Alkanadi:

Vestitor:...because there is no longer just 'English' but 'Englishes'. You Tube has compounded this more than anything.

Wasn't there always different Englishes?

Decentralization of a language results in variation. Youtube, and other media, offer a chance to centralize and normalize the usage.

I was referring to the increasing inability to point to any standards because people claim legitimate differences in what is supposed to be one language. You Tube has not helped this. It's not a one-stop solution.

Alkanadi:Text isn't enough because our brains memorize audio patterns much better than patterns found in text.

Audio is good, I'm not against audio (who would be?). There is already Esperanto audio on You Tube (your new place of worship), of varying qualities I'm sure. I can't see a mass influx of Esperanto videos happening; there are just not enough high-level speakers making videos. It's not going to be like English on YouTube.

To repeat: audio is great, but edited text which has been checked for errors is invaluable for ironing out mistakes before they get ingrained. Using it alongside audio is even better. I'm saying nothing new though, because that's the usual content of most language courses anyway.

erinja:...this is really time-consuming and everyone has better things to do than this...

So it is too time-consuming to help people who need you? People who are really putting themselves out there?

Beginners need your help. Like this guy:
https://youtu.be/1wH4s1Xp9YU

He is going out on a limb to practice. Most people are too scared of judgement to do what he is doing. At least some people are leaving him feedback.

Alkanadi:So it is too time-consuming to help people who need you? People who are really putting themselves out there?

Yes, it is. It is incredibly time consuming. It is time consuming just to correct written text, and that's really pretty easy compared to listening to the spoken word, possibly badly pronounced, and writing up a list of errors and time stamps where the error occurred.

The best thing to do if you are a beginner who wants help with your spoken word is to find someone to Skype with you, and ask them to stop you and correct you when you make a mistake (otherwise it is normally considered rude to stop and correct someone who is trying to talk, so if you want someone to do this, you need to say so).

Even in written forums, there just aren't hours in the day. Most people have a busy life and it doesn't really have room for correcting all of the language errors they see in the lernu forums. Personally, I restrict myself to correcting someone only if a beginner asks for advice, and someone else gives them incorrect advice. I see from the number of corrections ( = few) of grammatically-challenged forum posts ( = many) that most experienced speakers have made the same calculation.

I also don't have time in my life to volunteer at the soup kitchen, help kids at the local school learn to read, or walk dogs at the animal shelter. We all pick and choose what helpful or charitable things to do with our limited free time, and it's impossible to choose them all, so you can't get all judgy on people for not choosing any given volunteer task.

Also - experienced Esperanto speakers are in high demand for volunteer projects. Even if an experienced speaker truly wants to contribute to something, they may be overcommitted elsewhere and unable to spare the time to help with another project. It's a perennial problem in the world of Esperanto projects, finding people who are (a) capable of doing the work, and (b) willing to do it, and (c) have the time to do it.

erinja:

Alkanadi:So it is too time-consuming to help people who need you? People who are really putting themselves out there?

Yes, it is. It is incredibly time consuming.

What if you could just point out one mistake per video?

...experienced Esperanto speakers are in high demand for volunteer projects.

What projects specifically? If they are in high demand then they can charge money. If they are too holy to accept money, then they could set terms that they will volunteer only if a small donation is made to the local soup kitchen, or charity that helps kids read, ect...

It's a win win. Problem solved.

Alkanadi:What if you could just point out one mistake per video?

I'm busy with my paid day job and various volunteer tasks. I don't happen to volunteer at an animal shelter but I'd rather spend a whole day cleaning up poop at the animal shelter than watch people's boring YouTube videos and tell people where they made mistakes. I spent more than a decade correcting beginner Esperanto lessons in text form. I'm done with that now.

...experienced Esperanto speakers are in high demand for volunteer projects.

What projects specifically? If they are in high demand then they can charge money. If they are too holy to accept money, then they could set terms that they will volunteer only if a small donation is made to the local soup kitchen, or charity that helps kids read, ect...

I have no idea what you're on about or who you're talking about charging - charging money for people to use the project or paying money to the person doing the work, which assumes that some kind of money is available?

But any Esperanto-related website that is written in Esperanto qualifies as a project in my book. Someone needs to write the text and develop the content, and it is going to suck if the person who did that work doesn't speak good Esperanto. Any new course, any new service, any advertisement for an event, planning any event. Anything that involves working with other people, you need to be able to communicate effectively in Esperanto. And anything involving working with the public requires good enough Esperanto to communicate with the Esperanto-speaking public to help people out and answer questions. Clubs need people to write and edit newsletters. No one is going to start charging for a new website on the best of Esperanto music (or whatever) just so they can pay someone to edit their content.

Money? You speak of worthwhile services but I am not willing to pay to watch someone's boring YouTube video, to provide that person with income so they can pay someone experienced to watch their boring video and provide a list of mistakes. No thanks.

erinja:I have no idea what you're on about...

Imagine you are at an Esperanto event. Then someone approaches you and says that they designed a new Esperanto course. They are hoping that you will edit it.

You could tell them that you will only help them if they make a small donation to the local pet shelter, which really needs help.

You said expert speakers are in huge demand. This is a way to curb the demand and help lonely kittens and puppies.

It is a win win.

Alkanadi:

erinja:I have no idea what you're on about...

Imagine you are at an Esperanto event. Then someone approaches you and says that they designed a new Esperanto course. They are hoping that you will edit it.

You could tell them that you will only help them if they make a small donation to the local pet shelter, which really needs help.

That doesn't sound like an attractive proposition.

Anyone who would agree to that would probably work for free, no donations necessary in any case.

Someone who doesn't really have time for it would require a lot of money to do the work and they would want to be personally paid (more than a small donation to charity, which they may not even believe that you will ever give, depending on how much they trust you), or they would just say no.

erinja:That doesn't sound like an attractive proposition.

If fluent speakers are in high demand then what is a better way to curb that demand? What do you think is a good solution to the problem?

erinja:Even if an experienced speaker truly wants to contribute to something, they may be overcommitted elsewhere and unable to spare the time to help with another project. It's a perennial problem in the world of Esperanto projects

Alkanadi:If fluent speakers are in high demand then what is a better way to curb that demand? What do you think is a good solution to the problem?

The solution to the problem is that people need to learn the language better. There are a ton of people with lots of ideas of things to do but without the language level to make it happen. If they would put some more energy into developing their language skills, they could do their own work on a project and not rely on others to do the work.

erinja:The solution to the problem is that people need to learn the language better.

I am trying.