We are the Esperanto speakers who say "Ni!"

[esperantomobilo]

We are a team of six Esperanto speakers from the United States (amuzulo, elinjo, Loren) and Russia (Diana, Libera, Oleg) who decided to buy the Esperantomobilo and travel through the American continent teaching Esperanto. You can also read about our adventures starting in June 2004

Comments

Route?

[openmynd]

Is the route set already? I see the map, but I see what seem to be glaring problems with the stops.

Three stops in the midwest, three in Texas, and 4 in the Pacific Northwest? Those are big clumps. Let me suggest:

Midwest: Looks like you have St. Louis, Des Moine IA, and Minneapolis in mind. Why Des Moine?

Texas: Looks like Houston, Austin, and Dallas. I say skip Dallas/Ft. Worth; there's not much Esperanto activity there, nor is the mindset of the type that it would be a productive stop. Houston and Austin are good stops.

Pacific Northwest: Looks like Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and Portland OR. Why Tacoma and/or Olympia? They're pretty close together. Pick one or the other.

Mountain states: You only have one stop in the mountain states, and it looks like Albuquerque, NM. Denver, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix would be good stops, and they are far apart, geographically spreading out the influence of the tour:

Overall suggestions based on assumptions: Remove Des Moine IA and Tacoma WA from the tour. Replace with one of the following: Denver, CO and Salt Lake City, UT; Denver or Salt Lake City, and Phoenix; Denver or SLC, and San Diego or Los Angeles.

I could be wrong about all this, but it seems a bit lopsided, so those are my suggestions. Ideas? Or are things already set in stone?

Re: Route?

[esperantomobilo]

These things are just there to make our page look pretty. ;-) No actually, I wanted to have some kind of idea of where we'd go based on the clubs at http://www.esperantoland.org/grupoj/mapo.php?mapo=6 I thought it would give me a good foundation to start from because these clubs are active enough to put up a page there. I might put up another more realistic map tomorrow...

Re: Route?

[openmynd]

Ah, OK. :-) But don't concentrate on clubs, neccesarily. There are plenty of places that don't have an Esperanto presence which could benefit from one. Of course, I guess it depends on your focus: those already interested in Esperanto, or those who might like to learn a bit to see what it's like.

Re: Route?

[amuzulo]

Well, I hope you still realize we're in the very early phases of planning our tour. Right now we're starting to get together a list of cities and local contacts which we will later put on the map and then plan out the most effective route as well as timing for various Esperanto and foreign language teaching events. We started brainstorming possible routes using these clubs because we assume that we will most likely have the most local support in these areas. We're pretty sure we won't go into any city if we have no local support there. However, if we find just one competent local person (even if they don't speak Esperanto) who is excited and enthusiastic about the idea, we'll probably go there.

Re: Route?

[tandrews]

Actually, it seems that this would be a reasonable thing to announce through an ELNA distribution list. I suspect that a number of enthusiastic but geographically isolated members would love to have the "E-Team" van show up to help them whip-up some interest in Esperanto.

Actually, this brings up another question: does ELNA have an actual email distribution list for its members? I know that ELNA has email addresses in its list of members, but I don't think that I have ever received any kind of bulk emails from them (even to remind me to send in my membership dues!) Compiling such a list should have been done long ago, but I haven't actually seen any clear indication that it has been done. Hmmm....

Re: Route?

[openmynd]

Why don´t you offer ELNA to compile this e-mail list? Maybe they would appreciate your help... Joel Brozovsky, who is now the only person in the office can´t do it, so you will have to volunteer.

korajn salutojn.

Diana, Pittsburgh

Re: Route?

[esperantomobilo]

From what I remember, ELNA either has or plans to create such a list. I'll call Joel sometime to discuss this possibility. In the meantime, I sent a message to the yahoogroups: usej-diskuto, elna-membroj and aktivusono, so that reached most of the active US Esperanto speakers. We plan to make more international announcements later, but we want to advertise in waves, so the response doesn't overwhelm us. Thanks for the suggestions!

Re: Route?

[tandrews]

I'm not so sure about Dallas/Ft. Worth; actually in some ways they are far more active than Austin, since they regularly have classes and have been responsible for many newspaper articles in local papers. In addition, Phil Dorcas (of the North Texas group) is the vice president of ELNA and one of the real "motors" in the ELNA Board of Directors. Certainly Austin is a far more Esperanto-friendly place, but the North Texas group has some very competent and industrious Esperanto speakers. Since I grew-up in that area, I can say with confidence that some people there would love to find out more about Esperanto. While you will probably find a lower percentage of people interested in Esperanto in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, this interest can be kept alive through the ongoing support from the current Esperanto group. Perhaps more to the point, the North Texas group are actually willing and able to take care of the mundane details of setting up a local class.

In addition, it seems that the somewhat older group there might benefit from some younger faces. This really isn't a problem with the Austin group; I believe that its members are all under 50 (and mainly in their 20's and 30's). It seems to me that the lack of any really expert-level Esperanto speakers is more of a problem in Austin, where most members have a year or less experience with the language.

Also, in Austin perhaps the Esperanto-mobile can help the rather new local group form some links with other Esperanto groups. The recent Tut-Teksasa Kunveno helps, but we also need more contact with the broader Esperanto community.

Re: Route?

[openmynd]

All good suggestions. I'm from D/FW, and I have a very bad taste in my mouth about the whole place, so I'm biased. :-P But, if the local club is doing classes, why should the Esperantomobile go there and repeat their efforts (unless I'm missing something)? If going to a town with an active club, it would better to go to a town where said club hasn't been teaching classes (such as Austin).

Re: Route?

[tandrews]

Ha! It sounds like we had pretty much the same experience in D/FW! :-P

Yeah, I certainly agree that the Esperantomobile will have a much bigger impact in Austin. Actually, it may also help us establish a model for further Esperanto courses. Austin is the kind of town that will always a small but steady stream of people interested in learning Esperanto (for a variety of reasons) and we really should have a real course available on a regular basis (perhaps through Informal Courses?).

Re: Route?

[openmynd]

Agreed. I know I've learned an extremely amazing amount just having coffee once or twice a month with the group. I had never spoken Esperanto to another person before coming to the meetings, and now I've got many hours of live Esperanto chatter under my belt.

Re: Route?

[esperantomobilo]

Thanks for both of your comments! Maybe it would also be a good idea to explore why you both had a "bad taste in your mouth" after visiting them. It could help us set up a strategy for a plan and vision of the local club. Remember that we also have a considerable amount of organizational experience and we'll also be able to use that to discuss potential problems and solutions with local clubs so that active clubs can be more effective in the future. Do either of you have any insights as to why you had bad experiences there? This could be helpful to know for initial contacts with the club.

Re: Route?

[tandrews]

Actually, I think the "bad taste" is more about the fact that living there sucks! (Or at least it did when I was a kid.) As I mentioned above, the North Texas club is very good. I'm sure they will happily provide a lot of support.

Despite the fact that it is a cultural wasteland (IMO), the area is large and broken up into a lot of towns that don't necessarily mix so well. So, people in Arlington or Grapevine probably won't go to North Richland Hills for an Esperanto class unless they are intensely interested in Esperanto. Perhaps your 3 groups of instructors could work in different nearby town. I bet Phil and the rest could help with the details.