Turn into the body

Wednesday night, in order to get more free outfits such as gowns, I went to Alady Island but there were only a few people over there and it seems that I couldn’t get free stuffs in Alady Island. Actually, I felt kind of embarrassed because as a newbie, my outfit, hair and accessories looked unlovely. :( People I met in other places always wear gorgeous outfits which were suitable for the setting.

I searched “dance” on the bar and then chose to go to “Sweethearts Jazz Greeter”. There people were dressing nicely except me; therefore, I tried many times to accost people for asking where I can get free outfits besides to Freebie Heaven.

At first, I got sort of shocked because some people didn’t really talk to u and I was afraid if I would say something wrong to offend others, I would deliberate before I said it. Somehow I still got hurt at first for being ignored and left. Fortunately, I thought of Emma’s caution in class that we might have cultural shocks in SL so I didn’t give up to accost people. That was my first experience in exploring SL. Later I met a woman, Cherry, she guided me to the board where I could get free and gorgeous gowns, hairs and accessories. By the way, she also sent me many landmarks. When I was asking questions in public, a man who heard I needed free outfits gave much stuff to me for free even though I was not talking to him. How nice!

New ME

Then something interesting happened. I accosted a man who was dressed differently from other people in Sweethearts Jazz Greeter. Almost everyone was dressed up but he wore the worn outfit like a teenager. Indeed I appreciated his outfits. When I asked why he was dressed differently from others, he responded “I’m too poor to have something better”. I said “I am poor too”. Then he gave me 1000 dollars. WOW
He also told me I need to work on my shape hard and gave me some advices about which parts to promote. During the long chat, he told me lots of things and took me to explore other places. The most impressive words about SL he said was “it’s more than a game. Before he left, he gave me another 1000 dollars. How nice the experience was for me!

In the communication, I found out that people use lots of abbreviations and through the process of negotiation, we got more opportunities to practice our target language, maybe sometimes learning the tricks of asking for explanation.

P: mm You r on a very good way for your AV..
A: AV?
P: shape= AV= Avatar

People would often spell words wrongly but they didn’t mind if it would not cause misunderstanding of meaning. Sometime, there were some self-corrections happening. I think one of the reason is that P didn’t want to confuse me because I have been confused about what he talked about once. At that time, he didn’t correct his spelling but just instruct me in another way.

P:I can get somem oney (money)from my reserve. do you need?
A: what did u mean
P:mmm take what I give you please..
A: ok

In the negotiation sequence, we request, check comfirmation, indicate our understanging, agreement or nonagreement. Through the process, we somehow learn the way to communicate with and undestand each other. I use many emoticons and the man I talked to show his humor which made the atmosphere more relaxed between two stangers like us. We always deleted question or capital marks which would not interfere the understanding of meaning in our conversation.

A: what did u mean (clarification request & omission of the question mark)
P: mmm take what I give you please..(instruction)
A: ok
A: wow!
A: thank u
P: its my pleasure
P: love to help you
A: oh~so sweet
P: but you must work on your shape
A: how
P: mmm your eyes....
P: too too big
A: hahahah
A: i'll work on it immediately:P (emoticon)
P: mm when you can..
P: mm your nose is too big also.. its just an advice
A: thanks for tou opinion
A: where are u from
P: Mongolia
P: no.. kidding (humor)
A: hahaha
P: france