It appears that word is slowly getting out among Taiwanese about forumosa. For instance we get a fair few locals trying out their English skills here, and that presumably means that there are a lot more lurking in the wings. I know that education-related banners at forumosa are getting, in some cases, more click-throughs than banners targeted at forumosa’s target audience.
A little while ago there was some discussion about having a forum specifically for English-learners to ask questions in, although nothing came of it.
And now we’re testing various softwares for classified advertising. It seems like only a matter of time before the admins start actively promoting this in order to try and recoup our hosting costs. So we’ll get more TW visitors and the obvious thing to do is find ways for ‘freelance’ teachers etc. to hook up with students.
Then there’ll be even more language exchange ads, and perhaps we could find a place to put personals ads instead of using the ‘forumosa friends’ thing that so many people are complaining about. All that would be necessary would be a slight tweak of the advertising software.
So we’ve got people coming here to practise English, ask questions, meet new friends, hire teachers, pretty much everything. I know that there would be work involved, and I’m not volunteering to do it, but in principle how do people feel about the idea that forumosa should more actively help learners of English?
I’m thinking of useful Wiki entries, linked to from the main page, which then lead to online tests, Taiwan-specific study tips, any useful info you want to share with students, a discussion forum, teacher profiles…
Thoughts? Be a helpful soul towards language learners and have a link in your sig to your ‘hire me’ ad in the wiki, or your ‘shag me’ ad in the personals.
I think it’s a great idea to have an “English Learners” forum. I would be more than happy to help answer questions. I enjoy and use the “Learning Chinese” forum and I feel I should give something back. Is it possible to have an “English Learners” forum? Would enough teachers be willing to answer questions?
I think it’s a great idea to have an “English Learners” forum. I would be more than happy to help answer questions. I enjoy and use the “Learning Chinese” forum and I feel I should give something back. Is it possible to have an “English Learners” forum? Would enough teachers be willing to answer questions? [/quote]
Nope…
Well, I wouldn’t anyway Sorry, I don’t come here to work.
Nothing against English students, but they are NOT the target audience for Forumosa, and an English-learning forum would take up an incredible amount of bandwidth if it took off. Try taking a look at (can’t remember the exact title, but something like) tw.lang.english on Usenet. First, it’s a free-for-all with unqualified people spouting “answers”; and second, it generates a huge amount of traffic.
I don’t think we need to encourage traffic here, at least not in that way. There are lots of boards catering to learners of English. It’s fine that 2nd language users POST here when they have something to say (i.e., genuinely contribute or participate in the conversation) but I would not support establishing a forum specifically for them when others exist and when it is not congruent with the aims of Forumosa, IMHO.
I think it’s a great idea to have an “English Learners” forum. I would be more than happy to help answer questions. I enjoy and use the “Learning Chinese” forum and I feel I should give something back. Is it possible to have an “English Learners” forum? Would enough teachers be willing to answer questions? [/quote]
Nope…
Well, I wouldn’t anyway Sorry, I don’t come here to work.[/quote]
No one asked you to work. If people had simple questions I would be more than willing to answer them. I’m sure others would as well. If your time is too “valuable” to you then don’t look in the “Learning English” forum. I would have thought someone so “interested” to teach English to others would want to help… I guess I was wrong.
Wouldn’t the end result for a lot of questions to the freelance teachers in an “English Learners” forum be something like “That’s a very good question however I don’t remember right now but I’ll ask for you in the ‘Teaching English’ forum”?
I find the ‘Teaching English’ forum supports my work and I use it to get information that helps in the classroom. I don’t come here to work either but I post here sometimes when I’m not working and I am thinking about problems I’m having at work and have been guilty of posting in the ‘Teaching English’ forum to get advice and opinions from others, even on weekends.
In principle the idea is great but I can’t see the practicality of the idea working out . So I agree with Ironlady’s well-articulated comments.
While I agree with Ironlady that this isn’t the place to learn English, I’d still be willing to help people out. It is up to the individual to choose whether or not to post.
Personally, I enjoy helping people out. I say “Yes” to a “Learning English” forum.
Anyone else?
Loretta, maybe the easiest way to do this would be via a poll.
I think it’s a great idea to have an “English Learners” forum. I would be more than happy to help answer questions. I enjoy and use the “Learning Chinese” forum and I feel I should give something back. Is it possible to have an “English Learners” forum? Would enough teachers be willing to answer questions? [/quote]
Nope…
Well, I wouldn’t anyway Sorry, I don’t come here to work.[/quote]
No one asked you to work. If people had simple questions I would be more than willing to answer them. I’m sure others would as well. If your time is too “valuable” to you then don’t look in the “Learning English” forum. I would have thought someone so “interested” to teach English to others would want to help… I guess I was wrong.[/quote]
Think about it for a minute. It is work if that’s what you do all day and into the night. Did I speak for you at all? NO, I spoke for myself. No need to go into that “time is too valuable” rant on me. Are you me…?? I think not! Yes, I am interested in teaching others but it isn’t something that I would do for free. I wouldn’t answer anything in the “Learning English” forum, not because I don’t want to help, but because I want to help myself get away from what I do all day, every day. It is work to me.
Helping people is what I do a lot of here, who says that I have to help people that want to learn English on Forumosa. I could be helping other people with more important things than that. But, then you don’t know anything about what I do and don’t do, do you?
Some of us like it here because it is far removed from our working lives. Do you really believe that students will confine themselves to an English student’s forum? Not a chance, they will spill over into every forum on the boards. Can you imagine a student getting into IP? Learners do not last long here, I’ve seen it before. Learners will get slammed by someone very quickly and run away with their tail between their legs. If Forumosa became overrun with learners, the attraction of this place for me would be over.
I agree mostly with Bassman, and IL, but that’s not really the point.
The point is that if you’ve got people coming here looking for teachers, LE partners etc then the chances are that some of them will turn up on the boards. Personally I would rather see a place where they can play without interfering with what forumosa really is, but that needs people willing to help them.
Without it we have a) a probably increasing level of inappropriate posts, and b) those posters getting slapped down and telling people that forumosa is not a good place to find a teacher/LE/shag/whatever. We don’t want that. We want more people to use the classifieds, therefore there needs to be some content for their benefit.
(I’m not trying to criticise the TWese who do use forumosa right now. Mostly they have something to contribute here and are welcome. But there have been, and continue to be, plenty of people who don’t have the language skills to understand what’s going on and I’d rather not see them here.)
I haven’t thought about this particular scenario too much, so I’m interested to hear what everybody has to say. Here are some of my initial thoughts:
Forumosa does not want to exclude anyone, but on the other hand, this forum’s primary mandate is to serve the foreign community in Taiwan. Taiwanese posters are welcome, but incidental to our purpose.
Loretta asks about a separate forum for English learners. Instead of “If you build it, they will come”, I suggest “If they come, I will build it”. As I said, no one need be excluded from Forumosa, but until there’s a demonstrated need, Goose Egg and I will keep our first priority on catering to the needs of the foreign community.
If we did add a separate forum for English learners I doubt that it would be all that intrusive. Mods are pretty good at deciding what’s a flounder and what isn’t, and if a post is unreadable because of the poor English level of the author, away it would go…
Anyway, it’s an interesting topic - keep the comments coming!
If Forumosa is about the foreign community, then what could be better than helping the locals adjust to us all? I say let them in, if they are not already in that is.
I am sure that the writing “styles” of some of us are way too much for English learners to handle, but if the need arises, yes, set up a Forumosa junior for locals. Why limit it to English students? Just give them a protected space so that some of our more “creative and adventurous” posters don’t ridicule them into submission.
Loretta outlines the likely scenario that we’ll see more andmore Taiwanese posting on Forumosa.
I don’t meananyhing against non-native speakers here, but problems do seemto arise with them. We have had quite a few cases in the past where their lack of English ability causes huge misunderstandings that snowball nto massive shitfights. We’ve also had cases of non-native speakers posting irrelevant rubbish all over the forums. Again, not wanting to seem rude, but a ‘Learner’s Forum’ could be a nice isolation pen to keep the problems away from the rest of the forums.
I prefer the term ‘creche’, with a cage in the corner for Tetsou. The more adventurous can go over and wind him up, but there needs to be a ‘handler’ on duty to stop him biting anyone.
I personally don’t see a need considering the hundreds of forums, chatboards, and BBS out there where non-native speakers can practice their English. If you add this, you are getting away from what this website is about: serving those interested in living in Taiwan…not to serve those who are interested in learning English. Learning Chinese is relevant to living in Taiwan. Learning English isn’t. The argument for having it to keep those whose English skills aren’t strong in one place defeats the purpose of having them as posters, doesn’t it?
Again, there are lots of websites out there where the Taiwanese can practice their English and get grammar and usage questions answered. Why does Forumosa have to have one too?
Something that could potentially be very lucrative for forumosa would be to invite companies that need English polishing done on their business letters, advertisements etc. to submit their work to a forum where the people who are interested in that kind of work could take a crack at fixing whatever was submitted in hopes of possibly developing a more formal, ongoing, paid relationship with that company. There is quite a lot of demand for this kind of service, and for sure a lot of people who would make use of one if they knew anything like that existed. This would basically just be an extension of the students forum that loretta suggested which I also support (although I suppose there would be some way to prevent spillage of that material into the native or near native speaker forums). Obviously I haven’t thought this through completely (for example how exactly would forumosa charge for this service) but it is surely something worth considering.
[quote=“jdsmith”]Maybe Tetsou needs his own forum: Bait The Bear[/quote]Hey! I’m not that hairy! I even remembered to shave today!
Seriously though, I agree with the boss. If a need arises, a forum could be made, but until then, locals are more than welcome - we’ve already got a few locals who post at least semi-regularly. But those people (locals or not) who try and pull anything like that one poster who came on and started swinging punches at Loretta for being anti-Taiwanese (or misogynistic or whatever crap it was) because of a total lack of ability to understand what was being said will and should get smacked down.
Sorry, I don’t come here to work.
I guess I was wrong.
Thanks in advance Yellow Cartman. (I have ESP)