Free Skype speaking sessions on a regular basis

Hello Mr. Torsten

The time zone here is, I guess, central european.
exactly at this time is 22:01 pm, maybe a little unpuncktual

Regard

piroska

I think the session for this Sunday is pretty full if everyone shows up who has expressed interest in joining. I’ll start keeping a list of open spots for the conversation. I don’t think it would be good to have more than 6 to 8 of us in a session. Otherwise we run the risk of the conversation being too chaotic.

People who have said they want (or hope) to join this Sunday’s conversation…

  1. Megan
  2. Torsten
  3. Mujibur
  4. Mauricio
  5. Kati
  6. Oad
  7. Sarah
  8. Yuri
  9. Moudson
  10. Piroska

I am quite quiet.

Thanks a lot, Megan.

I would like to take part on (in?) Sunday session but I am ready to give up my place for anybody. I will appreciate any of your choices.

Best regards,
Yuri

Hello Megan and everyone,

Torsten made it clear that level of English standard is not really the prime consideration of taking part in the Skype conference. Very important is to take part with confidence in a friendly and democratic atmosphere. To take an active part the key is to prepare with relevant questions – questening allows taking leads in the conversation.

Feel free and let we’ve lot of funs while taking part in the Skype conference!

Thanks,
Mujibur

Hello Megan,

Of course I would like to participate in the session. At what time do you want to begin?
Many thanks in advance:
Kati

Excuse me Megan,

I didn’t notice that Torsten had written that it begins at 4.

Okay. I am looking forward to it.

Take care:
Kati

Hello,

maybe my English is not enough for this free skyping groop,
and I am just interesting:
does available here more English skyping groop, or this is the onlyone?

hello everyone

Hi Piroska,

We are planning to offer Skype sessions more frequently. As of now, Megan has volunteered to hold one free session every Sunday afternoon.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEFL listening lectures: What is one problem with contribution approach?[YSaerTTEW443543]

Hi Piroska,

It’s very important that you’re in regular contact with this forum. You’re successful in passing your views overcoming the grammatical barriers. That proves you’ve the passion for English language and you’re putting on lot of efforts to learn English language skills. And this is your right attitude to improve further.

You might have noted well by this time that this forum is very friendly and runs in a democratic atmosphere.

Now, if you take part regularly in this forum with gradual increased confidence level, a remarkable improvement of acquiring skills is very much expected.

Thanks,
Mujibur

Hello sara
I would like to ask you if you are trying to learn English to pass the Toefl test or for another reason ?
I am preparing for toefl and I strongly would like to have a speaking study partner. Please let me know if we can help each other here.

Dima

Hello Dima

No, I’m not learning English for any kind of exams. I am learning because in our country English is as popular as our national language Urdu and if I ever get in a situation where I’ve to express my ideas or want to do some discussion in English then I can easily participate. Besides it is also necessary to be fluent in English to get a job. i would be happy to help you but right now as learning English is not my only goal , (i’m giving all my time to my final year project) so i cant spend much time daily practising English. Take care

Regards
Sarah

Hi Piroska,

Yesterday night I wrote to you a letter to convince you to come this Megan’s chat to-day.The chat was very good. Megan is an incredibly helpful person. My letter to you was ready on my iPad and when I wanted to send it disappeared. As I was very tired, I was already in my bed (2 o’clock at night)so I didn’t repeat the letter.

We have also language problems perhaps more than you. I don’t care about it if I make a mistake.To err is human. And what happens if I make a mistake? It is interesting that you are Hungarian than me, and we met on this thread. You are the second Hungarian, the first who wrote me lives in the UK than you. She already left this course.

Bye:
Kati

Hello Mujibur,
It was very good this chat. Today Yuri called me up and we talked about lot of things. You can call me up, I would be very happy.

Bye:
Kati

Hello Everyone,

Sorry I haven’t been around these days. I will be hosting a call tomorrow (Sunday the 9th, at 4pm Western European time). You’ll have to excuse me if I am still sniffling or coughing a bit but I’m on the mend. hehe So please let me know who of you would like to join in tomorrow (and of course if I see you on Skype and there is room I’ll ask you anyway).

  1. Megan
  2. Mujibur
  3. Hassan?

Thanks everyone and I look forward to talking with you all tomorrow!

Take care!
Megan

Dear Megan,

I hear very sadly that you caught a bad cold. It could be very awkward. One of the illnesses what I detest catching cold or catching a viral cold. Today we don’t know which one is but one thing is sure there isn’t good drugs to recover from it quickly. Only one thing is good lot of C vitamin and lot of tea. Minimum 2 liter per day. And of course if you can you have to stay in bed , and try to sleep. Have you got a temperature?

It is incredible that you will hold our telephone chatting. I will be in the town where my husband’s operation will be on Monday morning but at 4 o’clock I’ll try to attach because I take my laptop and if the hotel has internet-connection I can participate in the chatting.We’ll see.

Today I will write another letter to you about the time when I used to teach. I owe you this letter.

Take care:
Kati Svaby

Hello Megan,

I’m very sorry to hear that you’re ill . Hope you’re well soon .

Juding from your symptoms, I think you need to have a good rest and try to keep silent although we all want to talke with you or get voice message from you .

It’s autumn now in China , in this season it’s very easy to catch a flu . What’s the season in your country ?

I’m really want to join this skype conversation , please count me in , But I’m worry that I can’t express myself well and you can’t understand me .

Wish you have a speedy recovery ,

Jess

Hello Kati and Jessica,

I will add you both to the list for tomorrows conversation. Don’t worry, I’m on the up side of this cold. Kati, if I see you on-line I’ll add you and I wish your husband the best with his operation. Jessica, don’t worry about your English. We are all here to help each other. I’ve heard some of your voice recordings and you are doing just fine!

  1. Megan
  2. Mujibur
  3. Hassan?
  4. Kati?
  5. Jessica

Take care!
Megan

Dear Megan,

This letter was written to Mujibur in July. Because he wrote to me there is a conference in Dhaka. Now I corrected and wrote some lines to it.

The conference on autism recalls lot of memory. You know certainly I used to teach autistic children also.

The first autistic child who I met was a 10 year-old little girl. She couldn’t write, her class-mates could. So namely on a “corrective tuition” my task would have been to teach her how to write. On the first occasion, we played and sang about the rain and we draw the rain in the air. After I traced vertical lines on a paper and I told her this is the rain. And I gave her the pencil to trace lines. And she - very quickly than the lightning-traced vertical lines.

Accidentally my mother was there - she also taught in this school. She told me: Kati, this is a miracle, this child wasn’t disposed to trace one single line till now. But the miracle happened for first and last, she never more traced a line by herself.

I didn’t gave up. When my pupils were writing I held her hand and she wrote everything with my help. I decided that I would hold her hand less and less…and at last I only touch it and I felt she could write. I thought the time came to not touch her hand. And when she realized that my hand weren’t there he gave up writing. She never wrote by herself.

Once I told them a tale what I told to my children also. She was very attentive and she shouted big shouts to express her please. Few days later they asked me to tell again this tale. I began but I couldn’t tell them because Judit (this was her name) shouted and corrected always me. I found out that she has a brilliant memory and after the first telling she remembered every word, word order and she stuck to the original version. So I was unable to tell in the same way so I never told them tales by myself only I read out.

When I met her I very quickly found out that she wasn’t mentally retarded than my other pupils who have Down-syndrome or they were imbecile.Teaching of these children was very simple.

But this child was a problem for me.I couldn’t find out what kind of deficiency she had. I forgot that I had studied so I had to take out my old college books and when I found the autism it was clear for me that the description suited Judit’s symptoms.

The next day I told her father - who was a university professor - that I think Judit isn’t mentally retarded but autistic. He shuddered at the thought and told me: Mrs Svaby please don’t tell me such a thing. I was surprised because he accepted that her daughter mentally retarded that she wouldn’t accept the reality that she is an autistic. I realized that she could know more about the autism than me. And somebody could have already told him that Judit is autistic. He knew what I didn’t know this is whole-body disorder. For many years the autism was rare. In my lecture notes I found only symptoms but how treat them it wasn’t written anything. ( At this time I didn’t see the Rain man yet; After the Rain Man the people began to know more about this disorder.)

The difference a mentally retarded and bad autistic children that with a mentally retarded children are able to create connection with his environment, can socialize, to show their sentiment but an autistic children almost inaccessible, they don’t want to communicate about themselfs/themselves

For example Judit when wanted something she didn’t say a word only she began to scream and we have to find out what she wants. She knew that I learned to find out her thoughts so she never screamed when I was there. Only she glanced at me with her big eyes and I went to her and asked: "do you want more hot chocolate or cake…"But if I wasn’t there my colleagues called me to help. I understood her as much as that I could take her to school summery-camp for two weeks. Nobody else dared to take her only me. This wan the single thing what I achieved with her.

The second autistic was a boy. He was so talented in drawing that when I show to my husband his drawings he told me that he could get an admission to the Academy of Fine Arts but they couldn’t teach him. Before school their parents and the doctors also thought that he was deaf-and-dumb so he received a hearing aid.When this boy was 6 years old he drew to his teacher an ear with divergent lines to express that his hearing aid is too loud. This drawing was an abstraction of what a mentally retarded children isn’t capable.I taught later this children I could develop him but he never began to speak.I could speak about him lot of interesting results but he never expressed one word.

This is in nut shell my last year in my teaching. Earlier I taught children with learning disabilities and these children could rehabilitate and could work in the society.

Thanks Mujibur that you helped me recall these memories. I liked these children very much that I don’t dare to meet them. Now they can be about 37 years old.

Today these children can go to special schools for only autistic children where in very small group ( maximum:2-3 children together) they try develop them. Very important the earlier recognition of this disorder at the latest in the age of three-year old.)

Bye:
Kati