Did u do any effort to make sure the esperanto lang is growing?wat did u do?
did manage to invite your frnds?how many?

The single most important thing you could do to aid the growth of the number of speakers (as opposed to the growth of the language) is to change Esperanto's public image, so that it becomes a cool thing to learn Esperanto.

Once it is seen generally as a desirable/prestigious thing, then it should be easy enough to get it introduced into the schools.

That would tranform the number of speakers in less than a generation.

And how do you do that?

Maybe start with university clubs / keeping it active / cool / trips overseas to meet other Esperantists?

Borgo:And how do you do that?

Good question. The single most important thing I think we need to do would be to change how we describe our origins and the nature of the language. Esperanto is not a constructed language, still less artificial. It was not immaculately conceived by some idealistic guy in 1887. Esperanto is a real, fully-functioning living language, just like any other fully-functioning living language on the planet, and its new words are not made up or approved by some committee.

Esperanto was originally a proposal, one of a whole tradition of proposals at the time, in response to a perceived need, but it was the one that caught on, just like VHS became the videotape standard and not Betamax. It wasn't necessarily any better than the others, it just worked and was in the right place at the right time. What made the big difference was that then, over a generation or so of people actually using it, it gradually became a real language, and continues to develop and change and adapt to new circumstances today, just like any other fully-functional living language.

But with two differences: a) it's much easier to learn than any other language, and b) it's neutral, because it doesn't belong to any group in particular. In short, play down LLZ, and play up the other tens of thousands of pioneers.

Why learn it? A whole number of reasons:
a) It's fun to meet people from all round the world, and be able to talk to one another expressing what we really think.
b) what happens in (a) is also good for educational and personal development reasons,
c) and even networking.
d) It helps you learn other languages,
e) which also does (a), (b) and (c).
f) International friendship between people from different countries is a good idea, and racism and chauvinism is a bad idea. Forget the idea that what we're doing isn't political, it is. But with a small 'p'. EDE please note, I am never going to vote for you.
g) We're all humans - shouldn't we be able to talk to one another?

I didn't include bleating abstractly about so-called "language democracy" there. I think everybody sees through that one as just a selfish con to publicize Esperanto, without getting too controversial. If you want to support minority languages, try actually doing that. We'd get more respect. And I didn't include slagging off the English language, as if one culture was worse than any other, while at the same time trying not to notice Western military and economic imperialism, a much bigger problem. As for wittering on about the cost of translation, interpretation and language learning, in the EU etc., how do we get translators, interpreters and language teachers to come on board if we're talking about making them redundant? D'oh!

EdRobertson:As for wittering on about the cost of translation, interpretation and language learning, in the EU etc., how do we get translators, interpreters and language teachers to come on board if we're talking about making them redundant? D'oh!

A big "thumzup" for that.

Another problem I think is slagging off other IALs, but the official EO community is fairly good with not doing that. But then, if you're opening your mind to the possibility of other IALs, its not so much promoting Esperanto itself as the idea behind Esperanto. I'll let people think for themselves what they find more important (I for example like Interlingua more as far as the raw data's concerned, but the idea of having IALs permeate public life is pretty cool, and Esperanto's a better vehicle for that).

(also, a flipside of promoting the idea of IALs over Esperanto is that you create an environment that's more friendly to EO, so the artificiality of EO is no longer such a big concern that it is).

I believe that even if Esperanto was advertised on the Superbowl, and billboards all over in any country, and even if 24/7 there was an Esperanto course being broadcast or offered in educational establishments that only a certain percentage of the people would want to learn it.

Some people don't need it, some don't want it, some just don't 'do' well with languages--even their native language.

I do however believe that it would help if we all had a better way to present the language in a nutshell when someone asks about it. Starting out with 'It's a language that was created in 1887' just makes it sound like a dusty artifact, despite the fact that most of us use it daily on the internet.

(my 2 spesmil)

NJ Esperantist:Some people don't need it, some don't want it, some just don't 'do' well with languages--even their native language.

And then you'd have your folk who go "rgh what's this stupid new thing I've never heard of "esperanto" rgh sounds stupid and wanna-be exotic" and immediately decide it's rubbish and tell everyone else they know its rubbish simply because it's something they've never seen before

313:..wat did you do?..

Um, I wore a badge on my jacket.

Anyway, you may find a poster helpful to accompany your splendid exhortation. I attach a possible example.

Miland:

313:..wat did you do?..

Um, I wore a badge on my jacket.

Anyway, you may find a poster helpful to accompany your splendid exhortation. I attach a possible example.

Nice pic Miland

I like to tell people about the propaeduetic effect of Esperanto just as what the British does http://www.springboard2languages.org