$1000 for a week, would that have been a price you'd have been willing to pay? And how much would you have been willing to pay for three weeks? And for one week?

I really want go NASK, and plan to in the future, however if the course time is reduced from three weeks, then I wouldn't bother as it would be pointless for me to travel all the way to America for anything less. On another note, I should be at the next Australian one in Sydney if all goes to plan ^.^

Evildela, you could certainly still go and spend another two weeks with something else "Esperanto", like a Landa Kongreso, depending on how the times worked out.

But unfortunately, NASK only had 17 or so participants this year; the numbers need to come up somehow, and since the long duration of time (and cost, which is of course also related to the time) are so prohibitive, I think it's pretty inescapable that the time needs to be reduced.

Whats the most students to ever attend NASK?

I'm with 'biguglydave' on this. I have looked at going to NASK in the past but almost everything associated with it is a 'show-stopper' for me.

First, I am retired, so I do have the time and an interest in Esperanto. But I have no interest in either the college credits or the excursions and the academic environment is a turn-off for me. I just would not feel comfortable with spending 3 weeks with a youthful college crowd in San Diego (or anyplace else). I have become pretty conservative in my thinking in recent years and would feel much more comfortable at a Tea Party convention or a vacation in Branson, MO.

Second, NASK is just too long and too expensive.

Third, while I like to travel, I positively hate to fly. It seems our government is hellbent on making a flight about as unpleasant as a root canal. I live not too far from New Orleans. And while I wouldn't mind driving up to Chicago, why not look at Austen, TX or St. Louis, MO? They both have universities and active Esperanto clubs. If you could offer a five-day seminar in either place, I'd seriously consider it -- especially if a local hotel would offer discount pricing. I have zero interest in living in a college dormitory.

If most Esperanto events have more retirees than youths, then any proposed course must be made attractive to both groups.

Regarding the excursions, NASK hasn't historically had very many excursions. SES is very excursion-oriented, but NASK really isn't.

I wouldn't really say that NASK is youth-oriented the same way that SES is, either. It's not unusual to have students in their 40's or 50's, though older than that is not ever so common. In addition, the instructors are not exactly "youths" themselves - it's rare to have an instructor over 40. And the instructors and students are not separate from one another, they participate in events and meals together, so even if you're a retiree, there are plenty of people to spend time with who are well out of their 20's.

I have to say that this worry about age is something that's surprising to me. I expected the main issues to be with cost and length of time, but not age; I never considered NASK to be a youth event. And I'm hoping that someone else with Esperanto movement experience can back me up on this, but I personally think that ages mix well in Esperantujo. It isn't uncommon to have youths and retirees mingling and talking with one another. At least in the US, the Esperanto movement simply isn't big enough for us to segregate ourselves like that. Maybe in the evening the youths will go off and do something by themselves, but for the most part, I think there is a good degree of mixing.

lavagulo, I want to respond specifically to some of your concerns.

I want to go into a little more depth on the youth thing, and also on the politics thing. I'll put the politics in this post and youth in a separate one.

It's true that by and large, Esperanto speakers are more on the "left" side of the spectrum than the "right". But I have met plenty of right-wing Esperantists. We mainly try to focus on things we have in common, rather than our differences. We all support Esperanto. We all have families that we care about, we all enjoy nice weather over bad weather, and since we are into Esperanto, presumably we are also interested in different cultures and languages. I urge you not to think that you won't have a nice time at an Esperanto event because you're a tea party supporter. What I'm about to say has nothing to do with tea party politics, so please don't take it as anything personal about your or your political opinions.

At Esperanto events you will meet some people with different opinions than yours. Esperanto draws some unusual people, so you will almost certainly meet people whose opinions you consider to be downright crazy. You have to be open-minded about it; in turn, they should be open-minded about your opinions. I don't care if you support the tea party or the communist party or the "moon is made of green cheese" party. I have met Esperanto speakers with the weirdest opinions, not necessarily having to do with politics, but with everything under the sun. At a certain point you have to just smile and nod and say "Oh, that's nice" to someone else's crazy opinion, and then move on to another topic. It is not worth arguing about, it's not worth trying to convince someone that you're right and they're wrong. I don't care if you can prove it, I don't care if they say the sky is orange and you can clearly see that it's blue. Esperanto is really not the place for vehement political debates, and although it happens, I think you would be surprised at the degree to which Esperanto speakers with RADICALLY different beliefs can get along with one another. So I urge you, please don't come into this with a chip on your shoulder, saying "I believe in X and most Esperanto speakers believe in Y, so I won't be comfortable there". Because I can assure you that most Esperantists don't believe in UFO abductions, yet the few who do believe in this still manage to participate and have a nice time regardless.

I mean this in the very nicest possible way, but if you can't handle being in a room full of people who possibly believe differently than you, then maybe Esperanto is not for you. Because it's all about talking with people from different cultures; if you have trouble getting along with people from your own country who have a different political outlook than yours, I can assure you, as soon as you get in a room full of foreign Esperantists, and you're the only American, you will certainly encounter some views even more different than yours, and you need to deal with that too. It's not about changing your beliefs so that you agree with others; it's about accepting that others believe differently, and still finding the bits of common ground and finding friendship despite your philosophical differences.

On the youth thing - here's a link to one of the daily newsletters from this year's NASK. Scroll down to the second page, and you'll see a group photo of this year's instructors and participants. You'll see that there are good number of youth, but also a good number of "definitely-no-longer-youth". Also, please, please, please do not be frightened off by youth.

Let me explain a little about how NASK works. The communal atmosphere at NASK is a big deal. Living together, eating together, studying together, 100% in Esperanto - it's an important part of the classes. I'm not saying "live on top of one another", but a big part of the NASK experience is the idea that you're with Esperanto only, from the time you get out of bed until the time you go to sleep, including meals and evening activities.

You had some concerns about "youth". Evening activities at NASK are not happy hours or going out to dance clubs. Want to know what evening activities happen at NASK? Lectures. Campfires. Board games. Musical performances given by students who can sing or play an instrument. Any student can organize a free-time program item, to teach a skill to others, or share a talent. Here are some examples of (optional) free-time activities from this year's NASK, according to the daily program bulletins:
- learn how to juggle
- learn Japanese songs
- a scavenger hunt
- a preparation session for an Esperanto language exam
- board games
- excursion to an aquarium
- a trip to see fireworks
- a slide show on someone's trip to Iceland
- a talk about Brazil, Esperanto, and Spiritism
- a talk by British Esperantist Duncan Charters
- a class on learning how to dance
- a visit to David K. Jordan's house (Esperanto author)
- a film evening to watch Esperanto movies
- a talk on the Esperantic Studies Foundation
[etc, etc]

One comment on the excursions, and then I'll shut up. You may feel that excursions are a waste of time, because you would rather be in class learning. It's true that with NASK lasting only one week, I'm sure there would be many fewer excursions. But please don't consider excursions to be wasted time. After all, we learn a language through speaking it. The more you speak, the better you get. And going to a place together, spending the day in a fun place with Esperanto speakers, learning Esperanto words for the things you're looking at, speaking nothing but Esperanto all_day_long, is excellent language training.

Thank you, erinja, for your posts. I really would like to meet other Esperanto learners. And I'm no different from many others on this forum in that I have serious concerns about my perceived ability to understand spoken Esperanto. I listen to Radio Verda occasionally and frankly I don't understand a lot. Some of the YouTube videos are a bit easier to understand. Of course, in a face to face conversation, it would be possible to talk much slower and repeat yourself as needed. I need the experience and, as I said in my post, I would seriously consider, say, a five day seminar at a location closer than the west coast. But if I'm going to spend $2,500 to $3,000 for something, I want the occasion to be enjoyable for me. Since travel and the length of the course is a consideration, not only for me but for some others who responded, will you consider Austin or St. Louis (or some other location in the mid-U.S.) as an optional location and consider a shorter course length?

As I said earlier, NASK is just too long and too expensive. Those are the big concerns for me, not youth and politics. Your 3rd post addressed this quite well. But -- older folks don't sleep as soundly as younger folks. I often get up at 4:30 AM and put the coffee pot to work. At the very least, I'd want a room to myself.

Some members have mentioned Skype as another means of practicing Esperanto. But the problem with Skype for me is that my ISP is Hughes satellite. I don't know if the two are compatible due to the time lag. As I live in a rural area, I don't have the option of high speed cable. It is satellite (which is expensive) or dial up (which barely works).

And now, a few comments on politics. For most of my life, I have been indifferent to politics. I never bothered to vote before the 1980 elections. But as time went by, I began to see the dangers that the country is facing. More and more American citizens are waking up to the fact that all is not well. To put it as explicitly as possible, I don't like the liberal agenda. Period! I think liberals live in a dream world and are destroying this country and our society. I don't much care if they destroy themselves but, unfortunately, they are going to take me with them when they go down. That I do object to.

I just happen to think that the United States is the greatest country in the world and is also the greatest one that ever existed. If you think differently, then you are entitled to your opinion. I'll admit that I take a perverse pleasure in "rattling a liberal's cage" but I don't seriously argue with them about it. I needle them if I can and avoid them if they become too obnoxious. So I am not worried about getting into an argument with someone that doesn't think as I do. You shouldn't be concerned about it either. If we cannot get along, I'll pretend that I don't hear you. As I get older, that happens more and more often anyway.

I've been an eterna komencanto for about eight years now. I would love to go to NASK. My reasons for never having gone:

-The schedule (not so much the length of time, but time of year). I have an ongoing commitment each year from Memorial Day until around mid-July (I'll let people figure out what that might be. Hint: It puts me not that far away from NASK's current location). That's always going to keep me away from NASK, much as I might like to partoprenas.

- Well, I guess the length of time is sort of a factor also. My SO would say, "You're going to spend three weeks *where*, doing *what* now?" Some people just don't understand the appeal of E-o, and mine is one of them. In a vacuum, it wouldn't be an issue for me, but one has to balance one's priorities in life, and choose one's battles.

My (relatively) local Eo club does do a beginner class--but after that, there's no follow-up. And frankly, that beginner class is beneath even my relatively low level of competency/fluency (I've done the FEC and Gerda Malaperis courses). People who "graduate" from that beginner class are expected to just go from there to attending club meetings and (somehow) be able to keep up with a bunch of seasoned Esperanto speakers, many of whom speak at a near-denaskulo level. Unsurprisingly, very few people are retained as members after completing the beginner class.

College credit is nice, but not essential. I never quite managed to graduate from college, but as I'm now a very young semi-retiree, I don't really need the credit. Ultimately though, the lower potential cost of a no-credit option isn't a real incentive. A different time of year, and different cities (perhaps on a rotating basis, so that travel is less onerous), would be a big plus for me.