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Post in it instead of about it

door Rogir, 21 januari 2009

Berichten: 11

Taal: English

Rogir (Profiel tonen) 21 januari 2009 16:23:59

I've noticed that the English-language board is almost as busy or even busier than all the esperanto boards combined. This makes me wonder: how many of the posters here also contribute on the esperanto-written boards? And why, or why not?

melanija (Profiel tonen) 21 januari 2009 19:29:45

I read them, but I haven't gotten the courage to try posting in them yet. I might start trying soon, though. Of course I didn't even really start posting here much until recently.

RiotNrrd (Profiel tonen) 22 januari 2009 02:27:04

I contribute to both. Lately (the last week or so) I've been too busy and have limited myself to the English board out of general time constraints. But ordinarily you'll find me in both places.

ceigered (Profiel tonen) 22 januari 2009 04:41:59

For me, a mixture of laziness, time constraints, lack of confidence, and possibly a lack of skill are why I frequent the English section more than others. Occasionally I believe that some things can only really be asked in the English section without straying from the topic of other boards. Every now and then though I do make the effort to contribute to either the konsultejo or vidpunktoj sections, and sometimes even the 'en la skandinava' section.

But I reckon that 300 of my 366 or so posts are probably in English. This disproportionate distribution will probably change as my Esperanto level gets better.

Maybe it could stand to reason that English speakers are generally less confident in communicating in another language than other speakers?
Or that English speakers dominate Lernu?

russ (Profiel tonen) 22 januari 2009 11:16:36

Some excellent advice I heard when first learning Esperanto (applicable to learning any new language) is to simply accept and not worry about the fact that you'll make lots of stupid mistakes in the beginning. Don't be afraid to post in Esperanto forums.

If you're not making mistakes, you're not progressing. ridulo.gif

Miland (Profiel tonen) 22 januari 2009 11:47:27

(a) The answer to 'how many posters' will be best found from the poll.
(b) It's good practice, provided people are sufficiently prepared. In my opinion, a good time to begin looking at the easier parts of the Esperanto-speaking forum is after passing the basic examination.

Rogir (Profiel tonen) 22 januari 2009 13:41:27

Also, a lot of topics are quite accessible to komencantoj, certainly in the helpejo, konsultejo or pri ĉio cetera sections.

jawq81 (Profiel tonen) 22 januari 2009 14:23:50

I always read the "In English" board first and if there is nothing on it that I am particularly interested in, I go to the "In Esperanto" boards. While I can usually get the gist of what is being talked about there, I may not completely understand everything that is being said. Also, I don't feel confident of my ability to post on the non-English boards although I did make one post to the "In Esperanto: General" board some months back.

One thing that has occurred to me: since the "In English" board has so many posts on such a wide variety of subjects (many of them having nothing much to do with Esperanto), could the "In English" board be divided into several different boards like the "In Esperanto" boards?

Another thing I have noticed: many of the questions posted on the "In English" board are very basic questions that could be better answered by enrolling in some of the beginner courses at Lernu. It's almost as if posting something on this forum has become an "ego" thing, rather than a "learning Esperanto" type of thing. And this concerns me a little. I am attempting to improve my ability to speak, read and think in Esperanto. If I read a blog or something posted in Esperanto, I do so out of a desire to improve myself. But I have noticed that sometimes my knowledge of the language is greater than that of the blogger.

If a person wants to post blogs and articles on the web, he should first develop his ability to speak Esperanto well. A poor knowledge of the grammar simply leads other learners astray. IMHO, this should be avoided like the plague.

erinja (Profiel tonen) 22 januari 2009 14:47:13

I read the English forums mainly to answer questions from beginners and to keep my finger on the pulse of the lernu community; it is actually part of my duties as a member of the lernu team. Other team members cover the Esperanto language forums, and I cover the English.

Of course I enjoy it as well. But my Esperanto is fluent, so I have no need to go practice it in the Esperanto forums.

There has been a slow turnover in English forum regulars. I suspect that some of the people who used be active in this forum as beginners eventually "graduated" and became active in the Esperanto forums instead. Certainly many have stayed behind to help other beginners along as well. But lernu is a beginner-oriented website, and the national language forums are the "kiddie pool" of forums, so I think it makes sense that those are the most heavily used.

And English is the most active one, so anyone capable of speaking or understanding decent English will probably come here. I hope, however, that our non-native English speakers are also active in the forums for their native languages!

erinja (Profiel tonen) 22 januari 2009 15:39:07

Responding to jawq, certainly dividing the English board might be a good solution, although I think that we have many posts here because people post a lot on each thread. I think that most of the language boards cover a similar spread of topics. However, I'll bring this up with the team and see if there's any interest among the other team members, in splitting the English forum into sub-forums.

Regarding some of your other comments, I think that some people come and use these forums even if they are using another course. Sometimes they're studying with a book, or with another internet course, or with a class. I don't have a problem with that.

It's true that many times, they could find the answer just by looking at lernu's content. But some people would rather ask than look for it. I don't necessarily have a problem with that either; it's sometimes a good strategy, especially for a complicated topic, when the learner benefits from lengthy discussion of the issue, rather than a short explanation.

And some people do lernu's courses and still don't know the answers to these questions! So just because someone has a question covered in a course, doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't do the course.

Having said all of this, I understand your feelings. I frequently feel that questions are posted that could easily be answered by a look at a grammar guide, or by a look through the forum's archives. Certain topics pop up again and again; newbies bring them up without realizing that these things have been discussed to death many times before.

To the newbies out there - take a look through the forum archives! I think you'll find the answers to a lot of your questions, plus answers to a lot of questions you never thought to ask, plus some very interesting discussions on every topic.

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