Please introduce yourself

Are you new to Blogging English and the online self-paced study group? We really want to learn more about you and get to know one another. Tell us about yourself, and write a short introduction by answering the questions below.

Please post your introduction as a comment to this post. New study group members can comment but not post until they show interest in participation by commenting.

Answer the questions with complete sentences to write a personal introduction paragraph. Format by omitting numerals and starting the next sentence on the same line as the one before. Do not start sentences on a new line.

Catching up and considering directions

Catching up: 

Our Blogging English group has a new member, Eric (English nickname), who has been lurking, checking out the page and getting to know us ~ as best he can in the company of lurkers.

@Eric ~ please post your introduction as a comment to this post. Other not-so new members who have yet to introduce yourselves, please do the same. Until I either work out better ways to get you to write or give up on it altogether, I'll stick with the old, familiar standbys: nagging and posting reminders as well as asking you to write reviews, share opinions and respond to posts.

I haven't post a reply to Sadamu yet because, in addition to getting caught up in other writing and internet obligations, I've been thinking about what to write. That also means thinking about what he wrote, my overreaction, obvious misunderstandings, implications for the self-paced learning project, learning and teaching styles and strategies, and especially about writing.

There's enough for more than a post there. Too much to cover here or in a single comment. Here's the short version: I apologize to Sadamu for having overreacted. I was less disappointed in his reply (which I still think missed the point) than in the failure of the group to write and post. Needing to re-write is NOT an excuse for not writing to on the class writing blog. If I don't see your writing, I'm going to assume that you are not writing. So if you are, show me.

Revision or re-writing is another matter altogether and a complex task with many steps that even most native speaker college students don't get.  Of course you should proof-read before posting to correct basic mistakes that you notice.  You should also reread what you have written, perhaps read it out loud to yourself to make sure it makes sense.  That's your initial draft, which may be just fine for informal writing. Then share it by posting so we can give you feedback, comment, offer suggestions and so on.

This process is called peer review. In a way it goes back to and depends on introductions (the ones most of you have not posted). Why? Because we need to know your writing goals and purpose to make helpful suggestions. For example, I know that Eric plans to take the TOEFL. He will be given a limited time to write a short formal essay. Therefore, we know that Eric can't afford to settle for informal writing. What can other goals tell us?

Indirectly, this brings me to the second part of the title, considering directions...


If no one is willing to write, then what is the purpose? Should I make this blog public and just post lessons, study materials and "learning to learn" information? I made the blog private rather than public for you to have privacy and be more comfortable sharing your writing.  It's up to you.

You may be able to make some improvement in your writing just by writing alone and for yourself. On the other hand, you could end up just reinforcing mistakes and not improving but fossilizing mistakes. For sure, you are unlikely to become a proficient writer without feedback. Good writers, even great and famous ones, need feedback, to be told where they had problems and what they needed to fix. It's up to you.

Introduction thread

Welcome Kazem, Ahmed, Junai, Hala, Zoh and Huan Bui. You've already introduced yourself to me. Now please introduce yourself to the rest of the Blogging English group. Feel free to ask questions. Sadamu has already posted a welcome on another thread. I hope to hear from more members.

Please remember to tell us where you are from - country and city or town. Including a link to your home town would be nice.

welcome to our group

Here's a quick "shout out" and hearty welcome for Blogging English's new members, Junai, Xuan Bui, Hala and Zoh.  Junai has been very active posting comments. All have written me private introductions as part of their applications. Now it is time to introduce yourselves to each other and the members of the group blog. 

Think of your written introduction as writing out what you might say about yourself when meeting new acquaintances or colleagues in person. Take a look at the tag cloud on the right hand side of the page. Click the "introduction" tag to see examples of introductions other blog members have written.  

Here are some links to help you:

introduction

Hello Vanessa and every one my name emey from saudi arabia ,age 24 years , I began learn english before 3 years by my self, in the start was language very difficult but me began study step by step , read the story for children then bought CDsfrom channel bbc from here I understood some of words and grammar after that I trying improve my language then I can read newspapers but I can't understand all words and explore pages of sites..... I wish to be very good in english and will continue doing that even if I take more 3 years againthankyou for you especially teacher Vanessa

Self-introduction

Hello,everyone!
Hello Vanessa and all classmates.I am sorry for I have joined the class so long time but I have not introduce myself to everyone. I am Sundexin.I am 22 years old.I am single. I live in BeiJing of China.My father and mother live in HeiLongJing province of China.I have a sister who live in HaErBin city of HeiLongJiang.She is doctor.I am programmer in China National petrolum corporation.I like studing English very much.I read English news everyday.It is also one of my hobby.
Though I began to study English for years,some basic knowledge is not firmly.For example,my spoken English and grammer are very poor.I am fortunate to know the website.I hope make friends with everyone.

My self-introduction

Hi All

Hello Vanessa and all classmates. I haven't posted to this blog for long time, so I'd like to introduce myself to new members.

My name is Sadamu. I'm 68 years old. I have a wife and two children. My daughter has married and she has a three years old girl. I now live in Saitama prefecture, Japan.

I began to learn English in Vanessa's class in February, 2004. I wanted to be able to read an article on newspaper in English, to understand radio in English, and to write letters in English.

Vanessa advised me to write my journal in English everyday, to check 5 words which I don't know in a day and to study English 15 minutes everyday.

I couldn't keep all of them. But I have been keeping writing my journal in English. It becomes my hobby now. I can't go to bed without writing it.

I now read an article of New York Times front page but I still feel difficulties to understand them without dictionary. I use English-English dictionary often. But my dictionary, American Heritage is a little hard for me now.

Hearing in English is still difficult for me. I guess it is because of my poor vocabulary.
Now I'm interested in speaking English additionally. I'm taking conversation class every month.

I think I made big progresses in writing English. I have three pen-friends who exchange e-mail in English. Two of them live in USA.

Now I have three hobbies. I practice to play ocarina for ten to fifteen minutes everyday. I have played for two and half year but I'm still in beginner level.

I'm now crazy about playing contact bridge. I spent nine days for it last October.

I'm still working at hotel for 5 hours a day, half of a month. So I am now busier than when I was in my active service.

By the way, Halloween is not popular here in Japan. I do nothing about it.
Regards,
Sadamu

Introduce Myself

Hi All,

This is my first post in this blog I like to inroduce I to all the classmates of teacher Vanessa. I am thirty years old Indian lady who is living USA right now with her family .I have a daughter who is five years old and my husband is a computer engineer. I had done my master in History. Knowing different culture and history of different country is one of my hobbies. Another hobby is cooking. I love doing different things doing same thing make me bore that is why I love to try new new recipe not only indian recipe I love mexican, chinse, and thai food so I try to make them too. I play with my daughter and we make origami, craft, drawing, painting with finger prints and differrent vegetables etc. I have studied in varnacular media so from my childhood I always wanted to learn english for that I tried to read english books watched english movies whenever I got chance I spoke english (oviously wrong english).After coming USA I faced so many problem because of not knowing english so I decided I will have to learn this language and after long searching I found study.com a really good site for all level english learner. I am so lucky that I got a teacher like Vanessa and now there is no question about not learning english perfectly. After reading about her in her blog I am so inspired the way she is managing the blog that it is amazing. God bless her.

I am also learning computer to get a better job here and English as well. Calendrula is one of my favourite flowers and I love the name that is why I used that name. My good name is Nandita. Thanks a lot to teacher Vanessa she is helping us to give so many good study materials and suggessions.

Thanks
Nandita

My self introduction (1)

Hi All

I'm 67 years old now. I'm a Japanese male and I live in Japan with my wife and a son. I have a daughter who lives in Tokyo. She has a cute child 2 years old.

I live on my pension and I'm still working on odd jobs. I had finished my monthly payment for my house loan three years ago. As I became to be richer than before, I bought a personal computer. Many things happened from then.

One of them is my learning English on EFI. A friend of mine advised me to have it. I could join Vanessa's class. I've been learning English at her class for three years since then.

At the beginning my purposes for learning English were as followings;
a) I'd like to write a letter in English.
b) I'd like to read news paper and books in English.
c) I'd like to understand what radios say in English.

She gave us three instructions at the beginning of the class. They were as follows;
a) write your journal every day.
b) remember 5 words a day.
c) read many writings in English.

I tried to keep them. However I could keep only writing my journal.
Thanks to Vanessa, I think I made a big progress in learning English. However I am still on the way to my purposes.

Regards,
Sadamu

Getting to know one another

As Tai recommended, we - or at least you - need to get to know one another. I may know you from lessons and e-mail, but you don't really know each other. Even those who have posted and read one another's introductions in the discussion group would benefit from "renewing" acquaintanceships.

You can introduce yourselves in new posts or as a comment to this post. You can also complete your profiles to include more information if you wish. The downside there - it's more public. I have a few student introductions in a .doc file and can pull more from the students folders. Gosh that sounds like unnecessary work, doesn't it? I'd much rather you introduce yourselves.

Even though you know me and I have introduced myself many times, I'll set an example by going first. Besides, we change over time so our introductions should too.

Now 63, I still live in Mountainair NM - in the same house in the same small town. I am not the town and the town is not me but my continuing to live here may say as much or more about me than my interests or even my reading habits. Louisiana and California seem worlds away now ... and the overseas haunts of my youth further still, as though in another quantum continuum.

The population of Mountainair grew since my first introduction and then lost population. No one here can agree on whether the town is booming or dying. The demographics have shifted somewhat just since I moved here almost six years ago. That is bound to affect the character of the town. The "old timers" are closely split between Hispanic and Anglo. Both groups are very insular and suspicious of change. Some new comers are retirees looking for cheaper land and who grew up in small towns and now want to retire to one. Others are somewhat younger, more prosperous, and fleeing urban areas. Most of these I would say are from California.

I chronicle all this on my blog, my web page and the Chamber of Commerce web page that I maintain. The Mountainair Vanessa used to teach college - face to face at UNM Valencia (actually a 3rd rate community college masquerading as a branch campus of NM's flagship university) and then courses at for-profit online colleges. I am pretty burnt out with that teaching. The pre-Mountainair Vanessa used to teach horseback riding in Lafayette, Louisiana and then comparative literature at the University of California. The current Mountainair Vanessa has a couple of local, part time sources of supplementary income but wrote the first draft of a novel last month (the third in as many years) as is now trying to spend more time writing. I have thought about substitute teaching at the high school and may still have to do it, but I would not be able to pace myself . Working a full day without control over pacing invariably leaves me wiped out for the next 2-3 days.

I live by myself and have two ponies, a dog, and a clutch of outdoor cats (the numer varies). My daughter lives in Albuquerque. She has a baby - my first grandchild - and got married last month. She also works full time as a lawyer on the NM Labor Board and usually so busy that I do not get to see as much of either her or Deacon as I would like.

These days I rather feel as though I am in yet another transition period. I do not know where it will end up but doubt it will take me away from Mountainair.

Now it's your turn...

Getting Started

Once more into the breach - I leap into blogdom again. The operating principle is to use the blog as a teaching tool for my online ESL class for EFI. I was at the point where I have to try something new or cancel the class.

But blogging English is not just about learning (or teaching) English as a Second (or other) language. It is also about the language itself and the apparent fascination it holds for me. If the blog is only about ESL and the class, then I will only get frustrated when none or few participate. My students no doubt have their own feelings and frustrations about English. They can vent them here, either as original posts or as comments.

I will blog resources, links, lessony stuff - write some posts in language more accessible for beginner readers. On the hand, they can also work on stretching their reading skills.