Let’s build a ‘Net Pals’ English Learning Community!
I had an idea a few months ago and I’ve written to some of you about it. I think we’re living in an era with some great technology for education. Now, it’s very easy to connect to the internet and have a voice conversation with someone on the other side of the world. AND IT’S MOSTLY FREE!!! (with Skype, computer-to-computer calling is free; computer-to-phone calling is not free) (links: Skype download (free), more information)
Yes, I’m talking about SKYPE. I thought it would be a good idea to use Skype, and help form a kind of ‘voice chat English learning community.’ I could use the English Teacher John website as a central organizer of this new community. I was thinking about calling it ‘NetPals English Learning Community’ ‘NetPals ELC’ or how about just ‘NetPals.’ Hey, how about ‘NetPals English’ with the idea that we could grow it to include OTHER LANGUAGES in the future (‘NetPals Arabic,’ ‘NetPals Spanish,’ ‘NetPals Japanese’).
I’m proposing these things to start our ‘NetPals English’ community:
1. I’ll mention this on both MY ENGLISH BLOG and on the ENGLISH TEACHER JOHN SHOW PODCAST.
2. If you’re interested in participating, then go to our NetPals Page. Or, you can send me an email to skypepals @ englishteacherjohn.com. You should include: A. your name and country, B. email address, C. Skype ID, D. chat frequency (how many skype chats per week or month?), E. the days and times that you are available for a skype chat (it would be helpful if you could put the time in both local time, and GMT time. example: 22:00 Tokyo local time, 13:00 GMT), F. your English level (beginner, intermediate, advanced), and G. your gender, male or female, and your age. (I think these could be helpful when considering privacy, topics, conduct and cultural issues.)
3. I’ll maintain a database of interested people, with all of the above information.
4. We’ll have a ‘kick-off’ chat where I’ll be on Skype and I hope that some or many of you can join the FIRST SKYPE CHAT (can we do it sometime in November?) We’ll discuss the new ‘NetPals English’ community and collect everyone’s ideas.
5. Through email and/or ETJ website, NetPals English members will coordinate one-to-one chats or three person chats. In the beginning, perhaps each person could stay with the same SKype Pal for one or two months, then we’ll have a procedure for changing your NetPal.
6. We’ll have a new ‘Net Pals Blog’ where we can all discuss the new NetPals English community, share our experiences, comments, suggestions. ETJ will moderate the new blog. This blog probably should not be used for scheduling chats with your NetPal.
7. We’ll have periodic ‘NetPals English’ Feedback Chats.
8. I would suggest that we have a weekly or monthly ‘Suggested Topic’ so that NetPals can prepare some things to talk about. It gives some guidance and purpose to the chats.
9. We’ll need some ‘Rules of Conduct’ (ie. no profanity, respecting people’s privacy) and I think together we could develop these over time.
10. To participate, you’ll need a computer that has an internet connection, a microphone and speaker (a headset is highly recommended), and the SKYPE software. It’s free and can be downloaded here.
I’m sure there are many more things that I haven’t thought about. Please post a comment/reply to this message. Is it a good idea? Bad idea? Would you like to participate?
November 12th, 2005 at 4:12 pm
Hi!
I am not a good english speaker.English is a foreign language for me.
I am interested in this idea of chatting.But what is Skype ?Please tell me.
November 12th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
Hello Priti,
Thanks for your question. I’ve put some links on the original blog post on the blog main page. If you click the links, you can get more information about Skype. Good luck!
John
November 13th, 2005 at 8:26 pm
I think I might change the name of this new project as I don’t think it needs to be tied only to the internet telephone application ‘Skype.’
Okay, I changed it. Let’s call it “NetPals English!!”
November 21st, 2005 at 8:36 am
I am with you. Few people, like me, prefeer to chat before to speak with a unknowed person. Anyway I have sponken with persons who are learnling spanish and allways we needed to write some explanations due to my spanish dialect or new words.
November 29th, 2005 at 4:55 pm
Hi John and how are you , I,m from Iran and I,m glad find your site . It,s very good , your efforts and admire . and about participation in your idea I,m in agreement with you . I.m not a good english speaker and it should helps me .
I wish your success .
m.m
December 4th, 2005 at 8:51 am
Hello mmirsamii,
Thanks for your comments, and it’s really nice to have another English learner from Iran .. great! Good luck with your studies and I hope you can learn something from our website and podcast.
Take care,
John
March 28th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
Hi all, I’m a little bit confused about this idea, it seems cool but I’m pretty shy!
I still have a lot of problems writing and even speaking english. I can’t understand which is my level, begginner or maybe elementary, I don’t know.
I’m also quite worried because I fear that I’ll never be sure if I’m speaking well or bad while i’m speaking with someone who can’t correct my mistakes.
What do you think about it, John?
May 11th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
Hi everybody, hi John
I am from Poland, like an idea of sharing thoughts and interests in the internet. But as others I prefer mailing and chatting. It’s ‘cos of my bad English and shyness. Is this NetPals English working?
BTW, John, you are a very good teacher, good human being, I like and admire your work. Thanks. (think you are tired of this stuff)
And have a question:
for all I know = as far as I know
for all I care = I don’t care
the first I understand, but the next not. Could you explain it to me, please?