Introducing F.com to Non English-Speaking Taiwanese Folks?

Discussion Open Forum
1

So…last week I mentioned to my Monday class about Forumosa.com. I told them it was a resource/chat website for English-speakers living in Taiwan. I told them there are many forums that discuss anything and everything you can think of when moving to or living in Taiwan.

To get them interested, I mentioned topics in D&R and taught them “psycho xiaojie,” which they thought was hilarious. (This is a Japanese company I teach at, employees are either Japanese, or speak it.) Another topic I brought up was the thread “Can you drink the water in a dehumidifier?,” which they thought was funny as well.

I told them to go home, check out F.com, and come to class today with some threads they’d like discuss or understand more about. They told me today they couldn’t understand most of F.com at home.

So, today, we hooked the laptop to the screen and we made our way down the Index page. We looked at the Forumosafieds, then each forum, down to Living in Taiwan.

Ohhh boy…I don’t know if it was the right thing to do to tell them about this site, cuz I think a couple of them are hooked. They had some choice words for the “Funniest Things Your SO Says” and “TW Girl Acting Like a Child During a Break-Up” in D&R. There will be more, I’m sure. :blush:

But the reason why I decided to finally introduce them to the site is because they are in their 20s-40s, so they have a pretty “set” view on things, unlike teenagers who are more flexible when it comes to cultural differences. I thought about the recent “Baby Emily” issue, and the American guy that got beaten in Gaoshiong, and so figured it would be a good thing to let these students see things from the angle of many foreigners. I mentioned to them also the discrimination many foreigners face here, and they were a bit stunned.

There are so many pre-conceived notions about Southeast Asians, Americans, Eastern Europeans, East Indians here, that I want to do some good, even if it’s showing Taiwanese being mocked in many F.com threads. I will have to explain to them the issues foreigners face here are the same issues Taiwanese people face when they immigrate to another country. I hope to “enlighten” my students, I suppose.

What kind of reaction did you encounter when you introduced Forumosa.com to non-English speaking Taiwanese friends/families/co-workers/students? Did it help them see things from foreigners’ perspectives?

2

Haven’t we had this discussion before?

There are a few local people who use this site and I don’t think anyone has a problem with that, in fact its good to get the other point of view sometimes.

But this is a site created by and for foreigners. If you turn it into a teaching resource for your students then that will destroy it.

Perhaps I should introduce the twenty adults I teach on Sundays? And the five I spent the evening with yesterday? And the ten or so in my class tonight? Tomorrow I have my business group, another eight adults.

All want to practise their English, and I’m only one teacher out of how many that use this site. Do we need a couple of thousand more Taiwanese taking offence at the people blowing off a bit of steam? Do we need a couple of thousand people looking for new foreign friends?

I think not. Please don’t do this.

3

WE COULD TYPE MORE SLOWLY AND USE BIG LETTERS FOR THEM .

4

I’m with Loretta on this.
This sounds like that one moron friend who brings his new girlfriend to your pal’s bachelor party…

5

Absolutely! Please keep Forumosa for barbarians.

6

[quote=“Loretta”]Haven’t we had this discussion before?

There are a few local people who use this site and I don’t think anyone has a problem with that, in fact its good to get the other point of view sometimes.

But this is a site created by and for foreigners. If you turn it into a teaching resource for your students then that will destroy it.

Perhaps I should introduce the twenty adults I teach on Sundays? And the five I spent the evening with yesterday? And the ten or so in my class tonight? Tomorrow I have my business group, another eight adults.

All want to practise their English, and I’m only one teacher out of how many that use this site. Do we need a couple of thousand more Taiwanese taking offence at the people blowing off a bit of steam? Do we need a couple of thousand people looking for new foreign friends?

I think not. Please don’t do this.[/quote]

I agree. This site is not a learning resource for EFL students.

7

:bravo: Good for you 914. :bravo:

I too believe that this site can be a great resource for English classes. I have used and will continue to use f.com to enhance and/or to derive my lesson plans from. Of course, I always warn them to avoid “914” and anything he might say. I carefully explain the side effects of steroid abuse and the madness that it usually causes by way of explaining his unintelligible posts.

I use it for writing, reading and conversation classes.

The folks that are crying foul here can stuff themselves, AFAIAC. If they don’t want to read a post, they can scroll on past. It’s what I do with alot of the diarrhea written around here, as I am sure some do with my posts. Don’t listen to the country club nellies, there 914. You are doing a good thing in sharing this site with your students. Understanding cultural differences is part of learning a language. There is no resource where this is more available for local consumption than f.com.

8

I introduce the website to non-native speakers all the time. Why not? F.com is for the people who want to be here. We’re not going to slam the cyber-door in anyone’s face. That being said, I don’t think we’re about to make banners saying “Practice your English with real foreigners on Forumosa.com!” :stuck_out_tongue:

9

Native/non-native is not the issue. How many of our European users are non-native English speakers? Fluency is an issue, however. I think anyone, local or not who has something to contribute should be allowed. English fluency is the only prerequisite. However, I don’t think teachers should be encouraging students to come here and try out English. I think this is a resource for English speakers and not English learners.

On the other hand, if one were simply using posts in-class as discussion material, that’s another matter.

Maybe you and Goose Egg could design a teaching/ learning site separate from this one. You could even post highlights from threads on the main site for student discussions.

10

:unamused:
I don’t think it’s so much of a problem for non native speakers to access the site. It’s public for starters, it’s in the country they live in, and it’s in english, which is obviously the driving factor in them taking a look.
Most non-native speakers that I know who go to f.com wouldn’t dream of posting anything here (it’s far too viscious for them) and enjoy practising their english reading/comprehension and perhaps getting some insight from a foreign point of view.

BFD. Let’s not get too wound up about it getting ‘destroyed’.

11

Is there really a great danger of thousands of Taiwanese students wanting to use Forumosa to practice their English? Enough of us have recommended the site to students that if that were to happen, it would have happened already.

I think we have too few Taiwanese participants, and wish that more would join in the discussion. I am very interested in what Taiwanese people think, and would enjoy reading about it in my native language.

I often recommend participation here to students who have the ability to express themselves in English. Those who do not have this ability will generally not want to participate. There have been a few unintelligible posts written in the past. Usually, Testuo posts a friendly “what do you mean?” and the person never posts again.

12

WTF? If students start posting “English practice” type stuff, they’ll just get told to eff off if they become too pushy. If they start going off on some kind of xenophobic rant when they see some of the “venting” threads they’ll get told to eff off or suspended or whatever. If they’re nice and try to fit in, they’ll get welcomed (mostly) :wink:. Just like anybody else.
Keeping people out because they’re Chinese? I don’t like the sound of that at all.

13

Right, first it’s Taiwanese, then it’llbe the Scots. Where will it end? :noway:

14

Just no more Canadians…please…

15

Shit, I reckon the more the merrier, regardless of where they’re from. Interwebs natural selection will take care of sorting the wheat from the chaff.

16

Probably not. Awright, awright. maybe the whole student thing isn’t such a bad idea.

Poor ol’ misunderstood Tetsuo. :wink:

17

We always have this old standby:

[quote=“Josefus”]punctuation good…rambling bad…story make no sense…provide more details…no understand…lawyers…blacklisting…banks…money…more DEEEETAILS…HULK SMASH bad post ARrRRRRRrggGG!!!

[/quote]

18

[quote=“jdsmith”]We always have this old standby[/quote]Which I hope has been given Classic Post status.

19

:unamused:
I don’t think it’s so much of a problem for non native speakers to access the site. It’s public for starters, it’s in the country they live in, and it’s in English, which is obviously the driving factor in them taking a look.
Most non-native speakers that I know who go to f.com wouldn’t dream of posting anything here (it’s far too viscious for them) and enjoy practising their English reading/comprehension and perhaps getting some insight from a foreign point of view.
BFD. Let’s not get too wound up about it getting ‘destroyed’.[/quote]

Well said Truant!

I introduced some of my friends and, though they are in awe of and thoroughly entertained by the things we say and post and rant about, none of them would ever dare to post a single word.

“Jeesh”, they say, "some of those forumosans are nasty. " :slight_smile:

They all like Loretta though. :rainbow:

20

[quote=“stan”]

They all like Loretta though. :rainbow:[/quote]

Do they know he doesn’t want them around because THEY’LL DESTROY US? :loco: