Questions in Russian?

[Kievstar]

Hi, I know a lot of people who would like to ask questions about English grammar and so on but they are afraid of making mistakes or can't express themselves. I understand some of your moderators speak Russian too - so maybe, you could allow your students to ask questions in Russian and you'll reply in English? Of course, those students who don't understand Russian cannot follow threads and postings in Russian but then again it would attract more people and generate more interaction? What do you think? Also, what exactly is your Russian corner about? Why don't you have a Chinese corner or an Italian corner too? If you want to keep the forum international you should think about this issue...

[Torsten]

Yes, you are right - a cross-cultural corner is probably a better solution than just a Russian corner because then we would have to open an Italian, Chinese, Polish, French etc. corner too and soon there would be more corners in our room than users.
Also, if someone is afraid of asking a question in English - we should encourage them even more to speak up because this is the ideal place. The biggest mistake you can make is to sit around and be passive. Speak your mind, ask questions and learn from the replies.
In our Cross-Cultural corner we can talk about differences between languages as well as common roots of words, different habits and mentalities and anything that relates to culture.?
How do you like this suggestion?
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Bob]

Hello, Torsten.

I happened to meet the web site you are running. I'm very excited to know your goals of building the site and I would like to join the activity in some way.

As Kievstar says, I feel that there should be some information or some communities for those people who are eager to learn English but do not have enough skills to manage your English site. So if you agree, I would like to build an intermediate site for your site. Actually, I am Japanese so the site would be for Japanese people who are eager to learn English. The goal of the site would be to make learners manage your site by themselves.

Maybe Kievstar wants to make a Russian version of the site. Wouldn't it be wonderful?

[Torsten]

Hello Bob,

Many thanks for your proposal - it sounds very interesting. Actually, it's exciting to see how the internet enables people from completely different corners in the world to join forces and work together.
So, could you please tell me more about your suggestion? As far as I understood you are offering to moderate a sub-forum for Japanese learners of English. How exactly would it work? Do you want to give the participants the opportunity to use Japanese words when they don't know an particular word in English and you would answer them in English? How do you think the other users would react to this approach? We're at english-test.net are always open to new ways of teaching and communicating so maybe we could give it a try. Let me know what you think.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Bob]

Hello Torsten,

I'm very happy and excited to hear that you are interested in the program. As you can see, I'm one of English learners and have no qualifications for teaching English at all. But I think I can moderate a community of Japanese learners who hesitate to ask questions in English. If learners have questions and unable to ask in English, then I will consult someone in your community. That's what I'm going to do.

I post my former article only because I wanted to know the feasibility of the program. Now I know that you are interested. Let me have time to build a tentative prototype site for Japanese.

Here are some of what I am thinking about at this time.

The web site space is already available to use.

The domain name would be something like jp.english-test.net. It needs DNS setting of your domain.

The web site would be built with phpBB Japanese version to keep the same user interface.

One very simple implementation is to copy all of your contents and modify them for Japanese.

What do you think?

[Torsten]

Dear Bob,

Now I understand what you have in mind. In addidtion to speaking English as a second language you also know how to build and administer websites. Yes, your proposal is very good - creating a Japanese version of our forum in order to build a bridge for Japanese users and provide them with assistance in Japanese. I think that's the right approach and yes, please send us everything you have in mind, I'll forward it to Slava our webmaster and together we'll hammer something out....
We then can do the same for Russian speakers and maybe even for Chinese and Spanish speakers...
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Conchita]

[Torsten]

Hi Conchita,

You have asked an interesting question. We can start discussing cross cultural issues any time. To that end, it probably makes sense to exchange definitions of the term culture? What does it mean to you? How and why does culture change?
So, how would you define culture?
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Conchita]

Now that’s a tough one, Torsten!

It’s one of those words (or rather concepts) you think you know all about until you are asked to define them.

After carefully thinking about it, I’ve come to the conclusion that, to me, culture is what best describes all the different peoples of the world, what really tells you something about them. Someone’s name, age, looks, social status (how I hate these words), financial situation and surroundings are only superficial data, which, I suppose, may influence their culture. But the real culture is much deeper than that: it’s something which should be dearer than any wordly possessions, something you are born with, a kind of world heritage everyone of us gets for free and it’s up to us to make the most out of it.

Culture embraces the whole history of mankind. In addition – the image of a patchwork quilt comes to my mind – each of us sews together (or at least tries to!) the pieces life hands us: from the very first lullaby we hear as babies, to what we are fed (if we are lucky enough to get any food at all), school, playground games, the books we read throughout life, the people we meet, the places we visit, all the different kinds of artistic manifestations we may have the privilege of encountering on the arduous way...

Maybe I got a bit carried away. It is certainly food for thought and the suject could be a never ending discussion.

It will be interesting to see what other people have to say about it.