7.4 On Rhythms, Regularities and Seasons
In opening a novel space for this speech community to manifest itself, the Internet also introduced new paces and rhythms into sociabilities and community-building. Alongside the much-celebrated speed of tech- nological innovation and the speed in which society embraces emerging technologies and takes them for granted (Miller and Horst 2012), digital media have also shifted our experience of time. Through three conse- quential outcomes, Duolingo neatly illustrates how technology makes us more time-aware and brings experiences of rhythms and speed to the fore. Firstly, while such online language courses allow people to learn a language at their own pace—without feeling obliged to attend classes or fulfil the expectations of a teacher—the playfulness and competitive- ness at the heart of gamification cause learners to take lessons relentlessly as they rush to win the game. Secondly, after completing a language course for the sake of entertainment and fun, several learners give up the language without effectively joining the speech community, making for a strikingly short-lived engagement with Esperanto. Thirdly, as gamifica- tion favours functional over structural approaches to language learning, online learners tend to feel prepared to start using the language promptly, right after learning sentences such as 'how are you?' and 'where are you from?'.
While correspondence exchange demands a lengthy response time, voice communication over a phone call requests an immediate reac- tion. Interspersed with these and other experiences of time, social media and instant messaging apps allow people to either hold a real-time, synchronous communicative exchange or, through delayed replies, let a conversation over text drag on for days. Moreover, the fast pace brought by digital media enables Esperantists to organise gatherings last-minute. The irregular and extemporaneous character of these exchanges contrasts with the regularity of the biweekly classes, weekly debates and annual congresses that historically characterised most Esperanto activities.
In addition, the irregular brings with it the potential for the ubiqui- tous: no matter where one is in the world, if one has access to digital media, there will always be someone else available online, whether on a Telegram or Facebook group, who could react almost instantly to one's text or comment. Due to the community's geographical dispersion, the sun never sets in Esperantujo—as well as on the Internet—so that time zones are a matter to be always taken into consideration, but hardly an obstacle to communication.[34]
Nonetheless, the experience of time on the Internet resembles that of the Universal Congresses of Esperanto in at least one crucial aspect: that of ephemerality. Both online and at these annual gatherings, commu- nicative exchanges tend to be short-lived, involving people with whom one may never talk again, configuring friendships that are intense and exciting, but that often lack in longevity.
During my fieldwork, the uses of digital media gained materiality particularly during the summer of 2017, which brings the seasons of the year to this discussion about the experience of time. The summer in the northern hemisphere marks a shift of rhythms: owing to longer holi- days and people's travel plans, this is the moment when several Esperanto associations are closed, and their regular activities, interrupted. This is also the season when the largest and most international Esperanto congresses—such as the Universal Congress, the Congress of SAT and the International Youth Congress—take place. As more people seize their holidays to travel, more people use Pasporta Servo[35] and Amikumu to meet local Esperantists and ask for lodging. In this sense, carrying out fieldwork in a touristic place such as Paris meant paying close attention to my mobile phone at all times during the summer, receiving frequent push notifications from Amikumu and e-mails from Pasporta Servo to inform me that someone had contacted me. Such summer requests also included offering occasional guided tours to Esperanto-speaking families and receiving last-minute requests from Esperantist backpackers to meet up during their short stays in Paris.
In line with the widespread perception that the pace of life is accel- erating and that the Internet is largely to blame for it—as critically discussed by Judy Wajcman (2015)—digital media seem to have filled people's days with more activities, commitments and, above all, possibili- ties. Being able to learn a language from their mobile phones, people have found yet another way to cope with boredom while waiting in queues or using public transport. Meanwhile, playing a language-learning video game likely increases one's engagement with the language, thus accel- erating learning. Once the game is over, however, many learners' brief participation in the speech community is also terminated. Lastly, as an activity to kill time, make friends, build networks of sociability and meet new people during one's summer holidays, the use of Esperanto emerges largely as a leisure activity. As such, Esperanto keeps learners and speakers entertained, provides them with moments of enjoyment and distraction, demands no serious or long-term commitment and appears best suited for waiting times, after-hours and holidays.
7.5 What Is Left Unsaid When
Communication Takes Place Largely Online?
While Cedric was enthusiastic about Esperanto's logical functioning and about the friends he made as a consequence of using the language, Chuck Smith and Maxime ventured into bold Esperanto-related projects— either with commercial purposes or, in the latter case, precisely to fight the commercialisation of speech and code. However, as previously explained, little of these activities were translated into active member- ship or volunteering in associations. Certainly, not everyone is equally connected to the Internet and the use of digital media is unequal worldwide. Still, digital media have raised concerns among Esperantists globally regarding the use of emerging technologies for community- building purposes. Mark Fettes, then president of UEA, approached the ageing of certain enactments of Esperantujo at the global level in his opening speech at the 103rd Universal Congress of Esperanto, in Lisbon, in 2018. When talking about the one million people enrolled on Duolingo Esperanto courses at that time, he regretted that most learners have not been attending UEAs annual international gatherings:
We all probably know the statistics, according to which, every year, hundreds of thousands of online learners decide to start learning Esperanto. We don't know much about their reasons for making this choice, but we probably share similar reasons to do so: curiosity, idealism, interest in languages, willingness to learn. And, as in every course, only some of them continue their study or reach the end of their first course of study [...]. We can't expect that more than five or ten per cent of these learners will persist until reaching a basic level of competence. However, five per cent of one million people means 50,000 new potential Esperan- tists [...]. But these 50,000 are not here among us; neither 5,000 nor 500 of these newbies. Of course, I'm not saying that one has to take part in the Universal Congress to become a real Esperantist! But we are allowed to expect that some of these people who find their ways to Esperanto would find their way here, through our biggest cultural party, the most striking proof of the vitality of our language, its people and its tradi- tions. I have no doubt that, among us, today, there are some people who started studying Esperanto online and who have joined the movement little by little. Welcome to you, make yourself at home! But we have to think about those many others who are missing here. (Fettes 2018: 2; my translation)