You’re right that a language needs to have users – and Esperanto does. I’m one of them. Some Esperanto speakers subscribe to magazines. See, for example La Ondo from Russia: http://esperanto.org/Ondo/

Some go on bookbinding courses and fungus forays and so on at Kastelo Grezijono in the Loire Valley: http://gresillon.org/?lang=eo

This language has some remarkable practical benefits. Personally, I’ve made friends around the world through Esperanto that I would never have been able to communicate with otherwise. And then there’s the Pasporta Servo, which provides free lodging and local information to Esperanto-speaking travellers in over 90 countries. Over recent years I have had guided tours of Berlin, Douala and Milan in this planned language. I have discussed philosophy with a Slovene poet, humour on television with a Bulgarian TV producer. I’ve discussed what life was like in East Berlin before the wall came down, how to cook perfect spaghetti, the advantages and disadvantages of monarchy, and so on. I recommend it, not just as an ideal but as a very practical way to overcome language barriers and get to know people from a very different cultural background.

Multiple international visits, such as Hungarian and Indian Esperanto-speakers to our home, don’t grab the headlines, but Esperanto has a vibrant community of people who use the language for a whole variety of purposes. I learned yesterday that some 4,400 scientific bookls in Esperanto.

I hope you’ll allow me to add that Esperanto celebrated its 125th anniversary last year. That’s quite an achievement for what started as the idea of just one man. It has survived wars and strikes and economic crises, and continues to attract young learners.