I think that your efforts to broaden the user-base of Esperanto is valid, and I have done what I can to promote Esperanto's use as well but I would personally be hesitant to jump on every forum/blog without knowing their modi operandi. Esperanto can be used to promote policies but politics should not be used to promote Esperanto.

It's that kind of attitude that prevents it from spreading.

Absolutely not. Warning people to be careful where to plant seeds is not preventing the spread of Esperanto. My comment was just directed to people who are perhaps less careful at reading small print than I am. There are many reasons why I am against that website. I don't think Lernu is the place to go into them.

andogigi:And BTW, I regularly wear my Esperanto hat to customer job sites. I'm frequently asked "what's that" and get laughed at after I explain. I don't care. I've got broad shoulders. The ridicule was worth the few converts / friends I've made in the process.

I drink from a lernu mug at work, but few people have ever asked me about it. I'm already the "weird language person" at the office though, I have Italian cartoons on my cube and a couple of little trinkets on my desk picked up from countries most Americans don't even consider visiting.

Then I guess "weird language person" has a different meaning in the US than in Europe, where people 100 kms away usually don't speak your language.

erinja:

andogigi:And BTW, I regularly wear my Esperanto hat to customer job sites. I'm frequently asked "what's that" and get laughed at after I explain. I don't care. I've got broad shoulders. The ridicule was worth the few converts / friends I've made in the process.

I drink from a lernu mug at work, but few people have ever asked me about it. I'm already the "weird language person" at the office though, I have Italian cartoons on my cube and a couple of little trinkets on my desk picked up from countries most Americans don't even consider visiting.

Oh... My office already thinks I'm weird since I travel all the time and like languages. I'm OK in Spanish and Japanese (meaning I can get around; not fluent). My office staff is convinced, however, that I'm fluent in Chinese, Polish, Danish, Swedish, French, and Croatian simply because I *TRY* to speak those languages when I go to those places. First, they consider it odd to attempt speaking a foreign language when you're in a foreign country, since everyone already knows English anyway. Secondly, because I try, they automatically assume that I must be fluent. It doesn't matter, either, that I repeatedly tell them that I don't understand 95% of what people say to me in the above languages. They think I'm just being modest. Do you see how much educating we have to do? And then convince people, on top of all these other stereotypes and prejudices, that Esperanto is the answer to a problem they don't even want to acknowledge the existance of.

@erinja & Rogir,

I am also the "weird language person" at work (though I am European), that's only due to Esperanto. If you learn/speak several other languages, you are supposed to be clever or at least interested in things.

For most people learning Esperanto is still a complete waste of time. Of course, some are interested in the language, but that's a small minority.

Gerald

Most Americans do not speak a foreign language at all, though most of them have had a few years of high school French or Spanish. We can travel for hours and hours and visit the most varied landscapes and climates without leaving the US, and then do a great deal of additional travel in Canada (largely anglophone) and in the Caribbean islands (many of which are anglophone). A foreign language is not seen as a necessity here. Fluency in even one foreign language is seen as a great achievement (assuming your parents don't speak that language). Even having a working knowledge of more than one foreign language is seen as exotic and rare - even if those two languages are French and Spanish. I have found that simply knowing some fundamentals of the grammar of a lot of languages impresses people, even if I don't actually speak those languages. It is strange, because my language knowledge is very poor compared to most Europeans.

andogigi:My office staff is convinced, however, that I'm fluent in Chinese, Polish, Danish, Swedish, French, and Croatian simply because I *TRY* to speak those languages when I go to those places.

I had nearly this exact experience on a school trip to Germany. In my host house, I picked up a German picture book and summarized the story to my schoolmate. I do not speak German, and this was before I studied Yiddish, so I had not even studied a related language yet. But based on the pictures, German words that are similar to English, and a very few German vocabulary words I happened to know, it wasn't exactly rocket science to figure out a story aimed at little kids. The next day, rumor went around the whole school group that I was fluent in German. I tried to explain to them that it was nothing but looking at pictures and figuring things out from similar words, but it didn't matter, they didn't pay attention.

haha its funny how that works. i am by no means a linguist (not even close), and am still struggling even with Esperanto, but since a speak English and Mandarin (through being razed in Taiwan to Canadians), and that I'm interested in languages, i am automatically labeled as a language geek (which i don't mind, but i think people are giving me to much credit). Just because I'm learning Spanish (first year university), people assume I'm fluent already. Most people think i also speak Taiwanese, just because i like to swear in it. My coworkers often try to use the Cantonese they learned from a friend with me, which is a totally different language from Mandarin. Being in Northamerica even having interests in foreign languages gets people thinking your a geniouse. which is weird since in many other old world countries (at lease in Taiwan), many people speak at least 2 languages, usually their mother tongue and the official language or the countries main foreign language of choice. For example, most of my friends in Taiwan spoke Taiwanese and Mandarin, and many of them "some" English though afraid to speak it. I'm hoping that now that Canada is more multilingual (threw immigration) more people will take interest in foreign languages, but i doubt it, people seem content to be set in their old ways.

btw I've also customized my work place to better fit my world views. My locker is pasted with a political flag from Taiwan, and a bunch of foreign writing. I guess i thrive on weirdness...