Message: 5
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 17:58:40 CDT
From: "Richard S. Voss" <rsvoss@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Competition among auxlangs
Hi, folks!
Charles wrote...
<< Let's distinguish between competition as in "racing", versus competition
as in "boxing". If auxlangers ran in a 1-mile race, nobody would ever reach
the finish line. >>
Competition is a lemonade stand. Decide for yourself for whom to make your
lemonade perfect, then make it perfect only for them. Eventually, they'll
come all the way from south Austin just to watch you make it, as long as you
let them know it's there.
<< So the winning strategy is about 1000 times more cooperation and
compromise among auxlangers than there has been previously. >>
No amount of cooperation among the lemonade-makers will convince the people
from south Austin to bypass all the other lemonade stands to visit yours. To
attract *most* of the people, you will indeed need 1000 times more
cooperation, but you simply do not have the resources that 1000 times more
cooperation requires. Instead, take a good look at your lemonade and the
people who drink it. Ask them, "Who are you really?" Some of them are
wandering by anyway--thank them and then keep looking. Others have come from
farther away specifically for *your* lemonade. *Those* are your people. Make
your lemonade for them alone, and tell other people *just like them* about
your fantastic product. Soon you'll find them coming from miles around, even
south Austin.
Now, let's see if I can figure out who your target audience is. Just what
kind of lemonade are you making, anyway?
<< Occidental is the easiest language to learn, and can be used to
communicate even with people who have never studied it. Restriction: this
requires knowing a European language. >>
Draft of vision statement: "Occidental seeks to become the preeminent
vehicle for international communication."
Mind you, this is rough, but I think you get the picture. If indeed
Occidental seeks one day to be the auxiliary language of choice, then this
is precisely what your vision is. This is true regardless of how you choose
to be perceived--it may be anathema to Occidentalists to talk in such terms
in everyday life. You may, in fact, believe that the way to achieve that
vision is precisely to let the enjoyment of the language itself do that work
for you. I'll assume this to be the case for now. Nevertheless, what you
specify in your mission statement is an eventual means to that end.
The following are some initial assumptions I have about Occidental, with
which I am really not familiar. Some of this is based on what you have
already said about it.
Occidental's strengths: Ease of acquisition; familiarity to those who are
familiar with a European language; ease of use; minimal ambiguity;
aesthetically pleasing resonance; technologically flexible structure;
fun-loving community (this last one is not a joke--if this is really the
case, then it can be an advantage).
Occidental's weaknesses: Small community of users; necessity for some
knowledge of a European language for easy acquisition; not well known in the
world; small physical infrastructure; limited finances.
Occidental's opportunities: Large numbers of people that have yet to be
apprised of an auxlang to facilitate international communication; large
numbers of people that currently speak a European language either as a first
or as a second language; the possibility that an auxlang could help in
machine translation; the rapid spread of the Internet as a way to offset
some of the advantage of more firmly established auxlangs; large numbers of
people that have little incentive to learn any but the easiest possible
auxlang; large numbers of people that might want a convenient recreational
language.
Occidental's threats: Dominance of Esperanto; possible role of Lojban in
machine translation; relative strength of other alternatives.
Perhaps you determine that emphasizing the language's "fun" side is the most
reliable way to achieve rapid early growth. This would determine at least
the central portion of your target audience.
Draft of mission statement: "Occidental will serve as a fun tool of
international communication among people who are already familiar with a
European language and would like to converse with foreign people with
minimal effort. Occidental will accomplish this by taking advantage of its
unmatched facility of acquisition and remarkably pleasant style."
Now, it is obvious that the mission statement cannot include everything that
*might* be a part of the language's grand strategy. Nevertheless, it can
serve to guide the activities of one specific Occidental club in the
propagation of the language. This club would focus on one target market and
gauge all of its success in those terms alone. Another club could devote its
attention to the question of technological flexibility and focus on those
people to whom this need is most critical. The rest is obvious, I think, but
each organization that is subsequently set up requires very careful thought
and the utmost seriousness in intent.
It may be that your resources currently limit you to promoting only the most
central objective (fun) for now. If so, then you will rely on the growing
support base that results from this effort eventually to set up the next
organization, which will be dedicated to the next mission that you deem
important to the eventual approximation of the vision.
Every amateur strategist knows SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, threats). This, in addition to careful crafting of the vision
and mission statements, is only the beginning. The next step is to identify
those human abilities that figure among your strengths, at which your people
are particularly adept.
Since the language already exists, most of what is listed above is an
inherent advantage that simply requires effective promotion. You will, of
course, devote most of your promotional resources to those aspects of the
language that clearly make it stand head and shoulders above the
alternatives. All that remains (at least in my little list) is the term
"fun-loving community." This is a "core competence" as long as you can
confidently say, "Yes, we do that pretty darn well (better than the other
things we do)." It deserves constant nurturing and reinforcing. It should
pervade everything that you do to promote the language. Do Occidental
websites have a dead-serious layout? Do representatives of the Occidental
community seem to take themselves too seriously? Do the Occidentalists with
whom state and private agencies come into contact seem wooden and formal in
their manner? Of course, the answer should be the same for all of these...a
resounding No! In fact, it should be a very jovial, fun-loving No! Think
about your other core competencies (there should only be a few) and take
full advantage of them with good consistency in promotion.
Lastly, regarding the vision statement, all those who actively work to make
Occidental a success must buy into it. It must be personified by
Occidentalists. I believe Esperantists do this quite well. They may not
always run around saying, "We're better than you," but they do behave as if
Esperanto *is* the international language. All those fun-loving
Occidentalists meeting at the beach and in cafés should have a look on their
faces that says, "Of course we speak Occidental--what else would we be
speaking?"
<< Esperanto is the ideal -- combine the difficulty of Latin and Greek plus
Polish... >>
Vi rekonfidigis min studi la polan lingvon, kiun mi neniom pensis este tiel
facila! :)
Amike,
Richard S. Voss
Professor of Management