Bad News and Turning it All Around

Bad news was received in the form of an email. The Lehigh professor helping me with the Fulbright decided, after looking over everything that I would have a difficult time being able to win the scholarship. My pursuit of a business degree and work experience in advertising didn't exactly hail me as the most likely of candidates, but I feel so passionate about working and "giving back" to the world right now I figured it would be enough. Apparently not. I will find another way or the European Union may just be ruled out for a while at least.

In other news - I have continued my soziety.com interactions. There are a limited number of Americans who speak English on the site so I usually am bombarded with people wanting to chat via Skype. Currently I am chatting with Miguel from Seville, Spain the most often. He works as a financial controller, is 36, likes long walks on the beach...just kidding.

I am starting to consistently talk/IM via Skype with the same people and my only fear is that I may run out of things to say. They want to hear the English words for familiarity and I can't just spit out random sentences because that's not really helpful. Yet, there is only so much of "how are you," "what is your favorite color," "it's Friday night in (European/Asian country insert here) so why are you on Skype learning English and not out having fun?"

I may be delaying my move to Turkey because of an opportunity (to be discussed later as it develops) that may take place during the month of September.

I am continuing to read my grammar books and need to crack open my "Younger Learners" book just in case little ones are in my teaching future. Also, I fully intend to practice my guitar more often than I have been. No more excuses. (I say this more to push myself than as an interesting sentence for the readers).

The Turkey soccer game is coming up soon for the Eurocup and I fully intend to watch! Hopefully some of you will as well.

Some funny items listed below:

One very funny comment I saw on the Facebook SpeedDate application that I had mentioned on Twitter and Plurk - Please read the the 4th comment:
http://ur.lc/1r



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more cat pictures

Be sure to watch the Penguin flying video that I posted from YouTube! Totally the best commercial ever. :)

Learning Spanish: old-school style with new application!

I just found out about this fun site: http://www.soziety.com where you can practice a variety of different languages via Skype. I just registered and plan to try it out when I gain the courage to practice my Spanish. Go ahead and click on the logo and check it out!

After browsing around for a little bit I ended up chatting with someone from Argentina named Diego. He was really friendly and spoke English pretty well. i think he thought I was lying to him, but truly he did a pretty good job. There was just one point where I think he was displeased that I was asking too much about the "command form" of a verb. "No need to worry about stupid things like these" were his exact words. Yet, it was followed by "don't worry about making mistakes or anything, you are doing really well." So, the sting of being called-out for an obsession with verbs diminished and my pride has remained unscathed. We are chatting again tomorrow early evening and I am actually excited!

I found out about this great site via another super informative site that I must give credit to: Spainexpat.com.

Also, I am getting really into the need to up my karma points in Plurk. There is a regular "chat" type demeanor within this application that I am really quite fond of. Though some would say it is a twin of "Twitter," I feel like I use the two applications very differently. Twitter is much more about stalking and reading up on interesting news and random stories. Plurk seems to be about responses and philosophical queries. I heart them both!

Though my Fulbright essay revisions are complete and I feel good about that, I still feel pangs of guilt at any one time for not doing one of many other things. Practicing Spanish, practicing Turkish, practicing English grammar, organizing my mementos, reading up on teaching English, blog writing, ebaying, emailing, plurking, twittering, etc. There is always something I can be doing in preparation for my move and I am not very good about just relaxing and letting go.

Also, with the influx of emails from prospective companies (that normally I would be super interested in) emailing me, I have a constant state of "is changing my current career path the best choice?" I absolutely think it is only because I think I will come back stronger and better than I was before. I feel really good about the impending move and know that though it will be a challenge and very tiring and frustrating at times, that it will forever change me in the best of ways.

TWITTER Whore Part 1

I am not to this level yet...wondering when "Plurking whore" will be be available...

Impatiently Waiting...

I have issues with waiting. I completely admit that. I just want to have my essay with edits and comments back from the professor. It has been approximately 24 hours. Yeah, I know, I can be pretty ridiculous.

I cannot wait to start teaching. I need to practice my Turkish but have been spending a lot of time working on Spanish for the language assessment portion of the Fulbright. I really hope I am ready for the assessment.

I saw something funny on Laughingsquid.com that is a must-see for those who enjoy the LOLcats website:
Missing Lolcat, Responds to “Cheezburger”
http://laughingsquid.com/lolcat-responds-to-cheezburger/

Twitter has now become part of "my routine." Awake. Talk to the cat about how "dry food is just as acceptable as can food." Also that she is "only getting cans every other day." Realize I am talking to my cat and it's time to go interact with people. Sit down at computer and "interact with people" via Twitter. Drink coffee and check email then check eBay. That is the AM portion of my day. When Twitter doesn't work it really throws me off...so for any Twitter admins out there - just realize you hold a lot of power and can truly create a destructive morning.

So, instead of another long-winded post that is filled with text and lacks in images, I have decided to present a few videos from a really great site, Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/
The third one has nothing whatsoever to do with social media or TEFL but I felt a need to post it anyway.


Clever video discussing Social Media:

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.






Video about Twitter:


Twitter in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.






Random but Funny Zombie Information Video:

Zombies in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

First draft complete!!! and other fascinating news...

I must start off with a nod to a story that captured my interest and can be deemed as relevant to my blog (all things come back to MY blog right? Well they should).

A news story from the Chicago Tribune by Eric Zorn (http://ur.lc/1b) discussing McCain's pronunciation error of the Iran leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad included a link to one of my favorite sites Forvo (http://www.forvo.com/). In daily conversations I haven't found myself ever saying "Ahmadinejad," so my attempt to try and say it was much worse than McCain's. I then engage my Mom about it briefly and she says it perfectly, just like the native speaker from Forvo. Okay, so maybe McCain and I need to brush-up on "world leader's names and pronunciation." A fun game for the whole family.

Also I found the challenge posed on the WikiProject EduTech page on Wikipedia to be interesting! The challenge/goal is "that representatives of the EduTech community work on any one of the many lamentably poor articles in their field, and get them up to at least Good article status, ideally Featured article status, within the next sixty days." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_EduTech)
The lamentably poor articles being those related to incorporating technology into education.

I have finally finished (hoooray) my first draft of my proposal and purpose statement for the Fulbright to the Lehigh professor helping me through the process! I know there will be many, many, many more rewrites before I submit the application, but I am still excited about at getting through the first write-up!

In other news and possible future goal: How long would it take to gain 25,000 followers like Scobleizer on Twitter? Apparently around 12,000 updates... http://twitter.com/Scobleizer

And the process continues...

I have encountered a very minor, but annoying, dilemma: there really isn't any offline material for someone pursuing a teaching career within the EFL field. More specifically, someone who has an interest in utilizing Web 2.0 capabilities within their teaching practice. I know it may seem ridiculous to desire to read a book about these two elements when I can find the material online, but I figured there might be a great book with consolidated information that I could use as constant companion in my new adventure.

I have gone to a couple of larger bookstores to attempt to find the "all encompassing" book but haven't been successful. I realize that most EFL/ESL books center around teaching to students in which English is the primary language. I know that I could learn some important and essential tips and tricks on teaching by reading these books, but I am looking for a read that places the emphasis on being in a location where English is primarily a second language.

I did some perusing on Amazon and found, Teaching English Abroad, 7th (Teaching English Abroad) (Paperback) from 2005. (Amazon listing: http://ur.lc/14) Could be interesting, but is it the only one of it's kind? What about a book referencing social media outlets, etc? Maybe this one instead TEFL Questions and Answers (Paperback)(http://ur.lc/17).

I have been reading How To Teach English (Book with DVD) (How S.) (Paperback): http://ur.lc/16. It has been pretty fascinating to read about aspects of teaching that I never would have considered previously. Such as a general layout of a classroom and the social impact that it can represent.

Thankfully there are lots of great online resources that have helped me formulate some good ideas not only for when I begin to teach but also for my Fulbright application.

I had spent the majority of the last few days writing by hand (almost a foreign idea to me nowadays) my proposal and personal statement. Last night around 11PM I started to type-up my rough drafts. Organization is lacking within my paper so now I need to motivate myself to complete that...


Some cool applications/sites that I have seen on the web that would be relevant for TEFL:
*Forvo - A pronunciation guide in different languages by native speakers (http://forvo.com/)
*Heads up English - a website with English lesson plans and articles (http://www.headsupenglish.com)
*Twitter - always deserves a mention. Great social networking (http://twitter.com)

Off-Topic Alert:

Here is an interesting Turkish news story: http://ur.lc/15

Also, here is an extremely funny reward for making it through my blog from LOLCats:

more cat pictures