I'm really grateful that Jin and 재홍 took up much of their time to consider creating a conversation club for members. Jin is absolutely right that he should not be the one who is in the center of this issue. Without support of members, it could not be developed. Besides, he has enough of work to do in this cafe.
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Can I give you a piece of my mind as one of members who attended last two meetings?
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I know we all don't want to feel pressured by adding one more meeting in our stressful lives. To be honest, I also am unwilling to be involved and percieved as an active member on this issue.^^
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On the flip side, I'm worried if we members feel free not to attend a meeting whenever we don't feel like after joining. If there is nobody who is responsible, the good intentions at the beginning will fade away with ease. We need to put a little pressure on ourselves to keep persistency when it is launched.
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We still have lots of topics about 'talking ourselves' although we took time to introduce ourselves at the last meeting. We can talk more to have intimacy among members. We can pick up a few topics about family, habits, dream, friends, favorite food, sports, travels, English studies and so on. I think this way of approach will help us feel connected each other.
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Pointing out every small mistake will keep a speaker from moving on to next word. He might lose his train of thought. If he is cut off quite often, it will deteriorate his willingness to talk more. We don't necessarily need a person who correct our English. We can help look for a proper expression‎ at one time or another when a speaker is stuck for a word. The first and foremost is to speak as much as possible regardless of mistakes we make, I believe. We become to be able to pick up our mistakes on our own when we encounter the right expression‎ somewere else. We are not obliged to give a lesson to help each other. The more we speak, the more we learn naturally.
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I'd say the goal of this conversation club is not to improve speaking skill. To improve it, you should practice every single day with your own way. To meet monthly or bimonthly is not enough to get improvement. What we expect from this gathering is helping each other grow in many ways and coming back with motivation from other members. If we build up relationships offlinline, it truly helps to break the ice sharing our thoughts online and it will improve your writing skill in the long run.
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I agree anybody who wants to observe should be welcomed, but a little limitation to be a member in speaking club would be helpful in order to place some responsibility. In this sense, I suggest you should ask who wants to join this club by expressing opinions with tailnotes as the way we have had offline meetings.
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I wonder how many people are willing to and determined to join this conversation club before going further and deeper. If only there are a few determined members, it can be modified and developed step by step in an effective way by sharing ideas.
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I hope you all have great holidays!!
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첫댓글Dear Merry. This is a very helpful contribution. Corrections is always a difficult issue. Certainly my idea was just a suggestion and eventually the participants will have to decide for themselves. It is certainly worth talking about in our next meeting or even online. Some people value correctness
more and some fluency. I agree that pointing out every single mistake will not be good. Perhaps we can do this in the form of active self questioning. In other words, the speaker himself is encouraged to ask about an expression or grammar he is not sure about without feeling sorry that
this will disrupt the flow of conversation. Also, everybody can help out if someone is having difficulty forming a sentence, as we have been doing. Also, although correcting others all the time at every mistake should be discouraged, still if there is some important point or question about the
language one should not be prevented from pointing it our or asking a question about it. This way, we will be able to have a better balance between correctness and fluency.
Dear Jin, did you have good holidays? I've just returned from vacation. Needless to say, it's always great to have a teacher like you. I learn a lot from your way of teaching, in writing and speaking..not too much and not too less. I just hoped that a leader would put some burden of correction down
from his shoulder while you were not with us. For me, I don't mind giving me corrections at all. Rather, as I've mentioned many times, it's been my pleasure to have corrections. This time, however, you didn't give any CR that I had expected.^^
Thanks as always,Jin. The last thing I want to do is to be anagonistic or in any way bother someone. I often fail to make a point clear in writing. I find it difficult to make myself clear. I'm learning the lesson I need to be more careful.^^
Thank you very much, Merry. I always admire your enthusiasm for learning and appreciate all the support you have given our cafe. I am really enjoying the wallet you gave me. It makes me feel rich every time I take it out. ^^
첫댓글 Dear Merry. This is a very helpful contribution. Corrections is always a difficult issue. Certainly my idea was just a suggestion and eventually the participants will have to decide for themselves. It is certainly worth talking about in our next meeting or even online. Some people value correctness
more and some fluency. I agree that pointing out every single mistake will not be good. Perhaps we can do this in the form of active self questioning. In other words, the speaker himself is encouraged to ask about an expression or grammar he is not sure about without feeling sorry that
this will disrupt the flow of conversation. Also, everybody can help out if someone is having difficulty forming a sentence, as we have been doing. Also, although correcting others all the time at every mistake should be discouraged, still if there is some important point or question about the
language one should not be prevented from pointing it our or asking a question about it. This way, we will be able to have a better balance between correctness and fluency.
Dear Jin, did you have good holidays? I've just returned from vacation. Needless to say, it's always great to have a teacher like you. I learn a lot from your way of teaching, in writing and speaking..not too much and not too less. I just hoped that a leader would put some burden of correction down
from his shoulder while you were not with us. For me, I don't mind giving me corrections at all. Rather, as I've mentioned many times, it's been my pleasure to have corrections. This time, however, you didn't give any CR that I had expected.^^
Oops, I forgot about that ^^ / enough of work to do -> enough to do, enough work to do / one of members -> one of the members
Thanks as always,Jin. The last thing I want to do is to be anagonistic or in any way bother someone. I often fail to make a point clear in writing. I find it difficult to make myself clear. I'm learning the lesson I need to be more careful.^^
Thank you very much, Merry. I always admire your enthusiasm for learning and appreciate all the support you have given our cafe. I am really enjoying the wallet you gave me. It makes me feel rich every time I take it out. ^^
It's so nice of you to say so. Thanks,JIn.^^