I had one friend in high school who learned some Esperanto, enough to have a basic conversation, but I am pretty sure he has not used it since, and forgotten it all. Other than him I don't think that anyone ever learned it based on meeting me.

My dignity is worth something and the jokes make me feel bad, which is why I don't normally mention it. I always come to regret it when people who I normally respect start to joke about it.

I do my part for Esperanto by correcting lessons here at lernu and being unfailingly kind, helpful, and supportive, even to the students who clearly have zero linguistic talent and seem to get everything wrong. I always figure that if I provide enough explanations to get people speaking correctly, then maybe my former students can go out and raise the general Esperanto linguistic level. I guess my part is basically encouraging people not to drop out when it seems too tough, as opposed to bringing in new people.

I am not very 'evangelical' myself and I dislike it when people try to convince me that since X is so wonderful, I should do X. Therefore I behave such a way that I am not willing to go out of my way to try to convince people of something that doesn't interest them.

Even when someone asks me what the flag on my coat means, I normally just tell them it's a flag of Esperanto, which is a language. I don't explain further unless they ask.

People react to Esperanto because you think they should speak it. So they act defensive.

No, that isn't really it. Most or perhaps all of my close friends know that I speak Esperanto and are not at all defensive or judgmental. They think it's hugely nerdy of course, but they know I'm hugely nerdy anyway, Esperanto or not, and they know I don't care if anyone thinks of me as a nerd. And if they ask why I do it, I usually say something like, I can talk to people from Russia or whatever with it. That's true enough, and although it's not the only reason I speak Esperanto, it's the one I've found that sounds the most reasonable to a non-Esperantist.

I don't actively promote Esperanto to them though. Sometimes I post Facebook status messages in Esperanto (without an English translation or explanation) and more distant acquaintances will occasionally ask me, what is this exotic-looking language? That's kind of the extent of my promoting Esperanto. Even then, I've only gotten one reaction that I would describe as actually "scornful". Interestingly, it was from an ESL person-- a physics professor friend of mine from Israel.

Esperanto is seen as a European cultural possession

Guilty m'lud! I think I do think this.

By the way, will someone explain to me what the procedure is that produces the source of a citation in small letters above the quote.

Whenever I click on 'enmeti citaĵon', I don't see where you enter the source.

sudanglo:

Esperanto is seen as a European cultural possession

Guilty m'lud! I think I do think this.

By the way, will someone explain to me what the procedure is that produces the source of a citation in small letters above the quote.

Whenever I click on 'enmeti citaĵon', I don't see where you enter the source.

(CIT=nomo de la citato)Citaĵo(/CIT) (with square brackets)

nomo de la citato:Citaĵo

I think I know these too well since I've started putting in the code " * * lango * * " (sans spaces) into other online communications.

erinja:
My dignity is worth something and the jokes make me feel bad, which is why I don't normally mention it. I always come to regret it when people who I normally respect start to joke about it.

Yes, it doesn't feel good. I once mentioned my interest in Esperanto to my academic dean, and the look in his eyes said "How did we ever hire you?" But, the way I see it, it's things like this that are the whole reason for the tenure system. I don't evangelize Esperanto in my classes, because to do so would be way off-topic. I do mention it when it's relevant, and if there are questions about it (there often are), I answer them.

I forgot to mention one positive academic experience, however. A former colleague of mine, now retired, used to invite me to do a guest lecture in his Sociolinguistics class every semester. I'd get the full hour to give a synopsis of the history of planned languages in general and Esperanto in particular. I'd give a very quick summary of some of the linguistic properties of Esperanto, and I'd speak it a bit for them. And since the course was Sociolinguistics, I'd say something about "Finvenkismo" vs "Raumismo". Finally, I'd tell them how to learn more, if they so desired.

The last time I did this was about 15 years ago. His replacement wasn't interested.

I do my part for Esperanto by correcting lessons here at lernu and being unfailingly kind, helpful, and supportive, even to the students who clearly have zero linguistic talent and seem to get everything wrong. I always figure that if I provide enough explanations to get people speaking correctly, then maybe my former students can go out and raise the general Esperanto linguistic level. I guess my part is basically encouraging people not to drop out when it seems too tough, as opposed to bringing in new people.

That's actually a huge contribution. I used to be a tutor in the old ELNA postal course, and I know how difficult it is. If there's some better contribution that I could make, I haven't yet figured out what it is. I'm still toying with the podcast idea.

Todd