geo63:I disagree. Esperanto is 5 to 10 times easer than most natural languages, so students do not have to learn that much as, for instance, with English. After 100 hours course they would acquire language skills adequate for sufficient communication. So courses could be shorter and easer, as well as learning aids - do you realize how enormously big this industry is with present English?

Modern marketing has proven time and time again that it's relatively easy to make people want to spend money on things they don't need. I don't see how Esperanto is immune to that.

I showed an esperanto handbook to my friend who taught English. He could not believe that so thin book could really teach the language. So he concluded that esperanto had to be some very primitive tool. It was hard to get him on the right track.

Exactly. People don't realise how relatively simple it is! Because of that, even if EO is the world language, I don't find it hard to imagine some might expect EO to be as complex as Georgian and invest in courses and resources accordingly. Once that happens, and they learn it much more simply than they thought they would, the problem is that they might attribute the ease to both the language, but also to the amount of money the paid to learn it.

Of course, this doesn't happen if the consumer is educated in what they're, erm, "consuming", which *most* prospective esperanto speakers are, since anyone who learns Esperanto nowadays first has to find it, build up enough passion for the idea, and then learn it. A more global, wider-spoken Esperanto might not have the same proportion of dedicated individuals learning it for what it is and not just because it's the actual world language, so I'd imagine those in the Esperanto community who want to avoid such an outcome would need to stimulate public awareness so EO doesn't have a similar thing happen to it as English.

The fact stays that if you need to communicate with somebody with a different native language you don’t speak, in these times English is your best choice in most countries.

No, it isn't your best option (or maybe as far as it's popular) but I don't see why I should choose English to Esperanto if the two languages were equal(in number of speakers). Why on earth I would go to Austria and ask for way to whatever and say: 'HI, MATE, CAN YOU TELL ME THE WAY TO...? Why should I say 'mate' as it has nothing to do neither with my culture nor with yours. Or maybe it wouldn't be a big problem for you to acquire the English manner as you have acquired a foreign one already - the German.

ceigered:Modern marketing has proven time and time again that it's relatively easy to make people want to spend money on things they don't need. I don't see how Esperanto is immune to that.

I didn't say that esperanto was in any way immune to that. I only noticed that it was much cheaper and less time consuming than English.

sudanglo:Yes Geo, bonkers = freneza, but with the nuance of having completely lost touch with reality - not making sense to a rational person - deranged.

In Polish we have very similar word:

"pojebany"

It is rather rude. "Jebać" is an ugly word for making love.

It is rather rude. "Jebać" is an ugly word for making love.

Nothing is rude when you make love.

geo63:

ceigered:Modern marketing has proven time and time again that it's relatively easy to make people want to spend money on things they don't need. I don't see how Esperanto is immune to that.

I didn't say that esperanto was in any way immune to that. I only noticed that it was much cheaper and less time consuming than English.

Ah, wel guess I can agree. Still, something for the esperantistaro to stay vigilant over in the future if Esperanto does get it's break