From: bhelm@sisters.cs.uoregon.edu (B. Robert Helm)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.esperanto
Subject: Re: Recruiting Esperantistojn
Summary: Rob responds to the discussion on recruiting
Keywords: recruiting novice
Date: 3 Sep 92 18:01:14 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Sep3.180114.19726
Distribution: inet
Organization: University of Oregon Computer and Information Sciences Dept.

Jen miaj responsoj la diskuton pri anigianta Esperantistojn (anglan tekston
vd. sube).

Mi skribis:

>>As an alternative to the `gutoj malgrandaj' approach, Esperantists
>>could put more resources into building support that is broad, rather
>>than deep.  They could try to create a base of numerous
>>fellow-travelers, rather than the small, committed core of true
>>believers that exists today.

Oni skribis, ke `malprofonda konsento' malgrande helpas la movadon:

Paul Hopkins (phopkins@sol.uvic.ca) respondis:

> Hold on now. You're making us look like a religious community!
> In my experience (in the Canadian and European Esperanto movements)
> most people become interested in Esperanto because they want to
> _communicate_ with people from other cultures. In order to effectively
> communicate with people from other cultures by means of Esperanto, they
> have to actually _learn_ the language. That requires a considerable
> commitment, not just being favourable to the idea nor paying a membership
> fee. Because of this fact, it is not possible to create broad _rather
> than_ deep support: broad (_shallow_) support for Esperanto is simply
> not sustainable, because the supporters of Esperanto will not realize
> their goal (speaking with people from other cultures) unless they actually
> _learn Esperanto_, and unless they soon realize their goal they will
> quickly abandon the Esperanto movement.

kaj Ken <miner@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> konsentis:

> I wholeheartedly agree with this.  I was active in the movement for
> eleven years, and always felt that the large number of what we called
> "eternaj komencantoj" (eternal beginners) turned people off the
> movement.  As an example, a friend of mine heard me speaking with
> someone on the phone one day and said that was the first time in his
> life-- though he had known Esperantists-- that he had heard the
> language actually spoken: he had conluded that no one actually spoke
> it!  (Later he joined the movement--but *he* never learned to speak
> either...)

Koncedo.  Cxu ni povas gajni pli da konsento de tiuj, kiuj ne volas lerni
la lingvon internacia (kiujn mi nomis, `kunvoyagxoj')?

Oni ankaux klarigis la praktikan limojn de la movado:

Paul Hopkins (phopkins@sol.uvic.ca) respondis (per e-posxto):

> ... frankly, most of our human
> and financial resources are consumed just answering the questions of
> those who hear about Esperanto as you have and helping them develop
> competence in the language. Note, for example, the Free Esperanto
> Course is announced regularly in a number of Usenet groups, and the only
> reason it is not announced more frequently is that we do not have
> enough tutors

kaj derek (derek@triton.unm.edu) konsentis:

> Finally, let me reiterate the comments (Mike's? Don's?) about the lack
> of human resources.  Everything we think of doing takes a doer,
> and most all of ours are already overcommitted.

ankaux Mike Urban (urban@SIDESHOW.JPL.NASA.GOV):

>It is not at all clear that there is enough of a movement in the U.S. at
>present to handle a really huge surge of interest in Esperanto.
>Suppose Bart Simpson took up Esperanto one week (`Ne nasku bovon,
>ulo!'), and a hundred thousand people decided to write to ELNA for
>information, or to learn the language, or whatever.   There are simply
not enough texts in print, or enough instructors, or enough ANYTHING
to handle a demand like that.

ankaux Don HARLOW (72627.2647@compuserve.com):

> Anybody see the five-line blurb about Esperanto in the September issue 
> of "Seventeen" magazine? It gave the ELNA 800-number, and resulted 
> in more than 1,000 calls to the ELNA office for information during the 
> first half of August. Sending out those 1,000 letters was hard enough 
> for the two guys who work there; worse was the need to decipher the 
> names and addresses given on the answering machine. (I never knew 
> there were so many different accents in American English! And some 
> of the callers seemed to be suffering from terminal giggles at the same 
> time that they gave their vital statistics!)

> Face it -- we simply aren't set up to face success.

Koncedo.  Se ni kreus `novajxan okazojn', ni devus limi tiujn.  Kiel?
Mi ne scias.

Kelkaj respondistoj diras, ke ili havas aliajn ideojn.  Mi tiujn bone atendas.

B. Robert Helm
(bhelm@cs.uoregon.edu)
Department of Computer and Information Science
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
U. S. A.
+01 (503) 346-1382


Angla teksta:

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is my response to the discussion about recruiting Esperantists:

I wrote:

>>As an alternative to the `gutoj malgrandaj' approach, Esperantists
>>could put more resources into building support that is broad, rather
>>than deep.  They could try to create a base of numerous
>>fellow-travelers, rather than the small, committed core of true
>>believers that exists today.

Some wrote that shallow support would help the movement little:

Paul Hopkins (phopkins@sol.uvic.ca) responded:

> Hold on now. You're making us look like a religious community!
> In my experience (in the Canadian and European Esperanto movements)
> most people become interested in Esperanto because they want to
> _communicate_ with people from other cultures. In order to effectively
> communicate with people from other cultures by means of Esperanto, they
> have to actually _learn_ the language. That requires a considerable
> commitment, not just being favourable to the idea nor paying a membership
> fee. Because of this fact, it is not possible to create broad _rather
> than_ deep support: broad (_shallow_) support for Esperanto is simply
> not sustainable, because the supporters of Esperanto will not realize
> their goal (speaking with people from other cultures) unless they actually
> _learn Esperanto_, and unless they soon realize their goal they will
> quickly abandon the Esperanto movement.

kaj Ken <miner@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> agreed:

> I wholeheartedly agree with this.  I was active in the movement for
> eleven years, and always felt that the large number of what we called
> "eternaj komencantoj" (eternal beginners) turned people off the
> movement.  As an example, a friend of mine heard me speaking with
> someone on the phone one day and said that was the first time in his
> life-- though he had known Esperantists-- that he had heard the
> language actually spoken: he had conluded that no one actually spoke
> it!  (Later he joined the movement--but *he* never learned to speak
> either...)

Ok, I concede.  Can we gain the support of those who don't want to learn
the international language (the ones I called "fellow travelers")?

Some also pointed out the practical limits of the movement:

Paul Hopkins (phopkins@sol.uvic.ca) responded (by e-mail):

> ... frankly, most of our human
> and financial resources are consumed just answering the questions of
> those who hear about Esperanto as you have and helping them develop
> competence in the language. Note, for example, the Free Esperanto
> Course is announced regularly in a number of Usenet groups, and the only
> reason it is not announced more frequently is that we do not have
> enough tutors

and derek (derek@triton.unm.edu) agreed:

> Finally, let me reiterate the comments (Mike's? Don's?) about the lack
> of human resources.  Everything we think of doing takes a doer,
> and most all of ours are already overcommitted.

along with Mike Urban (urban@SIDESHOW.JPL.NASA.GOV):

>It is not at all clear that there is enough of a movement in the U.S. at
>present to handle a really huge surge of interest in Esperanto.
>Suppose Bart Simpson took up Esperanto one week (`Ne nasku bovon,
>ulo!'), and a hundred thousand people decided to write to ELNA for
>information, or to learn the language, or whatever.   There are simply
not enough texts in print, or enough instructors, or enough ANYTHING
to handle a demand like that.

along with Don HARLOW (72627.2647@compuserve.com):

> Anybody see the five-line blurb about Esperanto in the September issue 
> of "Seventeen" magazine? It gave the ELNA 800-number, and resulted 
> in more than 1,000 calls to the ELNA office for information during the 
> first half of August. Sending out those 1,000 letters was hard enough 
> for the two guys who work there; worse was the need to decipher the 
> names and addresses given on the answering machine. (I never knew 
> there were so many different accents in American English! And some 
> of the callers seemed to be suffering from terminal giggles at the same 
> time that they gave their vital statistics!)

> Face it -- we simply aren't set up to face success.

OK, I concede.  If we create "media events," we have to limit them.  How?
I don't know.

Several of those responding said they had other ideas.  I look forward to
them.