably boring as heck to do, but it could also be quite useful in many locations.

That only would be worthwhile if Esperanto is widely spoken in those areas. Which it isn't. The time/effort/money would be far better utilized translating such books into the local languages.

RiotNrrd:Translations of the sorts of textbooks/manuals/guidebooks that would be useful in poorer and/or predominantly rural countries in which English is not widely spoken and where such information is therefore harder to come by for the general populace. Agricultural stuff, medical stuff, basic engineering type stuff, etc. "Peace Corp" level information, if you know what I mean.

This is probably boring as heck to do, but it could also be quite useful in many locations.

It takes a few weeks to a few months to learn Esperanto. Let's make it worth that small amount of effort. Provide something that people who could use the info would otherwise have to learn English to understand (something which takes substantially longer).

My suggestion is about trying to create an incentive for people to learn the language: provide something they can use, in a language that's easy to learn.

The advantage of doing it in Esperanto rather than individual native languages is that it's more widely distributable geographically.

^ Yes, and once it has been translated it can distributed widely. It only needs to be translated once rather than many times (whereas there are many local languages in Africa).

Spread the interpretation tool (Esperanto) and everyone can use the same materials.

Vestitor:^ Yes, and once it has been translated it can distributed widely.

I think it is hard to distribute material. What do you think is the best method of distribution?

Alkanadi:

Vestitor:^ Yes, and once it has been translated it can distributed widely.

I think it is hard to distribute material. What do you think is the best method of distribution?

I don't know if it is the 'best' in all circumstances, but via internet. Quite a fair number of people don't have easy internet access.