Wednesday, March 30, 2016

From 1% to 100% of the World's City Populations Know that Esperanto is an International Language

Long time and new Esperanto speakers answered the question: What percent  of your city, under the age 40, knows that Esperanto is a language or an international language?  I optimistically said that 10% of young New Yorkers know what the word is. Most people offered personal opinions and a few remembered more formal surveys of past decades. Most said 1%.  I found the 1% answer very disappointing, and probably true.  Most people from English-speaking countries/cities, Scandinavia, Spanish-speaking countries, Brazilian cities agreed 1% is their reality. From Berlin to Moscow answers were more uplifting and varied from 20 to 100% (of note in the birth-city of Esperanto, Bialystok, Poland). My non-scientific opinon says that the percentage of people with minimal knowledge about Esperanto is falling in the internet-era, while our numbers of speakers distributions goes up in new towns and cities with the help of the on-line courses like Lernu and Duolingo. As the percentage falls it is less likely that big NGO's or other international organizations will  take Esperanto seriously. Are we doomed to stagnate?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/esperanto.grupo/permalink/10153876460520289/?qa_ref=qd&pnref=story

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I have lived 16 years in other countries, notably, Israel and Brazil, among another 30 countries.