The Interview Result

Even though we have set the questionaaire, I adjusted my questions a little bit based on my understanding and further interest towards the institution and the founder's responses.

Teaching Goal and Objective:
What are your teaching goals and objectives?
I hope to provide a community for language learning that is freely available to everyone
Year:
How long has your institution been found?
5 months
Features of school:
What kind of teaching method do instructors usually use?
the methods are a bit different in SL because of the differences in levels, cultures, and technology.also the size of the classes are unnaturally large.
I think we mostly use the communicative or colaborative approach.we also tend to use task beased learning.I form the lessons into Present Practice and Perform also.
Which skills do you focus on?
Speaking
Media:
What kind of media do you use? (ex: video clips, PPT, podcast)
we use photos, built and scripted objects, and maybe blog huds connected to LMS systems
Teaching Material:
Do you use any teaching materials?
We write our own material using notecards in SL
Schedule (Time):
Do you have classes for students in different time zones?
I don't. it whenever I am available. The others seem to follow since I have developed a following in the beginning. and since I am in Asia the times I teach work best for Asian and Australia. We hope to have times better suited for other parts of the world.
Can I know which country are you in?
Japan.
How long is each class?
3 hours
Teacher:
How many teachers are there in your institution?
4
What are the backgrounds of the teachers?
They are from america and mostly professors
What are the criteria for choosing teachers?
I don't choose them..they are volunteers. We are not a school, just a group of people trying to help each other teach or learn languages
Student:
How many students in each class?
average about 15 per class
How many students in your institution?
almost 150 members
What is the major age group of students? (18-25, 26-34, 35-42, 43-50, above?)
I don't know everyone's age because asking is rude..but I would say over 30
What are students’ nationalities?
everywhere not Africa yet. oh and Mexico
Most of them are from asia?
hmmm i think so...but its changing. 50-50 now
Class fee:
Are these classes available for free?
Free
How much for each class?
Free
Do you have an website
Yes. http://professormerryman.com/cypris-chat/

Chatting In Cypris Village

About two weeks ago, I participated in the group of Cypris Village, which I intend to do the research on. In fact, I didn’t show my intention of interviewing the community at first, but the founder greeted me enthusiastically and answered my questions patiently. It was a nice beginning for me, since I have encountered countless difficulties in interviewing language institutions.

In order to have better understanding of my target interviewee, I attended the class the next day I aimed at it. Class hours are from 9 to12 in second life time, Monday to Thursday, three hours each time in total. I found out there were lots of participants from Japan in our class and the professor seems to speak Japanese well even if he’s an American. It is an English learning community based on voice chat, assisting with text chat. The topic we discussed that day was how to respond to people who are talking about nonsense, something offensive, trying to piss you off. There were 15 people in the class and one-third was native speakers from America, Australia, and Malaysia. The others were from German, Japan, china, etc. For the first hour, the leading instructor greeted everyone of us one by one and asked us to share the most unpleasant chatting experience in SL. For the second hour, we received a notecard on which phrases you could use to respond were listed. Then we took turns to play roles in an offensive guy and a responder. In addition to learning the useful phrases, our intonations of representing these phrases were also corrected by the instructors. We worked together on thinking other possible responses as well and it was really interesting to join the role playing. For the last hour, we visited and looked around another place for fun. Within the three hours, when the leading instructor chatting with us, another instructor will explain some words in the conversation immediately with text.

It was such a nice experience in SL and I was sparked to have further attendances at the community in the future.

English Learning Institution

As you would learn, there are numerous language institutions in SL, but how do learners choose those communities which are suitable for them seems to be an unsettled question. We would like to focus on having more insight into different English learning institutions and at the same time, we set up a set of criteria to assist individual learners in choosing language schools.

Since our group has decided to do a research on English leaning institutions, we’ve started to sort out whatever institutions we have interest in. However, things seem not to go smoothly when we tried to interview the founder of the institutions we opted for. Therefore, it took lots of time for most of us to stick at least two institutions at the same time for interviewing successfully, since most of the time, we couldn’t bump into the founder there, even the members.

The institution I chose to do is Cypris Village. So far I have still worked on interviewing my target founder within several times because he is quite busy and before I officially interview him, I attended the class the community provided every week to have better understanding of the language learning community
The questionnaire we have designed is as following:

Teaching Goal and Objective:
What are your teaching goals and objectives?
Year:
How long has your institution been found?
Features of school:
What kind of teaching method do instructors usually use?
Teaching Method
Which skills do you focus and what teaching methods do you use?
Media:
What kind of media do you use? (ex: video clips, PPT, podcast)
Teaching Material:
Do you use any teaching materials?
Schedule (Time):
Do you have classes for students in different time zones?
How long is each class?
Teacher:
How many teachers are there in your institution?
What are the backgrounds of the teachers? (American, Europeans, Canadians, British?)
What are the criteria for choosing teachers?
Student:
How many students in each class?
How many students in your institution?
What is the major age group of students? (18-25, 26-34, 35-42, 43-50, above?)
What are students’ nationalities?

Class fee:
Are these classes available for free?
How much for each class?

Do you have a website ?

CNN iReporter

The following is my first posting on CNN iReporter.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-260274

【Revised】Lost in Translation?

We might come across millions of people a day in SL but all of us probably speak different languages such as Korean, Arabic or Spanish. In the uncommunicative circumstance, are you eager for a personal interpreter?

Some of you may have run into the situation that you cannot get help from others or build rapport with people you met due to the language barrier. Don’t worry! We got a free custom-made interpreter here in Language Translator -By Simbolic . Get ready to have one? Here we go!

While you are teleported there, find the half cave named “Language Translator” and then you will see a board -Simbolic Translator. After you take the translator, you should put it on for operation. Whenever it is functioning, you can only translate one language into your speaking language. Click the bar right on “I speak” to choose your speaking language, and then opt for the target language others speak.

With the portable interpreter, you can explore around SL and visit various exotic places, contacting foreigners even though you are not multilingual. It seems a satisfactory tool for basic translation; however, if you would like to build deep relationship with other speakers, I am afraid the translator couldn’t serve as the best bridge as you thought. The following is my experiment in English-Chinese translation:
Dezno: hi
translator: 您好
Dezno: is anybody here
translator: 是谁在这里
Dezno: what the hell
translator: 什么是地狱
Dezno: oh my
translator: 噢，我的
Dezno: bad translation
translator: 坏翻译
Dezno: well i had better translate myself
translator: 以及更好地将我自己
Dezno: how comwe
translator: 如何comwe
Dezno: how come
translator: 怎么
Dezno: no one here
translator: 没有人在这里
Dezno: i feel bored
translator: 我觉得无聊
Dezno: i had better take it off
translator: 我有更好地把

First of all, some words the translator uses are out-of-date like 您好and there are also some mistranslations. By the way, if you misspell words, the translator could not tell and correct it on its own like a human being. It can’t even translate some colloquial phrases precisely. As to the translation quality of other language, I couldn’t affirm they are the same as English-Chinese translation. Yet there is one thing I am sure-if you do really like to make friends with people in SL, especially Chinese speakers, you had better be the interpreter yourself, or you maight lose in translation.

Personal Portable Interpreter in SL

We might come across millions of people a day in SL but all of us probably speak different languages such as Korean, Arabic or Spanish. In the uncommunicative circumstance, are you eager for a personal interpreter?

Some of you may have run into the situation that you cannot get help from others or build rapport with people you met due to the language barrier. Don’t worry! We got a free customer-made interpreter here in Language Translator -By Simbolic . Get ready to have one? Here we go!



While you are teleported there, find the half cave named “Language Translator” and then you will see a board -Simbolic Translator. After you take the translator, you should put it on for operation. Whenever it is functioning, you can only translate one language into your speaking language. Click the bar right on “I speak” and choose your speaking language. Then opt for the target language others speak.



With the portable interpreter, you can explore around SL and visit various exotic places and contact foreigners even though you are not multilingual. It seems a satisfactory tool for basic translation; however if you would like to build deep relationship with other speakers, I am afraid the translator couldn’t serve as the best bridge as well as you thought. Following is my experiment in English-Chinese tranlation:

Dezno: hi
translator: 您好
Dezno: is anybody here
translator: 是谁在这里
Dezno: what the hell
translator: 什么是地狱
Dezno: oh my
translator: 噢，我的
Dezno: bad translation
translator: 坏翻译
Dezno: well i had better translate myself
translator: 以及更好地将我自己
Dezno: how comwe
translator: 如何comwe
Dezno: how come
translator: 怎么
Dezno: no one here
translator: 没有人在这里
Dezno: i feel bored
translator: 我觉得无聊
Dezno: i had better take it off
translator: 我有更好地把

First of all, some words the translator use are out-of-date(marked green) like 您好and there are some mistranslations (marked yellow). And if you misspell words (marked blue), the translator could not tell and correct it on its own like a human being. It can’t even translate some colloquial phrases(marked purple) precisely. Therefore, if you do really like to make friends with people speaking different languages in SL, you had better be the interpreter yourself.

【Revised】Lost language identity in SL?

Embodied in a virtual world, how do you present your identity? Sometimes we all ignore how much weight languages put on us.

It seems normal for me that English is the only dominant language in second life in which everyone should speak. “Is it necessary to use the so-called “international language” for successful socialization in SL” was a question I wouldn’t hesitate to answer with “YES” some time ago.

However, once I ran into a Chinese speaker who asked me to speak Chinese to in China Town even though she had no idea whether I was a Chinese speaker. I felt surprise and inquired what language she used to communicate with people in SL and she responded without hesitation— “Chinese”. I was not sure she spoke English well or not but she told me firmly that Chinese was also an international language. I have ever also bumped into some guys who are not native English speakers and our conversation couldn’t last because they preferred to talk to people who can speak their mother languages. Those events gathered together and turned into a bomb exploding in my mind.

I’ve started to ponder whether I lost my identity in SL because I am so accustomed to the dominant language that I am blind to face the importance of varied languages. To be honest, I am pleased about showing my origin to others in the virtual world, yet I tend to reckon English as the only access to the world and presentation of internationalization unconsciously.

In fact, language seems to play an important role in driving conversation, especially between people from different countries. It is essential to shift in different language identity timely to create a more agreeable conversational environment where we practice our target language as well.
in Japanese Town
in China Town

Lost Identity?

Embodied in a virtual world, how do you present yourself?

No matter being a newbie or an oldbie, I almost speak in English all the way. It seems normal for me that English is the only dominant language in second life in which everyone should speak. “Is it necessary to use the so-called “international language” for successful socialization in SL” was a question I wouldn’t hesitate to answer with “YES” some time ago.

However, once I ran into a Chinese speaker who asked me to speak Chinese to her in China Town even though she had no idea whether I was a Chinese speaker or not . I felt surprise and inquired what language she used to communicate with people in SL and she responded without hesitation— “Chinese”. I was not sure she spoke English well or not but she told me firmly that Chinese was also an international language.

I’ve started to ponder whether I lost my identity in SL because I am so accustomed to the dominant culture that I am blind to face my own mother language. To be honest, I am pleased about showing my origin to others in the virtual world, yet I tend to reckon English as the only access to the world and presentation of internationalization unconsciously. It is crucial to realize the power of cultural imperialism acting upon myself imperceptibly.

Definitely it is too tough for me to change the situation not to speak English, so I’ve tried to alter my appearance to resemble a Chinese as much as possible in order to reinforce my idnetity. I inquired around where to purchase Chinese avatars and even spent almost all of my Liden on an Asian avatar. Now as a Chinese-looking girl in SL, I feel more comfortable and confident about who I am.

The Luscious Landscape along Interchanges

(Photo: Tobie Openshaw)

Have you ever been attracted to those beauties in sexy and appealing dresses? If you get a chance to experience, you are sure to be surprised by Taiwanes Betelnut Beauties.

One of the features in Taiwan appealing to international media and foreign tourists is our “betelnut girl”. Sprinkled with numerous transparent boxes with twinkling neon lights and alluring shop names, the interchange in Taiwan is known as a display for betelnut girls. As a stall, the showcase displays these betelnut beauties in sexy outfits.

Formerly, people selling betelnut are from diversity of ages and could be males or females but, gradually, for the sake of attracting customers, the boss of betelnut stalls came up with an idea to hire young and beautiful girls in fascinating outfits as clerks. Obviously, it is such a successful business strategy that betelnut girl has become a burgeoning industry in Taiwan. You may wonder why most stalls are located on interchanges and that’s because truck drivers are the chief customers who support the betelnut industry. In order to keep alert and energetic, truck drivers like to chew betelnuts while they are on a long-way driving. Accordingly, situated on interchanges, betelnut shops are sure to earn more businesses.

Even though the business strategy is so successful, it incurs overwhelming judgments on those girls. With so many beauties dressed little clothes on the street, it is regarded as indecent exposure. Chinese culture doesn’t encourage women dress exposurelyat all, especially in public; moreover, it is believed that making money by the advantage of appearance is definitely a moral wrong.

Serving as betelnut beauties, those girls are the same as showgirls in car exhibition or super stars dancing lusciously on TV programs. Apparently, most of us take wrong attitudes toward them. Instead of doing something legally wrong, they are dedicated to their career by entertaining customers and taking their career seriously.


Visit Tobie Openshaw's gallery of betelnut girl photos, taken over a five-year period:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobie_openshaw/sets/72157594581621891/

【Revised】Is native appearance equal to language-teaching proficiency?

Is it the best way to learn a language with a native speaker? Does a native speaker present a person who has a good command of language teaching? If you answer those questions positively without any doubt, I am afraid you are falling into some myths.

(reference:http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/shanghai/events/35874/?most_viewed=1)

About half a decade ago, children English private school popped up promptly and so did the number of the children who were sent to the schools. Learning English has turned into a popular trend among all people, especially parents who expect their children to win at the start point of a race. In order to attract more students, private schools are dedicated to constructing all English environments; in recent years, some of them even hire native speakers as English teachers.

(reference:web.tiec.tp.edu.tw/blog/puu03)

However, some of those so-called “native speakers” are not proficient in language teaching at all since a native speaker cannot definitely stand for a person who learns the art of teaching languages. Maybe you will consider that getting along with a native help immerses children in a local-imitating environment where they are equipped with daily spoken ability. It does work in some part but does not strike the right note invariably. The teacher plays an important role in strategically guiding as well as facilitating children step by step instead of just talking with them in the target language. As parents who mind the development of their children, it is one of the significant issues you need to focus on.

The owners of children English private schools should try to enhance their proficiency in choosing as well as fostering teachers so as not to impair what they have expected originally.

Learning English!

Is it the best way to learn a language with a native speaker? Does a native speaker present a person who has a good command of language teaching? If you answer those questions positively without any doubt, I am afraid you are falling into some myths.



About half a decade ago, children English private school popped up promptly and so does the number of the children who are sent to the schools. Learning English has turned into a popular trend among all people, especially parents who expect their children to win at the start point of a race. In order to attracting more students, private schools are dedicated to constructing all English environments; recent years, some of them even hire native speakers as English teachers.

However, some of those so called “native speakers” are not proficient in language teaching at all since a native speaker cannot definitely stand for a person who learns the art of teaching language. Maybe you will consider that getting along with a native immerses children in a local-imitating environment where they are equipped with daily spoken ability. It does work in some part but not strike the right note invariably. The teacher plays an important role in strategically guiding as well as facilitating children step by step instead of just talking with them in the target language. As parents who mind the development of their children, it is one of the significant issues you need to focus on.

The owners of children English private schools should try to enhance their proficiency in choosing as well as fostering teachers so as not to impair what they have expected originally.

【Revised】The Luscious Landscape along Interchanges

(Photo: Tobie Openshaw)

Have you ever been attracted to those beauties in sexy as well as appealing dresses? If you get the chance to experience, you are sure to be surprised by Taiwanes Betelnut Beauties.

One of the features in Taiwan appealing to international media is our “betelnut girl”. Sprinkled with numerous transparent boxes with twinkling neon lights and alluring shop names, the interchange in Taiwan is known as a display for betelnut girls. As a stall, the showcase displays these betelnut beauties in sexy outfits.

Formerly, people selling betelnut are from diversity of ages and could be a male or a female; gradually, for the sake of attracting customers, the boss of betelnut stalls came up with an idea to hire young and beautiful girls in fascinating outfits as clerks. Obvious, it is such a successful business strategy that betelnut girl has become a burgeoning industry in Taiwan. You may wonder why most stalls are located on interchanges and that’s because truck drivers are the chief group who support the betelnut industry. In order to keeping alert and energetic, truck drivers like to chew betelnut while they are on a long-way driving. Accordingly, situated on interchanges, betelnut shops are sure to do more business.

Even though it is such a successful business strategy, it incurs overwhelming judgments on those girls. With so many beauties dressed little clothes on the street, it is regarded as indecent exposure. Chinese culture doesn’t encourage women dress exposurely, especially in public; moreover, it is believed that making money by the advantage of appearance is definitely morally wrong.

Serving as betelnut beauties, those girls are the same as showgirls in car exhibition or super stars dancing lusciously on TV programs. Apparently, most of us take a wrong attitude toward them. Instead of doing something legally wrong, they are dedicated to their career by entertaining customers and taking their career seriously.

Visit Tobie Openshaw's gallery of betelnut girl photos, taken over a five-year period:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobie_openshaw/sets/72157594581621891/

Betelnut Girls

Have you ever been attracted to those beauties in sexy as well as appealing dresses? If you get the chance to experience, you are sure to be surprised by Taiwanes Betelnut Beauties.

One of the features of Taiwan appealing to international media is “betelnut girl”. Sprinkled with numerous transparent boxes with twinkling neon lights, the interchange in Taiwan is known as a display for betel nut girls. As a stall, the showcase displays these betelnut beauties in sexy outfits.

(Photo: Tobie Openshaw)

Formerly, people selling betelnut are from diversity of ages and could be a male or a female; gradually, for the sake of attracting customers, the boss of betelnut stalls came up with an idea to hire young and beautiful girls in fascinating outfits as clerks. Obvious, it is a successful business strategy so betelnut girl has become a burgeoning industry in Taiwan. You may wonder why most stalls are located on interchanges and that’s because trunk drivers are the chief group who support this betelnut industry. In order to keeping alert and energetic, trunk drivers like to chew betelnut while they are on a long-way driving. Accordingly, situated on interchanges, they are sure to do more business.

(Photo:http://www.tncsec.gov.tw/wks/pt08/home.php?page=page4.php&a01=0101&c03=&wks=pt08&page_key=1612)

Betel nut, which can be used as drug, is the fruit of areca catechu growing in Malaysia and the tropics originally. In addition to Taiwan, many other countries in Asia have the custom of chewing betel nut such as India, Vietnam or Malaysia. Aboriginals in Taiwan regard betel nut as snacks and part of their lives. It is the essential gift in a wedding and serves as a kind of food when it comes to social intercourse. One of the tribes even treats it as rent for their chieftain.

(Photo: Tobie Openshaw)

Serving as betelnut beauties, those girls are the same as showgirls in car exhibition. Apparently, most of us take a wrong attitude toward them. Instead of committing crimes, they are dedicated to their career by entertaining customers and taking their career seriously.

"Visit Tobie Openshaw's gallery of betelnut girl photos, taken over a five-year period: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobie_openshaw/sets/72157594581621891/ "

Universal Studios

The website is designed for those who have interest in theme parks, especially Universal Studios, to explore features of Universal and attain some essential content for traveling overseas. The target audience are senior high school students or people with intermediate to upper intermediate English ability . It aims to enhance learners’ listening skills of catching main points or general ideas from a speech, conversation, video clip and so on; moreover I intend to have them learn some objects available everywhere in American theme parks. They are also expected to learn the polite and simple way when talking to someone else in English. I use recordings, maps, video clips, PPTs to help them practice listening comprehension and evaluate what they’ve learned. Let’s have fun in Universal Studios Orlando.